Interweaving seemingly irrelevant storylines, Fish Story is about the interconnectedness of all aspects of our existence. It isn’t, however, a film about fate. It is about finding splendour in irrationality, and our individual potential to shape the world.
Clash Directed by Le Thanh Son It’s never a good sign when even non-fans of a given genre can spot the clichés pervading a particular piece. Whether you own a collection of imported martial arts movies, or you wouldn’t even see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon despite its Oscar nominations, it’s hard to imagine any viewer …
“It’s hard to pigeonhole Symbol in any particular genre, but I would best describe it as a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon on crack.” Symbol Directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto While watching Symbol, for a fleeting moment I wondered if someone had slipped something in my drink or sprinkled an illicit substance on my popcorn. What else …
Initially, I was somewhat wary of Chad Archibald’s Neverlost, the Guelph-shot genre film premiering at Fantasia tomorrow. After all, its story of a failed screenwriter living in squalor while struggling with insomnia and depression sounds like a documentary about my early twenties, except with fewer Star Trek conventions. But the film ended up being an …
A Serbian Film Directed by Srdjan Spasojevic It would be easy to dismiss A Serbian Film on the grounds of its boundary-pushing imagery. “Disturbing” does not begin to cover some of the images and scenarios the film presents, and the anger they inspire can easily hamper judging the film on its merits. At a very …
Korean cinema is perpetually rediscovering itself and finding new ways to combine genres and conventions, breathing new life into old stories and looking back at its own history to reconsider the present. Perhaps this would explain why the majority of my favourite films in the past decade have all come out of Korea. The prospects …
We Are What We Are Directed by Jorge Michel Grau Screenplay by Jorge Michel Gray 2010, Mexico The completed version of Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are had its North American premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival and left audiences very content on their way out. In the same way, Let The Right …
“Heartless is aimless and messy, and offers no real insight in the very many themes it introduces.” Heartless Directed by Philip Ridley Everything you need to know about Heartless is laid out in the first thirty minutes. It is a film about vanity, loss and pain… it is also about gang violence, social decay and …
Sean Byrne’s debut feature, The Loved Ones, not only received a standing ovation at last year’s midnight madness screening at TIFF, but it was also the recipient of The Cadillac People’s Choice Award (Midnight Madness), and received a number of positive reviews (including our own). Anyone who has been following trends in world cinema cannot …
Over the years, Meir Zarchi’s 1978 rape-revenge film I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) has been labeled everything from an expression of raw, feminist rage to a cinematic sex offense. And there’s no doubt that Steven R. Monroe’s 2010 remake be equally polarizing, as it’s more graphically violent by at least …
Mai Mai Miracle Directed by Sunao Katabuchi Mai Mai Miracle is the story about growing up amidst a changing world. Set ten years after the Second World War, life in rural Japan is at a turning point. Inspired by the stories her grandfather tells her, nine year old Shinko, creates elaborate fantasy worlds about the …
The final, complete version of Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are premiered at the Director’s Fortnight program in Cannes this year and had critics and audiences alike talking. Shocking, bloody and deeply moving are but some of the compliments it revived and now Montreal has the privilege of seeing what all the hype …
Panorama-cinéma is collaborating with the 2010 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival to present three screenings of Kuroneko (1968), on July 9 (7:45pm, J.A. De Sève Theatre), July 14 (3pm, J.A. De Sève Theatre) and July 15 (6:30pm at the Cinémathèque Québécoise). The intimate experience of a magnificent 35 mm print from Janus Films (distributor …
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Directed by Tom Six For a movie whose entire premise is more or less spelled out in its title, The Human Centipede is a surprisingly elusive proposition. Despite the sordid particulars, Tom Six’s debut is emphatically not a horror film, at least not in the modern sense. It rejects all …
With over 130 feature films over three weeks, Fantasia can be a dizzying prospect even for festival vets. To further complicate things, since we’re dealing mostly with hardcore genre fare, few will agree on what will constitute the fest’s best. With that in mind, here’s a few suggestions for (nearly) sure-fire entertainment to slide into …
Marwencol Directed by Jeff Malmberg One of the more downright inspirational films here is Marwencol, the story of accidental artist Mark Hogencamp. After being targeted and beaten outside of a club one night, Hogencamp came out of a coma with severe physical and mental damage. His personal attempt at recuperation was to construct a 1/6th scale reproduction of a small …
Mandrill Directed by Ernesto Díaz Espinoza Chilean director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and his action star collaborator, Marko Zaror, are three films deep now, with a fourth (in 3D!) on the way. Clearly they’ve found a formula that works for them, but I’m not as convinced. There’s plenty of buzz around these guys, and they’re hyping …
The Fantasia Film Festival began in 1996, screening Asian films from Hong Kong and Japan, with a sprinkle of Japanese anime, but throughout the years, the festival has gradually expanded its focus to include genre films from all over the world. This year, the Fantasia Film Festival opens a new category called Camera Lucida; in …
To quote Fantasia’s press kit: In recent times, newly-unearthed crimes have resulted in extraordinary levels of disillusionment with organized religion, particularly with the Catholic Church, and genre cinema has mirrored this anger with startling impact. In the face of this, the 2010 Fantasia Film Festival has put together a troubling spotlight entitled “Between Death And …