Category Archives: Events

Events

The Other Worlds Austin 2015 preview Day 3

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Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

After last years successful first offering, the Other Worlds Austin scifi film festival returns thisThursday, December 3 at the Galaxy Highland Theater. The three day event has grown to include 13 full length films, a secret Star Wars-related screening, and a variety of shorts. Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’m covering the festival.

Over the next three days, I will preview the 13 features.

House of Time

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Jonathan Helpert | France | 86 min

Writer: Jean Helpert
Cast: Maxime Dambrin, Laura Boujenah, Benjamin Wangermee, Julia Piaton, David Atrakchi

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Robert d’Eglantine has uncovered secret Nazi scientific research on time travel. He tells his guests he has taken them seventy years back in time, to 1944, during the French Occupation and only few weeks before the landing in Normandy. Although the house and everything inside seem the same, the appearance of a woman in the French Resistance, on the run from her Nazi captors, make them question if Robert may just be telling the truth. Or is the woman just an actress? Or was she an actress before the occupation and now a revolutionary?

(Saturday, 5)

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The Other Worlds Austin 2015 preview Day 2

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Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

After last years successful first offering, the Other Worlds Austin scifi film festival returns thisThursday, December 3 at the Galaxy Highland Theater. The three day event has grown to include 13 full length films, a secret Star Wars-related screening, and a variety of shorts. Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’m covering the festival.

Over the next three days, I will preview the 13 features.

 

Projet-M

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Eric Piccoli | Canada | 98 min

Writers: Julien Deschamps Jolin, Eric Piccoli, Mario J. Ramos
Cast: Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Julie Perreault, Julien Deschamps Jolin, Nadia Essadiqi, Pierre Verville

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Orbiting the Earth aboard a space station for 1,000 days to prepare for a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, four astronauts face unforeseen crises when a war breaks out on Earth below. Arguing whether to break off their mission, or what to do about the loss of communication from headquarters, or what to do about the other satellites orbiting the Earth, the team and themselves more alone than they could have prepared for.

(Friday, 10:15)

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The Other Worlds Austin 2015 preview Day 1

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Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

Designed by tattoo and graphics artist David Poe

After last years successful first offering, the Other Worlds Austin scifi film festival returns thisThursday, December 3 at the Galaxy Highland Theater. The three day event has grown to include 13 full length films, a secret Star Wars-related screening, and a variety of shorts. Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’m covering the festival.

Over the next three days, I will preview the 13 features.

 

Boy 7

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Özgür Yildirim | Germany | 110 min

Writers: Philip Delmaar, Marco van Geffen, Özgür Yildirim based on the novel by Mirjam Mous
Cast: David Kross, Emilia Schüle, Ben Münchow, Jens Harzer, Jörg Hartmann, Liv Lisa Fries

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Sam wakes up in the middle of the tracks of a subway tunnel. He can’t remember his name or how he got there. When he sees himself on a wanted picture, he realizes that his life is in extreme danger and his pursuers are hot on his heels. Unexpectedly, he finds a diary written in his own handwriting, and it seems to be the key to everything. When a young woman appears, who has the same burn as him on her left hand, a dangerous journey into thepast begins. BOY 7 is a SciFi RUN LOLA RUN, an adrenaline dash through a dystopian society where juvenile delinquents are recruited by the government for their particular ‘skills.’ An adaptation of a best-selling young adult novel that made its World Premiere at Fantasia in Montreal.

(Thursday, 7:42/8:00)

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Eight

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Eight

 

Evolution

Life probably began in the sea. Billions of years ago, amino acids joined together in the primordial soup to form the first simple microbes that evolved over the eons into the complex organisms that now dominate this world. Because of this, we’re frequently drawn to use the sea in film as a metaphor of life. Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s newest film, EVOLUTION, takes our longing of the sea and shows its beauty; even lingers on how wonderfully alien it can be. Life probably began in the sea, but it’s still unknown and deadly to us, as life can certainly also end in the sea.

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Seven

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Seven

 

L’affaire SK1

In the 1990s, Guy Georges killed seven young women in different cities during one of France’s more notorious crime waves. Frederic Teller’s debut recreates the complex events that led to the arrest while also jumping ahead ten year to the trial. At first, rookie detective Frank Magne is given his first assignment, to reread unsolved cases to see if anything was missed. In this case, something was: two murder victims had the same person install a utility. For the next decade, Frank becomes obsessed with finding the killer and fighting corruption inherent in the police bureaucracy, especially after Georges was questioned and released several times over the eight year investigation.

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Six

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Six

 

The Similars

In October of 1968, something unbelievable happened to a group of people stuck in a small bus station five hours outside Mexico City. The first person we meet is Martin. Martin may be stuck in a rut, but at least it’s a calm, familiar rut. He’s waiting out his last days until retirement from his job as the clerk at the bus station. Ulises has bigger problems. His wife is giving birth in a hospital in Mexico City and he’s stuck at Martin’s station. The buses are delayed because of the weather and the old pay phone can’t seem to hold a connection. Ulises dejectedly takes a seat and finally notices the elderly woman nodding off in the back corner of the station. But then the very pregnant Irene blows in like a storm. She manages to use the phone to call a taxi. But when she goes to the bathroom, she discovers another person in the station, an odd young lady named Rosa working as a bathroom attendant. Our last three people arrive soon after in a taxi. There’s the young medical student, a concerned mother and her sick son. With all the players present and accounted for, the game is set.

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Five

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at 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 Missing Girl

Mort lives a lonely and disillusioned life. In debt, single and unable to make ends meet, he relies on his brother and mother for loans, still drives his dad’s old car and spends most evenings listening to self-affirmation tapes that he personally recorded. However, there’s one ray of hope within his life: the new employee he’s hired for his comic book shop. Ellen is everything Mort is not, a smart, aspiring graphic novelist with an acerbic wit. However, Ellen also has her own share of secrets, and the return of Mort’s bullying high school friend will be the catalyst for events that will change everyone’s lives forever.

THE MISSING GIRL is the new effort from genre director A.D. Calvo, who, for the first time, expands his efforts into something very, very different: the story of everyday people. It’s a smart character study, a black comedy with a genuine heart.

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Four

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Four

 

The Deathless Devil

Channeling the spirit of early Hollywood serials and ingeniously combining it with the most outrageous elements of science fiction, THE DEATHLESS DEVIL is a love letter written in the language of Turkish exploitation.

Director Yilmaz Atadeniz’s brilliant magnum opus opens as scientist Professor Dogan discovers the new ‘tangayt’ metal, which allows him to remotely control all cars and technology. However, the news of his discovery soon gets him in the crosshairs of the mysterious Dr,. Satan who wants to rule the world with an iron fist. The only man who can stop the situation is Tekin, putting on his father’s Copperhead costume and taking up the mantle of fighting crime.

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Three

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Three

 

April and the Extraordinary World

In an alternate reality, Napoleon doesn’t die at the Battle of Waterloo. Instead, while attempting to engineer an indestructible super soldier, he meets his demise in an accidental laboratory explosion. In the wake of this catastrophe, his heirs maintain control of France, and by 1941 it’s Napoleon V who has come to power. Ever since the death of Napoleon I, however, scientists and scholars have mysteriously gone missing, leaving behind a world deprived of their technological innovations. A thick cloud of pollution hangs over Paris, a result of the use of coal and steam power. Operating in secrecy, a young teenage girl named April, together with her sharp-tongued talking cat Darwin (long story), searches for her abducted scientist parents while attempting to continue their research. But the police, led by the boorish but tenacious Detective Pizoni, are also interested in April’s whereabouts. With the shortage of great minds, all non-abducted scientists are forced into labor for the state war machine. If she can stay one step ahead of Pizoni and his goons, April may just hold the key to the world’s salvation. Then again, she might also trigger its destruction.

Beautifully animated, APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD is an adaptation of the work of famed French comic artist Jacques Tardi, creator of Adele Blanc-Sec among other works. Drawing inspiration from everything from Dickens to Jules Verne to Miyazaki, APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD is colorful and funny, but with more than a hint of melancholy and sociopolitical commentary. The greed and gluttony from those in power has trickled down creating an overwhelming cloud of sadness and despair, not unlike the thick pollution that hangs over the city. APRIL’s titular character may wallow in this dark, grimy soot-stained world, but she maintains a bright and shiny hope for the future. (Luke Mullen)

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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day Two

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It’s that time again for my 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 24-October 1, here in Austin at the South Lamar location.

As in year’s past, I begin my coverage with a multi-part/day preview.

 

Fantastic Fest Preview Day Two

 

Victoria

You say the words “the film is one shot,” and that’s enough to stop most people in their tracks and entice them to see them movie. VICTORIA, however, is much more than that one accomplishment. You can count the number of films that have legitimately pulled off this feat on one hand, and VICTORIA may be the best yet. Sebastian Schipper’s latest film is a technical achievement worthy of the highest praise, elevated by a wonderful performance from lead Laia Costa, who this year became the first Spanish actress to win the Best Actress award at the German equivalent of the Oscars (called the Lolas – which VICTORIA won five of this year, including Best Picture and Director). Costa plays the titular character, a free spirit with an infectious charm. She’s trusting, eager to meet new people, experience new things and is seemingly free of judgment. She’s capable of being both your best friend and an object of desire, and can surprise you at any moment.

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