All great things must come to an end, and the 13th edition of the premiere genre film festival anywhere closed out with a bang last Wednesday with the North American premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Claiming over 40% of its screenings sold out, the festival organizers have claimed it to be a record success. Read on for the Jury and Audience prizes. Read more »
Film Festivals | 
August 2, 2009 | No Comments »
Genius Party Beyond, like Genius Party last year, is a collection of five shorts from Japanese animators. As a demo of what modern-day anime talent can do, it is has an impressive array of style, but it also lacks any kind of coherency. With fewer entries than the original compilation film and a shorter running time, Beyond feels more like an add-on, and works more as a portfolio for each director than a film to be digested by the masses. My review of Cencoroll, a short that preceded the main feature, can also be found below. Read more »
Film Reviews | August 1, 2009 | No Comments »
South Korean film has had a strong presence at this year’s Fantasia, with many debut efforts by new voices of the dwindling ‘new wave’ movement. But even iconic filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s latest, Thirst, has failed to excite in the same way as the pioneer films. Yang Ik-June’s Breathless (Ddongpari) is the sole exception. It is a film that eschews polish for grit, and manages to find the humanity in even the most depraved people. For me, it is the only standout South Korean film of the festival, and among its best overall. Read more »
Film Reviews | July 26, 2009 | No Comments »
Playing this Friday, July 24th and Monday, July 27th, the Canadian premiere of My Dear Enemy (Meotjin haru) is not likely to strike a chord with the usual Fantasia audience member. The reason is not because it is a lousy film - far from it: Lee Yoon-ki’s fourth feature is a slow-paced but surprisingly heart-warming little road trip film about how human kindness trumps economy. It’s the lack of action or gore that may turn off most. Regardless, it is worth discovering if you’re looking for something on the slower side. It may not be the most memorable South Korean film of recent years, but its minimalism is strangely alluring. Read my full review on Midnight Poutine.
Film Reviews | July 22, 2009 | Comments Off
First-time writer/director Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser (Chugyeogja) is another entry in the ‘new wave’ of South Korean films, most notably amongst its more violent contributors such as Park Chan-wook. Far from Oldboy, The Chaser is more like Na Hong-jin’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a film that relied too heavily on coincidence and cliché. Worse, its mixture of horrific violence, melodrama, misplaced humour and Bourne-like chase scenes makes The Chaser a wholly uneven first effort. Read more »
Film Festivals, Film Reviews | July 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Like the various incarnations of clones that follow the death of the film’s protagonist, Kanji Nakajima’s The Clone Returns Home feels soulless, an empty shell where ideas thrive but without enough substance to impact the genre. Nakajima, like Asimov or Tarkovsky, is interested in questions of ethics and philosophy: do clones contain but the resonance of their originals? Unlike his Russian counterparts, Nakajima’s film fails to make these ideas into an engaging experience. Read more »
Film Reviews | July 15, 2009 | No Comments »
The genre film festival enters its second week. With strong ticket sales, great audience feedback and an increasing number of potentially hot films, Fantasia 2009 keeps the throttle at full. Check out some recommended screenings from Wednesday to Sunday on my Midnight Poutine preview post. The fine specimen on the right is Fantasia stage technician, Daniel, whose fans seem to grow exponentially every year.
Film Festivals | | Comments Off
The Whites, self-avowed hicks and rednecks, are a wild bunch, all related to Jesco White, who gained smalltown celebrity status for tap dancing on PBS and now more widespread with The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. More interesting perhaps than the drugs and violence prevalent in their lives, is how director Julien Nitzberg’s doc keeps the same light tempo of reality-television gawking throughout. Despite an attempt to keep it light, the realization that this is more reality than entertaining TV begins to dawn by the second half; and all of a sudden, the movie isn’t really all that funny anymore. Read more »
Film Reviews | July 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Fantasia programming director Mitch Davis may have put it best when he claimed Yatterman is a film kids would love… if they were crazy! Thankfully, Fantasia attendees are big kids at heart, and are more than just a little crazy. In my preview of the festival I described the film as an apparent mix between Power Rangers and Pokémon, which wasn’t too far from the mark. The 1970s anime in which the live-action is based on set some of the archetypes of the genre still seen to this day: incompetent villain sidekicks, random last-minute power-ups, silly automated comic relief characters and the prudish and hopelessly over-dramatic stowaway girl. Read more »
Film Reviews | July 11, 2009 | No Comments »
The raucous and ready crowd at Fantasia’s opener, comprised of festival veterans and neophytes, set the tone for Takashi Miike’s Yatterman. The team of presenters, including Matt Lamothe and Mitch Davis, treat screenings like a UFC match, listing out the sponsors in an adrenaline rush and oozing graciousness from their open pores. Even programmers, dreary after months of intensive festival whoring to the inhospitable film elite, were roused enough to ship down to the stage single-file to be gawked at by the thankful attendees. Read more »
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