From the 14th till the 24th of April, the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam is hosting the Imagine Film Festival 2016. Festivals often focus on the stuffy and the arty, but Imagine has a legacy of going for hard-to-catch crowdpleasers, and I love the festival for it. Previous iterations of this festival have been among the finest I've ever visited, with especially last year sporting an insane batting average: I think seven out of eight films I saw there were among the best I've seen that entire year, and those included Ex Machina, Turbo Kid and Lisa the Fox Fairy.
But this year's line-up is pretty spectacular as well, (check their programme) and I can't wait to dive in. The general theme is "Building dreams and nightmares: the role of architecture", so that gives plenty of leeway to include whatever you want. Here is a list of 25 recommendations: click on the edge of the images to go to the next slide, so do please browse through them all, and tell me what I should have put in there as well!
Opening Film: Midnight Special
Jeff Nichols' sci-fi thriller has the slot for this year's official invites-only opening (thogh public screenings follow afterwards). Starring Adam Driver and Michael Shannon, this tells the tale of kidnappers on the run with a very special kid. But are they actually kidnappers?
Thomas Humphrey reviewed the film, and says it's "undeniably an interesting projection of the bright light that emanates from the uneasy American spirit, and it should be enjoyed by fans of sci-fi".
Public Opening Film: Veteran
The first film the paying public can see is Korean action maestro Ryoo Seung-wan's funny thriller Veteran, in which a cop in a dead-end career takes up arms against an untouchable billionaire, resulting in a brawl for the ages. Pierce Conran reviewed the film and was delighted by it.
Masterclasses
With "Building dreams and nightmares" being this year's overarching theme, the Imagine master-classes focus on design and how to use it. Present are Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam (of Borgman and Schneider vs. Bax fame), and veteran designer Anshuman Prasad (whose many credits include Batman v Superman, seen above). And Nic Clear, head of architecture and landscape from the University of Greenwich, will give a lecture on the use of architecture in science fiction films.
Cinema Egzotik
The Imagine festival always shows a few golden oldies, and this year they have Andrew Niccol's 1997 film Gattaca and John Carpenter's 1981 film Escape From New York. A pretty unique chance to see these on a big screen, with a big audience.
The Boy and the Beast
To say we're fans of Hosoda Mamoru is an understatement. Ever since the man left Studio Ghibli after creative differences with Miyazaki Hayao, he has only made stellar films: The Girl Who Leapt through Time, Summer Wars, and The Wolf Children. He is currently, in my opinion, the brightest light of commercial anime, and his new film The Boy and the Beast just rounded up almost every animation award in Japan.
In his review, Hugo Ozman says "Hosoda has managed to reach new heights yet again and deliver his best film to date." Whoa, THAT I've got to see!
Demon
Director Marcin Wrona committed suicide mere days after his film Demon had its world premiere at the Toronto festival, and that's a tragedy on many levels, as his film showed him to be very talented indeed. In Demon, a young man visits his fiancée's family to get married, but he becomes possessed by some entity during the festivities, with bizarre results.
In her review, Shelagh Rowan-Legg calls the film haunting and surreal.
Creature Designers
Documentaries about film tend to do well at Imagine, and they are present this year as well. This film by Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet shows film fragments, behind-the-scenes clips and many interviews with famous designers and directors, giving an overall picture on how movie creature design (and creation) has evolved over the years.
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, with music by Monomyth
Speaking of "Building dreams and nightmares", here is a granddaddy of a cinematic example of both: Robert Wiene's 1920 expressionist German horror film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, in which all buildings have not a single straight angle. Here's a chance to see it on a big screen, with live music by psych-rockers Monomyth.
Love and Peace
With his prolific output, any festival can feature a film by Sono Sion, and Imagine is no exception. They made a great choice though, as Love and Peace is, according to Jason Gorber's review, " his most unabashedly entertaining, and thus perhaps his most successful film."
So what's it about? A guy flushes his pet turtle down the toilet, but regrets it and writes a song about it. That song makes him a national rock star, while the turtle gains superpowers from his stay in the sewers, turning into a "kaiju" (as happens...). Will the two reunite as enemies or friends?
Baahubali: The Beginning
The most expensive film ever made in India, and by a director who knows what to do with that money! We're big fans of director SS Rajamouli, who previously made the fantastic housefly-revenge film Eega, and his newest is a true epic fairy-tale which is, according to J. Hurtado's review, not to be missed.
I Am a Hero
Director Satu Shinsuke has made several hits and misses in the past (his resumee includes the Gantz films and the anime Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror) but his zombie action-comedy I Am a Hero has a very strong word of mouth, even being compared to Peter Jackson's Braindead. It sure doesn't seem to skimp on the spectacle and gore, especially when its nerdy and often useless protagonist has to square off against an entire army.
Hardcore Henry
Ilya Naishuller's first-person action film is a stomach-churning affair for many, but everyone who thought that the first-person bit in the Doom film should have been used for the whole movie will be in nirvana. This is loud, violent and ingenious.
In his review, Ryland Aldrich says the film "does many things right and is an all-out joy to watch. This feels like the beginning of an incredible new genre of experiential cinema. Hold on tight."
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie
Almost exactly one year ago, I posed the question if there was still life left in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, and at Imagine I can get at least some answers to that. Less a sequel to Oshii Mamoru's legendary film, and more an add-on to the four recent Arise television films, I'm not expecting a classic but am quite curious nonetheless...
The Lure
Agnieszka Smoczyńska debut film is a musical about two mermaids who become exotic dancers at a Polish nightclub during the eighties. So... yeah, that's a unique premise, to say the least! Apparently the film is also pretty good, and has picked up several awards already at festivals worldwide.
Yakuza Apocalypse
If Sono Sion seems festival-omnipresent these days, in the past that honour was of course owned by prolific centipede Miike Takashi. He seems to have settled down a bit into a less strenuous schedule these days, with less extreme films, but with Yakuza Apocalypse he's back in the realm of the absolutely insane. Don't try to make sense of this tale of yakuza and vampires, just fear the frog.
J. Hurtado says the following in his review: "Did I enjoy watching Yakuza Apocalypse? Most definitely. Is it a great movie? Not really."
And that's basically all you need to know. Get drunk and enjoy.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot
A smalltime Italian criminal suddenly develops superpowers, causing his girlfriend to think he is a Japanese anime hero. Soon, he's chased by both the police and the Mafia. Gabriele Mainetti's comedy science fiction film got good word of mouth wherever it played, so this is one title to look forward to.
Nina Forever
Rob is mourning over his deceased girlfriend Nina, who died in a car crash. When he falls in love with the nurse Holly and they end in bed together, Nina suddenly reappears, covered in blood and glass. How best to deal with this unintended threeway? In his review, Kurt Halfyard describes what happens as "Awkward. Kind of creepy. Funny as hell."
Nowhere Girl
Oshii Mamoru will of course always be famous for his films Ghost in the Shell and Avalon, but he remains an acquired taste, and a director whose brilliance only briefly pops up during many cinematic musings. But his little low-budget mystery thriller Nowhere Girl suddenly got itself on James Marsh' Top-10 list of 2015 (second half) Asian films, and that increases my interest a thousandfold. For nothing and nobody can beat Oshii when he is good and engaged!
De Palma
A documentary about director Brian De Palma? Yes please! For more than a hundred minutes, De Palma himself provides commentary to film clips, rumours and famous anecdotes, and teases the documentary makers with his technical prowess.
Zach Gayne mentions in his review: "...included are a healthy dose of De Palma's tricks, from how best to maximize your score, to how to manipulate audiences by controlling their focus, all the while, holding a loaded magic hat."
Ooh... that sounds very, VERY interesting!
Der Nachtmahr
A girl gets haunted by a strange creature. From the synopsis: "Tina struggles to make those around her see the thing, but to no avail, and as she becomes ever more unsettled and manic, her parents are forced to get her psychiatric help. But as the little beastie seems to lurk around every corner, she is forced to overcome her fears and forge a bond with the monster."
Sounds interesting...
Men & Chicken
Director Anders Thomas Jensen and star Mads Mikkelsen are the people who gave us the delightful Adam's Apples, and they return with the utterly insane black comedy Men & Chicken, which shows a family with some pretty weird secrets. Michele "Izzy" Galgana loved it, as you can read in her review.
They Look Like People
A man hears voices, telling him to prepare for an end battle against forces threatening humanity. But who among his friends can he count as human? Or are his friends just dealing with an insane person? Tense and filled with paranoid nightmares, They Look Like People is a very impressive low budget horror thriller.
In his review, Ben Umstead says: "Give these guys 100k and watch them make a million dollar movie."
Southbound
Horror anthologies are a tried and tested subgenre, and not a year goes by without some good and bad additions to it. Southbound is one of the good, showing the weird tales of some travellers through the desert. One ends up hitting a pedestrian, some flee something monstrous, others participate in a strange home invasion...
In his review, Todd Brown says the film "...exists less within the strictures of contemporary horror than it does within the worlds of EC Comics and The Twilight Zone, with the stories emphasizing strong characters and big ideas more than mere splatter..."
What We Become
The zombie apocalypse, seen from ground zero in Denmark, not so much with waves of undead destroying everything, but with the slow death which comes from endless quarantine and failing government. When food, water and electricity stop being provided, people have to seek each other out, continuing the successful spread of the plague which devours them.
In his review, Peter Martin calls it "an extremely well-made horror film".
Closing Film: The Wave
Like last year's Big Game, the closing film comes from Scandinavia, and according to Todd Brown's review, it's "a sweeping piece of entertainment that knows exactly what its audience wants and then proceeds to deliver exactly that..."
And "that" is an epic disaster film, which shows what happens when a collapsing piece of Norwegian coastline causes a wave which, when funnelled into a fjord, causes immense damage. Based on a similar actual event in the past, and executed brilliantly, this is one of the most spectacular films to come from Scandinavia.