First Look ’26: I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn

“Crummy Films” makes Troma look like Merchant-Ivory. It is about the only “studio” that would ever let a weirdo like Jack direct. Naturally, it is in Brooklyn. Legit Japanese movie star Shina Mizuhara is in for a serious case of culture shock when she finds herself stranded in one of the borough’s grungier neighborhoods. “Fortunately” for her, Jack needs an actress and he is in no position to nitpick minor details like English fluency. He doesn’t even know she can act, but, somehow, they click together creatively and perhaps in other ways too in director-screenwriter Kenichi Ugana’s I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, which screens today as part of MoMI’s First Look 2026.

Mizuhara worked hard to build her stardom, but burnout and entitlement made her toxic on the PR circuit and generally unpleasant to be around. She decided to take a break in New York with her boyfriend Ren, but her churlish behavior finally pushed him to break up with her. She took it badly. Awkwardly, he was still carrying her phone and wallet when she stormed off in a huff.

Fatefully, Mizuhara wandered into Jack’s dive bar. She needs a place to crash and he needs a replacement actress fast or his first film will get canceled before it even starts, so he extorts her to play the lead. Admittedly, it is a jerkweed thing to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Of course, Mizuhara has never worked on such a cheap, disreputable run-and-gun movie shoot before, but finds she enjoys the freedom. There also seems to be something percolating between her and Jack, but being an annoying Brooklyn wannabe hipster, he is fully capable of sabotaging it.

Clearly, Ugana conceived the film for the kind of cult movie fans who will be delighted to see Larry Fessenden playing Crummy Movies boss Rusty Festerson. It is not a tribute spoof in the tradition of One Cut of the Dead or Matinee, but it definitely wears its love for schlocky genre movies on its sleeve.

It is also a rather endearing rom-com for people who don’t ordinarily watch rom-coms, even though there is a great charm imbalance between the winning Ui Muhara and the relentlessly annoying Estevan Munoz, as Shina and Jack, respectively. Muhara portrays Mizuhara’s maturation and growth with sensitivity and credibility, whereas Jack’s motormouth mania induces more cringe than laughter.

Nevertheless, the small but hardy supporting cast consistently expresses a pleasantly acerbic wit that is very old school New York. This is particularly true of Fessenden and Christopher Kahler as the punker bar manager.

In a way, Ugana’s film is a total fantasy, because it shows Mizuhara learning how to act like an adult in Greenpoint-Williamsburg kind of neighborhoods. If only that happened more often in real life. Regardless, its underdog spirit is surprisingly infectious. Recommended for horror fans in the mood for an upbeat change of pace, I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn screens tonight (5/1) as part of this year’s First Look.