Fantasia Film Festival - Riot Girls Review

It’s 1995 and school’s out forever. No more futures, no more rules. A mysterious disease has wiped out the adult population in Potter’s Bluff, and it’s the East side VS the Titans. Nat’s brother Jack (Alexandre Bourgeois, The New Romantic) gets captured by the Titans while out on a mission. It’s up to Nat (Madison Iseman, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle) and her best friend Scratch (Paloma Kwiatkowski, Percy Jackson Franchise) to save him.

Riot Girls has a pretty traditional plot. The rich kids VS the poor kids. This is a story we’ve seen time and time again throughout various decades. What makes this film rise above the rest is the writing, acting, character development, and the soundtrack. Most films that emulate a specific time period rely on music that was very popular in their respective decades. Instead of choosing more obvious choices like Green Day or No Doubt, they chose bands like Joan Jett, and L7. L7 is a female fronted grunge band that were part of the 90’s riot grrrl movement. Other Riot Grrrl bands include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Babes In Toyland.

This film takes many different genres and smashes them together to make its own perfectly balanced hybrid. You’ve got the grrrl power movement, jocks with enlarged egos, gnarly death scenes, perfect comedic timing, and an unexpectedly bright ambiance. Riot Girls is such a refreshing film. It’s thoughtful but doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s something so raw and powerful about this film that it instantly makes you side with the underdog.

I give Riot Girls a 10/10. There’s nothing I would change about this film. The pacing and dialogue is fantastic. If you like teen dramas mixed with a killer soundtrack and some ultra violence I think you’ll enjoy this film. Riot Girls was featured at 2019’s Fantasia International Film Festival and is now playing in select theaters across North America.

Divine Fury (2019) Fantasia 2019

A mix of horror, religion and martial arts, Divine Fury is an action packed film that flies through its 130 minutes at breakneck speed. It’s a film that ends with a notice that there may be a sequel in the offing and frankly I’m really okay with that. I mention that up front because the film is a great deal of fun and if you’re like me you’ll want the fun to keep going.

The film begins when a young boy’s policeman father is killed by a demon possessed young man. The boy blames god for the death and kind of turns away from god. Growing up to be an MMA fighter the boy finds that he is hearing voices telling him to take revenge on god for his father’s death. Turning to a priest for help he ends up in the middle of a supernatural battle for the world.

Weird mix of genre’s works best as a balls to the wall martial arts thriller thanks to a steady series of action set pieces. While the horror and supernatural elements provide some moments and some really cool visuals the scares never fully materialize since they are kicked aside by a steady stream of body blows. The action simply is great and when the film was done it was what I remembered.

Well that isn’t wholly true. I was intrigued by the religious threads running through the film, especially the discussions of God’s guilt in the bad things that happen. It’s a heady mix of ideas with the action that add strange weight to the proceedings that is completely unexpected. I never thought a film about an MMA fighter in Korea fighting demons would have me pondering the nature of God, but Divine Fury had me thinking.

Please forgive me I don’t know what to say beyond I had a blast watching Divine Fury. Its probably not high art but it is a blast and a half. This is exactly the sort of film I love to watch on a raining afternoon with a big bowl of popcorn.

Highly recommended.

Divine Fury played last night at Fantasia in Montreal. It next hits theaters in the US on August 16th

In brief: Steampunk Connection (2019) Fantasia 2019

Portrait of the steam punk community in Canada and the US is a hit or miss affair. Part look at the people who have made the melding of Victorian style and technology  a way of life and partly a celebration of the look and style of the imagery it creates, it bounces from glorious to just okay and back again.

A big part of the film is that if you've have an interest in steampunk, you've been here before. Odds are you've seen a couple of similar films previously. I know I've seen reviewed a couple here at Unseen Films that covered similar portraits of fans of the "genre". Having seen the other films there is nothing new here other than the people profiled. If you click with the various people then you will enjoy this film ore than I did.

For me the point where the film soared was with its clips of a steampunk world. Looking at the images of the various steam punk creations, or watching the film clips that show us a world that might have been are magical. It was the fantasy images more than the real people that kept me watching.

If you're a fan this is a must. If you don't know what stea punk is take a look. If you've seen other steampunk doc, flip a coin.

Dachra (2018) Fantasia 2019

Trio of journalism students make their assignment to produce a piece of reporting that is unique by investigating the story of a supposed witch found wandering the road with her throat slit 25 years before. This leads them first to an asylum and later to hidden village where the people have weird habits. Of course it all goes horribly wrong for everyone concerned.

By the time I saw DACHRA I had been chasing after it for several months. I had run across it at a couple of film festivals but never managed to see it, with scheduling and ticket availability working against me. Finally after a couple of well-timed emails I managed to see the film I at the Fantasia Film Festival and I am both thrilled and slightly disappointed.

Either the first or one of the first horror films to be produced by the Tusnisian film industry DACHRA has a look and feel all its own. We are not in Kansas or anywhere really familiar any longer and we are better for it. Nothing seems normal or as expected. This is not a horror film world we are used o seeing on the big screen and as a result we are on edge. Yes it looks like something we might see say in Eastern Europe but there is a decidedly different flavor to it.

The cast is first rate. They sell the fear and confusion putting us deeply on edge.

Also putting us on edge are a series of sequences that draw out the raw horror and nightmare quality of what we are seeing on screen. From the opening murder of a little boy, to the mad eyes of a little girl eating a crow to clothes line full of entrails to the chilling conclusion we are kept off balance. Director Abdelhamid Bouchnak has a keen sense of how to instill terror with a mix of sound and image. The images and sequences that he has put together and make up Dachra are among the best in any horror films of recent vintage. They are so good that left to their own devices they chill the blood. The image of the little girl below for example unnerves me to such a degree that I had to see the complete film.

Unfortunately it’s the complete film where the film kind of stumbles.

Say what you will, the plot of interlopes coming upon a hidden village with bad results is one that horror film lovers have seen many times before. Most directors try and cover over the sameness with some sort of twist in the proceedings, unfortunately Bouchnak doesn’t do that and as a result the film as a whole clunks in and out of cliche, even though the pieces are sterling. While well told, the lack of any sort of twist or road block drains the excitement out of the proceedings because we’ve already worked out how it is going to go. While the clichés don’t kill the film entirely, they simply make what could have and should have been an all-time classic just a good little horror film. (It also allows us time to ponder a couple of narrative WTF moments we shouldn’t notice)

Taken on its own terms, and my disappointment aside, Dachra is recommended. While good on its own terms, the excellent pieces make this a film to search out.

Fantasia ’19: Kingdom

This is a film that could make the heads of the “Own Voices” cultural segregationists’ heads explode. It is a Japanese film, adapting a Japanese manga, starring Japanese actors, portraying Chinese warriors during the Warring States period. Let us dispense with issues of so-called authenticity and deal with the film’s cinematic merits, because they are considerable. A slave find himself caught up in a palace coup, but that also means opportunities for freedom and social advancement, if he can survive that long in Shinsuke Sato’s Kingdom, which had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Li Xin and Piao were born into slavery and slaves they shall remain, unless they can hack and slash their way to freedom. All their free time is devoted to fencing training, but it appears to pay off when they catch the eye of Lord Chang Wen Jun. Alas, it is only Piao he is interested in—for a very particularly reason. It turns out, he bears a striking resemblance to the King, for whom he was to act as a double.

Unfortunately, Li learns this when Piao returns to the farm mortally wounded. The King of Qin, Ying Zheng, was usurped by his serpent-like younger brother, with the backing of the generals and ministers at court. Reluctantly, Li takes Piao’s place protecting the king, even though he (not unfairly) blames the deposed monarch for his sworn-brother’s death. However, the more he and the king fight together, the more they will come to respect each other.

Kingdom has just about everything you could ask for in a historical costume drama. There is gritty, blood-drawing action, both on an epic scope and at a one-on-one level. There are all kinds of betrayals and scheming going on. Plus, there are a number of outlandish looking Dick Tracy-esque villains. Yet, above all, the characters display the sort of tragic heroism of the best wuxia and Chanbara films.

Sato has become Japan’s blockbuster director of the decade thanks to movies like I Am a Hero, Inuyashiki, Gantz, and Bleach, but Kingdom is his most sweeping film yet. He is working on a big canvas, but he still gets some good work out of his cast. Kento Yamazaki is bug-eyed and hyper-active as Li, but not to the level of shtickiness. Ryo Yoshizawa plays a nicely differentiated double role as Piao and the King, but it is Masahiro Takashima who really commands the screen as Lord Chang. Yet, the surprise star might be Masami Nagasawa, who steals scenes and shows off impressive action chops as Yang Duan He, the chieftain of the Hill People.

Even in Japanese wuxia movies like Kingdom, we still get a triumphant celebration of the forcible unification of China, which seems rather unnecessary. Nevertheless, the whole point of the film is the fight scenes and action coordinator Yuji Shimomura does not disappoint. This is exactly the kind of film that made action fans fall in love with martial arts cinema in the first place. Very highly recommended, Kingdom opens August 16^th in the U.S. and Canada, following its screening at this year’s Fantasia.

Moon In The Hidden Woods (2019) Fantasia 2019

In a world where the moon has gone missing a princess who is the heir to a great power flees the castle into the city where she meets a young musician who rescues her from her pursuers and takes her back to his village. Pursued by the creepy older guy who wants to marry her so an evil force can take over the world conflict soon occurs.

Visually impressive but narratively  unremarkable (hence the bland telling) MOON IN THE HIDDEN WOODS will delight you with all the cool visuals and small details, while making you wish the filmmakers had been as creative with their story as the visuals.

I loved att the strange creatures that wander through the film. I also really loved the sense of place the world creates. All of the differing locations feel well thought out. Everything integrates and makes sense both together and separately. That may not sound like much but most films have cool things that make no sense when put together. 

The Korean folktale vibe is also really well done. While I suspect it could be argued that the folktale basis of things is the reason for the story's twists and turns, I don't think the slow middle section is the fault of basing the film on the structure. Indeed the fact the film begins and ends like gangbusters gives and indication of what the film could have been had it not wanted to stall and show so much of village life. Because the film slows down we can use the folktale plotting to work out how this is going to go and it takes an edge off the excitement.

Regardless the film looks great and when the film is firing on all cylinders it can't be beat. Recommended for those who love cool animated worlds.

Joe Bendel on The Lodge (2019) Fantasia 2019

Step-parenting is always a tricky proposition, but it is especially so for Grace. As the sole survivor of a suicidal death cult, she has sort of already lost one “family.” Her prospective stepson and stepdaughter are less than thrilled to welcome her into their family. It is hard to form a conclusive judge about them or her in Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala’s The Lodge, which screens during the Fantasia.

Grace’s father was the charismatic leader of an apocalyptic Christian cult that committed mass-suicide Hale-Bopp-style. She was left behind to tell their tale, like the characters left standing at the end of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Should that make us trust her more or less?

Regardless, Richard fell for her hard while writing a retrospective piece on the cult. Aidan and Mia were already seriously unhappy with his decision to take up with Grace, but when their mother Laura is suddenly ushered out of the movie, Grace becomes the focus of their hard feelings. Hoping to bring peace to their awkward family unit, Richard books a getaway vacation at an isolated mountain lodge. Right, what could go wrong—aside from Richard getting called back to work just before a severe storm cuts off Grace and the two resentful children from the outside world?

Maybe Grace is a victim in all this, or maybe not, but either way, her cult backstory is massively creepy. Franz & Fiala frequently return to images of the mass suicide, which are especially disturbing, because they deliberately emulate news footage of the Heaven’s Gate cult. It is arguably exploitative, but undeniably effective.

In fact, The Lodge is consistently unsettling because of its uncertainties, starting first and foremost with the true nature of Grace’s character. Riley Keough’s subtle, ambiguous performance gives viewer plenty to support any interpretation. Likewise, as Aidan and Mia, Jaeden Lieberher and Lia McHugh make two of the most suspicious and intense kids to appear on film since the off-the-rails twins in Franz & Fiala’s Goodnight Mother.

If you want to get technical, there are probably some serious logical issues within The Lodge, but Franz & Fiala’s command of mood and atmosphere is so strong, we don’t even notice in the moment. The chills are further heightened by Thimios Bakatakis’s appropriately icy cinematography. However, the recurring use of a dollhouse motif is probably a mistake, because it automatically brings to mind comparisons to Ari Aster’s Hereditary. Recommended for fans of high-end horror, The Lodge screens July 31 at Fantasia.

Depraved (2019) Fantasia 2019

DEPRAVED frustrates me. It is so damn close to being a great film I want to scream. It is at times one of the most thoughtful riffs on Frankenstein you'll run across and at others its just an okay inde film.

A young man leaves his girlfriend after a fight. As he walks the streets he is set upon by an unknown person and stabbed to death. Waking up in a new body and unsure of who he is Adam has to relearn what it is to be human as well as deal with Henry his creator and the madness of Polidori his "assistant". As Adam learns more about who he is and how he came to be the stage is set for a grand tragedy.

Writer director Larry Fessenden has made a intriguing film. Updating Mary Shelley's tale to modern day Brooklyn, he shades it  not just with a mad genius trying to usurp god but with thoughts of trying to help those left broken by war. Henry's trying to heal those killed and hurt in our current wars. In doing so he truly makes us debate the notion of what Henry is doing on a more practical level than almost any other version of the tale.

This being a  Frankenstein film we also get the requisite riffs on what it means to be human and the struggle to truly discover who we really are. Fessenden's takes have unexpected resonances and get the mind working in ways that most of us haven't considered before.

This is also a film that is often visually delightful. There are short montages and overlays that  add a sense of what Adam is thinking. Adams look is also incredible. While I'm uncertain about how or why some of the scars are there it still looks impressive.

As much as I like the film there are things that bother me.

While I appreciate Fessenden treating the proceedings almost as if it is a drama, the tone of the film never quite feels right. There is a strange lack of suspense because on some level we know how this is going to go. As a result there is a lack of engagement as I was intellectually invested but not emotionally.

I'm also not sure about the Polidori character. The dark soul pushing Henry and events, he is the one character who seems out of place.Where pretty much everyone else seems, for the most part, to be or could be a real person (and I am including Adam) Polidori feels out of place. I don't know if it is the performance or the role, but he feels like he exists simply to push events along. It weakens things more than it should.

The film also has a problem with pacing. The film feels every one of it's 115 minutes with some bits feeling a little too long. There was a point around the half way point when I realized that there was still another hour to go. It's never fatal but it gave me time to think about some of the problems of the film instead of being carried past them by the momentum of events.

Don't think I hate the film, I don't, but I am frustrated because what is here is good enough that I should have loved it instead of just liking it.

Worth a look for fans of thoughtful rethinks of classic tales

The Slows (2018) Fantasia 2019

Nicole Perlman’s THE SLOWS is a good science fiction film.

Set in a future where normal reproduction has been replaced with a scientific method where children are accelerated to adulthood, THE SLOWS follows an reporter who goes to the last place where people reproduce naturally. Once there she is forced to ponder what we have lost by not doing it in the old fashioned way.

While THE SLOWS is a solid little film, it breaks no real new ground. odds are any scifi fan worth their salt will have run across any number of similar post-apocalyptic tales  or ones that ponder what it is to be human. Despite not breaking new ground it is an entertaining short film that tells it’s story compellingly.

Worth a look.

Why Don't You just Die (2019) Fantasia 2019

This blood soaked black comedy is an insane cartoon that will make you wonder what the hell is going on. I mean that in a good way because this is a one of a kind poisoned confection that will make you laugh even as it makes you wince.

The film opens with a twenty something young man arriving at the home of his girlfriends parents. We know he is there for an evil purpose by the way he grips the hammer he is hiding behind his back. The purpose is to kill his girlfriend's father, a large evil police detective that no one much likes. However things go wrong from the outset and before long blood is flowing.

If this had been played straight this would have been a totally unbearable film. The gruesomeness and the dark turns would have made for an ugly film that would be well into the realm of torture porn. However director Kirill Sokolov manages to hit the sweet spot tone wise with the result the film plays more like a blood soaked Roadrunner cartoon or a live action Itchy and Scratchy comic. I went into the film expecting to be hiding my eyes instead I was simply tense with anticipation that was often released by the laughter.

This film is a happy little trip into the heart of mankind's darkness and we are better for it.

While absolutely not for all tastes WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE is highly recommended for anyone who likes sick and twisted comedies and doesn't mind the blood.

Shooting the Mafia (2019) Fantasia 2019

When I ask “what is SHOOTING THE MAFIA doing at Fantasia?” I don’t mean it as a slap. It is more a question of what is a film that belongs at festivals such as New York, Toronto or DOC NYC doing at a genre festival? I’ll be hard pressed to know but I really don’t care because it put the film on my radar and yours as well.

The film is a portrait of photographer Letizia Battaglia who over the last several decades has chronicled life in and around her town in Italy and whose photos became a means of chronicling the death and destruction that the Mafia was doing to all levels of society. A fighter for social justice she became a recognizable presence at various protests with her bright red hair.

Transcending being just a film about a photographer and her work, SHOOTING THE MAFIA is in reality a history of Italy during the life and career of Letizia Battaglia. Through her photographs and her memories we are walked through history for the last three or four decades. Its an eye opening journey that makes this a truly great film.

If you are at Fantasia and want something that is a kind of palate cleanse from all the genre madness this is a must. If you are not at Fantasia this is a film to put on your must see list since I’m guessing that this is going to end up at many of the big late year festivals and even possibly in the mix for the Oscar.

SHOOTING THE MAFIA played earlier tonight and replays July 25th. for tickets and more information go here

Fantasia ’19: Extreme Job

Being a small businessman is not so different from being a cop. Both have a tough time making ends meet and the bottom-feeding media is only too happy to score cheap points against either. At least independent proprietors can be their own boss. That is why narcotics team leader Go will be tempted to make it permanent when he goes undercover as a purveyor of fried chicken in Lee Byeong-heon’s Extreme Job, which screens again during the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Go’s team made a real hash of their last case, so if they do not rack up some high-profile collars quickly, they are likely to be disbanded. The five misfit cops decide to follow a rival squad leader’s tip, staking out long-suspected drug kingpin Lee Moo-bae’s new hideout. There is definitely illegal business going on behind closed doors, but the chicken shop they have been using to monitor Lee’s gang is about to go out of business. In the spirit of all or nothing, Go uses his pension fund to buy it out.

Of course, they will have to sell some chicken to keep up appearances. Oddly enough, Det. Ma, the compulsive gambler and general foul-up, happens to have a knack with chicken. In fact, his chicken with rib marinade becomes a foodie sensation. Suddenly, Go and his team are too busy filling orders to do much police work, which frustrates the hard-charging veteran and the idealistic newbie. However, things take a surprise turn when the media starts nosing around.

Extreme Job is one of the relatively rare South Korean comedies that translates quite well for American audiences. Of course, it does not hurt that there is quite a bit of action, including a massive beatdown climax. However, it really works because Lee Byeong-heon and screenwriter Bae Se-young take a clever premise and fully develop it. They do not simply milk a few chuckles out of the prospect of cops distracted by their own chicken-slinging cover. This Macguffin takes on a life of its own.

It is also amusing to see Ryu Seung-ryong, the grizzled star of films like The Target, The War of the Arrows, and The Front Line, playing such a sad-eyed, snake-bit underdog. He still shows off plenty of action chops down the stretch. Although he is more than a bit annoying at first, rubber-faced Jin Seon-kyu also develops some roguish charm as the culinary-skilled Ma.

Thanks to the game cast (Go’s Fab Five), Extreme Job has quite a bit of genial charm. It is easy to see why it broke Korean box office records and has Kevin Hart kicking the tires of a potential American remake. It is just a lot of easy-going fun, somewhat in the spirit of the original Beverly Hills Cop and Stakeout movies. Recommended for fans of cop comedies, Extreme Job screens again next Wednesday (7/31), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

Ariela Rubin on House of Hummingbird (2019) Fantasia 2019

This film takes place in 1994 in Seoul. It is a story about a 14 year old girl named Eun-hee. Her family is quite dysfunctional. Both parents are so cold and absent. Her mom seems to be in a daze more than half the time. Her brother is violent towards her, and the parents don’t care. Her sister has somewhat rebelled and isn’t around much. Her teacher calls the kids idiots. Kids in school laugh, and make fun of her. She loves drawing comics. She does have a best friend from a different school. She spends time with her by going to karaoke and roaming around. Eun-hee winds up having a health scare and has to go to the hospital.

Eun-hee is looking for love. She has an on again, off again boyfriend, and then meets a girl who has a crush on her.

Eun-hee doesn’t really have anyone to talk to, until a new understanding teacher arrives. The scenes with the two of them were sweet.

The writer and director wrote this film based on her own experiences of growing up in Seoul in the 90’s.

I enjoyed this sort of coming of age film. The girl who played Eun-hee was sweet, and cute. This film was also sad, it seemed as though nothing could go right for her.

House of Hummingbird is 2 hrs and 18 minutes, and while I enjoyed it, I definitely think it could have been a little shorter. It’s a slow paced film, that really spends time showing the daily life of Eun-hee.

I recommend it!

BLISS (2019) Fantasia 2019

This is a repost of a review that ran during Tribeca

A painter of some note has stalled on her commissions and has them pulled from her. As the landlord comes calling she retreats into a series of drug fueled parties. After one wild outing she finds herself craving blood.

Alternately brilliant and annoying BLISS is a film that confounded me. While possessing some wonderfully off-kilter and disturbing moments and a great central killer performance by Dora Madison the film would seem to be poised to be a horror classic. However the shrill soundtrack, annoying characters and a sense we've been here before prevents the film from truly flying. Yes the carnage, when it comes is well handled but it takes a while before it comes and we are left to cope with some annoying hipster characters we really don't like doing things we don't care about.

If that sounds like I don't know what I feel about the film you would be right, I don't. The film is really too all over the spectrum to really get a handle on.

Should you see it?  I'm not sure, so I guess you're on your own.

Money (2019) Fantasia 2019

Super little thriller played around the US earlier this year and now is playing at Fantasia concerns a young stockbroker who make a deal with a shadowy source called The Ticket for tips. When the regulators come calling The Ticket decides to close up shop and take care of loose ends.

Beautifully acted by some of the best actors in Korea MONEY is a smart little film that grabs you and drags you along. The cast works perfectly with the script so that the technical talk never over whelms the drama. We are invested in what is happening.

How good is MONEY? The fact that the film is being picked up by festivals like Fantasia and NYAFF even after it's run earlier this year is a good indication of a fan base that wants to have this film get the recognition it deserves. I couldn't agree more.

Highly recommended.

Fantasia ’19: Ride Your Wave

This case of young love is so sweet it could put you into a diabetic coma, but since it comes via anime, most of us will be okay with it. Hinako Mukaimizu and Minato Hinageshi are an obscenely cute couple, but their romance will be mixed with tragedy in Masaaki Yuasa’s Ride Your Wave, which had its North American premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Mukaimizu is already a legend on a surf board, but she is uncomfortable navigating life on dry land. In contrast, everything seems to come easily to Hinageshi, the dashing young fireman, except surfing. Both Hinageshi and his junior, Kawamura Wasabi, noticed Mukaimizu from afar, but it is Hinageshi who turns her head. Of course, he was at the right place, at the right time: rescuing her from her burning apartment building, on a fire department cherry-picker.

Things get serious quickly between them, but their happiness will be rudely interrupted by misfortune. Yet, somehow, they maybe find a way to stay together. In fact, there is a bit of a fantastical twist. Meanwhile, Wasabi and Hinageshi’s sister Yoko start playing larger roles in the drama.

Thematically, Ride Your Wave feels like a closer cousin to Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice than Yuasa’s previous films, even including Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Regardless, it packs an emotional haymaker that rivals Your Name. This is definitely the kind of film that will give you the sniffles down the stretch. Yes, it is shamelessly sentimental, but it also lays a lot of character development ground work that pays off big time.

Yuasa’s aquatic motifs give him the opportunity for some delightfully colorful and splashy visuals. His “new adult” characters are also ridiculously attractive, as physical specimens and as sensitive young kids. However, Michiru Oshima’s groovy instrumental soundtrack and Generations from Exile Tribe’s candy-coated J-pop theme song really make the film so lethally effective.

It is refreshing to see a film that is so unabashedly romantic and utterly unapologetic about wearing its emotions on its sleeve. The surf and sun might bring to mind the 1960s Japanese “Sun Tribe” movies for some cineastes, but the earnest characters are a welcome rebuke to the sociopaths of Crazed Fruit and its ilk. This is a wholesome film, just like Mukaimizu (and surfer girls like Gidget and Annette Funicello before her). Highly recommended for fans of Japanese animation and beach movies, Ride Your Wave had its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

The Prey (2018) Fantasia 2019

An undercover agent who is trying to bust a ring of scammers targeting Chinese nationals in Cambodia is arrested in a police raid. Convicted and sent to prison he gets on the wrong side of the warden who tortures him before sending him out to be the prey for rich hunters who pay a fortune so they can hunt humans.

Riff on the classic story Most Dangerous Game, is a solid, enjoyable ,if unremarkable action film. Certain to entertain pretty much every action fan, the film is a series fights that become largely hunter becomes hunted in the final hour.

While I enjoyed the hell out of the film I never quite loved it the way I probably could have or should have. Blame it on the lack of real characters, the odd pacing and some odd twists, say the burning of a stack of bodies on what amounts to little more than a campfire, that prevented me from taking THE PREY deep into my heart.

On the other hand the film does have some kick ass marriages of music and image, the use of songs is truly some of the best I've seen all year, and of course the action sequences are certain to produce frequent audience reactions.

THE PREY played earlier today at Fantasia. It is almost certain to end up on Netflix or another streaming service where if it is highly recommended for anyone wanting a really good film for a Saturday night.

Fantasia ’19: It Comes

Hereditary’s Ari Aster cannot hold a candle to Tetsuya Nakashima when it comes to portraying extreme human emotions. Technically, this is his first outright horror movie, but aesthetically, it is not so far distant from films like Confessions and Memories of Matsuko. The only thing more intense then the family dysfunction in his latest work is the supernatural horror looming over Nakashima’s It Comes, which had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Newlyweds Hideki and Kana Tahara look like a picture-book couple, but there was a strange incident from his childhood that continues to haunt his dreams and subconscious. There is a sinister force out there that still “calls out” to him. The birth of his daughter Chisa was a happy event for the couple and their friends, but it might provide an opening for the ominous supernatural power to get its hooks into the nuclear family.

When wild things start happening around him, Tahara reaches out to Kazuhiro Nozaki, an expert on the occult, and his girlfriend, Makoto Higa, a self-taught psychic. However, the uncanny entity is too powerful for her to handle. Much to her chagrin, the Tahara family will need the help of Higa’s arrogant older sister Kotoko, a professional exorcist highly trained in the shamanistic arts. Then you-know-what happens—a lot of it.

It Comes is a heck of a wild ride. It starts on a micro level, but Nakashima quickly takes it macro, staging bigger and more-over-the-top horror movie exorcisms than you have ever seen before. There are also multiple shocking surprises in store for viewers. In fact, we start out assuming it is about one set of characters, but it really turns out to be about an entirely different group of folks. It Comes morphs into a very different film than what you expect, but that makes it genuinely surprising, almost (but not quite) like seeing Hitchcock’s Psycho again for the first time.

Takako Matsu, who rocked Nakashima’s Confessions, commands the screen as Kotoko Higa, portraying a psychic exorcist distinctive enough to rival Lin Shaye in the Insidious franchise. Jun’ichi Okada really sells the film’s extreme madness, convincingly playing Nozaki as the character is dragged sideways through the proverbial wringer. Nana Komatsu and Haru Kuroki, as Makoto and Kana, respectively, also convincingly shift gears multiple times over, completely keeping viewers off balance.

This is a scary film and an insane spectacle. It is also Nakashima’s best film since Confessions, representing a rebound after the comparatively disappointing World of Kanako. Enthusiastically recommended for fans of films like Hereditary, Insidious, and The Conjuring, It Comes premiered in Canada during this year’s Fantasia.

Nate Hood on Demolition Girl (2019) Japan Cuts 2019

The plight of sex workers has always been a constant undercurrent in Japanese cinema, from the outrageous and lurid like Sion Sono’s deconstructionist Roman Porno Antiporno (2016) to the restrained and nuanced like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s family drama Shoplifters (2018). Genta Matsugami’s Demolition Girl is also about a sex worker, but this time it explores a specific fetish industry which has heretofore been largely unexplored in movies: crushing, the smashing of insects and small animals beneath the feet of scantily clad women.

Not that Cocoa—a high schooler trapped in a nowhere town with a widowed gambling addict father and moocher older brother—ever goes that far in her own videos: she restricts herself to flattening old cans, bottles, and plastic toys while dressed in her schoolgirl uniform. Sometimes she might get a little crazier and smush a raw sausage or a birthday cake between her naked toes. But the furthest she’s ever gone was a video where she snuck into her school after-hours and massaged a bunch of balloons with her toes until they popped. If she’s bothered by the thought of perverts getting off on her work, she doesn’t show it. With two deadbeat leeches at home to support, she needs the money. Besides, she reasons, it’s not like she’s getting naked or having sex. But such nuance will ultimately prove irrelevant in Matsugami’s quietly powerful tale of economic desperation, familial strife, and societal ostracism. Cocoa’s dull life is rocked when she’s told by a school advisor that her grades are good enough to get her into a national university where the tuition will be a mere ¥3 million (about $27,600). Realizing this might be her ticket out of her humdrum life, she scrambles to collect as much money as possible. After discovering her father gambled away the ¥1 million her mother saved for her college, she doubles down on her crushing videos to raise the funds needed for entrance fees.

Matsugami is very careful not to condemn or judge Cocoa’s decisions, presenting her as the victim of economic injustice and familial neglect. However, Matsugami overplays himself in the last act by introducing a head-scratching yakuza subplot which sees Cocoa confront a group of murderous gangsters at a junkyard with a pickaxe. Despite making sense in context, this artificial raising of stakes keeps the film from reaching greater heights as an incisive, sympathetic work of humanism.

Rating: 7/10

Demolition Girls will also be screening July 29th as part of Fantasia Fest in Montreal

J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius (2019) Fantasia 2019

I should probably come clean and say that I have been an outlier of the Church of the SubGenius for decades. While I have not been a dues paying card carrying member I have bought the books and drunk the Kool-Aid while looking for Slack in my own way. I say this at the start so that you may better gauge my absolute delight at this joyous little film.

The film is a portrait of the legendary Church of the Subgenius, the half put on, half serious organization that seeks to help people find Slack through the teachings of the great Bob Dobbs. Told by the people behind the church as well as followers, fans and people who were there when things went down the film is a breezy, often extremely funny film about an organization and way of thinking that has quietly influenced the world over the last 40 plus years. (That last line is true since the Church has had fans from across the pop culture spectrum who have integrated church teaching in their art- as the film reveals). The Church which talks of how the conspiracy of normalcy is out to control us is a haven for non-conformists, who frequently and good naturedly, rebel against the Church (as someone says if there wasn’t a schism is the church the church would create one)

I absolutely love this film which no doubt will become a sacred relic to the Church of the SubGenius. It parts the curtain on an organization I have been a fan of ever since I ran across them in the late 70’s or early 80’s. I watched with a big grin on my face the whole time…

…on the other hand I’m going to be very curious how this is going to play to the non-converted. How is this going to play to people who know nothing about the Church? I’m not sure. From a financial stand point I think it matters but ultimately, I think the film is going to be like the Church teachings, either you get it or you don’t. If you get it then the film is for you. If you don’t then it’s your loss.

One of the great films at Fantasia and the year. J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius is highly recommended.