Movie Calendar
Fantastic Fest 2009 (09.25.09 - 09.29.09, 20 movies)
Date Viewed Movie Director Notes
09.25.09 Sweet KarmaAndrew Thomas HuntFantastic Fest 2009! After missing the first day of awesomeness, I worked a half-day in Dallas and then hit the road just after 1. I got to Austin just in time to finish my drive in rush-hour traffic, but I was at the Drafthouse just before 5 and picked my badge and film tickets up without any wait. I was able to get into my first choice for the 7pm slot, Sweet Karma, because it was playing against Antichrist, Zombieland, and Secret Screening 1. I missed my first choice for the next two slots though. In fact, I supposedly got the last ticket for the last available 930 slot: Town Called Panic, and one of the last 8 tickets for the midnight movie, Smash Cut. That is strange, because badgeholders are supposed to be guaranteed a seat during each time slot. But according to the guy who gave me the tickets, pretty much anyone who came after me was going to be SOL for those two slots. As it turns out, however, the Town Called Panic screening was less than half full, and the Smash Cut screening was less than a third full, so either a bunch of people with tickets bailed, or the guy who was issuing tickets just didn't know what he was talking about.

Anyway, I had about two hours to kill, so I went to check out the Highball, which is Tim League's soon-to-open bowling alley/karaoke lounge that is in the same parking lot as the South Lamar Drafthouse. It's mostly finished, and looks incredible. I don't know that lounges ever looked like this in the 60's, but it looks just like movies and TV have taught us that lounges looked like. I was about to kill time reading, when someone I've talked to a lot on twitter, @noahphex (along with two of his friends from Canada) found me. I've found that it's very easy to fall into a conversational rhythm with a fellow film geek at an event like Fantastic Fest, or QT Fest, or Cinemapocalypse, even if you've never met the person before. And I'm finding it's even easier to fall into that rhythm when you're meeting someone you've actually talked to at length online. The four of us had a good time talking about the festival, things that had already screened, rumors for the secret screenings, and the struggles we'd had (and are still having) putting our schedules together.

We eventually headed over to the drafthouse, where I ran into Tiffany, who was here on her mothers-day-out pass to see just one movie: Sweet Karma. They let us in the theater right after that, where I ordered my old first-meal-at-a-festival standby: Porky's With Jalapenos (i.e., a pepperoni pizza with jalapenos).

Before the movie we saw a really amazing short film called In Chambers that I'm going to spoil (but not do justice) since most people won't have a chance to see: a woman wakes up in a shitty hotel room not knowing where she is, and is immediately confronted by two evil-government-looking leather-lab-coat-wearing men who are looking for the old man (they refer to him by number) who is hiding under the woman's bed. When they find him, they violently inject him in the back with a giant needle, and carry his lifeless body out of the room. The lady follows, and realizes that she and a dozen or so other people are trapped in a single hallway of a sparse, rundown tenement. One of the residents tells her that the government dudes "come for us" in numerical order, and points out that the number written on her wrist is just two higher than the man who just got taken. He also points out that he's one of the lucky ones: he doesn't have a number. Several tense minutes later, it's our lady's turn to be injected and taken. She tries to escape, but she can't. And the numberless man won't even try to help her.

And here's the kicker: once the government dudes stab her, she immediately wakes up in a hospital bed where she had been in a coma following a car wreck. The government dudes weren't trying to kill her, they were bringing her back to consciousness. In the bed next to her? The numberless dude. Turns out he's not so lucky after all... he's going to be in that coma forever.

The short ended and the audience was dead silent. Really powerful piece of filmmaking. And now... on to the feature!

FF Synopsis: "Karma Balint is a shy, mute Russian woman whose sister Anna left for Canada with bright hopes of making some money for the two of them. But after being whisked away by the Russian recruiter of Canada-bound 'housemaids,' Anna never sent the money, she never wrote back—she just disappeared. When Karma discovers that Anna’s body has been found in the woods on the outskirts of Toronto, the apparent victim of a Russian mafia hit, she sets off on a bloody, intercontinental trail of revenge that sees her face off—armed with only two hands, a calculating brain and a hefty dose of willpower—with some of the sleaziest elements of Toronto’s organized criminal underground."

The obvious comparison here is They Call Her One Eye, but this movie is much less of an exploitation flick than that one was. The violence isn't overly fetishized, and the scenes of scantily-clad kidnapped women depress more than titillate. Even though the movie wasn't shot in a documentary style at all, I found myself constantly thinking that it had an air of authenticity. Although there certainly are moments of spectacular, sudden violence, the movie as a whole plays as a contemplative drama. Plus the wordless performance by the main first-time actress (she's a model and felt more comfortable expressing her emotions with her face and body language, so they decided to make her a mute) was very emotionally effective.

Despite a few plot holes and the insertion of an unnecessary male-figure-based subplot in the final third of the film, I enjoyed this movie.
09.25.09A Town Called PanicStéphane Aubier & Vincent PatarFF Synopsis: ""Will Horse find true love? Will Steven fix his tractor? What will it take to stop the underwater pond dwellers from stealing the walls of Cowboy, Indian and Horse’s house? Yes, boys and girls, it’s the feature version of A Town Called Panic, the demented cult Belgian animation sensation. And, yes, it is truly a sight to behold - a very odd sight that will confuse some while leaving others on the floor gasping for breath from laughing so hard."

Wow... this is why I love going to film festivals where things don't always "work out right." I read a lot of hype online about this film, but the trailer just left me cold. The movie is based on a long-running Belgium animated TV show that focuses on three housemates: Cowboy and Indian (who act like children and get into zany adventures) and Horse (who is the adult figure that gets them out of trouble). The animation itself is stop-motion with what looks like small 3 or 5 inch children's toys, with little-to-no articulation. In fact, the figures must be some sort of flexible molded clay, because the poses and expressions change quite a bit.

But when I saw the trailer online... confined to a few-inches-wide box... the whole thing looked really stupid. And the clip they featured... just looked like weirdness for weirdness' sake. So I wasn't planning on seeing this despite the hype. Luckily (as it turns out) this was the only movie during this time slot that I could get tickets to.

And man... from the very first shot of this stop-motion world, I was sold. Instead of being constrained to a tiny portion of a small computer screen, this toybox-based-world was 30 feet (I'm estimating, and probably wildly off) high. It looked amazing. It looked like the world looked in my head when I was playing with action figures growing up. Hell... it looked like the world still looks in my head when I'm playing with action figures. Everything is possible, everything is up for grabs, and there are no consequences for any actions.

This movie is gloriously, stupendously engrossing. It's just over 70 minutes, but the audience (myself included) laughed the entire time at stupid sight-gag after stupid word-gag after stupid situational-comedy-bit. There's no way to describe the hilarity that comes from watching Horse's car get suddenly demolished by his hastily-constructed bbq-grill-gift, or the sight of a tractor sucking in and blowing out mounds of bricks as it clears them snow-plow style, or a fireman's work in a musical school that results in a cotton-filled room, or the brilliance that is Horse's bed (or piano for that matter)... it's really something you just have to see.

From a technical standpoint, I found myself marvelling at the amount of moving pieces. I'm not sure if the creators have moved to some sort of CGI-based mock-stop-motion system like the South Park guys did once they got big enough, but in any event, it's incredibly effective.

This movie screens again Sunday morning at 11:45. If you're in town and haven't seen this, do yourself a favor and check it out on the big screen.
09.25.09 Smash CutLee DemarbreLast film of the night was one I really didn't want to see based on the reviews I'd read and comments I'd heard. But Dog House was supposedly sold out, so I was stuck. The theater itself was probably a third full, and a third of that group left before the film ended. Me and Brian (you can check out his notes here: http://mymovie.medialife.org/?action=eventDetails&eventID=35) stayed the course. Here's the synopsis:

FF Synopsis: "What do you get when the director of JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER teams up with Sasha Grey, David Hess and Michael Berryman to shoot a wacked-out tribute to '60s splatter pioneer HG Lewis? You get SMASH CUT, baby! Yes, Lee Demarbre, Canada's contemporary King of the B's, has just completed his biggest film to date."

So during the pre-film intro, we found out that since the director completed this film last year, he's made another 2. Major warning sign. The only people who do that are savant geniuses and people like Kauffman or Band. And I'm pretty sure savant geniuses don't direct movies called Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.

I have massive respect for David Hess and Michael Berryman, and director Lee Demarbre seemed like an honestly nice guy who is passionate about what he does. So I'm just going to say that I'm not the target audience for this film. The movie was heavily influenced by the work of (and in fact featured in various capacities) Herschell Gordon Lewis. And though I recognize the place that HGL holds in horror/exploitation cinema history, I've never found his films (or other 60's gore comedies like Undertaker and His Pals) to be that enjoyable to watch. (Though I'll say for the record that I'm a huge fan of HGL's Two Thousand Maniacs!) And like the films that this was modeled after, Smash Cut is interesting in theory but was a chore for me to sit through.

I have a long-standing theory, however, that genuine exploitation films - though few and far between - can still be found today (think Running Scared, DOA: Dead or Alive, Dangerous Men, etc.) And when a director is as prolific and seemingly uncaring about conventional filmmaking rules as Demarbre is, I'm fully convinced that there'll be gold for the finding in his body of work.

After the movie, Brian and I stuck our heads in the Highball, where all manner of debauchery was going down. Kinda. We just wanted to play free skee-ball, and we couldn't get it to work. So we called it a night, and I headed the mile-and-a-half to my hotel, checked in at 2:30, and look to be in bed just before 4. Which is awesome since I need to be at the Drafthouse around 10 tomorrow morning. See everybody tomorrow!
09.26.09 Fish StoryYoshihiro NakamuraGeez. It's 3:03 right now. Let's get today written up.

When I woke up this morning, people were already twittering about the non-vips lined up outside the Drafthouse for today's tickets. So I grabbed a quick shower and hit the road. Luckily the hotel I'm staying at is less than 10 minutes from the Drafthouse. By the time I got there, the line was around the corner, but was moving fast. When I got inside, though, the first two films I wanted to see - Fish Story and Morphine - were sold out. So I grabbed alternates of Tokyo Onlympics (a movie I had no interest in seeing) and Toy Story 1 in 3D, a movie I'll be able to see soon in the theaters. I was kinda bummed, but what can you do.

After grabbing a quick breakfast at Guerro's, I headed back to the Drafhouse and found Jason Whyte in the standby line for Fish Stories. After he got in, they made a general call for anyone in the theater who wanted to see Fish Stories. Which meant that I got to see my first choice after all. There were plenty of seats, and the theater never did fill up. The same thing happened with my next film: I got into Morphine on standby and it never filled up. I'm not sure if the Drafthouse is intentionally underselling movies and calling them "sold out," or if that many VIP badges reserved tickets and didn't show up. Strange.

Anyway, here's the Fantastic Fest Synopsis: "Before the Sex Pistols, there was Gekirin, a Japanese punk band struggling to carve out a space for their music apart from the easy listening, soft rock ballads dominating the airwaves in 1975. Although they failed to achieve recognition for their pioneering sound, the group managed to release one single that later sparked a cult following among a small set of collectors. While all manner of urban myths circulated over the years as to the meaning of the song “Fish Story,” no one could ever have guessed the fantastic destiny the recording would someday fulfill.

Gekirin’s story is the anchor at the center of director Yoshihiro Nakamura’s decades-spanning, brain-teasing, apocalyptic, alternative universe, in which seemingly disparate narratives are woven together to form a portrait of the extraordinary from the raw material of each character’s tiny trials and triumphs.

The film opens on a deserted Tokyo neighborhood in the year 2012. Disaster is about to strike the earth in the form of a comet that scientists predict will cause the extinction of the human race. Three strangers, who’ve met by chance at the only place in the city still holding regular business hours – a record store - debate whether or not it’s possible to avert the world’s impending end."

And this movie is now my favorite of the festival. It's got an incredible story that has us jumping back and forth between several time periods. Hustle and Flow has my previous favorite "making the music" scene, but this movie's centerpiece sequence blows it away. I'm 100% sure I'll buy (or otherwise obtain if it isn't available for purchase) the soundtrack to this film. The central song is amazing, especially given the context we're introduced to it.

I loved loved loved this film. If you're a fan of butterfly-wings-flap-create-a-hurricane story, this movie is for you.

Special props to the band's drummer, one of the festival's most likeable characters.
09.26.09 MorphineAleksey BalabanovLike I said in my Fish Stories write-up, I was able to get into Morphine on standby. Lars did an intro that started off with him in morphine-addict mode. Pretty funny stuff. I'm not really sure how this movie ended up on my schedule. I remember being impressed by something I saw in the write-up when I was making my schedule, but for some reason I went in thinking that it was a violent drug-fueled revenge movie. It isn't.

Instead, as Lars said during his intro, it's a movie that makes you feel sad and depressed, which is something he likes to go through from time to time. In fact, when Tim described this movie to the rest of the Fantastic Fest staff, everyone but Lars said "that sounds like a bummer," and Lars marked it down on his calendar.

FF Summary: "Loosely based on the memoirs of the celebrated Russian novelist and one-time physician Mikhail Bulgakov, MORPHINE is a meticulously structured exploration of a young country doctor’s descent into addiction on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution. Shot on location in the pastoral landscapes of the Tvar Oblast region north of Moscow, the cinematography and production design of director Aleksey Balabanov’s latest film are as alluring as the story is bleak."

So this movie is about a doctor in a remote early 1900's Russian village who has to cope with the horrific injuries the working class patients around him suffer from, while at the same time dealing with his own morphine addiction. The film is dark and bleak and - in certain instances - completely brutal to watch. Ever want to see a tracheotomy or a leg amputation? You're in luck! Check out this film. I have a pretty hard stomache when it comes to graphic stuff, but I found myself flinching a time or two.

In any event, a movie I'm really glad I checked out. Definitely worth seeing.
09.26.09 Under the MountainJonathan KingThe next movie of the night that I only checked out because of the pre-festival buzz. Zack introduced it as the "first New Zealand fantasy movie ever made." Heh. Here's the synopsis:

FF Synopsis: "Jonathan King, director of the 2006 comedy gore-fest BLACK SHEEP, has struck out in an entirely new direction with the intelligent, surprisingly kid-friendly adventure thriller UNDER THE MOUNTAIN. This is a proud new entry in the annals of memorable "tween" fantasy-films you see when young and continue to love even as an adult - that actually deliver smart and scary thrills with no skimping on cinematography, character development or special effects. Think ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN (the original!) meets THE GOONIES. It's been a good long while since those movies were released, and today's kids are due for some tough, fearless family filmmaking, which King delivers in spades."

So... yeah... I didn't really like this. A lot of people I talked to afterwards said "I thought the film was OK, but I would have loved it as a kid." But I think that's a cop-out, because I can't see many kids sitting thought this movie in its entirety. For whatever reason, it takes itself deadly serious, and - in general - isn't much fun. Plus, the characters continually make decisions that don't make any sense, and the rules for this universe's mythology are poorly defined.
09.26.09 MetropiaTarik SalehAfter Under The Mountain, I headed into another movie I pretty much checked out just because of where it fell into the time slot. Here's the summary.

FF Synopsis: "Roger is, to put it kindly, statistically average. He is boring. He is bland. He works in a call center. His sex life is stagnant. The only thing at all notable about Roger is the borderline paranoia that drives him to flout the norms and ride his bicycle above ground through the largely deserted city rather than use the massive underground train system that now links all of Europe. That and the fact that he hears voices in his head. The voices would be remarkable, sure, if not for the fact that they are every bit as boring as he is."

The intro'er hyped this as Kafka does sci-fi, and that's basically accurate. If you've ever seen those greeting cards with the dogs and cats with massive eyes... that's the style of this film, only with humans.

As for the movie itself... it was visually interesting, and well-acted, and the story was somewhat compelling... but in the end I was just in that festival space where I needed something punchier, and found myself being mostly bored by the film. I wholly recognize that the problem was mine, not the film's, but it any event, I didn't really dig it.
09.26.09 Survival of the DeadGeorge RomeroSo after Metropolis, I met up with Tiffany and Patrick in the lobby, and saw their kid. I'd skipped out on the Metropolis Q&A, and after it ended, one of the film's voice actors came out of the theater and was absolutely swarmed with female fans. Thanks to T & P, I found out that he is on True Blood, a show I've never seen. I also found out - however- that he's Mikas in Zoolander. That's awesome! I took a shaky iphone picture of him from the sidelines and sent it too my wife, who is a huge Zoolander fan.

Then I cut out and made the drive down to the Paramount. The screening wasn't 100% sold out, but it was close. Romero did a Q&A before the film, and it was very entertaining. He named Shaun of the Dead as his favorite non-Romero zombie movie, talked about his plans for spinning off four movies from minor characters in Diary of the Dead, and otherwise just played the likeable godfather.

FF Synopsis: "In 2007, Fantastic Fest was honored by the presence of one of the true masters of horror, George A. Romero. Now, two years later, we are thrilled to welcome back the undisputed champion of all things undead for his latest blood-drenched thrillride, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD. When the idyllic retreat of Plum Island falls victim to the zombie plague, a new breed of clan war breaks out. On one side is the camp who want to exterminate all undead with a wickedly diverse array of brain-splattering headshots. On the other, devoted family members take the stance that “zombie-ism” is a disease, the undead have rights and they must be kept alive until a cure is found. Unable to simply “agree to disagree,” the two clans go to war and make their island microcosm a whole hell of a lot bloodier. An undead parallel to the tribal wars that are plaguing our own society today, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD exposes the futility of such conflict and the need for tolerance of the beliefs of others. Plus it’s got zombie horses in it!"

The film itself... I really liked. I didn't enjoy Diary, and have only seen Land once in the theater, but remember liking this more than Land. It has several - what Romero referred to as - "Looney Tunes" moments of comedy that would have felt out-of-place if he hadn't intro'd them.

But the main male miliary lead, along with the sympathetic leader of two dueling clans, really clicked with me. The movie dragged a bit towards the middle, and would be savaged by many if it wasn't made by Romero, but it was, and people ate it up. Very much a good time.

After the movie ended I headed with Jason Whyte to the Highball for Fantastic Feud. I participated in round 2 of the Feud, though I was constantly outshined by my team-members Matthew Kiernan and Lars Nilsen. In any event, it was a good time, and I met several other people I'd only seen online up to that point. And now it's 3:30 and I need to get some sleep for tomorrow. Bleh.
09.27.09 Kenny BeginsCarl Åstrand & Mats LindbergGeez... 2:33... time to start writing.

I barely remember seeing Kenny Begins. It's been a long damn day.

So... this was another screening where I couldn't get a ticket because the movie was "sold out," but ended up being able to get in on standby, and that never actually filled to capacity. Still not sure that people skipping screenings they are ticketed for can account for this happening over and over. But in any event, I mostly picked this because it was preceded by a Nacho Vigalondo short film. Unfortunately, Nacho "forgot to include subtitles," and the woman announcing the screening said they were going to skip the short. Me and several others audibly protested, and she agreed to run it without the subtitles.

I can somewhat read Spanish, but can't understand it when it's spoken at a conversational level. So I had no idea what was going on. The visual aspect was this: the narrator was referring to a woman named Marisa, and over the course of the 4-minute runtime, the actress playing Marisa kept changing. Here's what @peteramartin told me the film was about, based on his conversation with Nacho: "Narrator is husband of MARISA. She keeps changing into someone else whenever or wherever she moves. He's trying to get her to a place where she'll be who she was, which is hard what with rotation of the earth and other complications then at the end he discovers it's not where or when she is that's causing her to change, it's him. (sounded much better when he explained. :)

Sounds pretty good to me.

Here's the synopsis for the film: "Kenny Starfighter: Galaxy Hero! Well, Galaxy Hero in training… for years… and years… Kenny could easily be described as the worst student to ever enter the halls of the Hero Academy. In a desperate attempt to escape the family business (a family of hairdressers, all with flowing, natural mullets), Kenny embarks on a high-speed chase through a black hole in the galaxy. The black hole spits him out near Earth where he crash lands into the home of Pontus, a 15-year-old Swedish boy who, coincidentally, had just found a mysterious, glowing crystal that gave him super-strength, perfect eyesight, and the end to his days of being bullied at school. . . . The prequel for the 1997 Swedish mini-series, Kenny Starfighter, KENNY BEGINS is a ridiculously silly science-fiction comedy that will have you confused and giggling for the entire film. Kenny, played by Swedish actor Johan Rheborg, has the charm and attitude of Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber, the mullet of MacGyver, and nonsensical catchphrases that will have you screaming “Ischlo Pischlo!” or “Wollie Bollie!” without any regard to what it means. A Swedish Spaceballs for the ages, KENNY BEGINS is definitely not to be missed for any fan of science-fiction, cheesy superhero movies, or really, humor in general. ISCHLO PISCHLO!"

This movie is as stupid as Town Called Panic, but not as much fun. That being said, I found myself chuckling throughout the film, and as the day has gone on, I've been recalling specific bits - mostly quirks of Kenny Starfighter's performance - favorably. Yesterday Under the Mountain was the film that everyone claimed "kids would love." But as I said in my notes for that film, I'm pretty sure most kids would be super-bored by UTM. Kenny Starfighter, on the other hand, would go over huge. It had the fun element that was sorely missing from the all-too-serious UTM, and it's a film that I'm ultimately glad I caught.

Ischlo Pischlo!
09.27.09The Legend is AliveLuu HuynhSecond movie of the day was one that @noahphex warned me against seeing. But the only alternative - Krabat - was technically sold out, and was starting 15 minutes later than this movie. Not wanting to risk waiting standby for a movie that I might not get into (however remote the possiblity), I went ahead and watched this. Plus... it's only 90 minutes. Even if it stinks, I'm not out that much, right?

Wrong. Well... mostly wrong. The plus side of watching this movie was that I was able to catch a quick nap. Everything else... bleh. It's about a physically and mentally handicapped dude (he says "I may be slow but I'm not stupid" about a dozen times) who knows martial arts. But doesn't want to use them. But Has Too!!! Except there isn't any fighting until the last 30 minutes or so of the film. The rest is slow, slow, slow. The final beach-front battle is badass, but was too little too late. The first real bummer of the festival. The good thing is, though, that every other festival I've been too has a much higher miss-to-hit ratio (did I say that in the right order? Should it be hit-to-miss ratio? I'm too tired to figure it out.)

Here's the synopsis: "Back in 2006, we were very big fans of The Rebel. With a higher budget than we had seen previously with Vietnamese action films, a great cast (including 21 Jump Street veteran Dustin Nguyen), a great story and lush cinematography, we were all hoping that this would signal an emerging Asian action powerhouse. Flash forward a couple of years and that promise seems to be coming to fruition. Dustin Nguyen has his directorial debut Monk on Fire ready to begin production, and Rebel stars Johnny Nguyen and Veronica are set to roll on The Clash. Meanwhile, Nguyen is back in front of the camera as a mentally challenged young man who might not have much book learning, but certainly excelled in his kung fu stances. Exposed to agent orange when he was an infant, he stopped mentally developing when he was ten years old, at which time he was kicked out of formal school and underwent an 8 year home-school education in one subject: kicking ass."
09.27.09 Groper Train: Wedding CapriccioYôjirô TakitaThird movie! I couldn't get into Duress, which Karrie League had hyped in her write-up. She was responsible for me watching one of my favorite films from FF08 - The Good, The Bad, and the Weird - so I wanted to take her advice once again. But, since that wasn't going to be possible, I decided to see this Pink film.

I've only seen a small handful of pink films, so to some degree I don't feel comfortable fully talking about this film... I just don't have the context or frame of reference for it. Of course, before the movie we had a brief discussion of the Groper Train series from Lars and two of the guys behind the Pink Eiga website, as well as a featurette by the Roger Corman Times Fifty of the Pink world: Mr. Pink. This guy has directed over 100 movies (all shot on 35mm) over the last 20 years, and apparently has starred in 500 (I think that was the number) more. These two segments were some of the most informative things I've watched/seen this week.

The cornerstone premise of the groper train franchise is that Japanese commuter trains are so tightly packed, women (at least until recently) were constantly getting groped. It was more or less expected and accepted from what I could tell. Mr. Pink's featurette talked about how in the West (i.e., here) we have action stars who serve as a proxy for Western audience's desires: we want to do justice, save the world, and get the girl. In Japan, however, frustrated businessmen spent so much of their waking hours fighting the urge to grope women on trains, that they get their release through the adventures of "groping heroes" in the groper train movies. I won't go into too much detail about the rest of the featurette because it is available as an extra on at least one of the Pink Eiga DVDs, but I'll just say that it was a fascinating look into one view of the collective psyche of a certain Japanese generation. Best quote from that featurette "I had heard that groping on trains never occurs in western countries." (twitpic.com/jgah9). That line is delivered by Mr. Pink with such a sense of incredulity, it really drove home how different our cultures are in this regard.

As for the film itself, I enjoyed parts of it - specifically the 2001 and E.T. references, the crazy hick-farmer performance by Mr. Pink himself (he reminded me a lot of the actor who played The Weird in The Good, The Bad, and the Weird... probably because of the furry-flapped hat), and the stylized 50's-horror-themed rooftop scene at the end of the film - but much of the movie dragged for me. I'm assuming that - as with many exploitation genres - it is highly important to have a firm grasp on the genre before you're able to evaluate a single film. I've found that to be the case with WIP and Blaxploitation films, among others: if you don't have a broader knowledge of the genre and the elements unique to it, you are likely to be unable to fully appreciate any given film. That being the case, I'll just say that I'm very glad I ended up in this screening, and that I'm excited by the presence of yet another seemingly infinite genre to further explore.

Synopsis: "This year a Japanese film called DEPARTURES won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Its director Yojiro Takita, is a veteran of the Japanese film industry who started at the bottom and is now a very hot property. When we say he started at the bottom, we really mean it. For Mr. Yojiro Takita got his start making Pink Films, the peculiarly Japanese formulation of sex, sadism, and anything-goes initiative that thrills salarymen in back-alley adult theaters. To be fair, he was good at what he did, and his GROPER TRAIN titles are among the best and most subversive pink films ever made. And he's in good company - Masayuki Suo (SHALL WE DANCE) and Kyoshi Kurosawa (TOKYO SONATA) also got their start in pinku eiga. In GROPER TRAIN: WEDDING CAPRICCIO, part of a popular series: a wealthy politician, dying of cancer hires a detective to find his estranged daughter. It transpires that the tycoon's daughter is happily married, and her daft brother, who wears a napoleonic hat everywhere, is involved in a scheme to get the old man's money. When the daughter turns up kidnapped and the son meets a sticky end, the detective must rely on the oddest clues to put the pieces together. If it sounds convoluted - oh, it is."
09.27.09 MandrillErnesto Díaz EspinozaFourth film: Ok... so I haven't seen Kiltro or Mirageman yet, but remember reading the buzz online during Fantastic Fest 2007 about those two films. This is the third effort from that particular director/writer/actor/producer team, and it's a good one. There currently isn't a trailer online, but the few still I had seen lead me to believe that the film had strong comedic elements. And that was mostly correct. The movie doesn't necessarily deliver dialogue-based jokes, but the lead character (played by the incredibly huge-but-agile Marko Zaror) is so impossibly suave that it was impossible not to laugh. Tiffany and Brian both said that although they liked this film, they preferred Mirageman. It's coming out on DVD in October, and I'm looking forward to checking it out. Apparently it has even more Marko action, which I became a huge fan of in this movie. Tim praised him as one of the greatest action stars around today, and I'm completely behind that. This was easily one of my favorite films from the festival. And if I were less tired I'd write more about it.

Synopsis: "The dynamic duo of Chile, Marko Zaror and Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, are returning to Austin with the World Premiere of their new action thriller MANDRILL. Marko Zaror plays MANDRILL, a young hitman who will not relent until he has exacted bloody revenge on the man who killed his mother many years ago."
09.27.09 RampageUwe Boll"First of all, let me clear up any confusion, despite what you may at first assume, Uwe Boll's Rampage is not an adaptation of the classic '80s video game where King Kong, Godzilla and a giant werewolf run amuck through an 8-bit Illinois destroying helicopters, boats, taxis and basically anything in their path. Damn it though, that Rampage really does have to be made! The next best Rampage premise, however, has been adapted to the screen by the good doctor Boll. Fed up with the trials, tribuations and pretentions of society, our antihero Bill constructs a full-body armor suit and rampages through the streets of his hometown killing everyone in sight, particularly the barista that failed to make him a proper macchiato.

Employing hand-held camera techniques and a very free-form, loosely-scripted Altman-esque dialogue structure, Boll slowly builds up the layers of Bill's disgruntled, jaded world view. He stereotypically lives in his parents' basement, has a dead-end job at an auto/body repair shop and his sole friend is something of a self-absorbed, arrogant prick. His father, played by Matt Frewer (MAX HEADROOM!!!) is always on his case to find some direction in life; he gets no respect from his boss and the service quality of the local fast-food industry is enough to make a man go ballistic!

Don't let the deliberate pace of the first 45 minutes fool you. Bill has been secretly stockpiling automatic weapons, building remote control tactical explosives and fabricating an iron-man-esque kevlar killing suit. All the assholes in his life are going to pay big time, and that barista will have to make a perfect machiato "as if his life depended on it." My personal highlight comes about 100 or so fatalities into the epic bloodbath "rampage." Still in his full-body armor and feeling a bit parched, Bill stops for a refreshing soda and tuna sandwich only to find hundreds of depressed, lifeless, death-ready flesh-targets all hunkered over seemingly acres of bingo tables. Boll stumbled upon the bingo parlor during the middle of shooting and wrote it into the script, using the actual bingo-mad locals in the scene.

The always outspoken Dr. Boll has made a lot of enemies in the film criticism community, tossing out rants, insults and actual fisticuffs to his detractors. I for one am here to say that with Rampage, Uwe deserves a fresh look. It's tons of fun, is founded on a clever, tight script and delivers all the goods the concept promises. I'm enjoying Boll's recent departure from the world of videogame adaptations, but if he does go back, I hope it's for the other Rampage"

Geez... I really enjoyed this movie. The lead performance was - to my mind - one of the strongest and most interesting performances I've seen this week. The movie is unapologetically dark, and has a message that is sure to be interpreted many different ways by many different people. It's the kind of movie that has the tendency to reinforce your own particlar world viewpoint, whatever that may be. I spoke to several people after this movie who have had their fill of Boll and who don't plan on seeing this movie, but I'd urge you to at least give this film a chance. It's better than you think it'd be, and if it was from and unknown or first-time filmmaker, it'd be the powerhouse buzz of the festival.

After the movie Uwe gave the most interesting Q&A of any I've been to so far at Fantastic Fest. Here's my tweets from that session:

:: RAMPAGE was unapologetically dark and thouroughly entertaining, grounded by a surprisingly charismatic lead performance. #fantasticfest

:: Uwe thought it was "pretty ok enough." RT @johnHlang: Police explosion was 350K shot. #gantasticfest #rampage

:: RT @rejects: Uwe Boll on prepping a movie: "I don't need to be there... It's not a miracle." #fantasticfest

:: I really want to watch this prison torture flick Uwe Boll keeps talking about. He enjoyed making his lead cry. #fantasticfest

:: "If we make a sequel, this guy might get his pilot's license, who knows?" - Uwe Boll. #fantasticfest

:: Uwe almost made a HITMAN movie with Jason Statham. #fantasticfest

:: Guys next to me disliked RAMPAGE. Guys in front, including @bnl771 and @nickrob loved it. I'm with the latter.

:: Uwe just said his country elected right-wing leaders, so things will finally get back on track again. Gets boo'd. #fantasticfest

:: Now he's talking about Sudanese genocide and criticizing the UN for inaction. "I'm not pro-wiping-everybody-out." #uwerules #fantasticfest

:: Uwe on Transformers 2 & people who say he should stop making films "I see that movie, and know I'm right, and they're wrong." #fantasticfest

:: RT @landon_speak: Out of context - Uwe Boll: 'The Chinese are fucking like ze rabbits' #fantasticfest

:: Tomorrow at the Fantastic Debates: Tim and Uwe debate "Is independent cinema dead." Uwe says yes. The they will box. #fantasticfest #!!!

:: Question: "Your movies make money, right?" Uwe: {slow headshake no} #fantasticfest

:: Tax laws in Germany have changed and Uwe thinks making another film like SEIGE w/Statham is now impossible to get backing. #fantasticfest

:: Lead Actor: "When I first got the treatment, it was just 10 pages." Uwe: "Yeah, but it was all genius." #fantasticfest

:: Hey geeks at Parnassus: Those of us in the Uwe q&a know you choose poorly. #fantasticfest

I'm massively impressed at how little Uwe cares about pleasing or pandering to anyone, even people who came to see his film. He is 100% no-bullshit honest, and is going to do his own thing regardless of whether it is commercially or critically successful. During the Q&A Nick Robinson asked him how he'd rank himself among the world's great directors (after referencing LVT's claim to be the greatest earlier this year), and Uwe's response was - in essence - I don't really think about that. To me it is important to know what I did, and to be personally happy with it.

Afterwards Nick asked me to take his picture with Uwe, and since I was there, I did the same. Uwe also voluntarily offered to sign these promotional postcard things he had, which we gladly took. I also had the chance to tell the lead actor how much I enjoyed his performance, and Nick somewhat freaked him out by telling him that the guy who made bad coffee totally deserved to die. It was awesome watching the actor get visibly unnerved by Nick's enthusiastic kill-em-all response. That dude needs to spend some more time with us fantastic festers for sure. We're harmless, I swear.
09.27.09 District 13: UltimatumPatrick AlessandrinOk... final film of the night was the D-13 sequel. FF Synopsis: "District 13 is once again in trouble. The gangs are restless, promised changes have not come to pass, poverty and crime are as rampant as ever. And, just in case things weren't difficult and complex enough in the anarchic district, it appears as though it has a new enemy, a powerful and well financed enemy determined to bring the wrath of the establishment down upon the people and willing to kill to do so. In the face of lawlessness and rising violence there can be only one response: by-the-book supercop Damien and free roaming -- free running, I should say -- vigilante Leto must once again join forces to bring peace to District 13."

The movie opening with a great kinetic mobile-camera-sweep through D-13. There was a bit of downtime, and then an incredible stand-alone fight sequence with the cop from the first movie. The crowd was massively into the movie up to that point, and then... and then...

The movie just took a nosedive for about an hour. Almost no action, and scene after scene of exposition-heavy dialogue that repeatedly told us things that we already knew. They tossed in just one sequence of parkour during that entire hour (just one!), but other than that... nothing.

The movie picked back up for a moment toward the end when the heads of various D-13 gangs agree to team up. Each of the gang leaders has an amazing look and/or briefly mentioned backstory: a violent Moslem, a neo-Nazi who can "bash in a car with his head," a black-power leader, a crack-addict-looking weapons fiend who "has a gun where his heart should be," and an insanely badass-looking tattoo'd Asian chick who had blades attached to her long ponytail that she can use as a weapon. If any of them had been the focus of the movie, it could have been completely badass. Unfortunately, they each serve very little purpose in the overall plot, and are ultimately reduced to being little more than thugs with hearts of gold.

It was actively frustrating to have so many potentially awesome film elements be so completely under utilized. If you liked D-13 part 1 but hated all the fighting and parkour, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise, check it out with lowered expectations.

Ok... that's it for the night. It's 3:35, and I need to set my alarm for just before 10, so that I can get the VIP badge for next year as soon as it goes on sale. After that, I've got to figure out my schedule for tomorrow: see the four-hour Love Exposure that Jarrette swears is awesome? Or check out Cropsey and Bronson? So many choices. So little sleep!
09.28.09 Rec 2Jaume Balagueró & Paco PlazaFor after falling asleep just before 4 last night, I some how made it to the Drafthouse by 10 am (!) for the press screening of Rec 2. Here's the synopsis:

"In 2007, directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza teamed up to unleash the genuinely harrowing [REC], a film that simply set out to scare the crap out of the audience, without any pretensions. The fan favorite quickly spawned the U.S. remake Quarantine, which only proved how innovative the original was. [REC] is told through a reporter's camera as she accompanies firefighters on a routine call and ends up trapped with them in an apartment building infected with a ferocious virus. Sealed in and desperate, they trace the contagion to the attic, discovering abandoned research on demonic possession. Needless to say, [REC] didn't have a happy ending. While infectious demonic possession was itself a disturbing premise, the live-television aesthetic of [REC] gave it a level of realism that translated into palpable fear – it was not just a film to be seen, but to be experienced. Now the duo returns with [REC] 2, which leaps right back into the action as a medical officer and a SWAT team outfitted with video cameras are sent into the sealed-off apartment to control the situation. By using the flipped perspective of the camera-equipped troops, Balagueró and Plaza have designed a shocker meticulously calculated to set your nerves on edge. [REC] 2 is Aliens to Alien, a sequel that ramps up the action but does not defile the spirit of its predecessor. Balagueró and Plaza have proved themselves exciting additions to the gory canon of Euro-horror masters, and they can't wait to drag Fantastic Fest's audience into the darkness, screaming at the top of their lungs."

I dug this film a lot, despite the mid-film drag that comes from introducing several very annoying characters. The film is totally redeemed, however, by a late edition that drives the film towards its kinetic climax. Once I realized where the film was headed, I became a huge fan. This movie will be release, no doubt, and is definately worth checking out (as if you needed me to tell you that).
09.28.09 Trick 'r TreatMichael DoughertySecond film of the day was another press screening: Trick 'r Treat:

"Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband."

I'm a massive sucker for horror anthologies. It's one of my favorite subgenres, and is one that is almost completely dead these days. So in that vein, T'rT was a great reminder of the days when we used to have these types of movies all the time. In terms of other anthologies, I thought this one excelled in actually tying (at least superficially) the four stories. Most Hammer or Amicus horror films only had a connecting thread through the overarching plot device (e.g., the evil antiques dealer, the crazy loony-bin adminstrator, etc). This movie, however, tied in all of the stories quite well.

I was mostly bored by the children/quarry bit, and the other segment more-or-less ended with the obvious EC-comics-quality twist endings, but the movie was enjoyable as a whole as an example of a type of filmmaking that we see all too rarely these days.
09.28.09 Love ExposureShion SonoThird film of the day was one I skipped Cropsey and Bronson for due to the fact that Jarrette praised the hell out of this four-hour movie. (Plus it appears that I'll be able to see Cropsey and Bronson and a relatively soon upcoming time). This movie... man... it had such a powerful first half. Wait a tic... here's the synposis:

"Taking the time out to view a 4-hour movie certainly requires a real commitment beyond that of time, because it also requires you to psych yourself up, to prep for taking in four hours of story, characterization, themes and ideas that could prove an overload by film's end. Heaven forbid that the film itself sucks, too, because on top of everything you're going to feel like it's been time wasted watching 'that' other than wasting your time doing something else. But when films reach a truly epic length one often feels that it's almost a safe bet, because, despite the time, if a filmmaker is going to spend four hours (or more, if possible) telling a story, then that story must truly be something special. That is unquestionably the case with Sion Sono's Love Exposure, a picture that could quite possibly become the reigning film classic of 2009. This is a picture with a hell of a lot going on, and a lot on both its heart and mind, that it packs in so damn much and does it with admirable heart and drive that you just want to set up your own distribution company just to make sure this puppy gets seen by as many people as possible.

What is particularly estimable about Love Exposure is how it very successfully jumps around genres for those four hours but never loses its focus. Love Exposure is equal parts silly comedy, violent revenge fantasy, meditation on religious beliefs and a testament to the healing power of love, so it's unquestionably ambitious in ways that most movies would never dream of. This is a wild and alive film, heartfelt but also giddy insane and reckless; all over the map but also surprisingly restrained. It's densely packed, but not jammed with so many ideas that it confuses or alienates its audience, and it's so audacious in what it sets out to accomplish and how it does it that by film's end you're convinced that you've seen a work of geek art of the highest order; trust me when we tell you that you are in no way wrong. Four hours or not, we need more movies like Love Exposure."

So... yeah. The first half of this movie is particularly strong. I was some what bored/bemused by the second half, but was glad I saw it. And upon reflection, I have been more and more impressed with the scope of the story that was offered in this film. This movie likely won't be distributed, but if you find a copy and can devote 4 hours to it, I'd say you'd made a wise choice.
09.28.09 Venus in FursJess FrancoLast movie of the day was a screening of Jess Franco's Venus in Furs. Me and Brian had 90 minutes to kill after Love Exposure, so we wondered around the Highball (in fact, we were musing about the viability of the smallish karaoke rooms right next to the karaoke designer, who filled us in on the details).

We ended up leaving the Highball before hearing that Jess was signing autographs back there. So Brian and I went to our cars, got our FF Franco posters, and went back to the Highball. We both felt very awkward about interrupting him and asking for an autograph (since no one else was), but man... what else are you going to do when Jess fucking Franco is in the same room as you?

So yeah... we both got autographs from him and Lina Romay.

After that, we showed up for the screening of Venus in Furs. Here's the synopsis:

"This year Fantastic Fest welcomes hugely prolific auteur Jess Franco, a man who has carved out a special place in film history with his wholly unique oeuvre of sex films. We will show a selection of Mr. Franco's films during Fantastic Fest and present him with our first Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Ain't It Cool News. Jess Franco and his longtime collaborator Lina Romay will attend this screening in person.

Jess Franco is a great admirer of jazz music, and a gifted pianist himself. This film, one of his very best, is based on a story the great trumpeter Chet Baker told Franco. Baker said that when he plays solos his mind wanders, seemingly endlessly, outside of time and space. This rudimentary idea forms the basis for this film. As is so often the case in Franco's best work, Logic doesn't get within a mile of center stage. Obsession is the central theme, and we might call it the central theme of Franco's entire ouevre. Here, jazz musician James Darren finds the body of a beautiful woman he had met at a wild party the previous night washed up on the beach near Istanbul. He thinks back to the party, and a particularly depraved trio (Klaus Kinski, Dennis Price and Margaret Lee) he saw with the woman. Later in Rio, he sees the woman again. But is she the same woman? Is she real? Is the trumpeter himself even alive, or just a walking dead man a la POINT BLANK? Don't expect a simple solution - this is a film of its lysergic times, after all. Do expect Franco's seemingly effortless visual bravado. Franco has film sense in abundance. Stunning compositions and vistas of tremendous yet depraved beauty succeed one another faster than the eye can take them in. When it's over the viewer feels shaken, possibly a little confused, but oddly satisfied."

Wow... what an amazing screening and Q&A. The entire crowd - including myself - was hooked on this is-he-or-isn't-he-going-insane film. The movie offers an exestential nightmare that I won't spoil, but that you should absolutely checkout.

And the performance of the night comes from Barbara McNair as the jazz-singing girlfriend that completely hooked me with her vulnerability and her amazing jazz performances. McNair's film-ending bit was particularly spell-binding.

Lars did a for-the-ages Q&A with Jess (and to a smaller degree, Lina), that only featured a few questions (mostly from Lars) and several long monologues by Jess. He is getting up there in age, and his voice was somewhat weak. But the entire theater was literally holding their breath waiting to hear what he'd say next, and was going out of their way to make zero noise. It was pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing Succubus tomorrow night.



After this movie I went to the FF awards ceremony, where we were "treated" to the G4 hosts coming onto the stage to present two awards. The woman, in particular, was snarky as hell, and somewhat insulting to the FF audience. I know that's probably her gimmick when she's on TV, but it comes across very poorly in real live. Plus, it looked like Tim was just barely keeping his shit together during those segments.

I had to duck out during the second G4 bit for a while since my wife called me to report that she'd just run across a pack of wild coyotes in our neighborhood. That was enough to draw me out of the theater, screw you.

I eventually caught the ending of the awards, and was driven to track down several high-award-winning films I haven't yet seen, including Down Terrace.

Synopsis: "Awards for the Next Wave, Fantastic Fest bumper, best Shakey Face as well as the jury and Audience Awards will all be announced at the Fantastic Fest awards ceremony on Monday, September 28. But this is so much more than an awards show...we're talking about a blazing hazing for new FF visitors, where laughs and jabs come together for an incredibly revelatory roast of talent, critics and good old-fashioned film fun! We guarantee an exponentially higher amount of beer drinking than in any other awards ceremony in the continental United States."




After the Feud, I headed to the Fantastic debates, where we got four rounds of hard-fought and hard-argued debating.

Synopsis: It's time to settle the scores. Journalists, directors and film professionals will be entering the Fantastic Fest arena for a formal debate followed by a round of boxing. In this ring, the great issues facing the fan community will be solved once and for all.

Before the debates, the producer of The Revenant sat next to me and we had a very interesting conversation about a subject near to my heart - the lost artform of newspaper movie advertising. He apparently knows a guy with a massive collection of African film artwork, including print ads, and is going to get the two of us in touch.

Then the debate started! Here's my tweets:

:: I'm in the #fantasticfest debates. The crowd is blood-thirsty.

:: The Master Pancake guys are here to moderate the #fantasticfest debates.

:: The first rule of #fantasticfest Debates is... you know the drill. http://twitpic.com/jkol6

:: "Saying that Michael Bay has never won the Oscars is like saying the Steelers have never won the Special Olympics." #fantasticfest #debates

:: This Mossman guy just got the entire crowd to praise Michael Bay! #fantasticfest #debates

:: #fantasticfest #debates Topic: "Fuck you." Cargill v Weinberg. This is epic. http://twitpic.com/jktaq

:: Uwe has his hands taped. Holy shit. #fantasticfest #debates

:: Depressing debate RT @Nickrob: I would probably be better off killing myself. #independentfilm #fantasticdebtes #fantasticfest #chaosreigns

:: RT @devincf: Tim League and Uwe Boll are having an actually terrific long debate about the health of indepedent film.

So yeah... the insane highlight of today was Tim and Uwe debating about whether independent cinema was dead. Or, to be more specific, whether filmmakers could make money off of independent cinema any more.

Uwe was completely heartfelt about his position in the negative, and the crowd seemed to mostly go with him. Tim had several incredible counter-points, and it seemed like an instance where both debaters were ultimately right.

Immediately after the fights were over, I used the bathroom in the Austin Gym. While I was there, I overhead Tim and Uwe talking their post-fight talk. Uwe mentioned how he wasn't expecting the debates to be mostly comedy bits, to which Tim rightfully pointed out that their debate in particular had strayed far from that format. On my way out of the restroom, I thanked Uwe again for Rampage, to which he replied "you hurt me." When I asked him what he was talking about, he repeated something he'd said in the debates: at least a hundred people told him last night that they loved Rampage, but in the audience awards, he didn't even place fifth. I told him that I couldn't speak for the audience as a whole, but that I'd rated his film highly, and thought that his film's absence from the awards was more of a function of him being up against the secret screening of Parnassus, which meant that relatively few people were able to attend his movie. In any event, I asked him to keep making movies, and told Tim how awed I was by his performance that night.

And yeah. I am apparently an Uwe Boll defender at this point. The guy has made at least one no-shit amazing film. Go see Rampage.

After the debates, me and Max headed over to the Highball to play some skee-ball (spoiler: I kicked his ass). I eventually drove Jason and some who was threatening to violate me back to the hotel, and then that was it for my last full day in Austin. I'm looking forward to sleeping until 11 or so tomorrow. Will be nice!
09.29.09 Private EyePark Dae-MinOk... I'm back in Dallas now and I'm starting this write-up at 1:14 a.m., a good 2 hours earlier than I've been starting the rest of this week. And I only saw 2 movies today, so this should be quick.

First movie of the day was a tossup for me between Private Eye and Kaifeck Murder. Max and Jason were headed to this screening, though, so I decided to give it a try. Here's what the guide says

"The year is 1910. Korean medical student Gwang Su (Ryu Deok-hwan, Our Town) stumbles upon a corpse in a deserted wood, and in a fit of seriously bad judgement, shuttles the body back to his living quarters to practice his dissection techniques. When the papers announce that the son of the city's most notorious gangster has gone missing and is feared dead, Gwang Su realizes that he has made a horrible mistake. The corpse in his basement, now decaying and somewhat mutilated from his practice sessions, is a virtual death sentence. If anyone finds it, clearly his bloodstained hands will be the ones shackled for the crime. He must find the real murderer before he takes the blame.

Enter Jin-ho (Jeon-Min Hwang, Black House), a small-time but very street-savvy private investigator. Lured by a hefty cash reward, Jin-ho reluctantly takes the case and a new fast-talking, odd-couple crime-fighting dynamic duo is born. Starting from a scant few clues, a small pack of white powder and a mysterious Japanese "karakuri" doll, our heros unearth a web of intrigue, crime and political corruption that takes them from back-alley opium dens to the center ring of a travelling big-top circus. Every location, lush with minute details, nails the Japanese occupation era of Seoul and sets the perfect backdrop for the mystery that unfolds. No surprise as they were crafted by the same team who art-directed last year's Fantastic Fest audience award winner The Good, The Bad and The Weird. Paths cross, plots thickens, political corruption deepens and the story keeps you guessing until the final curtain drops. And a cherry on top, there's even a Korean "Q" equivalent, ready to dispense just the right turn-of-the-century crime-fighting gadgetry for every predicament."

The best thing about this flick was Jeon-Min Hwang's performance as an early 1900's small-time detective. He actually won a best actor award from the jury last night. It is a fairly subdued performance... nowhere near as ostentatious as the typical cinematic PI. He is, however, incredibly charismatic... looking back on this film, the image that keeps popping into my mind is a close-up of Hwang's face, watching him give a tiny smirk as a piece of the puzzle falls into place in his head.

The actual mystery he is solving, however, is both too simplistic and too complicated. Too simplistic in the sense that large portions of the solution are just handed too him... it seemed like his success was due more to being in the right place or running into the right person than to his actual detective talents. And too complicated in the sense that - even in the end when it was all said and done - I still wasn't 100% sure I grasped all of the pieces of the villains' plot, which involved child trafficking, government corruption, and massive amounts of drugs, among other things. I will admit however, that it is entirely possible the blame here lies with my sleep-deprived, junk-food-adled brain.

On the whole, though, this was an enjoyable experience, and I'm glad I saw it.
09.29.09 SuccubusJess FrancoSo the second film timeslot today was the 3ish screenings. I'd already seen two of them (Under the Mountain and Rampage), and the third (Breathless) was sold out and I was too far back in the standby line to actually get it. It was the first and only time during this festival where I couldn't get into a movie I wanted to see... 1 out of 20 ain't bad at all.

I wasn't too bummed though, and actually enjoyed just relaxing for a bit. I spent most of the downtime between Private Eye and the 7:00 screening of Succubus sitting in the Highball with Nick Robinson and various others who wandered in and out over the course of 2 or 3 hours. Toward the end of that time, Tiffany showed up, and our group eventually migrated back to the Drafthouse, where I met up with Noah and Canadian Rob, both of whom had just came out of the Rampage screening and seemed impressed with the film. I was happy to see - at least based on the word-of-mouth I heard and the tweets I saw - that the second Rampage screening was well-received. Devin Faraci of Chud actually said he liked Boll better than Gilliam at this festival.

And then it was time to sit for the last movie of the festival for me: Jess Franco's Succubus.

Synopsis: "In the '60s, previously empty arthouse theaters became part of an interesting trend. When they began playing tittilating European imports starring the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Gina Lollobrigida, their ticket sales skyrocketed. Suddenly their theaters were full of patrons, not just a half-dozen sullen espresso sippers. European producers were quick to respond to the resulting demand for product. The Euro-sex movie was born. SUCCUBUS might be seen as the culmination of this period. A serious-minded but playful artist with an uncanny eye for depicting sex provocatively on screen, Jess Franco was perfectly situated to make a masterpiece of the form. SUCCUBUS is like the shiny side of the REPULSION coin, as we see into the dream life of a vivacious sexpot (Janine Reynaud) whose nightclub act depicts sexualized torture on stage. As we follow her through Lisbon and Berlin, through encounters with lesbians, sadists and little people, we begin to see signs that she is carrying her work home with her. Surreal, at times pretentious, but always compelling and new, even Fritz Lang liked this movie, he called it "a beautiful piece of cinema." We are indebted to another well-known admirer of this film for the loan of the print: Quentin Tarantino."

So this movie... it's basically a 90-minute chunk of abstract art, tenuously set in a world not too unlike ours, with each scene connected to the next by a cobweb of dreamlogic. If I had to summarize the plot, the closest I could come is to say that it's a film about more than two people, some of whom are actively trying to drive some of the others into insanity and/or death. There were definitely moments where tedium began to set in, but on the whole, the movie was a successful Experience (capital E intended) for me. Looking back on the film just a few hours later, I'm recalling it almost as if it were a dream I'd had... I remember a maestro midget, a stooped monk fondling his prayer beads, a creepy LSD party, the sudden appearance of a narrator who appears to tell me I'm schizophrenic, and several other equally strange moments... but for the life of me, I'm having a hard time remembering how they were all connected.

Afterwards there was another Q&A with Franco. Even though I was much closer to the front than I was last night, I had a harder time hearing Franco's comments than I did yesterday. Still, it is incredible to me that I got to watch 2 Jess Franco movies this week and listen to him talk about his views on film and life and art. Thanks to Lars, Harry, Ant, and everyone else who made these screenings possible.

After the movie ended, I said goodbye to old and new friends in the lobby, then hit the road back to Dallas. I had as good as - if not more - fun this year than I did last year, thanks in large part to being able to meet so many online friends for the first time. I (and others) have said it before, but Fantastic Fest really is like the best possible summer camp. Earlier today, Jason pointed out that he and I had so much in common, it was like we'd been separated at birth. I agreed, but also noted that I felt that way about most of the attendees. It is hard to fully describe the sense of camaraderie and kinship that I've experienced at this festival in particular and other Alamo events in general. I truly believe that the Alamo has become the nucleus of an important and unique cinematic culture (both online and off)... the full extent of which may not be completely evident until many years down the road. I also believe that in 20 or 30 years, we will see a "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession"-esque documentary about the Drafthouse (though hopefully without the tragic ending), and look forward to being able to watch that film and tell my kids: I was there.

20 films and 3 parties (feud, awards, debates) in three full and two partial days. Not too shabby. And since it's expected:

Best Movies: Fish Story, Rampage, Town Called Panic.

Best Shorts: Mint in Box, Hirsute.

Films I Most Wish I'd Seen That I Didn't: Bronson, Revenant, Stingray Sam.

Coolest Moment: Participating in the Fantastic Feud with Lars, Tim, Devin, and Matt.

Moment I Most Felt Like I Knew Nothing About Film: Participating in the Fantastic Feud with Lars, Tim, Devin, and Matt.

Fantastic Fest FTW!