Wherein Rick continues his preview…

Friday begins with The Sword Bearer aka: Mechenosets, an impressionistic Russian film with noir elements, about a hero along the lines of the Punisher. Lots of action and violence promised in this one.

Gary Oldham takes a break from playing psycho villains in American films to portray the possibly sympathetic protagonist in The Backwoods. A European Deliverance or Straw Dogs, the movie recounts the tale of a Spanish hunting trip gone terrible wrong. Director Koldo Serra will be there live in person!

Saturday’s Ain’t It Cool News Secret Screening #1 leaves me with some trepidation and curiosity. I’m not always a fan of what those boys like but I figure at least it will be interesting.

The Danish Offscreen, a reality story gone awry, won several awards including Young Cinema Award: 2006 Venice Film Festival and Best Actor: Danish Film Critics Association 2006 Bodil Awards (for star Nicolas Bro). From the description:

Quote:
Nicolas Bro reigns supreme in the role of Nicolas Bro – a man intent on making a film about himself. His friend Christoffer Boe lends him a camera and tells him to record everything, a remark which Bro takes a little too literally. His constant filming succeeds in driving both his wife Lene and his friends nuts, and when Lene finally calls it a day and moves to Berlin, Nicolas – driven by the thought of getting her back and filming the entire process – begins his inevitable descent into disintegration. His self-monitoring is so hair-raisingly private (and creepy) that it becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction.

Due to the Yom Kippur holiday my Friday and Saturday selections are limited. But don’t worry, everything of note that I wanted to see on those days is being shown later in the Festival.

Still more to come…

Fantastic Fest 3 starts in 6 days!

[ Watching baseball Currently: Watching baseball ]

Fantastic Fest 3, a week-long festival featuring the best in new science-fiction, fantasy, horror, animation, crime, Asian, and all around badass cinema, starts on September 20 and runs through the 27th. With over 60 premiere genre features and 30 shorts, it is impossible to see it all. Over the next week, I will discuss several of the movies I plan on seeing. Once the festival starts, expect daily (or sometimes more) recaps of the movies I saw and what I thought.

One of the many things that makes Austin, TX cool, all the Festival’s films are shown in one theater, the Alamo Draft House South, over a span of eight days! I dare anyone to find such an incredible collection of genre films showcased in one theater over a similar period.

My festival begins on Sept. 20 at 6:45 with George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead complete with a Q&A sessions with Romero himself!

Following the opening movie excitement is The Last Winter with Writer-Director Larry Fessenden live in person. I have hopes for this eco-horror thriller from the creator of Habit and Wendigo

More later…