Frogtown
**Seen at the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival
Even though I had looked up the film, and shared emails with director Costa Karalis prior to the festival, the cast list that comes up during the end credits reminded me that, “Oh yeah, this was a narrative film.” So convincing is Karalis’s illusion in “Frogtown,” which threads a beautiful tightrope between reality and dramatic narrative. This film was a winner.
The main character in the film is Kathleen, a grandmother who is trying to put on a “frog parade” in her small Florida town. Why a “frog parade?” There is a local myth about a giant Frog King that Kathleen believes in from when she was a child. She has passed that on to her granddaughter, Hope, and we also see her reading a book her and her husband wrote several years ago. It is less than a month until the parade, and she’s still struggling to get the permit needed, even though a lot of other elements are in place. Meanwhile, there is tension with her daughter, who doesn’t really believe her fantasies, and who hope for a more honest childhood for Hope.
Part of what makes Karalis’s film such a wonderful surprise is the tone. It is darkly funny but not cruel, and sweet and inspiring, and well as very level headed. The way the film settles into its narrative, and how the interviews go, reminded me very much of Errol Morris’s “Vernon, Florida,” which was a slice of life documentary about learning about the people in a small Florida town. We get a former sports star whose dreams never quite panned out, a Bigfoot YouTuber, and a couple of raised goats because of a supposed “sign from God.” None of these people have anything to do with the larger arc of the film, and it leads to adding authenticity to the film. There’s also a bit of “Waiting for Guffman” baked in, as Kathleen struggles to get everything in order, and hopes an appearance from the Frog King will happen. The humor is not slapstick, but comes from character and situation. The film is ultimately all heart. Karalis’s movie walks a razor thin balance, and finds grace for all the main characters, even if it feels as though their relationships are broken. This film is entertaining, endlessly surprising, and profoundly human. It is also a singular blending of fact and fiction, and the storytelling tools that go into both.
