Fantasia 2017--The Endless--Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (2017)

Justin Benson and Aaron's Moorhead's The Endless (2107) turns the desert into an otherwordly realm

The Fantasia Film Festival can make a filmmaker's career, it's that well known and prestigious a festival.  When Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead were introducing their third film at this year's festival, the accomplished and extremely smart The Endless (2017), they thanked festival programmer Mitch Davis with heartfelt gratitude for giving their first feature, Resolution (2012) its breakout screening, all based on a "scratched up DVD" he was generous enough to watch, and love.  For those of you in the know about the indie horror/sci-fi film world, the rest is history as these two filmmakers have become the darlings of the festival world based on their high quality, deeply reflective films (be sure to see their second film, Spring (2014) too). The Endless connects to their previous films, a gift to their fans, but also stands alone as a balanced and inventive work on its own.

Justin and Aaron (co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead) revisit their old UFO death cult

The Endless follows Justin and Aaron (played by co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead), two brothers who struggle to live a happy life under their present circumstances.  They are both former "escapees" from what Justin describes as a "UFO death cult" that consisted of fun practices like castration, pedophilia, and plans for a mass suicide.  After the brothers receive a videotape from the death cult suggesting that the cult's members are far from dead, Aaron decides he must revisit this part of his childhood, and Justin unwillingly joins him.  They encounter not quite what they expect, as the cult is still pretty mysterious, but doesn't seem as "woo-woo" as it could be, and members do not seem like they are on a one-way track to mass death.  Still, plenty of weird sh** keeps happening to make you simultaneously side with both the wildly suspicious Justin and the naively trusting Aaron.

The brothers encounter strange totems and supernatural phenomena in this desert retreat

As I mentioned, there are plenty of nods to their previous films, specifically to Resolution, to make a fan's head swell with in-the-know pride.  The film employs its desolate and isolated landscape beautifully, and I haven't encountered that pervasive sense of lostness in a film for a while--an uncanny sense that you're pretty sure you passed that exact same log just moments ago.  The film is just ambiguous enough to make you trust our protagonists and yet question what they experience, and whether they are actually reliable as narrators.  Benson and Moorhead use the "don't show too much" approach to genre filmmaking, so that your imagination is triggered and fills in the blanks deliberately left open.  Nevertheless, what they do show us is pretty damn cool.  These guys know how to create a rich and elaborate world with very little money.  Will someone please give them a television show?  I believe that they could give Stranger Things a seriously competitive run. The Endless is the kind of cerebral sci-fi film that takes you along for a ride while making you feel rather smart, and is littered with surprises for those viewers who feel jaded by many contemporary examples of the genre.  This film solidifies Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's solid reputation; they simply ROCK.  See this film.

Fantasia 2017--Spoor--Agnieska Holland (2017)

Agnieska Holland's latest film Spoor (2017) combines magical mystery with cinematic joy

Fantasia just announced its winners of the festival's prizes, and best film goes to one of the best, if not the best, film I saw at Fantasia this year, Agnieska's Holland's gorgeous and thoughtful Spoor (2017).  I'm struggling a bit trying to convey my enthusiasm for this film in words, but I'll do my best without spoiling its mysteries or gushing overmuch.

Spoor is anchored by Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka's luminous performance as the vivid and incomparable Duszejko

Spoor is set in a truly magnificent but rather bleak area of the Polish countryside, where mists roll over the hills, and the mottled gray of a pack of deer, only their antlers showing,blends seamlessly with the desolate decor.  Within these challenging environs thrives Duszejko, a dog owner, animal lover, English teacher, and a woman who is much smarter and sexier than anyone else in the film.  By the way, she's in her 60s; this kind of casting would be unheard of in a Hollywood film, unless Meryl Streep starred (Oh No, Hollywood, you cannot remake this one).  The film follows Duszejko as she plays with her dogs, chastises hunters, poachers, and bad cops, and sharply eyes the sad straits of the younger generation, embodied by Dobra and Dyzio, whom she befriends.

She has suitors who admire her for her intelligence and beauty, including Boros, an entomologist

One morning, she wakes to find both of her beloved dogs missing, and soon after a handful of prominent men of the community end up murdered, with all signs pointing to some kind of "killer animal" revenge scheme, as each man is an abuser of animals in some way, and the only evidence seems to be deer tracks.  Duszejko is a lover of animals and nature, and like an animal rights Miss Marple, she decides to figure out what is going on in her rustic small town.

Duszejko respects the lives of all animals

Surprisingly, the film never veers into some pedantic, vegetarian screed against hunting or meat eating, but is more of an exploration of the importance of balance with and respect for nature.  The images of animal life, whether cowering from humans or malevolently watching their every move, are just stunning, the cinematography a delight at every moment.  Meanwhile, the procedural aspects of the film are very well done.  The film possesses a good twist, and by the time you find out how this wave of violence came about, you are so deeply entrenched by your love of the characters that drive the film, that your entire moral compass may shift.  The film questions patriarchal power and its abuses, while also shining a gentle light on anti-conformists who follow their own path, as well as what "family" really means.  How one can choose their family.  Within this context, the film's ending feels just right.

Some of the issues with which Spoor engages

A great film should transport you to another world, even if it's one familiar to you in some ways.  The film should compel you to deeply care about characters and their outcomes, forging a strong identification with them while maintaining a sense of intimacy, as if you have entered a secret, private realm.  A great film forces you to reexamine the places and people that you encounter everyday, shaping and shifting your perspective.  A truly magnificent film will take your breath away and make you feel sad that it has ended.  Spoor is that film!  I would happily pay extra to follow a franchise that focuses on Duszejko, and I hope that this performance brings Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka the attention she so richly deserves.

The film's quiet moments are just as intense as its more dramatic ones

Spoor was the third film I screened that day at the Fantasia Film Festival, and I walked out of that film not tired, but electrified, and seriously thought about screening it again the next day, I loved it so much.  Agnieska Holland's mastery of cinema and her profoundly poignant and provocative look at humanity is on wondrous display in this masterpiece, and I hope that Fantasia's award is the first of many accolades.  See this film as soon as you can, and then tell all your friends to see it.

Fantasia 2017--Bushwick-- Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott (2017)

Right-wing mercenaries turn Bushwick into a battle zone in Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott's Bushwick (2017)

When explaining to my friend Gus a synopsis of Bushwick, I described it as follows:  "There was lots of shooting, running, and hiding, and more shooting, running, and hiding, and a lot of people died.  Some of those people died unexpectedly."  While this description may not be the most charitable toward the film, it doesn't mean it's any less accurate, or that the film is not really VERY entertaining.

Lucy (Brittany Snow) learns combat survival skills PDQ

The film follows the blond Buffy look-a-like Lucy (Brittany Snow) as she arrives home with her boyfriend to visit her grandmother in Bushwick--shades of Little Red Riding Hood seem very deliberate.  Without really spoiling anything, her boyfriend is immediately killed in an explosion, and Lucy is forced to fend for herself in what has become a violent militarized zone, where teams of snipers, dressed in black, are just randomly gunning down the populace at every turn.  Meanwhile, desperate times produce a series of rapists and looters that hew a little too closely to some dangerous stereotypes, and if not for the gruff Stupe's assistance (played with stoic gravitas by Dave Bautista), she would be just another corpse littering the street.

Stupe and Lucy immersed in the shooting, running, and hiding loop

What follows is Lucy trying to find out what's happened to her family members (her grandmother and sister, respectively), while the two survivors try to figure out what the fu** is going on.  Turns out that a series of Southern states, under the influence of a charismatic right-wing ideologue, and funded by the pockets of some major corporation, are staging a military insurrection and seceding from the U.S.  The mercenaries they are using, who are merely "following orders," have been told that Bushwick is a good flashpoint for this insurgency because its a place so divided by difference, that its various factions couldn't possibly unite together to stage an organized resistance.  Of course, as right-wing fu**wits are so often dead wrong, the highlights of the film are the fierce pockets of resistance that emerge, and how people are willing to fight to the death against injustice.  Yet what the film implies, but doesn't really explore with any depth, is that folks are willing to go to the same lengths to fight to maintain bigotry and inequality.

Right-wingers are willing to "Make America Great Again" by any means necessary

While Bushwick was in production well before the results of the 2016 election, its themes are beyond timely and really resonate with the political sh**show that is the U.S. right now.  The film isn't overly pedantic, even though it certainly takes a side in this new version of a civil war.  Some characters die that you might not expect, which gives the film a bit more inventiveness beyond its shoot-em-up aesthetic and almost non-existent backstory.  Bushwick is a fun ride, but not as cathartic as I had hoped.  While the film is still way too chilling (similar to the ways in which the current adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale feels imminently possible), it feels too much like a video game to really resonate or make you care.

Fantasia 2017--Tiger Girl--Jakob Lass (2017)

Jakob Lass's Tiger Girl (2017) shows us what happens when women get angry

Watching women stop taking sh** and stand up against di**heads can be extremely satisfying, especially in a world where the differences that divide us can create a sense of overwhelming powerlessness.  Jakob Lass's gritty Tiger Girl (2017) immediately immerses you in a world where for young women, every moment of the day is laden with harassment and threat.  The film follows Maggy (Maria-Victoria Dragus), aka Vanilla, as she fails her police exam and takes the next step toward having some kind of future, training as a security guard.  Along the way, her encounters with both men and women are dispiriting, as she is mocked, harassed, and treated like garbage repeatedly.

Both Vanilla and the audience fall for Tiger's (Ella Rumpf's) charms

In the midst of this bleak situation, Tiger (Ella Rumpf) appears, a young, rough female hoodlum who takes no crap and meets adversity with a vicious kick and a kind of violent glee.  Someone blocks a parking space with her giant SUV? Knock off her side mirror so there is room.  Threatened waiting for the metro?  This scrappy young woman will take you on, even if it means she'll suffer some knocks in the process.  Certainly, the violence both committed by and acted upon Tiger is upsetting, but that's what makes her tough, mischievous demanding of payback so thrilling; her limited code of ethics, and her manic energy, keeps the character from being too unlikeable.

The baseball bat is the catalyst for a whole bunch of mayhem

After Vanilla's fateful encounter on a subway platform, the two start to hang out in earnest, two angry, disenfranchised women looking to have some rather violent fun.  The development of their friendship feels both hyper-intense and desperately real.  Their primary source of entertainment is to dress up in security uniforms, and pretend to enforce rules on the populace, wielding a small degree of authority in a world where they have little to none.  The scene where they strip search a series of male customers at the local mall is both disturbing and decidedly naughty.

Vanilla (Maria-Victoria Dragus) starts to take her violence way, way too far

Still, what starts out as some pranks against a culture that oppresses them, turns into a full-blown display of "ultra-violence," as Vanilla starts acting out well beyond her nighttime excursions, slugging people and bullying them just because she can.  Her once absent confidence transforms into a strange narcissistic psychopathy, and her ability to feel empathy is completely replaced by a malicious contempt for everyone, including a couple of droogs she enlists along the way.  In this maelstrom of female rage, even Tiger starts to distance herself from Vanilla and her extremes.

Vanilla and Tiger pose as mall security

While the film's adrenaline-fueled scenes of action and rage certainly plunge the viewer into this grim world and drag her along from scene to scene, the repetition of often unmotivated violence gets to be a little tedious after a time.  What begins as refreshing starts to feel rather pointless, and the film takes on an A Clockwork Orange relentlessness.

The cops are always eager to assert their authority

Yet, while Kubrick's film seems to have some really clear messages in its ultraviolent worldview, Tiger Girl's takeaway is more unclear.  Both young women are hungry to attain a power that is relatively absent in their lives (power that is economic, social, sexual).  Vanilla's interest in becoming law enforcement, and then part of a security force, connects to a larger wish to gain control over her life and wield authority over others.  Yet the notion of "power corrupts" is taken to an extreme, as her loss of control becomes rather tragic.  The film's ending also rings strange, as its message is not conclusive, but more a way of raising more questions of what the future might hold for these two angry citizens.  Tiger Girl is worth seeing for Ella Rumpf's portrayal of the charismatic Tiger, but overall, the film disappoints on some important levels.