Tag: ff2013
Fantastic Fest 2013: ScreenAnarchy's Super Wrap With All Our Reviews and Top Fest Picks
All is (relatively) quiet now at The Alamo Drafthouse in northwest Austin, Texas, which has resumed its normal operations, with barely a sign that an 8-day celebration of genre films from around the world, hosting filmmakers, industry guests, members of...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: KIDS POLICE Gets Big Laughs From Small Heroes
Writer-director Fukuda Yuichi brings his own TV series Kodomo Keisatsu (aka Kids Police) to the big screen in impressive fashion, with this slick, frequently amusing action comedy that enthusaistically embraces its ridiculous premise and succeeds in large part thanks to...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: NARCO CULTURA, A Collision Between Drugs, Music, And Murder
It's all fun and games until your children are murdered in the street. A blood-boiling documentary, Narco Cultura explores the intersection of mass murder and pop culture in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where the murder toll skyrocketed tenfold from 2007 to...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: COMMANDO - A ONE MAN ARMY Sings, Dances And Kicks You In The Face
Vidyut Jamwal stands to take the martial arts world by storm after a dynamic breakout performance here as the titular one man army in Dilip Ghosh's ridiculous but hugely entertaining Commando.When a routine training exercise goes wrong, leaving paratrooper commando...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: GOLDBERG & EISENBERG Is Chilly, Funny Stalker Tension
It's too soon to tell whether Oren Carmi is Israel's answer to the Coen brothers, whom he lists among his influences, but his debut feature, the darkly comic Goldberg & Eisenberg, shows promise. I get the impression that a grim...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN Is Powerfully Haunting
Faith is a funny thing. Anyone can have it. You don't have to be smart. You can be utterly brilliant. Mature. Immature. It really doesn't matter. The point is that if you have it, it's yours. It literally belongs to...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW Presents Disney World As Hell With Remarkable Power
Director Randall Moore insists that his movie was never intended to be understood as a guerrilla project and I believe him. His claim, a very credible one, is that he knew that Disney World was the only and obvious choice...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: WOLF Roars Out Of The Gate With Criminal Self-Assurance
Boom! Without giving away the timing or context, at a certain point Wolf explodes into shards of glass that then recombine to reveal a wider, wilder landscape. Up to that moment, Jim Taihuttu's film was speeding on a straight narrative...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: MISS ZOMBIE Scrubs The Patio To Her Own Rhythm
Times are tough all over, especially if you're a zombie. Though Miss Zombie has obviously been made with skillful intent, the film's dry, art house flavor mutes any horror impact from its premise. And that appears to have been an...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: MONSOON SHOOTOUT, Looking For Answers With Guns And Thunder
Yes, shots are fired, and yes, a drenching torrent of rain is pouring down when a police officer and a suspect confront one another in a dark alley in Amit Kumar's Monsoon Shootout. Faithful to its title, the Indian drama...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: DETEKTIV DOWNS Brings a New Dimension to Gumshoe Noir
A lot of movies about mentally disabled private investigators are gimmicky and insensitive, but not Detektiv Downs! This is surely the most warm-hearted and clever Norwegian movie about a detective with Down syndrome that I have ever seen. What possesses...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: O'APOSTOLO, A Beguiling Fantasy Bolstered By Stop-Motion Animation
As delightful as it can be to watch stop-motion animation on the big screen, it can't entirely cover up other areas where a film may fall short. Case in point: the eminently watchable yet only intermittently compelling Spanish stop-motion animated...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: LFO Tunes In Dark Comedy And Control Issues
I love minor keys, and the new Swedish film LFO is filled with them. Deftly casting a spell with low-frequency hums, surging synthesizers, and enigmatic characters, it's immediately captivating, even though the setting is not immediately apparent. Initially it reminded...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: GRAND PIANO Executes Its Goofy Premise with Precision and Skill
Make no mistake, the premise of Grand Piano is 100 percent ridiculous. Do you remember Phone Booth, where Colin Farrell couldn't hang up or he'd be killed by a sniper? It's like that, only it's concert pianist Elijah Wood who...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: THE RESURRECTION OF A BASTARD, Amidst Bursts Of Violence And Dark Humor
Sneaky and disquieting, The Resurrection of a Bastard is far more complex and layered than its title might suggest. Bursts of violence and darkly funny moments are framed within the world created by Guido van Driel. The source material is...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: SHE WOLF Walks Among Us
Bursting with feral energy, Tamae Garateguy's She Wolf (original title: Mujer Lobo) is a fever dream about sex and love and sex and then a little more sex. And then the screaming starts. Sceenwriter Diego Fleischer, working from Garateguy's idea,...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: RAGNAROK, A Fun Family Adventure, With Norwegian Style
Curse you, Indiana Jones! The bullwhip-toting, fedora-wearing, hard-loving professor created unrealistic expectations for all cinematic archeologists who have followed in his footsteps. Thus, the gentle, mild, soft-spoken Sigurd, a tall and slender family man who is still coping with the...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: NORTHWEST Points Toward A Young Man's Criminal Future
A stolen watch is the MacGuffin in the Danish crime film Northwest. Its theft sets in motion the opportunity that young Casper has been waiting for, even though he doesn't know it yet. Casper lives with his mother and young...
Fantastic Fest 2013 Review: COHERENCE May Be A Bit Too Clever For Its Own Good
An approaching comet, a cracked cell phone, and a dinner party are the building blocks upon which Coherence is constructed. Very soon, however, Schrödinger's cat, intermittent power outages, and fractured personalities are poured into the mix, followed by a sweet,...
Fantastic Fest 2013: Tim Tickles Tiger, Keanu Calls Curses!
While the day is still young in several parts of the world, I will wager a bet that I will not see anything else today that will make me laugh as hard as the two videos posted below. Weeks ago...
