There are a few buzzwords that grab people’s attention without any hesitation at Fantastic Fest – among them, “stoner pals” is very near the top of the list. Taking a cue from classic buddy flicks, this rambunctious comedy from director Manuel Facal has tons of charm. If you’re not hooked by the 12 minute mark, or at least laughing a lot, you might want to try new medication because something is definitely wrong with you. In the film, stoner pals Elias (Joaquín Tome) and Andres (Santiago Quintans) get up to all kinds of drug-fueled craziness, and once the membrane-drain train starts, there’s no getting off. What sets this apart from either…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Confetti of the Mind: The Short Films of Nacho Vigalondo
They say that there’s no experience like the cinema. Further, a film is all the more enjoyable in the company of like-minded film fans who get to share in the adventure together. It’s interesting, however, to sit through a series of short films with no theme among them save for one commonality – they all are wonderful nuggets from the brilliant mind of Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo. To put it simply, the man is crazy – crazy brilliant, crazy inventive, crazy mysterious, and crazy about his craft. Not sure who came up with it, but Nacho is the unofficial mascot of Fantastic Fest and his vision, ingenuity and inventiveness are…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Kung Fu Elliot
Genre films are wacky, weird, and wild, and there’s no shortage of them anywhere – film festivals, the Internet, even home movies. But deep down, a good number of these filmmakers probably dream of their film being a big Hollywood production. That’s certainly the case with the titular Elliot anyway. There are numerous films, genre or not, that feature an unlikely hero, or an underdog challenged with a dare-to-be-great experience. Really, you want the best or them, and at first glance, Kung Fu Elliot seems like that kind of film – it’s like the martial arts version of Napoleon Dynamite. Or the making of the film anyway. Elliot “White Lightning” Scott…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Cub
On the surface, a horror film involving boy scouts on a camping trip gone wrong might seem mundane. As slasher films are a dime a dozen, it really takes some effort and creativity to stand out from the herd. But this little Belgian horror film has more than a trick or two up its sleeve to keep things interesting, and there’s a lot of effort put into making an already threadbare concept something entirely thrilling. Cub is effective as both a thriller and a horror film, but it’s because it’s built more like the former that it succeeds so well as the latter. During their camping trip, a group of young scouts…
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G-S-T Review…Drafthouse Films’ 20,000 Days On Earth
“I wake, I write, I eat, I write, I watch TV…this is my 20,000th day on earth“. This is the first line of the extremely entertaining, if entirely laid back and subdued, documentary about one of rock music’s more enigmatic personalities. It’s worth noting the odd yet impacting introduction – a seemingly perfect entrance for Cave – because, like this seasoned musician, this film is anything but conventional. Like Henry Rollins without the anger, like Tom Waits with a slightly cooler groove, and like a beatnik poet who actually made something of his endlessly wild life, Nick Cave is a one of a kind entertainer. A breath of fresh air,…
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G-S-T Review…The Expendables 3
Right out of the gates, The Expendables 3 aims to show audiences it means business. Not surprising that it’s less than a minute, a mere 54 seconds to be exact, before our heroes’ heavy hardware sends the first of many non-descript bad guys reeling. Like the nameless goon peppered with bullets (rubber bullets it seems from how toned down the action is) pain sets in for the audience as well. The “pain” comes not from groan-inducing dialog, or over-the-top action, but the brain cells struggling to comprehend the blur that is the next 125 minutes. Even with the starts and stops, this hokey 2-hour action fest whisks along which is one of a…
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G-S-T Review…Calvary
John Michael McDonagh’s film Calvary is a deeply emotional and moral character study that asks a lot of the audience. McDonagh, through the central character Father James (played by Brendan Gleeson), asks how (and why) would you continue to help others if, ultimately, they can be no help to you, especially in time of need. Beyond that, Father James learns, in a confessional booth no less, that his life is about to expire. His end will not be the cause of old age, or poor health, but murder. He even knows who will pull the trigger in a week’s time and so the film tells the story of the things he…
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G-S-T Review…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Hard to believe that a ludicrous sounding concept like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would have worked as a comic, ever. Yet, after a quarter of a century (wrap your head around that all you children of the ’80s), the green machine is still kicking. In that time we’ve seen multiple cartoon series, four feature films, an incomprehensible amount of merchandise and now, after nearly 30 years, a reboot. Well, you know what they say about the life expectancy of a turtle right? The release of the updated TMNT film comes nearly in tandem with another highly unlikely concept turned feature film as Guardians of the Galaxy (our review) has made an incredible…
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G-S-T Review…Guardians of the Galaxy
There’s an idea that in order to have a good time at the cinema you need to check your brain. That’s not entirely the case when it comes to James Gunn. The surprise hit of the Summer (well coming from Marvel and Gunn success is probably not a surprise) Guardians of the Galaxy is highly entertaining and works as both a film and a comic book movie; it’s just a great time at the cinema. Some have claimed, mostly because of the marketing department, that this could be the next Star Wars. Even at the time this review is being written, in the midst of the white-hot hype surrounding the…
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G-S-T Review…I Origins
What if you were living your life entirely unaware that a whole other world existed in tandem with your own? It’s not The Matrix but it’s an equally heady concept and very thought provoking question like that which Mike Cahill (writer/director Another Earth) asks of the audience. Yet that’s just the beginning of the topics he questions and tires to answer while taking the audience along on his intellectual quest. I Origins, to put it simply, is a sly sci-fi picture that is as fascinating as it is simplistic. Yet it is the multiple rabbit holes and subjects broached which makes the concept of the film so thought provoking. A…
