An Icelandic variation on the slacker movie might not sound the most inviting of prospects. But Dagur Keri not only makes Noi's (Lemarquis) trials and tribulations matter, he also relates them in a meandering, offbeat manner that recalls both Aki Kaurismaki and Jim Jarmusch at their best.
There's incident aplenty - a nocturnal visit to a natural history museum, a failed bank robbery and a pivotal prediction from a fortune-teller, but Kßri keeps everything so low key that we're never sure whether to smile or wince at Lemarquis' naive attempts either to impress Iris (Hansdottir) or kick against the staid system that drove his father (Gunnarsson) to drunken isolation.
With Rasmus Videbaek's photography capturing the forbidding nature of both the landscape and the town's conventionality, this confirms the excellent impression that Icelandic cinema made with Cold Fever and 101 Reykjavik.