Fantastic Fest Report: Getting Mighty Crowded; Style Over Substance?
The theater lobby filled early and often for screenings on Friday as Fantastic Fest settled into its second day. I'm enjoying watching movies with people who know how to watch movies -- with more interest in what's on screen as opposed to what's on their cell phone.
Abominable: Imagine a cross between the "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of Twilight Zone and Rear Window, with a twisted cousin of Bigfoot on the prowl and a terrific score by Lalo Schifrin, under the direction of Ryan Schifrin, who cheerfully explained his cinematic antecedents in the post-screening Q & A. The audience ate this one up. Complete review coming next week. Second screening Saturday, September 23 at 11:45 p.m.
Official Web Site
Trailers (Quicktime and Windows Media Player)
Fantastic Fest info page
Unrest develops a considerable amount of unnerving tension, and earns every moment of it. Set in a medical school's "gross anatomy" class for first-year students, it's superbly-paced and well-acted. Again, no complete review on this one until next week, but note that cadavers are dissected. If that sways you, the second screening is Sunday, September 24 at 1:40 p.m.
After the jump, brief thoughts on style over substance in two films already covered on ScreenAnarchy, Renaisance and Zhest.
Renaissance: Both Kurt and Opus reviewed the film when it played at the Toronto festival, and I don't disagree with their reviews. The film is gorgeous and the script is lacking.
I'll add that several sequences may make it worth seeing even with that large reservation staring you in the face. Notably, two lengthy chase scenes are marvelously set up and play out in a very satisfactory way. And I loved the transparent multiple layers of this future city. But yes, to my mind this is definitely a case of style over substance.
In his introduction, festival director Tim League admitted he hadn't seen the film yet, but the "look" of the film in trailers and clips was so dazzling that they had to book it. When I caught up with him afterwards, he said he really liked it, that he thought it was nowhere near as disastrous as many reviewers had painted it. So, your mileage may vary. The adventurous may check it out again at Fantastic Fest on Thursday, September 28 at 9:00 p.m. Miramax is also opening it in limited engagements in the U.S.
Zhest: ScreenAnarchy's Todd wrote the Fantasia program note, which is partially quoted in the Fantastic Fest program book. (Todd also wrote about the film here and here).
This is definitely a mind-bender, and a handful of scenes readily burn themselves into your brain, yet those are wrapped up in the telling of a story that I found overly-complicated and bogged down in extraneous details that don't really add anything but running time.
Basically it's one very life-changing day in the life of a female investigative reporter. She ends up trapped in a surreal mine field that just gets worse and worse.
As I watched it, I felt that the whole thing was fairly incomprehensible, yet hours later the few blasted brilliant scenes are what keep flashing back to me. If you're ready to toss narrative cohesion on the junk heap and embrace existential hell, Zhest may be just what you're looking for. It screens at Fantastic Fest again on Sunday, September 24, at 3:45 p.m.
By the way, the film's English title has been identified previously as Junk, though on the lovely 35 mm print we saw it was Hardcore.
