– Sound Of Noise Directed by Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson Sweden / France – 2010 – Prior to the screening of Sound of Noise, Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson’s 2001 short, Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers was shown. You can, and should, watch it here, but the basics are these: …
“This is a unique, fascinating piece of flawed film-making.” Golden Slumber Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura Written by Kotaro Isaka Japan, 2010 – Like Nakamura’s previous film, Fish Story, Golden Slumber is a film tailor-made for cult success. Slumber’s overarching thematic message is encapsulated within the Beatles’ tune, and titular reference, “Golden Slumbers,” and the film …
“This is an awfully graphic film, but for those who can stomach it, I Saw The Devil continues South Korea’s legacy of outstanding revenge films.” – I Saw The Devil Directed by Kim Ji-woon South Korea, 2010 – The three South Korean films featured at Fantastic Fest–all among this reviewer’s festival favorites–are all thoughtful, reflexive …
“It’s hard to take Mother’s Day at face value because it wants to be so much more.” Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman – It seems that Mr. Darren Lynn Bousman fancies himself a wild-card. After lending his talents to three (II-IV, if you have favorites) Saw films, he has made it his sincere …
“This first film from writer/director Jang Cheol-so is a blunt, ruthless, feminist revenge flick.” Bedevilled Directed by Jang Cheol-so – This first film from writer/director Jang Cheol-so is a blunt, ruthless feminist revenge flick. Despite some problematic storytelling devices, it isn’t hard to see why Fantastic Fest attendees bestowed the audience award upon it–Bedevilled is …
“Pascal may not be a future Academy Award winner, but it definitely deserves an audience.” Bibliothèque Pascal Directed by Szabolcs Hajdu – Hungary’s entry for the 83rd Academy Awards, Bibliothèque Pascal is a film very much at home in Fantastic Fest. It is packed with fantastical, often stunning, imagery, terrifying human behavior–the second half of …
“The film deserves credit as for ditching the offhand misogyny of the original and turning The Housemaid into a class critique with a complex female lead.” The Housemaid Directed by Im Sang-soo – Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid, released in 1960, stands as one of the most renowned films of Korean cinema. Kim’s film tells the …
Fatso Directed by Arild Fröhlich Fatso’s inclusion in Fantastic Fest seems to be based entirely on its main character’s social incapacity and how that might strike a chord with the kind of people who love fantasy and horror films. Fantastical only in its use of several erotic daydreams and horrific only in its striking resemblance …
“Drones is a simple little movie, but it’s offbeat and funny enough to attract some dedicated fans…” Drones Directed by Amber Benson and Adam Busch – “Quirky verging on zany” is what you ought to expect of a comedy coming from Joss Whedon alums Amber Benson and Adam Busch. Not to discredit the coupled directing …
Julia’s Eyes Dir. Guillem Morales Mature, efficient thrillers are difficult to come by these days, but you can trust Guillermo del Toro to produce them. Beneath its apparent high-concept premise, Julia’s Eyes is a fairly straightforward, though effective, cat-and-mouse scenario. The film follows Julia (Belén Rueda), a woman with a degenerative eye disorder, as she …
As the stranglehold of the mockumentary craze tightens upon the horror genre and viewers begin to be weary of the storytelling shortcuts and incomprehensible action inherent in the style, something astounding keeps happening: directors find new ways to make it work. The Trollhunter, to be fair, is much more of a fantasy comedy than a …
Machete Maidens Unleashed Directed by Mark Hartley – If you’ve seen Mark Hartley’s neat little 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood, you’ll have some idea of what to expect with Machete Maidens Unleashed. While Hollywood explores the fascinating world of Ozploitation films and Unleashed focuses on the exploitative and unique phase of American-Filipino film production, both …
Transfer Directed by Damir Lukacevic – The proposition is this: Say you are old and fragile–you may in fact die soon–and you are in everlasting love with your spouse. Perhaps you never got to have that child and the time to do so has long since passed. Here’s where the Menzana corporation comes in: For …
Stake Land Directed by Jim Mickle Horror films, despite their divisiveness, are uncannily successful as time capsules. Stake Land, despite its many flaws, quite exhaustively captures the zeitgeist of 2010 America. Director Jim Mickle’s second feature is a vampire-apocalypse-road-movie featuring a dumb, animalistic class of vampires–that is to say zombies with more rules and more …
Rammbock Directed by Marvin Krenn Rammbock is a little German zombie movie set entirely in one apartment complex and featuring–bear with me, zombie fanatics–virtually no gore. Instead, like all the best epidemic movies, Rammbock is a story about survivors. Our main survivor is Kai (Sebastian Achilles), a dopey, kind man who is in Berlin to …
Primal Directed by Josh Reed With Primal, first time film director Josh Reed crafts a fairly by-the-numbers infection movie, but, excepting some annoying stylistic flourishes, executes it commendably well. Primal introduces its cast on the tail end of a road trip into the Australian wilderness, where a group of 20-somethings are hoping to find a …
Let Me In Directed by Matt Reeves This review is (sorry) for people who have seen the original. There are two other reviews up on this site for the uninitiated: Since the production of Let Me In was announced, the general consensus of Let The Right One In fans has been that Matt Reeves and …
For those of you lucky enough to be attending this year’s Fantastic Fest, they’ve released a list of films and descriptions for their thirs wave of programming – and there are some big ones. PREMIERE SCREENINGS Agnosia (2010) Director: Eugenio Mira, Spain, World Premiere The producers of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Orphanage present a truly …
Fantastic Fest has announced the opening night film will be the U.S. premiere of the highly anticipated Let Me In, directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and starring Chloe Moretz (Kick Ass), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road), Elias Koteas (Shutter Island) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor). The red carpet event will take place on Thursday, September 23 …
Austin’s beloved genre film festival, Fantastic Fest, last seen awarding The Human Centipede with massive accolades, has begun to reveal its 2010 lineup. The thus far revealed films are suitably intriguing, promising aural terrorism (Sound of Noise), a telepathic killing machine that is also a tire (Rubber), at least a couple young ladies who will …