With a week between me and the official end of the Fantasia International Film Festival it’s time to look back on the films that didn’t get a full review from me but that I enjoyed nonetheless… ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but one of things I love about the Fantasia International Film Festival is that it provides me easy (albeit brief) access to “heartwarming Asian movies” I wouldn’t have a chance to hear about otherwise. This year, my craving was fulfilled—and then some—by Split, directed by Choi Kook-Hee. The plot was a comfortable-yet-still-surprising mashup of every underdog sports movie ever, About a Boy and Rain Man, enhanced by its lush colour palette and killer bowling shots. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I can’t say that I 100% knew what I was getting into when I decided to watch Gintama [2017] at Sunday’s sold-out showing at the Fantasia International Film Festival. I will admit that I did not actually know it was an anime adaptation—though I did have my suspicions when a pair of cosplayers showed up. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Based on the trailer alone, I was totally sold on this film.
It fucking delivered. If you`ve read my reviews in the past, you know I am a sucker for old fashioned kung fu action, or just good old 80s cheese. This has both in spades.
I was sort of expecting this to be fun yet tedious, kind of a near home run. Not quite enough to want to watch it again. I was so wrong. I am for real sad I can`t go see this again.
Enough gushing, here is why you should see this movie;
I learned in the Q&A that the lead actors in this film are all in the spotlight for the first time. No joke, they are all successful stuntmen, who`s enthusiasm for their work spawned this fun ride. Side note here for a serious shout out to Can Aydin for the fight choreography. Some insanely fast paced and impressive combat scenes, none of them cheated with fancy editing. This was a physical orchestra with an inspired conductor. Well fucking done.
Favourite fight scene? The one featuring Heidi Moneymaker, of course 😉
This was a great action-/comedy for those who love fast paced yet light-hearted fun. A buddy film with modernized 80s cool factor that will keep you cheering the whole way through!
I give this 4.5 out 5 Fangirl Stars.
Breaking my unspoken rule about seeing films I can watch elsewhere, I went to The Little Hours [2017] – John Baena. Its offbeat, profane humour was an entertaining addition to the Fantasia International Film Festival.
Typically, I try to approach Fantasia showings with more curiosity than hype: you never know which film is going to affect you the most! This attitude was thoroughly rewarded during yesterday’s showing of Brigsby Bear [2017] – Dave McCary.
Day 2 at the Fantasia International Film Festival had me attending a sold out showing of the Australian film Killing Ground [2017] –Damien Power, which as its title suggests, has a whole bunch of death. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
together
A Ghost Story [2017] – David Lowery is a patient film-lover’s absurd and hopeful tragedy just shown at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Rooney Mara plays Casey Affleck‘s widow, sitting on the kitchen floor mournfully eating a pie as his specter watches on. She eats the pie over five long minutes in a single static shot, and he motionlessly observes from under a Casper the Ghost-style sheet with eye holes cut out. This is like an entry bar at a reverse roller coaster: you must be this patient to watch. Do!
The excruciating pace of the opening sequences (pie eating being just one) grants the viewer the freedom to cycle through emotions. First you laugh because the Casper sheet is ridiculous. And then you feel her pain. And then, despite the faceless, featureless sheet and his robotic, motionless presence you somehow feel his. It must be projection, but somehow (as I heard during the Q&A afterwards) most of the audience projected the same thing. This is a kind of genius.
apart
After almost a third of the film she moves out, taking her healing process with her, and he is left behind. We are rewarded then for our patience with a lasting connection which will carry us through the rest of the film. As other people come to inhabit the home in which his ghost is now trapped, his identity seems to unhook from time. The cycles which we felt in the drawn out opening scenes are revealed to be a sort of foreshadowing: his path through the film is to cycle through the stages of grief as a lost and trapped observer. The climax is all of heartwarming, haunting and just a touch of friendly cliche.
This isn’t a scary ghost story. It’s a meditation on the prison of grief. It’s daring in a thoughtful and unexpected way, and I want to show it to the people I care about because sitting here two hours after it ended I just want them to experience the catharsis.
I couldn’t find any release date information aside from some showings in Europe, but keep an eye open for news on this one. It’d be a desperate shame if it didn’t get some wider release than the festival circuit.
It’s the start of yet another edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival! That’s exciting! We’re hype! We are so hype that we recorded a whole episode just to talk about the movies that we hope are good. CULT MTL’s Alex Rose joins our new Fantasia correspondent Sam and I to talk about the movies that are part of this year’s edition of Fantasia that have managed to catch our eye already. Stay tuned for more Fantasia coverage as the festival rolls on! Thanks for listening!
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Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
The song we use in the intro is “Spooky Loop” by the 8bit bEtty. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Yesterday was the very first day of the Fantasia International Film Festival, and I decided to pop in on opening film The Villainess [2017], being screened with director Jeong Byeong-Gil in attendance. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
