Inadequate People

Inadequate People (Neadekvatnye lyudi, 2010) is a Russian tragicomedy from director Roman Karimov, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Quiet, buttoned-up Vitaly (Ilya Lyubimov) moves to a new city hoping to start over after a rough past — but instead of calm, he finds himself surrounded by oddballs.

His neighbor across the landing is Kristina (Ingrid Olerinskaya), a reckless schoolgirl who decides to remake the shy man into something more confident. At the office a predatory boss keeps cornering him, and even the therapist he sees to keep himself together turns out to have serious quirks of his own. Against this gallery, Vitaly looks like the only sane person in the room. Whether that's actually true is the film's real question.

Karimov's debut became a small sensation in late-2000s Russian indie cinema — a low-budget feature with sharp dialogue, awkward humor and a surprisingly tender story about two lonely people who'd rather bang their heads against a wall side by side than apart. It's for anyone who likes bittersweet comedy with no gloss. Stream Inadequate People (2010) online on iFILM.