Fantastic Fest Grinder

[ Mood: Happy ]
Fighter

Unlike Chocolate, the heroine has to work hard to get what she wants in this Danish offering that blends Bend It Like Beckham with The Karate Kid. That may sound dismissive, but as the inevitable plot points fall in line, there’s no way around comparisons to those films.

Aicha, the middle child in a Turkish immigrant family, is in love with martial arts. Unfortunately, cultural traditions prevent her from training in a co-ed kung fu school in Copenhagen. She’s forced to lie to her parents in order to take her training to the next level, but the secret can’t be kept for long. Her deceptions begin to threaten her brother Ali’s engagement and her family’s name within the Turkish community. Aicha’s father, disappointed in her conduct and failing grades, forbids her from training. Unfortunately she has won a spot to compete in a prestigious tournament. Throw in interference from Omar, a Turkish fighter with ties to Ali’s fiance, and Emil, a smitten kung fu classmate, and Aicha has her hands full.

Despite the formula at work, first time actor Semra Turan brings just the right mix of toughness and vulnerability to Aicha. Xian Gao, stunt coordinator for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, creates some delightful action pieces even if some of them seem out of place in this otherwise realistic movie. Fighter would have been a knockout in 1988. But today, it is just serviceable, elevated only by the lead performance and some nice camera work.

Zombie Girl

So, what did you do in junior high? Twelve year old Austin filmmaker Emily Hagins wrote and directed her first feature length zombie film, Pathogen. Sound improbable? Well, a trio of Austin local filmmakers documented Emily’s year of the zombie. Making a film is serious work even when working with no budget, and the most touching part of Zombie Girl is its honest look at the Emily’s relationship with her mother as the stress of filming sets in. Both Emily and her mother, Megan, speak very openly throughout and that makes for a genuine snapshot. If you’re interested in film, check out Zombie Girl as both the subject and the documentary itself represent some fine, inspirational guerilla filmmaking.

South of Heaven

Take a slice of Cohen brother’s retro storytelling, slap on a wet scoop of Tex Avery, add a pinch of Depeche Mode(?!) and you’re getting close to what the frenetic South of Heaven serves up. If it wasn’t for JCVD, this would have been my undisputed underdog of Fantastic Fest.

Roy Coop returns home from the Navy with dreams of selling a novel only to be set upon by a pair of thugs decked out in vaudeville style. Roy’s cowardly brother, Dale, has taken up sidekicking with the unstable criminal, Mad Dog Mantee, and they’ve been up to some very bad deeds, including kidnapping a mobster’s daughter. The chatty thugs return again and again to "convince" the innocent, guileless Roy to give up his brother and the location of the missing girl. But unknown to Roy, Mad Dog and Dale are on the lam as Mad Dog’s temper leads them from atrocity to another. Will Dale find his spine and stand up to Mad Dog? And what will the sweet-natured Roy become?

Writer/director J.L. Vara perpetrates a unique, over the top vision in this very dark noir comedy with a deft that hand that prevents the humour and style from breaking your suspension of disbelief. First time actors Adam and Aaron Nee are good enough to stand up to Shea Wigham’s absolutely awesome Mad Dog Mantee. A tip of the straw hat goes to Jon Gries and Thomas J. Ryan as the unnamed thugs too. I hope this film gets distribution because it deserves to be seen by more than just festival audiences.