So this movie starts with two guys going to a cottage out in the woods in Germany. Their car breaks down at the side of the road, and they have to walk many miles to get to town before sunset… but wait, there’s a shortcut through the woods!

And you’re thinking, ah, okay, another horror movie. But no, it actually isn’t. It’s a character piece, focusing on one of those characters, who turns out to be a writer, and also a giant dick — he’s petulant and unlikable, continually rebuffing people’s overtures of friendship and then being pissy about them having fun without him, and meanwhile being enormously self-centered, to the degree that it’s almost easy to ignore how many things are going on around him that aren’t about him, as the movie focuses on his emotions.

And there are plenty of those, all tied to a sense of encroaching dread, as the forest fire that kindasorta gives the movie its name keeps getting closer. There’s the writer’s friend (the other guy in the car at the beginning), the woman who was staying at their cottage when they got there, a lifeguard, and a publisher who comes out to work with him on his book, each with their own story going on largely unnoticed by the protagonist.

What really makes the movie is the acting of the lead. He plays this unpleasant character in a way that doesn’t shy away from the guy being a self-centered little prick, but also lets you see his underlying vulnerability and awkwardness and inability to really deal with his own emotions or possibly even fully understand them.

And relatedly what felt like the biggest flaw of the movie is that the female lead is weirdly kind to him throughout the movie in a way that it feels like almost nobody really would be. Like, if you met this guy and he started off by being a weird dick to you, and then kept being kind of an asshole, and you had no history with him and didn’t know him from anything else and he hadn’t demonstrated any redeeming qualities, you’d just put him on ignore, whereas she keeps being warm and friendly and open. But if it’s unrealistic, I guess it’s also there to draw out the character contrasts the movie is exploring, so at some point, you have to just accept that it’s what the movie is deliberately doing.

Beyond the acting, the movie is well-made, really capturing a particular “country cottage” atmosphere that feels almost paradoxical. Like, nearly every scene is tense and uncomfortable in how its characters relate (and often in what’s happening), and yet somehow it feels serene, rather than jangly and unnerving. There’s a kind of sense of quiet acceptance hovering behind the camera. Good stuff, recommended.