6 days ago
Andrew Rannells and Nick Kroll Go on a Babymoon in 'I Don't Understand You'
Andrew Rannells and Nick Kroll Go on a Babymoon in 'I Don't Understand You' originally appeared on L.A. Mag.
Writers, directors and husbands David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano had one major stipulation after their comedic thriller I Don't Understand You opened to an uproarious response at the South by Southwest fest in March 2024: They wanted it to run in cinemas.'Our biggest takeaway … which is why we pushed so hard [for] a theatrical release, was the infectious temperature we got [from] seeing [the audience] react at the same time,' Craig says. 'I want other people to have that same feeling.'Star Nick Kroll agrees. 'The best movies to see in the theater are the ones that make you laugh collectively and get scared shitless collectively, and this film has both of those feelings in spades,' he says.I Don't Understand You, distributed by Vertical, hits theaters nationwide June 6. Kroll teams with Andrew Rannells as husbands Dom and Cole on an anniversary trip to Italy. The couple are anxiously awaiting the birth of their soon-to-be-adopted child. When they veer into the Italian countryside one evening, however, they experience a series of unfortunate misunderstandings — virtually all stemming from their inability to speak the native tongue.
'The first act of the film is sort of autobiographical,' Craig recalls. 'We were going on our 10th anniversary trip to Italy, and right before the trip we found out we had matched with [a] birth mother and that she was due in a couple weeks. We decided to make [the trip] our babymoon. And on the night of our actual anniversary, we were driving to this remote pizza restaurant, and Brian directed me off the side of the road and we got stuck in a ditch for about five hours.'Crano says they were in what felt like 'The Hills Have Eyes' section of Italy. Luckily, a local family rescued the pair and fed them pizza and grappa well into the wee hours of the morning. Still, the incident birthed an idea of how things might've gone horribly writing I Don't Understand You, Craig and Crano's real-life personalities naturally bled onto the page, though the pair say the film is a 'fun-house mirror' version of themselves. Kroll and Rannells immediately picked up on the couple's rapport.
'It was easy to see from the jump who was who in the script,' Kroll says. 'We were able to draw on that as we built our characters leading up to production. But also, being in production in a foreign country is its own adventure, with highs and lows. And being able to observe David and Brian individually and as a couple who were working together was very informative and helpful.'Rannells notes the intense location shoot with an entirely Italian crew helped him quickly adapt to the iconic surroundings, even though it was his first time visiting Rome.'When you have to casually walk by the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain to get to work, you really feel like a local,' he in the film, as Dom and Cole cruise the Italian countryside, a familiar Southern California voice provides the soundtrack to their upcoming adventure.
'I had just watched a beautiful documentary about Linda Ronstadt, so she was most definitely on my mind,' Rannells explains. 'When David and Brian asked me about song ideas, ['Different Drum'] popped into my head. … It seemed like a good tone to set for our characters before things got unexpectedly intense.'Even in 2025, stories centered on gay men feel a bit anomalous, particularly when divorced from being presented as tragedies like Brokeback Mountain or It's a Sin'We wanted to depict queer characters [where] there wasn't something queer happening to them all the time — [that] we're not always victims,' Craig explains.'I think we contain multitudes,' Crano adds, then describes a scene that depicts 'gay joy' without the sting of something horrific — a scene that's so moving you'll have to watch the film to find out.'We need to expand the genre of LGBTQ films,' Craig says. 'I feel like we're finally at a place where we might not need that genre anymore, and we can expand ourselves into drama and comedy while having queer characters. I think we have the privilege to now make stories involving queer characters that aren't just about being queer.'
This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 4, 2025, where it first appeared.
