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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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Fantastic Fest 2015 Preview Day One

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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 One

 

The Lobster

David has recently become single. The rules of The City dictate that he must be taken to The Hotel, where he will have 45 days to find a matching mate. If he does, he can go back to his life. If he fails, he’ll be transformed into an animal of his choice and sent into The Woods. However, there’s a splinter group of renegade Loners living within The Woods who oppose this system violently. With a ticking 45 day clock, David will struggle to survive and maybe just maybe find his true love.

Yorgos Lanthimos continues the singular vision he presented in his previous films DOGTOOTH, ATTENBERG and ALPS with a dystopian science fiction tale that’s as funny as it is twisted, dark and insightful. A brilliantly deadpan exercise, THE LOBSTER is surreal wonder at its best.

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