{"id":3627,"date":"2011-09-18T14:59:47","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T14:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2011\/09\/18\/fantastic-fest-preview-day-4-2\/"},"modified":"2011-09-18T14:59:47","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T14:59:47","slug":"fantastic-fest-preview-day-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2011\/09\/18\/fantastic-fest-preview-day-4-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Fest preview Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fantastic Fest<\/a>, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 4 days. <\/p>\n

As a lead up, I\u2019m previewing the movies that I\u2019m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival. <\/p>\n

Sunday, September 25th<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

THE CORRIDOR<\/span><\/a>
\nEvan Kelly 2010 | AMD Next Wave, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror, Sci-Fi | 100 min.<\/p>\n

Director Evan Kelly live in person!<\/p>\n

When Tyler\u2019s mom Pauline OD\u2019s, something snaps in his head. His friends arrive to find Pauline face down in the hallway and Tyler jumps out of the closet, sputtering nonsense. He cuts one friend\u2019s face and stabs another in the hand before being restrained.<\/p>\n

Several years later, Tyler\u2019s getting out of the institution and his four best friends are meeting him to give Pauline a final farewell and scatter her ashes. They head out to the small cabin she kept deep in the woods, but the years have changed them. They\u2019ve grown apart. Old wounds open and none of them are sure how to treat Tyler. While the meds he\u2019s taking seem to be working, there\u2019s a latent fear that they can\u2019t acknowledge or ignore.<\/p>\n

Tyler takes a walk late on the first night and discovers a strange hallway, some kind of supernatural corridor in the woods. While he wonders if his mind is playing tricks on him, he convinces his best friend to go with him the next morning and check it out. The other three follow them and they can all see and experience the corridor, allowing Tyler to breathe a sigh of relief at not being crazy. But the corridor has strange, supernatural properties and its effects will change the five friends in ways they could never expect.<\/p>\n

First time feature director Evan Kelly delivers exactly what we are looking for in an AMD Next Wave film: a vibrant, fresh supernatural concept with unexpected turns and deeply developed characters. Look out for what Kelly does next. (Luke Mullen)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

HEADHUNTERS<\/span><\/a>
\nMorten Tyldum 2011 | Feature, Romance, Thriller | 100 min.<\/p>\n

screens with\u2026
THE CANDIDATE<\/span><\/a> | David Karlak 2010<\/p>\n

Based on Jo Nesbo\u2019s bestselling book of the same name, Morten Tyldum\u2019s HEADHUNTERS follows Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie of MAX MANUS), Norway\u2019s most successful headhunter. He\u2019s also secretly Norway\u2019s top con artist, using his job to slyly recruit people he plans on stealing from. He\u2019s charming but suffers from what\u2019s called “Little Man Syndrome.” His wife Diana (an impressive first performance from Synn\u00f8ve Macody Lund) is tall and beautiful. To make up for those lost inches, he steals from people and buys her things he can\u2019t afford, putting himself deeper in debt than even M.C. Hammer could imagine. So, Roger goes for one final hit \u2013 the one that will cure all of his financial woes. That last job is a painting worth millions, and it\u2019s in the hands of Clas Greve (Nikolaj Cster-Waldau of “A Game of Thrones”), a former mercenary with excellent hunting skills.<\/p>\n

HEADHUNTERS eventually turns into a brutally satisfying game of cat and mouse. Throughout the chase, our characters discover the meanings of love, deceit, faith and revenge. There are virtually no truly likable characters in HEADHUNTERS, and that\u2019s what really makes it work \u2013 you find yourself rooting for the bad guy, but he\u2019s the good guy by comparison.(Chase Whale)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

CARRE BLANC<\/span><\/a>
\nJean-Baptiste L\u00e9onetti 2011 | Feature, Guest in attendance, Sci-Fi | 77 min.<\/p>\n

Director Jean-Baptiste L\u00e9onetti, Producer Benjamin Mamou, and Executive Producer Camille Havard Bourdon in attendance <\/p>\n

After his mother leaps to her death from their high-rise apartment balcony, Phillipe attempts his own suicide only to be thwarted by his classmate Marie. Phillipe is sent to a school run by the government where he is molded into a fit member of society via physically and psychologically tormenting techniques. Years later, Phillipe (Sami Bouajila) is now a disciplined and successful business man putting applicants through strange, sometimes painful tests and is estranged from Marie (Julie Gayet) to whom he is now married. Marie, however, is determined to prove correct her inkling that there is still love in their relationship and that it is mutual.<\/p>\n

Writer\/director Jean-Baptiste L\u00e9onetti takes an aggressively economical approach to his first feature. The visual palette and sound design perfectly match the gaunt view of a future where capitalistic society has reached an extreme and is on the verge of endgame. Instead, he focuses on what matters, Phillipe and Marie\u2019s relationship, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks about the details of life in this future using clues mostly revealed via clever editing.<\/p>\n

As the film progresses, audiences will become more and more familiar with their surroundings as they navigate through a world only barely familiar, one full of odd touches like a mysterious voice over a loudspeaker that constantly announces seemingly random numbers, body bags that share the same logo as packaged meat, and what seems to be a cultural obsession with croquet. It\u2019s a tribute to L\u00e9onetti\u2019s enormous talent that it never becomes overbearing, the initially surreal elements make sense and there\u2019s a dark vein of wit that runs through it all. At times it would almost be funny if it didn\u2019t feel so damn prophetic. In the end, it\u2019s a small character story painted in strokes of big sci-fi ideas. (Brian Kelley)<\/p>\n

\nPreview Day 3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Preview Day 5<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Fantastic Fest preview Day 4<\/a> was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 4 days. As a lead up, I\u2019m previewing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n