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--Radius--Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard (2017)

Liam (Diego Klattenhoff) gives off a killer vibe in Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard's Radius (2017)

Frankly, I didn't know what to expect from Radius. a Quebec sci-fi thriller that world premiered at Fantasia; there was very little information available, and no trailer so far.  Nevertheless, Radius is a fun, twisty surprise--a clever thriller with plenty of careful plotting, providing little morsels of narration to keep you guessing.

In synopsis, Liam (Diego Klattenhoff) wakes from a car accident to discover that anything within a 50 foot radius of him (birds, mammals, people) keels over dead. His mere proximity wipes out the local populace, but initially he thinks it's just a really nasty airborne virus.  Oh, and he cannot remember anything, including who he is, and just follows the info on his driver's license to get to his "home."  Not long after he holes up in his shed, trying to avoid all contact, a woman shows up at his door, and lo and behold, she stays alive despite being nearby.  Jane Doe (Charlotte Sullivan) doesn't remember anything either, but she figures out that she was in the car accident with him.  Seems that if Jane stays in a 50 foot radius of Liam, she cancels out his killer powers; but separate them, and the jig is up.  This particular quandary ratchets up the film's tension, as intimacy and proximity to others becomes the basis by which people live or die.

The police corner Liam and Jane, who are now considered suspected terrorists

While the premise of the film is compelling enough, if we do not care about the characters, their fate will not really matter too much.  As we identify with Liam's POV early on, we genuinely care about his unnerving predicament.  Questions are replaced by other questions as the story unfolds: who are Liam and Jane, and how do they know each other?  What actually happened during the car accident, to land them with these killer side effects?  Where Radius truly excels is in its careful plotting, as the backstory of these characters is revealed in bits and pieces as their memories return bit by bit.  I think I'm pretty keen on WTF narrative structures, but I did not see the major twist this film unveils AT ALL.  I think much of this twist's effectiveness is dependent on Diego Klattenhoff's strong performance, as he is a character with whom we identify and support throughout the film.  We want to figure out, along with him, and Jane, how all this happened.  Frankly, the "why" of these events is not as important as the revelation of what these characters are to each other--the "who" is more crucial.  I highly recommend Radius, a thoughtful and tension-filled thrill ride, and I applaud Fantasia for giving this little gem its world premiere.  Check it out!

Fantasia 2016--Embers--Claire Carré (2015)

A Girl (Iva Gocheva) and Guy (Jason Ritter) try to recall intimacies in Claire Carre's brilliant Embers (2016)

Memories are what define us and ground us in space and time--they are our personal histories.  Certainly they are susceptible to manipulation and faulty recall, but they are also essential to the ways in which we interact with others.  The memories that we share are the building blocks of our intimate relationships.  The memories of our families give us warmth and comfort, or send us straight to therapy.  Memories of pain and suffering give us the strength to endure, but also protect us from danger (and from making the same mistakes).  So imagine a world, our world, devastated by a contagious neurological event that causes us to no longer have access to our past (retrograde amnesia), nor to be able to create and retain new memories for longer than short periods of time (anterograde amnesia).  This everpresent "now" is powerfully evoked in Claire Carré’s provocative and deeply moving feature film, Embers (2015).

A couple repeatedly experience the spark of new love

With lyrical imagery, and very little dialogue, Embers follows a group of survivors as they attempt to make sense of a world that continually slips from their grasp.  A couple (Iva Gocheva and Jason Ritter) wake together on a mattress, strangers to each other and to themselves.  The blue bandannas tied to their wrists suggest a connection, but it is one that they cannot recall, and they fear falling asleep only to wake with all their shared time forever lost.  One of the film's more haunting images is the Girl's gaze into a mirror, only to see an unfamiliar face, her own, staring back at her.  Another scene has the two characters standing in the light of stained glass windows in an abandoned church; this ethereal moment is simultaneously deeply romantic and heartbreaking.  The two repeatedly feel the burgeoning excitement of a "new love" while never having memories on which to build their relationship.

A boy wanders, momentarily tethered, yet unburdened by the past

A young boy (Silvan Friedman) wanders the ruins and the woods, humming to himself.  He connects with a Guardian (Matthew Goulish) who tries to help him, but who promptly forgets him shortly after they meet.  He next bumps into a lithe free spirit (Dominique Swain!!) whose arrested development is signified by her hair littered with children's barrettes, and a bed liberally coated with stuffed animals.  The boy then encounters a Teacher (Tucker Smallwood), whose home, nestled in the woods, is a refuge where he studies the epidemic.  One of my favorite moments has the man exclaiming at an interesting book, only to discover that he is its author.

Chaos (Karl Glusman) barely clings to humanity

One of the film's most provocative narratives follows loose cannon Chaos (Karl Glusman) as he travels through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic urban landscape, bubbling with confusion and rage.  He seems to respond to almost all stimuli with a fierce hostility, yet is still awed by the appearance of a white horse amongst the debris.  When he suddenly becomes the brutal victim of this tangled web of violent acts, our sympathies shift; where once I viewed Chaos with fear and suspicion, I came to regard him with the greatest empathy as his loneliness and confusion become as visceral as a kick to the stomach.  The scene where Chaos is victimized is also shot sensitively and without a hint of sensationalism, displaying Carré’s masterful ability to wring emotions from a scene with subtlety and grace.  Chaos also illustrates the actual positive aspects of "forgetting," for trauma cannot cling to you like a shroud if you forget painful events mere moments later.

The lonely Miranda (Greta Fernandez) craves freedom, even if it means losing everything that she has

Not all of the film's "survivors" are infected, and lonely Miranda (Greta Fernandez) chafes against the gilded cage in which she lives, knowing nothing for almost a decade of the world outside (when the global epidemic supposedly first took place).  She is safe within her isolated and sterile white bunker, but pushes against this life, wondering if her sheltered existence could actually be considered "living."  She also must realize that her adventurous desires come at a price.

The Boy and the Guardian wander the ruins

Frankly, my review cannot really do Embers justice; you just have to see this quiet masterpiece.  This cinematically daring and intellectually sophisticated film transports the viewer into a realm full of beauty amidst the debris and decay.  The images dazzled my eyes, and the narrative provoked much discussion afterward.  I'm eager to see more from this talented woman director, and there's a rumor that Carré's and Charles Strong's (the film's co-writer and producer) next project might be for television.  Fingers crossed!

Luckily, Embers will be screening at Fantasia a second time, on August 1st at 12:45pm...and if you unfortunately do not get to engage with this film on the big screen (a tragedy), it will be available On Demand on August 2nd.

Jules gazes at a swirling black hole floating above the Scottish countryside in Josefa Celestin's Event Horizon (2016)

As I've said before, one of the pleasures of the Fantasia Film Festival is the shorts programming that the festival organizers so carefully construct.  Josefa Celestin's absolutely gorgeous Event Horizon was just the perfect short to screen before Embers.  This brief visual feast follows a group of kids mesmerized by what appears to be a "cosmic event" hovering over their heads.  Jules, on the cusp of growing up and following her STEM field dreams, is convinced that this black cloud of stuff is both stunning and dangerous, and the only one of her gaggle of friends to take the apparition seriously.  She asks, "What would [Fox] Mulder do?" Indeed, she ultimately would make such a believer proud.  Check out the trailer for a taste, and hopefully the film will be released for you to experience in all its glorious wonder.  These two films illustrate what women directors can show us if given the chance!