David Cronenberg…it’s likely you know the name, and if you do then you know what it means. Synonymous with weird, wild and WTF, his films (Scanners, The Fly, Naked Lunch) are incredibly well-crafted, albeit tough to understand at times. Sometimes, in the case of something like Videodrome, his message can be unsettlingly prophetic. But now there’s a new kid in town carrying the wonky torch for the family, oneBrandon Cronenberg and if you’ve seen his film Antiviral (check out our review!) then you know the apple doesn’t fall far from that creatively warped tree. Brandon makes his feature film debut as both writer and director. His film, Antiviral, is a dark and eerie satire on society’s obsession with celebrity that…
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G-S-T Review…Side By Side
For over 100 years photo chemical film has been the gold standard in the film industry. But in the last two decades the advent and advances in digital technology have offered filmmakers a cheaper, easier and sometimes better alternative as a means to capture images and tell stories. In Side by Side, Keanu Reeves and writer/director Chris Kenneally put their finger on the pulse film world and explore the levels to which digital capture technology has created a paradigm shift across the world. From directors, to colorists, to editors etc, no trade is unaffected by this change in the medium. Is this the end of film? Well, it’s not a clear cut answer…
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2012 Fantastic Fest Recap (Or How I Learned To Manage My Time At Such An Overwhelmingly Awesome Film Fest)
This year was Go,See,Talk’s first time attending Fantastic Fest and I have to say it was everything they said it would be. Since I was only there for 4 days, I missed out on some later week fun like the secret screening of Cloud Atlas (with a supposedly awesome Q&A with the Wachowskis…UGGGG), but there was still lots to see and do and I got a lot of reviews/coverage under my belt. For such a great festival with a huge draw it’s amazing to see how quaint and laid back everything and everyone is. You can easily bump elbows in such small proximity with both filmmakers and actors but also the film…
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Ohhh, Look…Astonishing 110 Year Old Color Film Prints Discovered and Preserved
Since our interview with Chris Kenneally (writer/director of the doc Side by Side) the other day I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea film preservation. Well along comes this neat video showing newly discovered film from 1902 that is the very first film to be printed in color. It’s quite amazing to see something that we’re so used to seeing in black and white now shown in color, and all through a pretty simple and seminal process. In 1899, Edward Raymond Turner’s ingenious and patented process “shot three successive frames through red, green, and blue filters, and then projected them on top of each other to create a full-color image”. The result,…
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Interview…’Side by Side’ Documentary Writer/Director Chris Kenneally
In writer/director Chris Kenneally‘s documentary Side by Side, he and Keanu Reeves take us on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking. For the past 100 years photo-chemical film has been the gold standard in the industry. But over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Covering a multitude of angles and showing points of view from many people who have an instrumental hand in the filmmaking process, Kenneally and Reeves put their finger on the pulse of the digital movement and showcase a good cross section of opinions. They explore the development of cinema and the impact of…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman
Yep. That’s really the title and just another reason why this festival has such a large draw and wide appeal, especially for those film fans who want something outside the norm. With Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman, writer/director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza makes a fine addition to the series of Grindhouse films that have popped up in the last decade or so. While some sub-par releases have diluted this fun throwback sub-genre and B-Movie revival, Espinoza, like he has with Mirageman and Mandrill, gives hope for the movement and an example for those who will follow his footsteps. There’s an authenticity that rises above gimmick or fun solely for inebriates, possibly because it’s…
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[Fantastic Fest Recap]…’Drawn and Quartered: Animated Fantastic Fest Shorts’
One of the many fun and surprising events at the 2012 Fantastic Fest are the three short film sessions. The animated shorts series, humorously titled Drawn & Quartered, was a mixed bag to say the least with wildly diverse mediums and surreal subject matter. Out of the 9 or so shown the following 5 were the real standouts for a variety of reasons…most of which were because they didn’t make the audience feel like they were have a bad acid trip (I’m looking at you Bobby Yeah and Follow the Sun…essh!). ————————————————————————————————————————————————— Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens – Based in India, Mutant Chickens follows a team of expert chicken hunters dealing with…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Sinister
From the production team behind Paranormal Activity comes Sinister, easily one of the scariest films since Insidious (which was also produced by the same people). Less of a jump scare factory, Sinister makes its bones with legitimately scary sequences that are mostly reserved. Add to that a tangible family drama and the result is a full-bodied, entirely creepy and moody thriller. Not for the faint of heart, this film has succeeded in impressing some of the harshest horror fans, many of whom call Fantastic Fest home. Ethan Hawke stars as Ellison, father, husband and famous crime novel author. Modeled similar to Capote’s work with “In Cold Blood”, Ellison is a true-crime…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Frankenweenie 3D
Tim Burton has created so many fun and wonderful universes over the years. However, it isn’t until now, in the feature length adaptation of his short film of the same name, that Burton takes us to a place he’s rarely let us see – his childhood. Made purely with kids in mind, and as this is a Disney film, Frankenweenie is a heart-warming kid friendly flick full of Burton’s patented frights, fun and his distinctive look. Still slightly odd-ball, he goes a little esoteric and the result is a playful mash up of two things he’s very familiar with; his love of monster movies and the pressures of being an awkward…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Antiviral
With this being his first feature film (beyond his two written/directed short films), like his father before him Brandon Cronenberg is no stranger to an odd style of filmmaking. That is to say with Antiviral, despite what Brandon says in the Q&A about not wanting to make a film like his father, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Right off the bat, family name not withstanding, Antiviral will be a tough sell for most audiences. Yet, underlying all the weird and macabre elements and a brutally focused performance from Caleb Landry Jones is something brilliant. Like Videodrome, this Cronenberg takes a common societal theme and analyzes it under such scrutiny that the result is a wild exaggeration of celebrity…
