Poster by Geof Darrow
It’s that time again for my annual sojourn to Fantastic Fest, the annual Alamo Drafthouse week long love letter to horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. This year’s festival runs from Sept 18-25, here in Austin in the South Lamar location.
As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.
Fantastic Fest Preview Day Five
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
An aging bamboo cutter happens upon a glowing stalk which opens to reveal a tiny nymph. After taking it home, the nymph turns into a baby girl who ages very rapidly. Claiming the child as their own, the man and his wife lovingly refer to her as “Princess.” When the bamboo cutter discovers gold and silks in the forest, he takes it as a sign that Princes is intended for bigger things. He moves his family into an extravagant palace and has his daughter trained in all manners of royalty. As suitors from across the land come to win her hand, the newly-named Kaguya longs for her simpler days in the forest, and does everything she can to change her fate.
Based on ancient Japanese folklore, THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA is Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata’s first film since MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS in 1999. It’s been well worth the wait. The brush painting-inspired animation is breathtaking and the surreal look perfectly complements the fantasy elements. At its core, the film is a feminist tale as Princess Kaguya fights to make her own choices and not succumb to the pressures of her parents, society and Earth as a whole. It’s thoroughly striking in story and craftsmanship and, simply put, THE TALES OF PRINCESS KAGUYA is utterly fantastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtvyx7Fzyw
The Babadook
Amelia (Essie Davis) has a problem and he is Sam (Noah Wiseman), her son. As his seventh birthday approaches—a day she is unable to celebrate because it happens to be the anniversary of her husband’s death. Sam’s behavioral problems cause issues with friends and family, leading Amelia to lose more and more sleep. Drifting through a hazy life fighting off grief, guilt and her own flesh and blood, Amelia’s motherly instincts are nearly shredded before one night’s bedtime story comes in the form of a mysterious and gruesomely detailed pop-up book called “Mr. Babadook.” Adding to his already violent outbursts is a new obsessive fear of the titular Babadook, and Sam comes dangerously close to pushing his mother to her breaking point before a knock-knock-knock at the door means the pair might have something more sinister to battle than each other.
Expanding her short film MONSTER into her debut feature, Jennifer Kent explodes onto the horror scene with a film that oozes confidence. Her script and direction, the wickedly clever editing, the brilliant production and sound design and, not least of all, the two pitch-perfect central performances by Davis and Wiseman combine to deliver a horror experience nobody will soon forget. This twisted fairy tale never takes the easy way out, cheap shocks are not substituted for carefully built atmosphere, no tension is weakened by unnecessary comic relief and the special effects are a wonderful mix of old school techniques. It also never forgets the human drama at its very core.
THE BABADOOK is incredibly effective because it puts its audience in a truly gripping emotional stronghold. That… and it’s scary as shit. (Brian Kelley)
No Man’s Land
When a cocksure lawyer heads into the badlands of China’s Xinjiang province, hoping a pro bono case will win him fame and acclaim, he sets into motion a series of unfortunate events that expose the harsh realities of life in the next world superpower. Writer-director Ning Hao made a splash at Fantastic Fest V with his labyrinthine crime caper CRAZY RACER, but this unflinching, darkly comic follow-up exposes his homeland as an amoral wasteland populated by hookers, crooks and con artists looking to make a quick buck. It’s little wonder the Chinese censors balked at Ning’s too-honest portrayal and it went unreleased for four long years.
Leaving his cushy job in the city to defend a falcon poacher accused of murdering a cop, lawyer Pan Xiao (Xu Zheng) soon finds himself marooned in a dustbowl wilderness. Faced with trouble-making truck drivers, swindling rest stop owners, petty cops, a sultry prostitute and even the poacher’s backstabbing accomplice (CRAZY RACER star Huang Bo), Pan is soon fighting for his life on an absurd odyssey through the Chinese outback.
Ning Hao’s unforgiving depiction of life in mainland China plays out like a Coen Brothers reimagining of Jia Xiangke’s A TOUCH OF SIN, painting a world in which only the ruthless survive, where law enforcement is impotent, money talks and human life is held in staggeringly low regard. So basically, the new economic behemoth that is China today, in all its no-frills glory. Ning assembles a fine cast of long-term collaborators who bring a fantastic energy and comedic sensibility to the otherwise brutal subject matter, while the desert vistas are shot in almost Fordian reverence, reminding us time and again how barren and devoid of morality the country has become. (James Marsh)
Marcin has murder on his mind. Not mindless violence nor a random strike, but coldly calculated and narrowly targeted murder. He arrives in Warsaw with eyes only for his intended victims, but when fate drops their daughter in his path instead, what begins as an opportunistic means to access his would-be victims becomes something far more complex.
With an approach that echoes the early work of Toshiaki Toyoda—think the Japanese auteur’s angry youth film PORNO STAR—Polish debutant Krzysztof Skonieczny delivers a visually striking and unsettling portrait of angry youth in HARDKOR DISCO. Skonieczny adamantly refuses to explain to his audience why Marcin is so focused on killing this particular couple, instead employing a remarkably soulful performance from leading man Marcin Kowalczyk to allow Marcin to reflect the angers and fears of the audience. It’s an unsettling choice, one that casts Marcin as something raw and primal and completely separate from the regular rules of cause and effect.
Skonieczny is one of a new wave of European directors, a hugely talented pool of youth who exist seemingly in the intersection of old traditions and the new reality of a globalized world. It’s a position forcing them to create a new language of their own, and what we’re seeing here are the first steps down that path. While it’s not clear yet where that path may ultimately lead, it’s going to be a fascinating trip. (Todd Brown)
Cub
Sam (Maurice Luijten) scrambles to meet his boy scout troop for their yearly camping trip. After everyone has arrived and things settle down, troop leaders Chris and Peter warn the kids that an intruder—a feral boy named Kai—has been seen lurking around the campsite. The story of Kai is just a tactic to frighten the kids and add some mystery to the outing. Upon arrival at the camp site—which is plagued by some obnoxious locals—Sam sees and hears things that make him believe that Kai is real. No one believes Sam, but the brutal reality behind myth of Kai soon becomes apparent to all of the disbelieving cubs.
Belgian director Jonas Govaerts is mainly known for his short films and television work. With his feature-length debut CUB, Govaerts establishes himself as one of the most promising talents in genre cinema. He and co-writer Roel Mondelaers merge two seemingly incompatible concepts—boy scout adventure and extreme horror—to create a film that enthusiastically embraces genre conventions while expanding them into interesting new directions.
The key to CUB’s success is an engaging and logical script, which boasts fleshed out characters, a strong narrative arc, an element of black humor and some rather clever visual and auditory genre references. All of these elements add up to what is unquestionably one of the best horror movies of 2014. (Rodney Perkins)