No Such Thing

It's always wise to expect the unexpected from writer-director Hal Hartley, so it should come as no surprise that his take on fairy tales and monsters should be so decidedly idiosyncratic. What is surprising is how little Hartley has to say on the subject. A monster (Robert John Burke) has taken up residence in an abandoned military base high in the frozen Icelandic north, and he's making life hell for the nearby residents. Every so often, the creature leaves the solitude of his rusty lair to terrorize the locals, but his heart's not in it anymore: He's been alive since time immemorial, and he's just plain tired. "I'm not the monster I used to be," he muses. O...