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.

Fantasia 2017--Game of Death--Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais (2017)

Teens end up playing the wrong game in Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's insanely fun Game of Death (2017)

I've seen a lot of films so far at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, so I can be excused for getting my circuits crossed and going to the wrong film once, right?  Right?  While my plan was to see the Russian alien invasion flick Attraction (2016) at 1pm, I ended up (realizing too late to run across the street) attending Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's nutso teen horror film Game of Death (2017) completely by accident.  To be frank, after watching the trailer, I had absolutely no interest in this film, and I thought it was going to be pretty dumb.  While the premise is ridiculous, it was so much FUN, that I have absolutely no regrets.  In fact, it has renewed my faith in horror comedies, which had solidified into granite after the previous night's abysmal Better Watch Out (2016), which I will not review for the sake of kindness.

The annoying Kenny is dispatched with truly awesome gore effects

The film opens w/ Beth snapchatting, instagramming, or whatever the f*** teenagers do in order to snarkily snipe at each other through social media, and her sarcastic quip about screwing her brother sets the tone: these kids are all annoying and relatively unlikeable, and I'm already eager for some of them to die.  They all gather together for a house/pool party on a nice sunny day, drinking and getting high, and what have you--parents who knows where.  I honestly cannot tell how old any of them are, but almost anyone under the age of 25 seems impossibly young.  They all think they are smarter than anyone, and are all dumb as stumps.  Therefore, they decide to play some electronically-assisted retro board game called Game of Death, just because.  As the trailer makes clear, the games rules are that they have to kill a set number of people (24) or they will all die.  Just to make sure they take things seriously, the game starts killing off the kids, claiming "one down" and laughing maniacally after each death.  Two of them die before the rest of the kids get a clue, and then homicidal impulses start to fly.  Oh, and the kills. The Kills!  Whether game induced or teen-perpetrated, the kills are just some of the most gory, ridiculous, and outright startling deaths I've seen in a while.  Granted, I tend to shy away from gore, but in Game of Death, you've got to revel in it.  Several times I turned to Alice, who was sitting beside me, and just said "wow."  Wow.

While Tyler and Ashley have reservations, brother and sister Tom and Beth enjoy the game a bit too much

Game of Death wears the descriptor "gratuitous" like a badge of honor.  Is there sex?  Of course!  A cross-cut scene of a woman experiencing oral sex while another woman gives an unnecessary-to-the-plot lapdance gets us started.  An incestuous make-out scene goes on way, way too long, and ends in a romantic shot of the "lovers" silhouetted in front of a setting sun.  The film features one of the most gorgeous and surprising animated sequences, stylizing the gore as a couple of characters go full-stop-massacre on a care home.

Some players, like Mary-ann, never quite accept that what is happening is real

From the first 10 minutes onward, everyone, and I mean everyone, is covered in blood (as a nice touch, Baz, one of the co-directors, introduced the film covered in the red stuff).  Just to be clear though, no dogs or little children were harmed during this film--which is a nice caveat; although, I did feel a loss at the murder of the lovely Marilyn, whose singing really added a nice touch to the overall tone.  Oh, and you find out a surprising amount about manatees over the course of the film.

In sum, a film that I would normally not give the slightest glance became one of my favorites of the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, and I do recommend it if you are up for something gaggingly gory and over the top.  An IMDB reviewer claimed that the concept was great and the execution poor.  I would switch it up and say that the concept is beyond dumb (shades of reading the Necromicon in The Evil Dead--stupid kids), but the execution is witty, inventive, and that animation scene is a real standout.  Be sure to check it out if you are in the mood for some gory surprises.

Fantasia 2017--78/52--Alexandre Philippe (2017)

Alexandre Philippe's provocative documentary 78/52 (2017) explores Janet Leigh's last moments in Hitchcock's Psycho

For a film that follows in depth a rather brief 52 second scene, Alexandre Philippe's 78/52 is one of the most fascinating investigations of cinema and the horror genre that you will ever see.  Unlike the rather good Room 237, which explores fans' obsessions surrounding Kubrick's The Shining, Philippe's unpacking of the notorious shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho properly pays homage to what might be considered the most seminal film of the horror genre, and one of its most shocking murder set pieces.  Setting the stage by shooting exteriors on the Bates Hotel and house set, the film leaves no aspect of this scene unturned, yet never feels boring, or "over-analyzing" as it unfolds.

Hitch believed that the Casaba melon was most analogous in sound to the flesh bag of the human body

For horror geeks, the film provides a host of pleasures, as many luminaries of horror filmmaking (with only Karyn Kusama as the female representative of the genre) extol the virtues of Psycho, citing its influences, and performing many feats of close textual analysis.  Various Hitchcock experts (all guys) explain how Psycho fits among Hitchcock's oeuvre.  Film editor Walter Murch is one of the most exciting luminaries featured, and he gives you a real blow-by-blow sense of how innovative the film's editing was, while also paying proper respect to Saul Bass's involvement.  Bernard Hermann's score is similarly unpacked and heralded as part of the scene's achievements, and there's a marvelous scene that explains how exactly the sound of a knife penetrating Marion's flesh came into being.  What the film really emphasizes, without diminishing Hitchcock, is that this film, like many, was a collaborative effort by many outrageously talented people, and that its legacy lives on in both classic and contemporary horror works.

The guys from Spectrum wax on about their love of Psycho (particularly Anthony Perkins)

While this film is ostensibly a "talking heads" documentary, it never feels stilted, dry, or stale, as the clips used to flesh out the conversations are well placed, gorgeous to look at, and often revelatory.  I would have liked to see more women interviewed for this film (I counted seven total), and I found this dearth a sad commentary considering that two of the film's producers (present for the Q & A) are women.  Nevertheless, 78/52, funded two years ago during Fantasia's own Frontiere's program, is so beautifully crafted, that I'm super excited for Philippe's next documentary project--an exploration of the infamous chestburster scene from Ridley Scott's Alien.  For lovers of Psycho in particular, and cinema in general, this film is an absolute must-see!

Fantasia 2017--Friendly Beast--Gabriela Amaral Almeida (2017)

Inacio shores up his masculinity in Gabriela Amaral Almeida's taut thriller Friendly Beast/O Animal Cordial (2017)

Restaurants are strange places to work, full of delicate egos, macho kitchens, beleaguered waitstaff putting up with entitled customers, and crazy, penny-pinching owners who treat their workers like slaves.  So Gabriela Amaral Almeida's marvelous Brazilian Horror film Friendly Beast (2017) gloriously reveals when the rather typical state of restaurant work goes horribly off the rails.  While I still have quite a few films left to screen at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, Friendly Beast is the most overtly feminist film that I've watched so far, and reveals an exciting new female voice entering the horror scene.

The film takes place in a small Brazilian restaurant, where Sara (Luciano Pais) works for the narcissistic and horribly insecure Inacio (Murilo Benício)--whom the director admits is a rather well-known soap opera actor in Brazil, taking on a decidedly different role.  Inacio badgers his kitchen staff, including the queer POC chef Djair (Irandhir Santos), even taking credit for his culinary genius.  Sara waits on jerkoffs like Veronica and Bruno, entitled rich, white folk who expect the staff of color to cater to their every whim.  Things go decidedly pear-shaped at the end of the night when a couple of young thugs decide to rob the place.  Alas, this robbery isn't the restaurant's first, and Inacio is fully prepared, gun in hand, to prove that he's a "real man" able to fend off any and all threats.  He's also a cauldron of bubbling rage waiting to boil over, and when he does, rational behavior goes out the window.  The formerly avuncular owner becomes quite a different beast altogether, and his delicate ego makes everyone a target for his wrath.

Djair and one of the robbers, wait, bound and helpless, for their fate to be decided

Much of the tension of the film comes from the marvelously intimate set, as the locations are limited to the restaurant's tight spaces--the dining room, kitchen, and bathroom.  Amaral Almeida masterfully employs camerawork and sound to amplify the claustrophobic nature of the place, and even when some characters are not present for the rather gory violence underway, they cannot escape its presence, as it lurks right outside the door.  Her critique of masculinity and its perils is really smart, as she reveals through Inacio's unraveling that gender is a struggle for everyone across the spectrum of identities, and that there is no greater horror than trying to live up to certain gender ideals.

Sara's transformation over the course of the film is the film's most brilliant (and feminist) facet

The true revelation of this film is Luciana Paes' fearless performance as Sara, a character who goes through so many surprising and exhilarating changes as the action evolves.  Initially, Sara is a resentful worker forced to stay late due to some last minute customers.  Her fascination with the blond, entitled Veronica takes a significant turn, suggesting that one should be a lot more respectful of their fu**ing server, okay?  The film implies that she has a curious relationship to her boss, one that borders on a crush (and what the kitchen staff sees as "ass kissing").  That relationship also changes by degree, as tidbits of info are supplied to shift our understanding of Sara as a female character.  The events that unfold appear to liberate her in some ways, perhaps unveiling the beating heart of her primal energy just waiting for the moment of release. She combines the tropes of "final girl" and monster in truly inventive ways, and the ending of this film is a doozy--immensely satisfying.  This film also has a sex scene that is so astonishing, it will BLOW YOUR MIND.  I cannot get those images out of my head, nor do I want to!

As a debut feature, Friendly Beast is an incredibly accomplished and riveting piece of work.  It explores the intersections of race, class, and gender in an intelligent and sophisticated fashion while still being a bloody gory work that lies comfortably within the horror genre.  The film raises questions about women's desires, and the pressures on them to behave "appropriately," creating a feminist work that challenges many of the genre's common understandings of what role women should play.  I recommend it highly, and eagerly await Amaral Almeida's next film.

Fantasia 2017--Most Beautiful Island--Ana Asensio (2017)

Director/Writer/Star Ana Asensio embodies the strong yet vulnerable Luciana in Most Beautiful Island (2017)

Since I've had the pleasure of residing in Canada for the last few weeks, I've found myself describing my home country with a degree of shame and horror.  Trump's America is a place where difference elicits both hostility and resentment, and where a shockingly large number of people both wallow in bigotry and make people fear for their safety just for walking down the street.  Women, People of Color, Queer folks of varying gender identity, and Immigrants do not feel at home anymore (imagine being all of the above).  People here often respond that it's just another four years, but what this election has made crystal clear is that these tensions and hatreds have been everpresent, and that perhaps some of the more privileged just were not paying proper attention (or cultivating a denial bubble).  It's hard to explain how a big chunk of the population now lives in a state of terror, as bullying and hate are the norms, and are politically sanctioned.

Ana Asensio's brilliant debut film Most Beautiful Island gives spectators a powerful sense of what it's like, specifically for attractive female immigrants, struggling to make ends meet within particularly gendered circumstances.  Its slice-of-life approach is so jarringly real, that these days, this film can pass for a fu**ing documentary.

Luciana works a "party" with the promise of making a couple thousand bucks

The film follows Luciana, as she struggles to pay the rent for the sh**hole she lives in, where her roommate sensitively labels the food in the fridge "not yours," and giant cockroaches slither out of duct taped holes in the bathroom.  She juggles multiple odd jobs as an undocumented woman, including underpaid au pair to super-annoying brats, and dressing up as a sexy chicken to hand out fliers on the street.  When her "friend" Olga (Natasha Romanova) clues her in to a party where she can make $2,000, she sees a way to make her problems go away temporarily.  Her need for cash outweighs her practical knowledge that in a culture where immigrant women are treated like human garbage, what she might have to do for that money may carry too steep a price.

Luciana proves she's calm and cool under the most dangerous conditions

What starts off as a handheld camera exploration of Luciana's day, quickly transforms into an excruciatingly tense and gripping thriller as Luciana shows up for the "party," held behind a locked door in the basement of an isolated warehouse off the West Side Highway.  Women of various races, all dressed in little black dresses and stilettos, with matching bags on their shoulders, wait with curiosity, suspicion--and for those in the know, downright terror.  Genre favorite Larry Fessenden is even on hand to play a thuggish guard, leading women one-by-one in and out of the room.  To explain what goes down would be to do the film a grave disservice, but I will provide this teeny spoiler--if you suffer from arachnophobia DO NOT see this film.

Where can I get this gorgeous poster??

While Asensio started working on this film a good four years ago, this film is so stirringly timely that it's no wonder that it won the Grand Jury Prize for best feature at SXSW this year.  The film is so disturbingly real, that if you look carefully, you'll see POTUS part of the crowd attending the party.  Asensio deserves enormous accolades for this riveting film that had my heart racing long after it ended.  Please see it ASAP.

Fantasia 2017--November--Rainer Sarnet (2017)

A Kratt goes to work in Rainer Sarnet's November (2017)

In many ways, Rainer Sarnet's November (2017) epitomizes the very best that the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival has to offer: unique and relatively unknown films from far flung countries, sumptuous visuals, and a haunting score that transports you into to a strange, mysterious world.

Hans loves the serene and clean young baroness

November's narrative is relatively simple.  In the magical Estonian countryside, a young rural woman named Liina loves a scruffy young man named Hans, who loves a sleepwalking young baroness way beyond his reach--a sad case of loving the wrong person who does not love you in return.  Since these are the only young people in the vicinity, pickings are slim, and emotions ride high.  The pursuit of these love affairs leads to tragedy.  This tale has been told time and time again, but certainly not quite in the same way.

Llina's dead mother lurks under a willow tree

In November's dark woods, ghosts dressed all in white walk in processions and demand dinner, human-sized chickens hang out in saunas, lovelorn women turn into werewolves, collections of tools are animated through stolen souls, villagers use spit to form bullets, and witches cast spells and create potions.

A couple of men seem to have bartered their souls

The film's mystical, ghostly visuals feel like a cross between Guy Madden and Michael Haeneke, and the tone is equally somber as the poor live in grimy poverty, all the while resenting (and desiring) the German interlopers that occupy the manor.

Liina is willing to do what it takes to capture her true love's heart

The standout performance in the mix is Rea Lest's poignant turn as Liina, a young woman who dreams of a better, richer life and makes the most of her limited choices.  In a culture defined by a barter economy that resorts to stealing and theft, Liina struggles against her father's avaricious use of her virginity as a bargaining chip, fighting desperately to pursue her own desires.  Meanwhile, her object of desire, the dim-witted Hans (Jorgen Liik), feverishly chases after a young German baroness who considers the locals filthy and sinful.  His desires are far less interesting and much more simply defined, making him a less than substantial suitor for the glorious Liina. 

Liina's feral alter ego allows her to revel in more primitive desires

Alas, the fate of the fairytale is almost inevitably to police female desire and forcefeed us what's appropriate behavior.  Unlike feminist critiques of fairy tales such as The Love Witch, and The Lure, November's critical edge is not as clear.  I contend that Liina's relationship to werewolf lore hearkens back to Angela Carter's fairytale subversions in The Company of Wolves, although less overt or liberatory.  Still, the film's ability to transport us to a place hauntingly uncanny makes it truly remarkable. The film won an award for its hallucinatory imagery at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it made its North American premiere, and I feel really fortunate to have seen it on a big screen with fellow cinephiles at Fantasia.  I highly recommend it.

Fantasia 2017--A Day--Sun-ho Cho (2017)

Jun Young desperately tries to save his daughter Eun-jung from a deadly fate in Sun-ho Cho's A Day (2017)

I tend to find sentimental films rather disappointing, especially when they are couched in a daring, viscerally visual action thriller.  Therefore, while Sun-ho Cho's time loop thriller A Day certainly has plenty of crowd pleasing, eye candy charms, and a narrative structure that playfully unfolds, its "heart" is rather schmaltzy.

First, though, let me extol some of the film's pleasures.  As I have mentioned, I recently taught a class on "puzzle films," so time loop or "forked path" narratives, where characters relive narrative events repeatedly, with different variations, carry great appeal.  As per usual, the characters in such films must eventually "get it right" in order to escape the seemingly endless pattern of repetitions.  Phil Connors in Groundhog Day must let go of his selfish narcissism in order to progress; Lola, in Run, Lola, Run has to make less violent and morally bankrupt choices; and Colter Stevens in Source Code needs to discover the terrorist and stop a bomber from blowing up Chicago.  All of these "forked path"/time loop narratives tell moral tales, so Cho's A Day fulfills those kinds of expectations.

A Day has three characters who are stuck in an interconnected time loop

Initially, the film focuses on Dr. Jun Young Kim, who is returning home from a U.N. trip and reconnecting with his neglected daughter, Eun-jung, for her birthday.  What quickly becomes clear is that Jun Young is unable to prevent her death from a fatal traffic accident, which seems to occur no matter how many variations he tries.  He soon discovers that this time loop is shared by another character, Min-chul, an E.M.T. whose wife dies in this traffic accident as well.  Once these two connect, their mission is to save their damsels in distress from their imminent deaths.  Another character is caught up in the mix, but explaining his role would give too much away.

Eun-jung's death is one of the film's greatest visual pleasures

Sun-ho Cho knows how to craft a well-paced plot, and for his first feature, the film's narrative complexity, and the its resulting tension, are impressive accomplishments.  Yet, I found myself both thrilled and a little dismayed by the great pleasure I took from watching the film's incredible car crashes--the camera veering, wheels squealing, and bodies flying into the air in glorious slow motion.  There's something a little sick at work when some of the film's most exhilarating scenes are of a girl's repeated murder.  Still, one of the film's variations was so incredibly dynamic that it elicited a unanimous roar of approval from the Fantasia crowd.  The best way to see this film, by far, is in the SGWU hall packed to the rafters with enthusiastic fans!

All the "heroes" are men, the victims, women

On the whole, A Day is a really fun, adrenaline-fueled thriller.  Unfortunately, it's also an example of "patriarchy 101" where invalid daughters and pregnant wives are the only role that women play here, and the men are the only ones with any agency.  What could have been a rather sharp, dark revenge thriller is molded into a feel good film about love's ability to bring us together and conquer adversity.  Meh.  While I'm all for a world with a lot less hate in it, A Day's overall sappiness and gratingly  mushy heart just left me blandly cold.

Fantasia 2017--The Laplace's Demon--Giordano Giulivi (2017)

Characters lurk in the shadows in Giordano Giulivi's The Laplace's Demon (2017)

More frequently than not, Fantasia world premieres a unique cinematic gem that has been made with passion and wit, and flies under the radar of the films getting buzz during the festival circuit (including Sundance and SXSW).  Giordano Giulivi's cerebral, vintage-look thriller The Laplace's Demon is one of those rare finds that both dazzles the eye and tickles the mind with its innovative approach.  The fact that the film took 7 years to make, and four years to shoot, makes it all the more special.  One wishes that someone would stop throwing money at the Marvel Universe and give someone like Giulivi both the money and the time to make more cinematic art.

Karl's fascination with the ornate machinery of the mansion mirrors his experiments with determinism

I'm stealing from IMDB in my plot synopsis, since frankly I'm not sure I can do it justice: "A glass in free fall. Have you ever thought if it is possible to calculate into how many pieces it can break into? After numerous experiments, a team of researchers succeeds in doing just this apparently impossible task. Attracted to their experiment, a mysterious professor invites the scientists in his isolated mansion to know more about their studies. However, when they arrive, they are not greeted by their host but they are faced with a strange model of the mansion, in which some absolutely normal but incredible actions are acted. The researchers will soon understand to be involved in a new experiment in which they'll have to play a very different role than usual: that of the glass in free fall."

Laplace was an actual 18th century French mathematician, physicist, and scholar, and the film focuses on his fascinating interest in the potential mathematical ability to predict human behavior via a specific formula. A crew of scientists set out to work with the mysterious Dr. Cornelius, but then quickly realize that they are imprisoned in his mansion and are unwillingly part of a nefarious experiment put forth by their absent host.  The rich set pieces of the film's mise-en-scene are accentuated by the magnificent chiaroscuro lighting that heightens the film's tension, as the scientists realize that they are pawns in some deadly game.

The Laplace's Demon comes across as the lovechild of a noir Bava meets The Cat and the Canary

The film plays with philosophical questions of free will and determinism, but does so by paying homage to a variety of film styles and eras.  At times the film seems to play with silent film acting and gestures, while also employing many film noir stylistic flourishes.  Further, the film's mood combines a 30's Universal monster vibe, while firmly taking place in the now (based on cellphones and computer technology).  At the same time, some of the more deliberate editing choices hold on gazes often a bit too long, giving a taste of Lynch's Eraserhead by way of Bava's Black Sunday.  The sometimes hyperbolic, yet dreamy, acting is also reminiscent of Guy Maddin's strange netherworlds.  The film's timelessness really heightens its themes, and produces rich pleasures as it allows cinephiles to soak up the film's many references.  Nevertheless, the film is really unique, and never too derivative, offering a nice little twist at the end and landing on a properly bleak note.  I enthusiastically recommend The Laplace's Demon, and hope you will search out this visually stunning and clever film.

Fantasia 2017--Bitch--Marianna Paralka (2017)

Writer/Director/Star Marianna Palka goes rabid in Bitch (2017)

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am all in when it comes to women directors, and I'll try to see anything directed by women within reason.  Therefore, I was pretty damn thrilled to see the screening of Marianna Palka's Bitch at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, coming off some hot buzz from Sundance.  I've been sitting on my review for a couple of days, mostly because I'm a bit ambivalent about it.  I applaud Palka for making an original, frequently hilarious, sometimes touching film that shines a light on the dazzling performance skills of her ex beau, Jason Ritter.  If you are not familiar with Ritter, please see Embers, a fantastic film from last year's festival (also directed by a woman), in which he shows his more dramatic chops.  He's largely a comedic actor, who you've probably seen on either Drunk History or Another Period.  Jason Ritter rocks, and he rocks hard in Bitch.

Bill Hart (Jason Ritter) spectacularly loses his sh** in Bitch

So you are probably wondering, why the ambivalence?  I highly recommend you see Bitch, for its definitely worth your time and money, but I was a little disappointed by the tonal shift the film takes in the latter third of the narrative.  Surprisingly, IMDB's summary kind of spells it out: "The provocative tale of a woman (Marianna Palka) who snaps under crushing life pressures and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog. Her philandering, absentee husband (Jason Ritter) is forced to become reacquainted with his four children and sister-in-law (Jaime King) as they attempt to keep the family together during this bizarre crisis."

Expectations are set up here.  To some extent, the film is about a woman who, under the pressures of life placed on women, snaps and "assumes the psyche of a vicious dog"--ergo the bitch of the title.  This reaction is based on an actual case in Scotland, and in these troubled times, it's a wonder that this kind of situation doesn't happen more often.

I would snap too if these were my kids

The scenes where Palka, as Jane, "becomes a dog," angrily barking, attacking her family, smeared with her own feces, and baring her teeth, are pretty "horror movie" scary.  Many times a handheld camera assumes her dog POV and you are left rather shaken by her transformation.  Understandably, every one in the family freaks out, including her 4 out-of-control kids and her sh***y husband.  Should they commit her to an asylum or accept this change as the "new normal?"  Bill wants the latter, while Jane's family (her sister and parents) insist that she needs help he cannot give her.

Cautiously visiting Jane/Mom in the basement

Let me be clear here.  You would snap too with this home environment.  The kids are ungrateful brats that scream at each other and burden Jane with everything, and Bill is the most useless human being alive.  Seriously, Jason Ritter's Bill is a borderline cartoon villain, he's so beyond terrible.  He goes to his job everyday (at which he is terrible), cheats with a woman at work, and does not do anything to help Jane AT ALL.  He comically doesn't know how to drive their mini-van, doesn't know which schools the kids go too, and sometimes forgets their names (or that they are even in the car).  Bill's hysterical meltdowns as things go from bad to worse are comic genius, and because of Ritter's skills, you really love to hate him.

Bill is forced to become a better Dad (and husband)

Here's where the film goes awry for me.  Once Jane becomes a dog, and can no longer communicate with others, Bill has to "step it up"--and he does.  He becomes close with his kids, patient with his in-laws, loving to Jane (despite the fact that she still wants to bite him).  Bill goes from being relatively horrible, to a peachy gem, in the course of about 6 months.  Sure he hits bottom (loses his job, is forced to sell his house), and these circumstances are wildly unusual (my wife is a dog), but what starts out being a film about women, and culture, and the pains one must endure, becomes a film about the redemption of another straight white guy, who ultimately wins back the love of his wife by performing the minimum requirements for being a decent father--go figure.

Bitch is inventive, unique, with a soundtrack that runs counterpoint to much of the darkness that infuses the film.  In the first half of the film, the combination of darkness with humor is pitch perfect and truly special.  Once the film slips into sentimental family drama mode, though, I just felt a massive wave of disappointment.  I was not alone in the audience, as other members at Fantasia revealed during the Q & A that they truly wished for a different outcome.  Yet other people absolutely loved it, and thought it hit all the right notes. So, you decide.  See Bitch as soon as it's available, support women filmmakers, and see Jason Ritter's tour de force performance.  He's utterly spectacular here.