Hot on the heels of the first wave announcement, the organizers dropped their next batch of awesome genre titles. Not every film is a new release or a world premiere. Several curated titles are being shown (resurrected, really) to tie into this year’s theme. The festival will show repertory titles from the AFGA (American Film Genre Archive) to help celebrate obscure cerebral and campy titles that help define genre filmmaking. One of the big league standouts this year will be the new film, Knives Out, from Rian Johnson. Before he brought the world Episode VIII, he wowed festival attendees with Looper. Can’t wait to see what he does with his…
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First Wave of Feature Programming for FANTASTIC FEST 2019
Hey, film fans! We’re less that 48 hours from our favorite time of year. The 15th annual Fantastic Fest (Austin’s own world-famous genre film festival) kicks off on September 19 and this year the team is really going all out to celebrate. I’m headed down there to cover the Fest for a 5th time, it never gets old. Why? Because of the plethora of screenings, events, world premieres, guests, and awesome fans, that’s why. Trust me, you’ll never have the same experience twice, and you’ll never imagine the things you’ll see or the people you’ll meet. Check out my recap from last year, and others in our Festival tab. Below,…
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Interview…Film Music Composer Andrew Morgan Smith on the Score of ‘You Might Be the Killer’
Andrew Morgan Smith is a veteran film music composer who has scored over twenty feature film and television projects. In the last five years, he has scored more than forty-five projects across all media. He has also worked with and provided additional music for Nathan Furst, the composer of Act of Valor and Need for Speed. Smith studied film composition under composer David Newman (Tarzan, Ice Age, Galaxy Quest, The Sandlot), and orchestrator Jack Smalley (Last of the Mohicans, The Mothman Prophecies, The Limey) at the 2010 Aspen Music Festival. As a multi-instrumentalist, he was classically trained in both composition and music media at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Smith…
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[Fantastic Fest Interview]…Director Adrian Panek on the Beauty and Hope of ‘Werewolf’
At Fantastic Fest, we fell in love with Werewolf, the second feature film from Polish writer-director Adrian Panek. His bleak narrative tells the story of a group of children who, having just survived the Holocaust, find themselves preyed upon by a pack of wolf dogs. As stated in our capsule review (read it here), there’s something magnetic about the film. It’s a sly powerhouse, and so much so that to say it is a masterpiece would be an understatement. Panek’s film is as beautiful as it is bleak, but the film offers something not often found in genre films: hope. We caught up with the Polish-born director to discuss the…
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[Fantastic Fest 2018]…Four Years Covering the Best Damn Fest There Is
Since starting GoSeeTalk in 2009, I’ve attended Fantastic Fest four times (oddly, I have been on even years since 2012), and 2018 might just take the cake. In three-and-half days I saw 11 movies, wrote 4 full reviews & 6 mini write-ups, conducted 3 interviews, slept roughly 7 hours in total, downed dozens of beers, and had the best damn time yet! But it’s not just the quality of films that make for a great time. The more time I spend at festivals, I find what keeps me coming back are the personal experiences more than the narratives playing to die-hard genre film fans. And believe me, I have my share…
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[Fantastic Fest 2018]…Quick Take Reviews: The Quake, Overlord, Werewolf, Piercing, Starfish, and The Standoff at Sparrow Creek
Fantastic Fest 2018 was one for the books. A blur of films, fun, and memorable experiences, it was the best 84 hours I’ve spent at a film festival yet. My time in Austin was limited, but I got a lot done: I saw eleven films, wrote four full reviews and sat for three interviews. The “quick takes” below are capsule reviews for a bite-size run down. Covering a festival means you have to split your time and put focus on what you feel is important and worthwhile. The brevity of each of these does not mean they aren’t worth seeking out. They totally are. I mean, if I didn’t like…
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[Fantastic Fest Interview]…’You Might Be the Killer’ Creative Team Discuss Story and Love of ’80s Slasher Films
In the span of three and a half days at Fantastic Fest this year, I saw eleven films. That might not seem like much, but when you are covering the fest, writing reviews and interviewing talent, you run out of time real quick. To say that going to bed at 4:30 AM became the norm is an understatement. All that aside, I really want to tell you about the best film that played at the Fest this year – or at least my favorite. That honor goes to an ’80s era slasher send-up called You Might Be the Killer. Check out my review here. I was so taken with the…
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[Fantastic Fest Interview]…Director Jim Hosking and Co-Writer David Wike on the Absurd Hilarity in ‘An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn’
In 2014, we spoke with Jim Hosking about his segment ‘G is for Grandad‘ in ABCs of Death 2 (check out that interview here). It was a brief glimpse into his mad style before he began work on the now divisive film The Greasy Strangler. Our good buddy Bryan Kluger (who runs BoomstickComics.com) loved it, so after thoroughly enjoying Hosking’s latest, the hilarious An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn, we had to partner up on an interview while Hosking and co-writer David Wike were in town at Fantastic Fest this year. It was just as odd and fun as their film. Enjoy!! An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn is written/directed by…
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[Fantastic Fest Interview]…Director Adesh Prasad and Composer Jesper Kyd on ‘Tumbbad’
In the rural village of Tumbbad, young Vinayak has heard the stories of an ancient fortune held by his family for years, but is warned against attempting to attain the treasure lest he fall victim to the demon who guards it. He instead cares for his great-grandmother, a decrepit crone who must remain sated or her appetites might just claim them all. When she dies and he inherits the treasures housed inside a decaying estate, Vinayak discovers that they are not exactly what he expected, but instead an endless bounty protected by a vengeful and ravenous fallen god. While at Fantastic Fest 2018, we sat down with writer-director Adesh Prasad…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Level 16
In Level 16, director Danishka Esterhazy offers a lot of pointed social commentary in her film about a group young women being prepared for adulthood. There’s a gripping surface-level narrative unfolding, but beyond the literal plot points, Esterhazy also presents the audience with lots more to ponder. The film finds the above-mentioned adolescent females being raised in a questionable institution. You can’t call it a school, because there are no windows, odd concepts of time, and the girls have little to no knowledge of the world. From frame one, there’s something or rotten in Denmark, or what seems like the former Soviet Union. The girls just don’t know what they…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…The Perfection
From director Richard Shepard (Dom Hemingway, The Matador) comes a psychological horror film that feels extremely current yet also exists as a throwback. In the film, a former cello prodigy (Allison Williams) seeks out both her mentor (Steven Weber) and his new star pupil (Logan Browning) with enigmatic intent in this twisty and undeniably warped nail-biter. But this is far from a straight-forward thriller. One of the reasons is Shepard who really likes breaking up a story into distinct chapters and, in the case of The Perfection, the story is all about misdirection. He is somewhat able to explore different genres in tandem with the main plot. The result of…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn
Director Jim Hosking, and co-writer David Wike craft a surreal experience in the form of An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. From the start, it’s an odd movie, and one that feels like you’re watching alien lifeforms try to emulate humans. But it is hilarious! It’s an exercise in stretching a joke, and that’s what Hosking does so well. He also takes what’s real and morphs it just enough to turn actors, every one of them, into cartoons. For instance, Emile Hirsch‘s delivery always ends in overlong stares, or strained, exaggerated smiles. And in a few sequences, he believes that by donning a blond pixie-cut wig (meant for a girl) and…
