Junk Mail

Roy (Robert Skjaerstad) may be the world's most disgruntled postal worker. Tossing the letters he doesn't feel like delivering, keeping for himself the mail he finds intriguing, loathed by his co-workers and the patrons on his route, he's the poorest excuse for a postman since Kevin Costner. But when he finds a set of keys to the home of a lovely, hearing-impaired woman (Andrine Saether) on his route, he takes his prying to a new and dangerous level.

Norwegian director/co-writer Pal Sletaune has created a delicious black comedy that fits nicely into the current indie vogue for twisty, bleak satire. Like many such films, it can coast on sensibility for only so long before degenerating into standard thriller mechanics. Still, Junk Mail is a remarkably assured debut that should prepare us for a whole Nor-wave of odd, dark little films. Like his Finnish neighbor Aki Kaurismäki, Sletaune creates an inviting desolation. His is the Norway not of lovely fjords and Viking ships but of grim alleys and squalor that evokes Edvard Munch's silent scream. See Junk Mail and go postal.

-- Gary Susman