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Oops! One Last Fantastic Fest Review
Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:21 am
[  Mood: Embarrased ]
The Other Secret Screening: RocknRolla
(Whoops, I forgot to post this review with the City of Ember review!)
Just when festival fatigue sets in and everyone has weird achy coughs from the all night karaoke party, Guy Ritchie steps in with the paddles and yells "clear!" After some resoundly "meh" movies, Richie turns out a companion piece to the awesome Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch.
Rockstar Johnny Quid has died again, but London's underworld is too busy to care. One Two and Mumbles owe old school London godfather Lenny a lot of money. They hook up with a bored accountant to rook Russian real estate mogul Uri out of seven million pounds. Of course, that would be the same money the Russians are handing Lenny to grease the wheels for new construction in the heart of London. Surely One Two and Mumble's fast repayment must be the result of the lucky painting Uri has loaned Archie. Toss in the theft of said painting, the reemergence of Quid, and some deep, dark secrets, then watch all of the stories collide.
Ritchie may be working with a formula he's used before, but RocknRolla is thrilling all the way through. The cast is amazingly strong too, even down to the disposable henchmen. Mark Strong (Stardust) as Lenny's major domo and Toby Kebbell (Control) as Quid are the surprise standouts. I hope that the rumoured sequel, The Real RocknRolla, gets made because Johnny Quid is too cool for one movie.
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Day Eight Fantastic Fest 2008: Ending with a Rave in a Cave
Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:47 pm
[  Mood: Amused ]
How to Get Rid of the Others
This Danish film offers a near future look at social policies gone awry. While there's many moments of very dark humour, I hesitate to call this a comedy because the third act goes grim and doesn't really come back.
How much value do you contribute to society? Are you worth it, and if you are, what about the others who drain society's resources? Those are the questions posed by How to Get Rid of the Others. The Danish government (and it is hinted the EU is following their lead) has set up the New Copenhagen Criteria and is culling society for suspected non-contributors. Others follows a group of such detainees as they are processed overnight in a high school turned detention camp. The real conflict lies between the chillingly efficient Capt. Christian and government minister Folke as they sit in judgement of each detainee. Each interview is riveting, funny, and nauseating all at the same time. Then Christian and Folke's interview process gets derailed by the mysterious Belinda, a member of the underground resistance, who isn't who she claims to be.
Writer/Director Anders Klarlund, who created 2004's breathtaking Strings, turns out a truly disturbing view of society. The side-stories for Belinda and Folke are distracting and maybe a little improbable at times, but really don't detract much from the movie. Social science fiction can offer terrors no BEM can and How to Get Rid of the Others serves that up in spades.
Closing Night Film: City of Ember
Fantastic Fest closed with the adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's YA book, City of Ember. While this wasn't a very well kept secret at the festival, no one knew for sure who would be attending with the film. Director Gil Kenan and Bill Murray did show and the squeeee! for Dr.Vinkman/Bob Harris/Garfield was heard for miles.
The citizens of underground Ember have lived there for two hundred years with no knowledge of anything beyond their lighted city. But Ember's infrastructure is running down, especially the giant generator that powers everything. Doon (Harry Treadaway) and Lina (Saoirse Ronan) have been assigned the jobs they'll work for the rest of their lives but both of them know there's more going on in Ember than meets the eye. The two curious teens become tangled in the mystery of a long lost box, the Great Generator, and "the exit" foretold by The Builders. But to get to the truth, they will have to defy the Mayor (Murray).
City of Ember doesn't break any new ground but does a good job of developing tension without relying overmuch on spectacle or over the top action. The two leads, Ronan and Treadaway, are quite good and Ember itself stands out as a very fantastic yet believable setting. When asked if he preferred doing movies for kids (Kenan also directed Monster House), he said they gave him the freedom to do just about whatever he wanted no matter how out there it might be. I found that interesting since it mirrors what a lot of genre authors say about the freedom in writing YA books.
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Day Seven Fantastic Fest 2008: Egg Prince vs. Stifler
Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:40 pm
[  Mood: Sleepy ]
The Burrowers
J.T. Petty's The Burrowers performs solidly as an old school, straightforward horror film. The movie plays fair with both Western and Horror conventions with a subtle grace and doesn't rely on jump scares or WB alumni.
Set in the untamed frontier of the 1800s, The Burrowers tells the story of a rescue party in pursuit of women abducted by Indians. Ranch worker Coffey's fiance is one of the missing women and he and Parcher, the ranch boss, join in with a group of U.S. cavalry troops to find the unknown Indian tribe called the Burrowers. They find the Burrower's victims paralyzed and buried along the way. The party soon realizes they are not up against a marauding tribe but something much older and much more terrifying.
Though the film seems a little long as the search party crosses the prairie, I was hooked all the way through. I was impressed with the unblinkingly bleak ending too. The Burrowers probably won't balloon into a massive box office success, but If you dig proper horror or are a Joe Lansdale fan, you should check this film out.
Gachi Boy: Wrestling with a Memory
Okay, so underdog sports films usually use adjectives like "rousing" and "inspirational", but how can you not be curious about film that takes the premise of Memento and turns it into a goofy, rousing lucha libre movie? And if you've always wanted to be a luchador, you might find it inspirational too.
In Gachi Boy, law student Igarashi joins his university wrestling club, a band of bickering misfits who have more heart than talent. Igarashi is odd and quirky so he fits right in. But Igarashi suffers from permanent brain damage which causes him to forget everything since his accident when he goes to sleep. Like the hero in Memento, the young wrestler lives by his notes and photos to fake some continuity in his marooned life. How will his teammates react to his secret and how can Igarashi win the big match when he loses his training each night?
As ridiculous as Gachi Boy sounds, it flat out works. The movie was adapted from a one room play and that stage background forged the strong characters that make this movie. Breakout your subtitle glasses and watch this film. You'll be crying from laughter until the end where you just might squeeze out a tear and a lip tremor for the underdog.
AICN Secret Screening #2: Role Models
David Wain (from the comedy troupes The State and Stella) leaves his indie leanings of Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten behind and turns out a decidedly mainstream comedy with Role Models. But when one of the leads is Sean William Scott, you knew this was going to be a mainstream affair, right?
Danny Donohue (Paul Rudd) has a bad day, and when you're bad day is fueled by an overdose of the energy drinks you pitch to high schoolers, that's enough to land you and your best friend 150 hours of public service mentoring children. But Danny and Wheeler (Scott) have no business being around kids, let alone troubled ones. Danny gets paired with LARPing introvert, Augie while Wheeler is the 'big' for his foulmouthed mini-me, Ronnie. If you think that Augie may teach hardcore realist Danny a lesson about being yourself while Ronnie teaches Wheeler about responsibility, whoa, you're right. There's a formula at work here and it mechanically hits each plot point beat for predictable beat.
I was entertained by several of the gags though the sum turned out to be much less than the parts. This film is in an awkward place, though. A few relatively minor edits could turn Role Models into a PG-13 family comedy. Right now it plays like a family comedy with a boob shot and extra cursing just to grab the R rating, but really isn't satisfying as an R comedy. The LARP climax of the movie obviously owes a debt to Darkon, a doc that made the festival rounds several years ago. Since Second Skin came out this past spring, how long will it be before a mainstream MMORPG comedy shows up?
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Day Six Fantastic Fest 2008
Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:49 pm
The Good, The Bad, and the Weird
As you might expect from the title, Korea's eye-popping The Good, The Bad, and the Weird "reimagines" The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. And while there is a three way standoff and a missing treasure, TGTBTW blazes its own trail in 1930s Japanese-occupied Manchuria.
"The Bad" executes the most stylish of train heists only to find the treasure map he is supposed to recover for a mob boss has been filched by "The Weird", a seemingly bumbling but unstoppable opportunist. But "The Good" is in hot pursuit of the bounty on The Weird's head. Soon all three are tangled in a race for buried Qing dynasty treasure across the barren desert. Did I mention that two armies join them in the insane, ever-building climax?
While strictly an action/chase movie, the sweeping production of this epic is spectacular. Plus the cast is pitch perfect: Byun-hun Lee is terrifying and slick as The Bad, Woo-sung Jung is icy cool as The Good, and Kang-ho Song is delightfully amoral as The Weird. The amazing shootout in the Ghost Market alone will make you want to watch this movie twice.
AICN Secret Screening #1: The Brothers Bloom
Fantastic Fest always has a series of mystery screenings which leads to a constant buzz of speculation throughout the festival. And as FF proved last year (Persepolis and There Will Be Blood were shown), the secret screenings are not limited to horror or the fantastic. This year's first surprise was Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz.
Con-men since birth, orphaned brothers Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Brody) cut their own path through the world moving from one grand, meticulously orchestrated scam to the next with their enigmatic sidekick, Bang Bang. But Bloom has had enough and retires from his brother's schemes. Stephen isn't done with his sibling yet, though. He reels Bloom back in on one last con centered around the lonely, eccentric Penelope who also happens to be fabulously rich. Bloom warily hunts for an unscripted life but can never be sure if he and Penelope (Weisz) have left Stephen's schemes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as long as I didn't try to analyze the con too much. Several of Stephen's twists seemed to be for the sake of the plot but didn't make sense much on their own. The comedy is stellar though, reminding me a bit of a classic Peter Sellers movie with a dash of Wes Anderson. Rinko Kikuchi as Bang Bang, Stephen's silent personal assistant, is particularly charming.
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Day Five Fantastic Fest 2008
Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:51 pm
La Creme
La Creme is a smart French comedy which examines the nature of desire. Beyond it's initial fantastic conceit, this film avoids being a farce movie with some nice, subtle character work throughout.
Unemployed Francois Margin is looking for an edge in La Creme. He's been pitted against a rival job applicant and they must unanimously agree who should get the job by the end of the week. Then Margin's edge appears on Christmas morning in the form of a pot of face cream which when applied makes people believe they're in the presence of a famous celebrity. Margin quickly deduces the effects of the cream and sets out to take full advantage of it. But being the local object of desire creates complications for himself, his family, and his rival.
La Creme was made with a trivial budget and a mixed cast of actors and non-actors by long-time editor, first-time director Reynald Bertrand who has assembled a tight film that shows what you can do with a good script and good execution. During the Q'n'A with the director after the film, Bertrand mentioned that in France there's no interest in distribution for La Creme because it lacks well known actors (oh, irony). My fingers are crossed for U.S. art house release at least.
Nacho Vigalondo Shorts Program
The Spanish movie TimeCrimes was a Fantastic Fest 2007 favourite. That movie's director, Nacho Vigalondo, was also a big hit, so this year's festival planners programmed a shorts selection as a way to bring this indie film rock star back this year.
Since Nacho personally introduced each short with anecdotes and stories, it's hard to give you a complete picture of the program. But highlights include his Oscar nominated 7:35 In the Morning which is simply a masterful bit of comedy. Be sure to watch it a few times to admire just how uncomfortable the cafe patrons look. Disappointed with big budget Hollywood trilogies like The Matrix and Lord of the Rings, Nacho created Codigo 7, a trilogy of shorts as an homage to Philip K. Dick that covers a truly galactic struggle with a microscopic budget. But it wasn't all laughs, he provided an educational one too.
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