The official Cinematical presence at the 2006 Fantastic Fest was the wonderful Jette Kernion, and I think she managed to bang out about eight reviews ... while the fest was still running! I saw JK everywhere, from the queues to the parties to the local barbecue pits. Frankly I think her coverage rocked the house, and I'm not just saying that because she let me butt in line with her for The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.
But since the FF guys were cool enough to welcome Cinematical with such eerily open arms, I figure it's only right to share my favorite movies, moments and memories of mayhem from the 2006 FantFest. And so I shall.
I also trekked away from the festival to enjoy a good portion of Feast -- which was negated by my plane ride home. Lindsay Lohan'sJust My Luck was the in-flight movie, and that flick packs perhaps the worst screenplay I've dealt with in three years. Stunningly bad.
Oh, and right before I nodded off every night, I watched just a little bit more of The Office: Season 2. If you don't watch this show, you're plain old robbing yourself of multiple peals of bulky laughter. And why would you want to do that?
Ask any experienced writer if they'd like to cover two whole film festivals over the course of three short weeks, and you'll probably get a response like "Um, no." But throughout all of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had a shiny little treat on the horizon: The Second Annual Fantastic Fest, which was to take place at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) down in lovely Austin, Texas. Upon returning home from TIFF, I was this close to simply bailing on Fantastic Fest, basically because I had a LOT of work to finish, plus I really wasn't all that excited about dealing with airports again so soon.
Fortunately I came to my senses and decided to attend the festival. And get this! A few days before the fest, super-cool festival honcho Tim League asked if I'd like to be a jury member! Now, film critics don't get a lot of back-pats or cap-feathers, but being asked to sit on a festival jury is very flattering indeed. Plus, this festival was mostly horror movies -- so obviously I was grinning like a pig in poop. So now that the festival is over and I've returned home (with a horrific cold), I thought you might be interested to know which flicks won what. So let's get to it... Horror Jury Awards
And I'll take this quick opportunity to share some opinions with you: I attend a solid handful of film festivals every year -- and Fantastic Fest was (far and away) one of the most entertaining trips I've ever taken. From fest-head Tim League down to the part-timiest festival volunteer, these folks were absolutely sterling. If you have even a passing interest in films best described as horror, sci-fi, fantasy or "plain old weird," I could not recommend Fantastic Fest highly enough. In only its second year of existence, FF looks to be one of North America's premiere genre festivals -- and I can only imagine what the 2007 event will look like.
I have no idea why The Woods, which screened at Fantastic Fest, is being released directly to DVD this week with no theatrical run, apart from a few festivals. The latest film from director Lucky McKee (May) is not a groundbreaking or innovative horror film, but it contains many of the elements that make horror movies appealing: screaming schoolgirls, spooky forces of nature, stylish camerawork, a good sense of humor throughout ... and the presence of Bruce Campbell. Some of you might suspect that Campbell was one of the main reasons why I chose to see this movie, and you'd probably be right.
The Woods is what I would call a good solid standard horror film. Wimps like me will appreciate a lack of extended torture sequences, which seem to be gaining popularity in contemporary horror films. There's a little gore, especially near the end, but it's nothing that we squeamish types can't block with one hand briefly shielding our eyes.
The storyline is simple and fairly predictable: Heather (Agnes Bruckner), who's in trouble for setting fires around the family home, is sent to an all-girls' boarding school by her overbearing mom (Emma Campbell) and almost silent dad (Bruce Campbell). The headmistress, Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson), gives Heather the oddest scholarship test ever. Heather ends up becoming one of the picked-on girls in the school; blonde bully Samantha (Rachel Nichols) nicknames her "Firecrotch" and her only friend is shy Marcy (Lauren Birkell). But apart from the usual schoolgirl dynamics, Heather has to deal with other problems. Ms. Traverse has been giving her some disturbing private lessons. A student who tried to kill herself mysteriously vanishes. And the one time Heather tries to escape through the woods that surround the school, she's completely terrified by what she experiences.
Of all the films I saw during Fantastic Fest, Blood Tea and Red String was certainly the strangest. In fact, it is the oddest film I've seen all year, and certainly earns big points for originality. Fantastic Fest programmer Kier-La Janisse described the stop-motion animated film as "Beatrix Potter in hell." Director Christiane Cegavske worked on the feature film, primarily alone, for 13 years.
Blood Tea and Red String is so very original that the plot is hard to describe. What are those creatures with the brown fur and pig-like ears that walk on two legs like humans and speak in bird-like squawks? (Cegavske's website calls them the Oak Dwellers.) These creatures decide to create a large doll that resembles a human female, and tuck an egg inside her torso. They tie her to their tree-home with red string, and everyone seems happy. However, under cover of night, the red-eyed white mice steal the doll-woman and take her to their lair, where they drink blood-red tea interminably and play card games with seemingly blank cards. The Oak Dwellers embark on a quest to find their beloved doll, encountering a variety of creatures both good (the frog) and evil (the spider woman).
In between watching movies at Fantastic Fest, meeting a bunch of new people, watching more movies, drinking too many of Alamo Drafthouse's chocolate milkshakes, and trying to find wireless internet connections, I took a few photos around the festival.
All the Fantastic Fest films were screened at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Two of the festival's organizers, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and Tim McCanlies, told me that they were inspired to pitch the festival idea to Alamo founder Tim League when the six-screen South Lamar location opened in early 2005. They loved the idea of a film festival that took place in a single location, so you didn't have to worry about driving around town to several different venues, finding parking, and trying to figure out how to find time to eat (Alamo serves meals). They were successful: Fantastic Fest was one of the least stressful film festivals I've attended.
A number of films in recent years have been playing with the conventions of film noir. Starfish Hotel, which screened at Fantastic Fest this week, uses those conventions to turn a mystery inside-out, but unfortunately isn't nearly as suspenseful or interesting as its predecessors.
Arisu (Koichi Sato) is a big fan of mystery novels, particularly the Darkworld series written by Jo Kuroda (Kazuyoshi Kushida). Arisu has a secret life of his own: he's been cheating on his wife with the lovely Kayoko (Kiki), whom he met at the faded and remote Starfish Hotel. Suddenly Arisu is involved in a deeper and more horrible mystery: his wife Chisato goes missing, and is rumored to be working in a Tokyo brothel. A seedy-looking guy in a rabbit suit (yes, very much like Donnie Darko) keeps popping out of nowhere to drop hints about the mystery. The guy in the rabbit suit says he's advertising the newest book in the Darkworld series ... or is he really from the Darkworld himself? Is Arisu's life turning into a Kuroda mystery novel? Flashbacks and dream sequences further blur the lines between fantasy and reality, both for the characters and the audience.
I'm not sure what I anticipated before watching Bug, but the film completely surprised me. Perhaps since I was at Fantastic Fest, I expected a traditional horror film, with giant disgusting insects flying around and getting squished in a gross way. Bug is not exactly a horror film -- or if it is, it's in the same tradition as Hard Candy. It's a suspenseful movie, but not a gore or grossout fest.
Bug is adapted by Tracy Letts from his stage play -- only five characters have speaking roles, and most of the action revolves around the two leads. Agnes (Ashley Judd) is one step away from being a stereotype of trashiness: living in a crummy hotel room in Oklahoma, working in a honky-tonk with her friend RC (Lynn Collins), and trying to avoid her ex-con ex. One night, RC brings Peter (Michael Shannon) to visit Agnes, and the two connect instantly as friends, even after Agnes's scumbucket ex Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.) turns up. And then Peter notices the bugs in Agnes's bedroom ... blood-sucking aphids.
The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:
If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
I'm very fond of dysfunctional family comedies -- Home for the Holidays, Slums of Beverly Hills, and even the ultra-dark Where's Poppa? are all films I've enjoyed. So it was disappointing to discover that the Canadian dysfunctional family film The Hamster Cage, which played at Fantastic Fest this week, was only sporadically funny or entertaining.
The Hamster Cage is an over-the-top attempt at dark comedy: a family reunites for a special dinner to celebrate the father winning the Nobel Prize. As daughter Lucy (Jillian Fargey) and son Paul (Tom Scholte) enter their parents' home, we notice that Mom (Patricia Dahlquist) doesn't talk to Lucy, and Paul avoids Dad (Alan Scarfe) but engages in overly long embraces with his Mom. When Lucy learns that Uncle Stan (Scott Hylands) is expected, she flies into a rage. Uncle Stan shows up with Candy (Carly Pope), a 22-year-old writer dressed like a 12-year-old, and a stack of presents. You know how relatives sometimes use gifts as sly weapons to hurt or embarrass family members? Uncle Stan's gifts take that to extremes.
Director Terry Gilliam's movies usually have a distinctive style: if you're channel-surfing and encounter the middle of Time Bandits or 12 Monkeys, you instantly know it's a Gilliam film even if you can't figure out which one right away. Even The Brothers Grimm, perhaps Gilliam's weakest film, retains a diluted version of that style. But if no one had told me that Tideland was a Terry Gilliam film, I might not have guessed. Many of his usual themes are present, but the visuals and for the most part, the dialogue, are not quite in his usual style.
Tideland is also an exceptionally difficult movie to watch, much harder than Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was stylized and surreal and almost cartoonish at times. This movie contains some very real, appalling situations, which have the potential to leave you feeling repelled, disgusted, and uncomfortable. (Don't eat during the movie.) As a result, it took me at least 24 hours to realize that Tideland is a very good film, and although I didn't exactly like it, I'm glad I saw it. Some of the images and scenes can stick in your head for days. (It was the same experience I had after seeing Pulp Fiction: I loathed it for a couple of days, then realized the movie was still sticking with me, and eventually came to appreciate it.)
The premise for Frostbite was irresistable: vampires on the loose in Lapland, where the sun doesn't shine for a full month in winter. The old "wait until dawn, then they'll have to retreat" tactic wouldn't work. Then one of the Fantastic Fest programmers described the film to me as "this year's equivalent of Night of the Living Dorks," one of my favorite films from last year's festival, so I knew I couldn't miss Frostbite. I was so pleased that the movie lived up to and even exceeded my expectations: it's a better-paced movie than Dorks, and blends horror and comedy effectively.
The pre-credit opening sequence is set during WWII, when soldiers seek refuge from a snowstorm in a cabin that turns out to be vampire-infested. The teaser establishes suspense for the rest of the film, set in contemporary times during the "polar night" season. Annika (Petra Nielsen) and her teenage daughter Saga (Grete Havneskold) move to Lapland so Annika can work with famous genetic researcher Gerhard Beckert (Carl-Ake Eriksson). No one quite understands what Beckert is doing, so one of the young interns (Jonas Karlstrom) steals a few of the pills Beckert is giving his comatose patient, an action the intern soon regrets. Meanwhile, a mysterious death in town is being investigated, in which the victim had two puncture wounds on his neck. We all know what that means, even if the police and the coroner do not.
In the midst of a festival featuring scary and gory movies, Gamerz provided a welcome change of pace. The title sounds appropriately geeky, but the movie is essentially an old-fashioned coming-of-age relationship comedy wrapped in the universe of role-playing gamers. The film from Scotland had its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest this week.
Gamerz is set in contemporary Glasgow, which is unusual for geek films. Ralph (Ross Finbow), who is starting his first semester at the local university, is obsessed with a role-playing fantasy game (along the lines of Dungeons and Dragons) that he's created himself. He creates elaborate Lego mazes in his bedroom, and sketches them in the middle of physics classes. In fact, he takes a teaching assistant job just to gain access to the departmental copy machine so he can duplicate his rulebooks ... and discovers forbidden depths of the university buildings that would provide a fantastic setting for game nights. Ralph soon takes over as gamekeeper of a student union group and leads them into the secret tunnels to play, winning approval from fellow gamer Marlyn (Danielle Stewart), with whom he's smitten.
So here I am, down in beautiful (yet horribly humid) Austin, Texas, enjoying my "vacation festival" after the arduous "work festival" that was Toronto '06. I'm flipping through the pages of the festival guide, wondering what I'm going to see on Saturday afternoon when someone informs me that there will be a "super secret" screening later in the day. I rattle off the possibilities in my brain. Since Fantastic Fest is a genre festival, I immediately assume that the "secret" screening will be The Grudge 2 or Saw 3. The FF website indicates that the screening will run 130 minutes, so my next guess is Zack Snyder's300 -- which would have been awesome. But then while I was outside grabbing a smoke, I hear the gossip:
The "super secret" screening will be Mel Gibson'sApocalypto -- and the director would be on hand to hold a Q&A session when the movie ends. Hey, cool. Aside from a promo clip I saw about four months ago, I knew next to nothing about Apocalypto except that: A) It takes place in 1502, B) the dialogue would be in ancient Maya, and C) it was a pretty violent flick. Needless to say, I was intrigued. So I got in line ... with about 400 other curious movie nuts.
I wouldn't feel comfortable penning a full-bore review of Apocalypto, as the cut we saw was a workprint: It had "temp track" music, unfinished sound effects, incomplete special effects, and a few sequences that were bound for the cutting room floor. But the meat of the movie was still there, so I suppose it's cool to share a few early reactions...
In other parts of the world, people are gearing up for Toronto's big clambake, or those film festivals in Rome and Venice. Here in Austin, the fall film schedules are slowly being released and we couldn't be more excited. We don't even have to leave town! The next couple of months will bring a variety of festivals to central Texas:
Cinematexas, the renowned short film festival, runs from Sept. 20-24. This year's schedule hasn't yet been posted online.
Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (aGLIFF) runs from Sept. 28-Oct. 8 and the schedule went live this week. If you want more details, you can attend the free aGLIFF Launch Party on Sunday at noon at Cafe Caffeine. The festival is also looking for volunteers.
The first Austin Polish Film Festival will run over four Thursdays in October. The festival's theme is "50 Years of Polish Films from the Lodz School."
Austin Film Festival runs Oct. 19-26. A schedule of films isn't available yet, but you can view a list of panelists who tentatively are set to attend the screenwriting conference. Sydney Pollack, Shane Black, and David Milch will receive awards this year during the festival.
Although only in its second year, Fantastic Fest is pretty savvy about publicity. The horror/sci-fi/fantasy festival has been releasing lists of scheduled films in batchesthroughoutthe summer. The final schedule has just been posted, and includes the Austin festival's opening-night movie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. I haven't heard anything yet about cast or crew possibly attending the premiere of this prequel, but the festival doesn't start until Sept. 21 so there's still time.
If you're a fan of the Texas Chainsaw series (and I use the word "series" very loosely here), Fantastic Fest is also showing the original 1974 film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, with actor Ed Neal in attendance. The latest additions to the schedule also include the horror-comedy Severance, the French animated sci-fi film Renaissance, and in its U.S. premiere, the Korean film monster movie The Host (Gwoemul). There's also a sneak preview that's so sneaky the title isn't being released, which will be hosted by Ain't It Cool News. The festival runs through Sept. 28.
Update: I just received a press release (thanks, Scott!) announcing the special guests attending the opening-night premiere of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning: cast members R. Lee Ermey and Jordana Brewster, director Jonathan Liebesman, and producers Andrew Fuller and Brad Form.
The official Cinematical presence at the 2006 Fantastic Fest was the wonderful Jette Kernion, and I think she managed to bang out about eight reviews ... while the fest was still running! I saw JK everywhere, from the queues to the parties to the local barbecue pits. Frankly I think her coverage rocked the house, and I'm not just saying that because she let me butt in line with her for The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.
Ask any experienced writer if they'd like to cover two whole film festivals over the course of three short weeks, and you'll probably get a response like "Um, no." But throughout all of the 
So here I am, down in beautiful (yet horribly humid) Austin, Texas, enjoying my "vacation festival" after the arduous "work festival" that was Toronto '06. I'm flipping through the pages of the festival guide, wondering what I'm going to see on Saturday afternoon when someone informs me that there will be a "super secret" screening later in the day. I rattle off the possibilities in my brain. Since 
Although only in its second year, 
