Film Festivals

Really, the festival is pretty much what I’m thinking about right now. The links here go to IMDB, rather than the Fantasia site (like the ones in the last post). Saturday Three Mighty Men: bad Turkish 70s flicks are really hot on the festival circuit right now, and I kinda wish I was kidding, but I kinda don’t because if I was kidding I wouldn’t have the chance to see this one. This is also the only movie I’ll see at this year’s festival with a masked wrestler, unless someone else holds a surprise for me. ...

It looks like this: Three Mighty Men (original) All-Out Nine: Field of Nightmares Hell (original) Shinobi (original) Arthouse Ultraman Vampire Cop Ricky Samurai Commando 1549 (original) Train Man (original) Junk (original) Wilderness (original) Red Shoes (original) Isolation Synesthesia (original) The Gravedancers (original) The Kovak Box (original) Storm Pusher 3 (original) The Echo Subject Two (original) The Descendant Reincarnation (original) DJ XL5 Zappin’ Party Cavalcade Ressonances (original) Evil Aliens (original) The Order of One (original) Five Deadly Venoms (original) Aziris Nuna (original) The Great Yokai War Executive Koala (original) Arcanum My Dead Girlfriend (original) Kebab Connection (original) Commentary perhaps later.

It looks like this: Three Mighty Men All-Out Nine: Field of Nightmares Hell Shinobi Arthouse Ultraman Vampire Cop Ricky Samurai Commando 1549 Train Man Junk Wilderness Red Shoes Isolation Synesthesia The Gravedancers The Kovak Box Storm Pusher 3 The Echo Subject Two The Descendant Reincarnation DJ XL5 Zappin’ Party Cavalcade Ressonances Evil Aliens The Order of One Five Deadly Venoms Aziris Nuna The Great Yokai War Executive Koala Arcanum My Dead Girlfriend Kebab Connection

The Fantasia schedule (original) is up!

My current schedule for the 2006 Independent Film Festival of Boston (original), which I will have the pleasure of sharing with my sweetie: Friday 4/21 Edmond, Somerville 1, 8 PM Mamet, William H. Macy. That does it for me. District B13, Somerville 5, 11 PM Cool as crap French sci-fi action flick with tons of martial arts. Saturday 4/22 Shadow Company, Somerville 3, 12:45 PM This is a maybe due to timing, but it’s an interesting-looking documentary. See also Kathryn Cramer’s writing on this subject (original). ...

Creep is pretty much your standard nouveau horror flick (see also Cabin Fever, Cube, etc.). Franka Potente is trapped in the London Underground late at night, and must flee a scary homicidal creature who kills and eats for reasons never exactly explained. It’s pared down, tense throughout, self-aware, and so forth. I left feeling sort of apathetic, though. I was scared — Christopher Smith is a dab hand with the jump scare. He’s also really good at using the well-lit Underground in contrast with dank side tunnels for effect; light is not a significator for “safe” in this movie. Perhaps in accordance with this, the monster is fully revealed about two thirds of the way through — no shadows. That worked fairly well, I thought. It means the movie was working without a net, however. ...

The Boston Fantastic Film Festival schedule (original) is out. It’s what you might call slightly heavy on the horror; they’re also showing The Muppet Movie. Intriguing contrast — since they showed Five Children and It last year, I’m assuming there’s a tradition of having a children’s movie. Hm. Thursday night looks good, with Creep and the inevitable Miike. Friday, likewise, for Marebito and R-Point. More the latter. I could miss Friday night without shedding too many tears. ...

Take one on a possible Fantasia schedule. Times are rough and not completely accurate. The 5:20 Sunday slot is probably a rest slot, since my tolerance for goofy doesn’t necessarily extend to bad Turkish movies… although damn. Tempting. Note that I’m also assuming a Thursday arrival, since I’m thinking about that, but the two Thursday movies aren’t essential. 7/21 7:30 El Lobo (original) 9:30 Ghost House 7/22 5:00 All Babes Want To Kill Me (original) ...

Blah. To my infinite annoyance (and resigned acceptance), I find that I am unable to attend FanTasia this year in the manner I had hoped. We have a product launch the second week of the festival, and I can neither be out the week before that launch or the week after. I may be able to make a long weekend of it again. I’m a touch dejected just now. We’ll see what the schedule looks like.

I am fantastically excited: Fangoria has the first peek (original) at the FanTasia film festival lineup. As I’d hoped, Night Watch and Kitamura’s Godzilla: Final Wars will be there. Night Watch is the Russian conspiracy modern fantasy epic which has a ton of buzz, and Kitamura is of course the director of the insanely spirited Versus. Those were the movies I’d really wanted to see. Lots of other cool stuff, too. Lion’s Gate has a small slew of J-horror sequels, which I’ll see if it’s convenient, and the horror anthology film Three… Extremes by Miike, Fruit Chan, and Chan-wook Park. I’ll see that for shock value. Lots of zombie movies. Hm, and Paul Spurrier’s “P” — made in Thailand by a British director, looks interesting, gives me some creepy vibes. I love fusion and I want to see that one badly. ...