After a two-year absence, I came back to Fantastic Fest this year. I was able to find lodging (the main obstacle for the last two years), and now I was primed for the genre-loving film fest that’s the cure for the modern film festival. Fantastic Fest has been referred to as “Summer Camp for Movie Geeks”, and even though it comes at the beginning of fall, that description isn’t far off. You make new friends by bonding over the films you love and hate, and the programmers know how to choose flicks that will connect with an audience.

The movies here aren’t looking for awards (some might get them anyway, but this isn’t “the circuit”). They’re looking for film-lovers who want stuff that’s weird, offbeat, and yet thoughtful. Fantastic Fest is wonderfully eclectic, and while I’ve now confirmed that I have seasonal allergies for Austin (fun travel discovery), I powered through my inability to breathe to soak in wonderful movies.

Read on for my travel diary of the first two days.

The Lobster

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Image via A24

I wasn’t a fan of director Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous two features, Dogtooth and Alps, but the buzz on The Lobster was so positive that I couldn’t resist, and I’m glad I didn’t. The movie is both cleverly absurd and absurdly clever. Lanthimos’ sends the audience spinning with his observations on love and loneliness, and while the film is absolutely strange, it always makes sense in its own weird way. He’s smart enough to avoid getting bogged down in the particulars of a world where you have to fall in love in 45 days or be turned into an animal of your choosing. Although the film can border on exhausting in its expansive view of love, Lanthimos always knows which threads to follow to get to his point, and his conclusion is as hard-edged as romanticism gets. [Click here to read Phil’s review from TIFF.]

The Wave

The Wave makes its international premiere at TIFF.
Image via Magnolia

Norway’s answer to disaster films is about the answer you would expect from Norway. No one is going to mistake this movie for San Andreas, but it’s an admirable entry to the genre complete with all the staples viewers expect, albeit on a smaller scale. The entire country isn’t at risk from a devastating tidal wave; it’s just one town, and it’s a long buildup to get to the destruction. Until then, you have to wade through a bland hero, predictable family stress, people ignoring the warnings until its too late, etc.

While it’s still a well-made movie, The Wave doesn’t seem to have enough of a sense of humor about itself. It’s playing the disaster straight, which is fine, but it doesn’t have interesting characters or characters behaving in realistic ways. At one point, the hero goes to save another guy’s wife even though the husband is perfectly capable of doing it himself. Following the wave, the film just morphs into The Impossible, but without having to worry about racist subtext (i.e. it’s okay to only focus on a white family because it's a primarily white country). [Click here for Perri’s full review from TIFF.]

Christmas in September

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Photo Credit: Jack Plunkett

Christmas was the theme for the opening night party because why the hell not. I would have stuck around longer, but I’ve discovered that there’s something in the air that sets off my allergies like crazy, and I was sneezing so bad that my skeleton hurt. I decided to call it an early night, recharge my batteries, and return the following day for shorts, Hassid crises of faith, men + chicken, Fantastic Debates, and more.

Fantastic Shorts

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Image via Fantastic Fest

Shorts never get enough attention in a festival environment, which is a shame because that’s where the talent of tomorrow tends to shine. Thankfully, I didn’t have to think twice about seeing the shorts this year not only because the Fantastic Fest programmers are trustworthy, but also because the festival asked me to be on the shorts jury. So that made my decision for me in terms of how to spend my morning, but it wasn’t easy making a decision on what deserved to win.

The winners won’t be announced until later this week, but I will say that there wasn’t a weak film in the bunch. While I preferred some shorts to others, there wasn’t a single entry where I wondered, “Why did they choose this? Is the programmer being blackmailed?” The lineup included both live-action and animated shorts, and they were all noteworthy in one way or another. I’d go into more detail, but I don’t want to tip my hand on what we chose as the winner. All I’ll say is that all of the selections deserve your attention if you ever come across them.

 

Tikkun

tikkun
Image via Fantastic Fest

Avishai Sivan’s film is a perfect companion piece to last year’s Best Foreign Language Film, Ida. They both deal with young people who have devoted their entire lives to their faith, but then have that faith challenged through tragedy and family bonds. While Sivan’s film is definitely more Lynchian, the two films are also aesthetically similar in how the director chooses to use the camera in overt ways without being flashy. They’re master classes in framing shots to maximum effect, and the editing is superb as Sivan knows how to make the audience squirm. Tikkun isn’t a propulsive movie, but it had me wrapped around its finger.

Men & Chicken

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Image via TIFF

Perhaps it’s fitting that a movie that includes hybrid animals should be an odd beast. While “absurdist comedy” is the label that Men & Chicken would like to wear, there are moments where it goes far too dark (especially at the end) that it’s difficult to laugh with or at these repulsive characters. The movie revels in the men—five brothers who share a unique parentage—being freaks of nature, and it’s difficult to tell if writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen wants our sympathy or if we’re simply indulging a freakshow. The dissonance makes for a film that eventually becomes tedious as it tries to grasp for dear life on to its strongest thread, which is the relationship between brothers Gabriel (David Dencik) and Elias (Mads Mikkelsen). [Click here for Phil’s review from TIFF]

Secret Screening (Crimson Peak)

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Image via Universal Pictures

The buzz on the first day was that the secret screening was either Crimson Peak or Krampus. Crimson seemed perfect because this is a crowd that adores Guillermo Del Toro, but Krampus seemed like a possibility because of the Christmas-themed party. But by Day 2, it was pretty much an open secret that Crimson Peak was the Secret Screening.

However, they stressed that no full reviews could be published before October 13th. So in case you missed it, here’s my tweet (which were allowed post-screening):

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/MattGoldberg/status/647622927064559616[/EMBED_TWITTER]

Look for my full review when the embargo lifts.

Fantastic Debates

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Photo Credit: Jack Plunkett

When I came to Fantastic Fest in 2012, I missed the debates, and there was no way I was going to make that mistake again. So I hopped on a shuttle and made my way over to the South Austin Gym. I was tired and hot, and somehow this was my cue for “more beer”, so I chugged a Shiner Bock (a festival sponsor that supplied free beer for the event) and took in six debates.

For those who don’t know, here’s how Fantastic Debates works: Each side has two minutes to argue their point, two minutes for a rebuttal, and then they trade blows for a minute, thirty-second break, and fight for another minute. Then the crowd cheers in approval for the side they thought won. This year’s debate topics were:

- Is Godzilla (2014) great or terrible?

- Does the name “Creed” belong to the band or the upcoming Rocky spinoff?

- Is The Goonies the greatest kids movie of the 20th century?

- Who’s the better David: Lynch or Cronenberg?

- Who’s more important to a movie: the actor or the director?

- Is it okay to shoot feral hogs from a helicopter if they’re an environmental hazard?

Part of the appeal of the debate is not only your investment in the topic, but in the debater, their argument, and their fighting skills. Some debaters laid down great insults, other landed great punches to the face. For my part, I felt a little woozy after being drained by allergies, watching movies all day, sweating, and being slightly drunk. And yet I can understand why it’s such a cherished tradition, and it’s definitely something that you should attend at least once if you come to Fantastic Fest.

Next: Days 3 & 4, which include steampunk animation, the greatness of John Hawkes, and more.