Turkish dystopian horror film, The Antenna, really has a lot to offer up front. It’s a dark spin on the idea of big brother, and drapes a hyper-realism blanket over themes about privacy, and paranoid ideas about technology being our downfall. Really, though, it’s not paranoia. It is actually happening. And technology is tearing us apart when it’s soul purpose was to bring us together. This takes a turn without explanation or a road map. If that sounds good to you, then hop on in. The film is beautifully shot even though it comes across incredibly bleak. Each scene and setting are expertly crafted and staged, and the entire shoot…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Takashi Miike’s First Love
To the genre film community, very few directors have the longevity of Japanese icon Takashi Miike. Known for seminal yakuza and samurai films plenty, Miike’s latest is a crazy, go-for-broke gang war film that is an all-out blast. Weaving multiple characters and plot lines injected with a lot of unexpected humor, First Love is far a far cry from Audition or Ichi the Killer. It’s more in line with Edgar Wright and Guy Ritchie type films, yet somehow still feels relatively grounded. The film follows Leo (Masataka Kubota), an up-and-coming boxer who is diagnosed with cancer. While he is reeling from the news, he, by dumb luck, gets thrust into an adrenaline-fueled, running, gunning, and slashing adventure.…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Taikia Waititi’s JoJo Rabbit
When it comes to a film by Taika Waititi, there’s a nebulous and unique aspect to his productions that people just love. Why? Well, everything he does has incredible heart to it. Jojo Rabbit is a film about a small boy growing up in a big world, and experiencing it during World War II, and from the German side. The fact that he is extremely fond of Adolf Hitler goes without saying. Sounds like a real knee slapper, right? Good news is that it is a side-splitting, howling funny knee slapper. The film is incredibly poignant and well-balanced look at how and why, even from a young age, we should ask question…
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Final Wave of Feature Programming for FANTASTIC FEST 2019
This weekend, I was hard at work trying to determine the list of films I want to see this year at Fantastic Fest. I thought I had a good plan laid out…then came this third and final wave of titles playing this year. Well, I guess it’s back to the drawing board. While I figure out what to cram in my eye sockets during the first half of the fest, I hope you get to enjoy the titles that the Alamo team have lined up. There really isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Aside from huge titles (like JoJo Rabbit, Knives Out, Parasite and In the Shadow of the…
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Second Wave of Feature Programming for FANTASTIC FEST 2019
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…
