Fantasia Announces the Selected Projects of the 2nd Edition of the Frontières International Co-Production Market
For the unfamiliar, Montreal is a city which hosts at least one film festival each and every month of the year. Of the dozens of fests, Fantasia Film Festival is without a doubt our favourite, and is widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world. They’ve just announced the official selection of the second edition of its Frontières International Co-Production Market, and the slate is looking good. Frontières is the first and only international co-production market to connect North America with Europe, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. The… Read more
Best of the Fantasia Film Festival 2012
Ricky D, Michael Ryan and Edgar Chaput are quite familiar with the Fantasia Film Festival, having attended the event for years (some of us since the very beginning); so we thought it would be wise to list our favorite films from the 2012 line up. Enjoy! **** Edgar Chaput’s Top 3 3-Game of Werewolves (2012, Juan Martinez Moreno) A review for this film has already has already been published (link here), but the short version is that director Martinez Moreno and his stellar cast deliver one of the most engaging, hysterical, action packed and wonderfully shot werewolf movies in years…. Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Poongsang’ – another brilliant Korean cinematic jewel
Poongsang Directed by Juhn Jai-hong Written by Kim Ki-duk South Korea, 2011 The year in cinema would not be complete without a new South Korean gem. The much revered Kim-Ki-duk wrote and produced this Juhn Jai-hong directed action thriller, Poongsang, about a a mysterious smuggler (Yoon Kye-sang) who helps families reunite by transporting, via his own one-man operation, men and women from North Korea to the South. His missions always occur under the blanket of night, but let that not have believe there are no risks involved. Highly skilled, extremely professional, and never uttering a single word, his austere nature… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘The Sorcerer and the White Snake’ – a disappointing effort all around
The Sorcerer and the White Snake Directed by Ching Siu-tung Written by Charcoal Tan, Tsang Kan-Cheung, Szeto Cheuk-Hon Hong Kong/China, 2011 Adapted, one assumes loosely, from an ancient Chinese legend, The Sorcerer and the White Snake reveals the tale of how two worlds, the world of humans and the world of demons, collid together for love despite tradition dictating for years that they should not. Two snake demons, the white snake Susu (Eva Huang) and the green snake QingQing (Charlene Choi), each fall for two different human men, propelling their respective universes into tremendous conflict, particularly when the great monk… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Love in the Buff’ is fluffy, puffy stuff
Love in The Buff Directed by Pang Ho-Cheung Written by Pang Ho-Cheung, Luk Yee-sum. Jody Luk Hong Kong, 2012 One of the few films to be presented in 35mm at this year’s festival, Love in the Buff (which, in the film’s title card, really really looks like Love in the Butt) is a sequel which reunites the two main lovers of the first instalment, Jimmy (Shaun Yue) and Cherrie (Merriam Yeung), whose relationship is on the rocks. Early on the in the film Cherrie, who finds Jimmy’s slow maturation process into adulthood insufferable, decides to call it quits. A new… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Excision’ Cut the Heart Out of My Chest
Excision Written and Directed by Richard Bates Jr. USA 2012 Fantasia imdb There were two films at Fantasia this year that took me on trips that I didn’t want to go on. The first was the winner of Fantasia’s Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation The King of Pigs. The second was Excision. Both films are about outsiders in high school, bullying and school as hell. The difference is that The King of Pigs announces almost from its opening frames that this will not be a pleasant journey, while Excision promises a disturbing dream of a journey, only truly turning nightmarish in the final twenty minutes. To put it another… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Toy Masters’ does not Master its Universe
Toy Masters Written by Roger Lay Jr. and Corey Landis Directed by Roger Lay Jr. USA 2012 Fantasia imdb This year, Fantasia doubled the number of documentaries in their Documentaries From The Edge series from five to ten. Justine has already raved about The Mechanical Bride and I intend to write very positively about Despite the Gods and My Amityville Horror when I get a chance to devote the time to the reviews that they deserve… Toy Masters, on the other hand, is my biggest disappointment of this year’s Fantasia Festival. It’s almost not fair to review the film, it is such a work in progress. The Q&A after the film was… Read more
Fantasia 2012: Depravity and lunacy cannot remain ‘Hidden in the Woods’ forever
Hidden In the Woods Directed by Patricio Valladares Written by Patricio Valladares and Andrea Cavaletto Chile, 2012 What exactly consists of a good groundhouse picture? Which conceivable, perceptible elements are sufficient for one movie fan, presumably one owing some familiarity in the genre, to conclude that groundhouse movie ‘a’ was swell, whereas movie grondhouse ‘b’ was not. Is the genre itself not supposed to give birth to films that, if assessed along the typically recognized guidelines (good acting, good story, good directing, good special effects provided said effects are present), are by and large bad? That is partly their charm,… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Excision’ extremely unsettling, often amusing
Excision Directed by Richard Bates Jr. Screenplay by Richard Bates Jr. 2012, USA Writer-director Richard Bates. Jr. draws on years of movie-watching for his audacious feature debut Excision. The most obvious influences for Excision is possibly Brian DePalma’s Carrie, Todd Solondz’s Welcome To The Dollhouse and Michael Lehmann’s Heathers. Toss in equal parts Gregg Araki, Dario Argento, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and John Hughes and an ending reminiscent of Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers – and Excision might just be the best “adolescent misfit” movie in a very long time. Richard Bates Jr.’s dark domestic offbeat black comedy (a passion project converted from his… Read more
Fantasia 2012: It’s all fun and games in ‘Game of Werewolves’
Game of Werewolves Directed by Juan Martinez Moreno Written by Juan Martinez Moreno Spain, 2012 Ah, the classic werewolf creature. It is one of the vintage, most fondly remembered beasts made famous by Universal Studios back in the earlier days when cinema was but in its infancy. The first classic actor to portray the role? Lon Chaney Jr., whose performance, both with and without makeup, has remained etched in the memories of monster movie fans old and young. Since then, the werewolf’s cinematic record is spotty at best. For every The Wolf Man is a Wolfman (2010, Joe Johnston). For… Read more
Fantasia 2012: ‘Asura’ is messy in some areas, but packs a lot of realized potential
Asura Directed by Keiichi Sato Written by Ikuko Takahashi Japan, 2012 Who has not heard or read about the story of the man or woman who thought it was a neat idea to own as a pet, not a dog, cat, or some fish, but rather some wild beast they believed they could somehow tame and, in the process, form an inseparable bond with? A tiger, a lion or any other range of intuitively ferocious animal belonging in its natural habitat, that is, the wildlife. The story ends with mention of how the so-called pet turned on its its master,… Read more
Fantasia 2012: Jennifer Lynch has ‘Chained’ the Serial Killer Monster
Chained Written by Jennifer Lynch, based on a screenplay by Damian O’Donnell Directed by Jennifer Lynch USA 2012 Fantasia imdb “I shall call you… Rabbit,” is the most chilling line of any film this year. Spoken slowly but deliberately with a slight lisp and a faint Germanic accent by Vincent D’Onofrio, the voice alone places Bob somewhere between Hans Beckert and Jeffrey Dahlmer. D’Onofrio’s performance as Bob is a virtuoso effort by one of our great (albeit under-utilized) actors, delicately inhabiting a brute, like a ballerina trapped in a gorilla’s body. “When I said I cast Vincent D’Onofrio, I was told that he was too TV… What The… Read more
