SO Unreal (2023) Fantastic Fest

Narrated by Debbie Harry this is  look the history of cyber cinema and how technology was viewed over the years.  Interesting to a point, I’m not certain that the film adds up to much.

More essay than documentary this is a film that is going to have any well versed film fan arguing with the screen. This is very much Amanda Kramer’s take on things and while that’s all well and good, I’m not certain that she is always right. I kept talking to the screen making the people around me shush me for much of it’s running time.

I suspect that part of the problem is the narration which is delivered in a low key way that is intentionally mechanical. I initially thought it was a machine voice and then I saw Harry’s name.

While not bad, it’s just not that interesting.

What You Wish For (2023) FrightFest 2023 Fantastic Fest 2023

Director Nicholas Tomnay has made a film that is going to be best the less you know. It's a film where the big picture is almost as shocking as the twists and turns. The result of Tomnay's plotting is a film that is very hard to review lest I give away a twist or two.

The plot of the film has a down on his luck chef, played by Nick Stahl, going to see his former roommate from culinary school in Central America. The roommate works as a chef for the wealthy flying into a city, preparing a meal and flying out. Circumstances occur and Stahl finds himself standing in for his friend. However as things go on the situation goes sideways.

Suspense mixes with black comedy as Tomnay milks the situation for all it's worth. He is playing games with his audience who he suspects might be trying to get ahead of him, but more times then not he manages to surprise us with an unexpected wrinkle. The film becomes a game of double cat and mouse as we are caught up in what is happening to the characters on screen, as well as with the games the filmmakers are playing with us. It's a lot of fun.

It's all a lot of fun. 

Is the film perfect? No, but it is a blast. The problem is that as good as Tomnay's plotting is he kind of twists things just a bit too much. It's not fatal but there was a moment for me when the tension broke. I was still invested in seeing where it was going but instead of leaning forward in my seat and groaning with each turn, instead I leaned back watching and eating popcorn.

Regardless of my quibble this is a hell of a ride.

Recommended.

Daughter of the Sun (2023) Fantasia 2023

A Hildie and her fatherm Sonny, are forever on the run. Adding a classmate of Hildie's, the family they end up making the acquaintance of some new friends. For the first time they think that perhaps they have found a home. However, neither Hildie nor her father are aware that they are actually after her father's hidden power.

This second film in writer, director and star Ryan Ward's trilogy that began with SON OF THE SUNSHINE in 2009, is at times one of the best films you'll see this year. The film has frequent sequences that are some of the most lyrically beautiful sequences I've seen all year (maybe ever). There is a wisdom and magic in the tale that will absolutely move your soul. 

The trouble is the film has some problems that keep it from being the best of the best. The first is the construction of the narrative. As good as the sequences and characters are, the problem is that the narrative thread is one we've seen before any number of times. Granted most times this sort of story has the child being the person being hunted, but outside of flipping the daughter for the father there is nothing narratively new here. The other problem is the pacing. While the 117 minute run time allows for the creation of lyric sequences and the shading of characters, the pace of things is such that we have too much time to realize that we were here before.

My quibbles aside I really do like the film. I'm bitching about the film because so much of this film is so amazingly good, nay great, that I want the whole film to match the wonderfulness of the individual sequences.

Should you see this? Oh hell yea. If you love movies you need to see this, since so much of this will make you feel good.

And don't worry about not seeing the first film. I had no idea it was a second in a series until after I saw the film.

Two Fantasia 2023 Shorts: Se dit d'un cerf qui quitte son bois and Sweet Tooth

Se dit d'un cerf qui quitte son bois

Sick twisted tale is a a kind of modern day Logan's Run as the younger generation kills the old folks in an effort to make sure that things remain fresh.

This is a sick twisted tale with a biting sense of humor. Its a film that not only is poisoned confection but also is a biting satire about a society that values the young over the old.

Recommended.

Sweet Tooth 
When a working class woman takes her daughter to her job working for a rich family her daughter is sent to play with the child of the house...it was a bad idea.

Class war in the play room is a dark little confection. Its a film that reveals how bad behavior starts young. Its a film that is going to make you squirm and keep you mouth clamped tightly shut.

If you want to feel uneasy- this film is for you.

As Long As We Both Shall Live (2023) Fantasia 2023

One of the truly most unexpected delights of the year is  AS LONG AS WITH BOTH SHALL LIVE. Based on the first book in a series of novels, it’s a film that had me hoping for a sequel twenty minutes in. I had no idea if the film was going to tank, but I didn’t care I wanted to know where this was going for the long haul.

Set in an alternate Japan where magically powered families control the country, Miyo, a young noble woman with no powers is betrothed to the young son of another family. She has been pushed aside by her step mother and younger sister and in her view anything, even death, is better than where she was. Her fiancé, Kiyoka, is rumored to be a monster. All the other women set for an arranged marriage fled in terror from him. As she melts his heart she gives her strength to live.

While a good chunk of the film concerns the the romance, the rest of the film is a political thriller. The families are playing power games with each other in the hope of gaining control, meanwhile a dark force is threatening the capitol. It would seem the only ones capable of stopping it is Kiyoka and Miyo.

I love this film. I love it on a technical level  and I love it on an emotional level. I love that the film not only gives us great characters but also gives us a fully realized world and a series of problems that hold our attention and pull us along. The fact that the film gets the balance exactly right is what makes this film so great. Too many times  adaptions or films that cross genres do fail to get the balance of tones or genres correctly. They either lean too much into the romance or into the politics and something is lost. In bad films we get to the end intellectually knowing how we got there but not emotionally. Here the balance is spot on perfect and as a result we are properly moved emotionally and truly feel the characters earned our love. Additionally what happens politically feels organic and not like the moves of the screenwriter.

This is wondrous stuff. It’s films like this that made me fall in love with the art form.

An absolute must see.

IT LIVES INSIDE (2023) Fantasia 2023

 IT LIVES INSIDE is a scary film.

The story of a young woman who ends up with a jar with a demon inside it will scare the crap out of you. It’s one of the few recent horror films where I enjoyed the hell out of it, but seriously had to question if I really wanted to go back to that dark place again. (That’s a rave)

The film follows Samidha  a teen aged girl who is trying to survive high school. Growing up in a traditional Indian home her parents have certain expectations which make her trying to make time with a cute guy difficult.  One day she meets her  friend Tamira who seems off. She is carrying a sealed jar. Inside the jar is demon and it keeps talking to Tamira, telling her it wants to feed on blood. Of course the demon gets loose and you can guess what happens.

This is a waking nightmare of a film. Its film that hooks us with great characters and then slowly begins to ratchet up the suspense and terror  as the demon makes its presence felt early and often.  Blame director Boshal Dutta for creating one hell of  a thrill ride. While the fact that the story is rooted in Indian mythology, something most of us haven’t had any experience with, the truth is the power is Dutta’s filmmaking.  Creating images and sonic  spaces filled with oppression we are disoriented. He moves objects and people in ways that both look natural and horrifying impossible. People are not supposed to bend like that. What we see on screen is the work of a cinematic master who understands how to get under your skin. If this is his first time out of the gate what are we going to experience down the line?

The images haunted my dreams the night after I saw the film.

This film is going to disturb the hell out of you.

IT LIVES INSIDE is Dutal’s feature debut and a notice to the horror community that a new dark lord is scratching at the door.

Sometimes I think About Dying (2023) Fantasia 2023

I had a very hard time watching SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING. It is not because it was bad but because I related to Daisey Ridley’s character way too much.

The plot of the film has quiet loner Ridley going through her day not connecting with anyone. Periodically she feels it would be better if she just died. Things become complicated when she meets the new guy at work. He is out going and friendly. He loves movies. They begin drifting in each other’s orbit.  The question is can she open up enough to him to make a relationship work?

There is a problem with the film and it has nothing to do with the film itself but the casting. As good as Daisey Ridley is, and she is really good, her role as Rey in the Star Wars films results in it taking a while before we full except Ridley as a bookish person. Try as she might she some times is too erect to be a downtrodden person. Ridley is really good, and by the time the final scene comes she’s breaking your heart, but there is no way I can not mention her being one of a generation’s heroes didn’t affect how I felt about the film.

Ridley’s ever so slight miscasting aside, this is a kick ass film. I utterly and completely related to what she was going through. It was in fact a painful experience because was cringing at some of the things that happened because I did and said and felt similar things. There is a late in the game line about wondering if the other person wished that they didn’t know her damn near broke me. This film is exactly what it’s like to be an introvert with uneven social skills.

The film also has some killer moments not wholly focused on Ridley. There is a moment late in the game meeting with one of the ladies who retired and went off to do great things only to find life interfered. The moment is one of the most poignant and truth full in any films I’ve seen in years. The brief monologue about life and a stroke was spot on and said volumes about how things happen. I ended up babbling about it to no one into the next scene. There are several others, but I will leave those to you to discover.

While I love that this film is playing Fantasia, it’s an excellent film, the truth is it’s programing is slightly a misnomer. This is simply a solid drama and not something, outside of the casting, belongs at a genre festival.

This film will move you, and if you are like me it might break you.

Recommended

Mad Fate (2023) Fantasia 2023 NYAFF 2023

The life a fortune teller goes horribly wrong after he tries to change the fate of a young woman destined to die. It doesn’t work and he finds his life in free fall and connected to a young man with mental issues and a serial killer who is being hunted by a relentless cop.

Belt in boys and girls and prepare for a film unlike any other.  It’s the result of director Soi Cheang (ACCIDENT, MOTORWAY, LIMBO) collaborating with Johnnie To and screenwriter Yau Nai-Hoi (RUNNING ON KARMA, THROW DOWN, BLIND DETECTIVE) to make a film that is quite simply unlike anything you’ve experienced outside the work of the trilogy of filmmakers. A mix of genres including horror, action, drama, comedy and a few others, this is a film that doesn’t behave in any expected ways. If you hate predictable films this film is for you. I say that because twenty minutes in I stopped trying to second guess what was going on and just went with it.

This film may not always make perfect sense (the filmmakers are notorious for that sometimes), but God damn it is compelling. You simply will not be able to look away from the screen because you will have to know how this all plays out.

Wow. Wow and wow.

Easily one of the best films at Fantasia and NYAFF, not only because it’s a film that will have you on the edge of your seat, but also because it is a film that forces you to engage with it on multiple levels whether you want to or not.

Highly recommended.

Transylvanie (2023) Fantasia 2023

TRANSYLVANIE is one of the truly great films of the year with what maybe one of the top endings for a film I've ever seen...

Seriously.

The film is the story of a young girl who thinks she has been turned into a vampire. She is praying to her dark lord for the ability to have her first human victim and to turn someone into a companion for eternity. 

And that's all I'm going to say, except that while the film may make you think of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN  or MARTIN, by the end you will know with absolute certainty that this film is absolutely it's own glorious thing.

This is as good as filmmaking gets.

A must see where ever you can

Blackout (2023) Fantasia 2023

 

Larry Fessenden returns to the director’s chair with the story of an alcoholic artist who begins to think that his blackouts may be harboring something sinister…perhaps he is a werewolf and is the one responsible for the trail of dead bodies in his small town.

The films that Larry Fessenden has directed over the years fascinate me. While I can nitpick some of the choices he makes, I am absolutely enamored of the fact that no one makes films like he does. This is especially true of any “genre directors” who always try to keep their films within the lines of whatever genre they are working. Fessenden doesn’t do that; he’ll frequently leave the genre by the side of the road for a while until it’s time to wander back and pick it up again.

You have to hand it to Mr. Fessenden, he is a man who making the films he wants to be making and dealing with the themes he feels are important. I love that he seems to be doing what he wants to do even if it doesn't always seem like it should be in his genre film. No one is making films like his and we are poorer for it (hell he doesn't direct enough). Honestly, I love that he is mixing things up and using genre to bring people into the discussion of themes and idea that he feels are important. His seeming “B” films, highlight the discussions of important ideas, like corruption, or climate change (in LAST WINTER) or notions of self (in DEPRAVED) which are headier and better thought out than most “A” or even art house films. I am always curious what Fessenden directs because I know we are not going to get anything that we expect.

Such is the case of BLACKOUT. Billed as a werewolf movie, the film begins with a werewolf attack, the film the film frequently forgets there is a monster on the loose for character study of the main character and an examination of corporate greed and small-town politics. Come in at the wrong point and you wouldn't know it's a horror film. Then, just as we begin to wonder what is happening the werewolf pops up , almost as if to say: “remember me?”  The drifting nature makes for an uneven viewing experience since it isn’t always clear what we are supposed to be feeling, but it keeps us thinking.

While I like much of BLACKOUT the uneven nature of the parts keeps me from truly loving it.  Yes, all of the pieces are good (well most of the pieces, there are a couple of bumpy dialog passages) but they don’t always fit together neatly. We can feel the gears shifting as Fessenden throws something else into the mix of things he’s juggling. This isn’t fatal, it’s more you wonder how the fish got mixed into the various balls he has in the air. The result is a film I like more than love. (Though I still love what he’s trying to do.) Actually, the one thing that the film left me with is desire for a more straight forward werewolf movie in the old school style.

While I am mixed on the film, I still think it, like all of Fessdenden’s films, is worth seeing, simply because they are unlike anything else out there.

RIVER (2023) Fantasia 2023

Junta Yamaguchi, who​ burst on the scene with the single take time loop film BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES, returns with the even better RIVER. Not told in a single take, the film tells the story of a small inn by a river which suddenly gets trapped in a two minute time loop.

No, you have not been here before. Yes, the set-up is similar to any number of time travel films, however the reality is this film is something completely different. Yamaguchi may repeat time, but everyone on screen is aware that time is repeating and try to sort it out. Also where and how it goes is completely unexpected.

And that is all I am going to say about the twists and turns of the film because you just need to see this without any clue as to what happens.

This is a brilliant piece of filmmaking. While anyone who saw Yamaguchi's earlier film knows he can beautifully craft a looping narrative, what they will not know, but will soon find out as soon as they see RIVER, is that he can create magnificent characters. This film is full of absolutely wonderful people. Here is a film where everything that happens hinges on the characters, and because Yamaguchi has created such wonderful people and cast them to absolute perfection we not only buy everything we are seeing but we fall madly in love with them.  I was so enamored by the staff of the inn that when I finished the film I wantied to search the place out and spend a week or two there.

What I love about the film is that once the board is set and the game begins everything is structured in such a brilliant way that you find your self leaning more or and more into the proceedings. Partly because you have to see how they work things out, but mostly because you want to see how it’s done. Where Yamaguchi’s previous film might be a single take, this film is largely a series of two minute takes. It’s the same two minutes relived over and over again, but each one going differently. How are the characters going to move this time? I can only imagine that the cast and crew canceled their gym memberships during the filming of the film because they were constantly running. Seriously how did they do this? What sort of planning went into it. (If there is a making of video I want to see it)

This film is a blast and a half.

I absolutely love this film. This is the very definition of cinematic fun.

When the film was done and because the film only had a single Fantasia screening, and because I want you all to hunt the film down, I emailed Third Window who is handling the film to ask them what the release plan is for the film. I was told more festivals and eventual theatrical and home video release. That works for me because it means word of mouth will build and the film will find its audience.

One of the great films of 2023.  With it Junta Yamaguchi cements his place as place I  the fast track to being one of cinema’s up and coming masters.

THE KILLING ROMANCE (2023) NYAFF 2023 Fantasia 2023

Famous actress marries a controlling billionaire after one of her movies tanks. Seven years later his controlling nature and refusal to let her restart her career fester she decides to try and kill him. Enlisting the a fan who lives next door she tries to make it a reality only to find it all go sideways.

Semi-musical comedy noir satire is something you will love or hate. According to the post screening Q&A the film was so divisive of audiences in Korea it ended up losing money. I can completely understand that since some bits of the film play better than others. Indeed just as the film pulls it all together  near the end, it almost instantly loses it’s way with a couple of WTF turns.

While I freely admit the film was over sold to me going in, I did like the film. I don’t think I would have been over the moon regardless because I found it so uneven.

Actually the problem with the film is that according to the Q&A this “light” semi musical comedy started out life as a very dark domestic violence tale that was so dark director Lee Won-suk didn’t think he could handle it as written and lightened it up. The problem is that the character of Jonathan, though played for laughs, is still one of the most vile screen villains and a number of turns really aren’t funny, especially when you consider this was supposed to be a serious film. (And while I found out it was supposed to be serious after the fact, I was still bothered by turns.)

My reservations aside the film is worth seeing, especially if you want a film that isn’t like anything else.

Phantom (2023) NYAFF 2023 Fantasia 2023

PHANTOM is based on the novel THE SOUND OF THE WIND by Mai Jia. It was turned into the Chinese film THE MESSAGE in 2009 which was one of my favorite films I saw in 2011. That said there are enough tweaks that I didn’t realize it was the same story until it was mentioned in the post screening Q&A.

Set in occupied Korea, the film has five potential spies brought together by the Japanese in the hope of rooting out a spy organization. There was an attempt on the new Governor of the country and they suspect another is coming. They then grab people they suspect might be part of the organization of phantoms.

What starts as a spy film as the organization tries to set up the assassination;  turns into an Agatha Christie film as the Chinese try to figure out who the Phantom is; before blowing the doors off with a switch to crazy action. It’s a bumpy ride that fully hits the stride in the second half. I was confused at the start and fully engaged by the end.

The problem with the film at the start is the film is juggling a lot of balls. Setting up a lot of plot and even more characters, some of which appear and then disappear until later, things got left out. I wasn’t sure why we are seeing somethings at times. The reasoning as to why the five people are chosen by the Japanese is in no way clear except that the film focuses on them. Some people made sense and some people didn’t. I think this is why I didn’t pick up that this was a remake, there were details missing.

However once the film gets to a certain point, right about the time of a truly brutal fight scene, the film clicks and just goes straight on until the end. It’s a don’t you dare look away action thriller as the good guys try to get away from the bad guys without getting killed. Sure it isn’t perfectly plotted but you can’t look away.

The filmmaking here is magnificent. Yea the film goes for style over content at times but it works. The whole sequence in the rain outside the movie theater is pure cinematic sex  and shouldn’t work but some how it does. Other sequences don’t make logical sense but they look great.

If you want kick ass women taking charge and killing everyone with film is for you. All the women in this film are magnificent and I’d love to see another action film with them. And give the film bonus points for making the fact one of the women is a lesbian just a matter of fact. It’s just part of the film and as Lee Hanee said in the post film Q&A it results in her not being able to grieve for a lost lover as she should and it colors her whole character.

This film is great fun. I suspect it’s more fun in a theater than at home where the big picture and big sound will really let you feel you are part of the action in the second half

Recommended.

With Love and a Major Organ (2023) Fantasia 2023

In a world where everything is controlled by apps, and where you can control your emotions by simply removing your heart, a young woman removes her heart after a romantic mishap.  This turns her into a kind of emotionless drone, whose life becomes complicated when her heart is stolen.

Off beat romantic comedy is set in a world not so far removed from our own. Sure the idea of everything, including your heart, being controlled by an app on your phone may sound completely crazy, except that more and more everything is being controlled by apps on our phone.  What I love about the film is that it’s just different enough that I would love to spend an afternoon or two wandering abound inside it so that I could really see what it’s like. I say this because the world is beautifully constructed that we buy it without thinking. That may not sound like much but how often do you see a movie set and never forget it's a movie. Here we forget that this isn’t remotely reality, it’s just another story of life.

And that the film keeps it real is what makes the film so charming. Sure it’s about a literal stolen heart, the emotions and interactions are very human. This is a romantic comedy of a different sort and the fact that the film is purely focused on the character is what makes this work so well. We are seeing things, both the tropes of the genre and our genuine emotions through a different lens and as a result we are enlightened and engaged.

I was delighted.

This is a gem of a film destined for a long life.

Recommended

MOTHER LAND(2023) Fantasia 2023

Jaebeom Park’s MOTHER LAND is an epic animated fantasy set in the Siberian tundra. It tells the story of Krisha, a young girl who live on the tundra with her parents. When he mother is injured and doesn’t seem to be getting better she heads off to find the legendary red bear that she thinks can heal her mother. Along the way she battle the elements, wolves, her little brother (who stowed away) and Russian General intent on killing the bear himself.

The first Korean stop motion animated film in half a century, MOTHER LAND has it’s own unique feel. This isn’t the fantastic worlds of Lakia and Guillermo Del Toro but a more realistic take on things. The result is a film that feels closer to real and more magical in those special moments.

Running a breezy 69 minutes the film is wonderful gem of  a film that take its time setting everything up. Yes it takes a little bit before we are fully one with the film, but once the ground work is set we are fully rooted and willing to go, and more importantly believe everything we are seeing.

This is truly movie magic of the highest order.

Highly recommended.

A Disturbance In The Force (2023) Fantasia 2023

Ever wonder how the Star War Holiday Special got made? If so, and if not, this delightful documentary is going to explain what happened and why.

This is a great documentary. Made of new interviews, archival clips and lots of love, this is the story of the two hour variety special about the Star Wars gang going to Chewie’s home planet for Life Day. It’s a mix of schlocky story, variety numbers and a 12 minute cartoon that introduced Boba Fett and made him a cult character despite having almost no time in the actual films.

This is a 90 minute film about special that may have been made just to spite a studio executive who told Lucas that his film would be gone from theaters by September. Thrown together in the wild west days before Lucasfilm got a lock on the saga of Star Wars the show was an effort to keep Star Wars alive in the minds of fans (like that was going to happen). It resulted in something Lucas would prefer no one ever talk about, but which is canon in the hearts of pretty much everyone who is a fan, despite it being in the words of Lucas “so bad as to be kind of enjoyable”.

I had a blast watching this film. What I loved about it is that it puts the Special into the context of popular culture. It explains not only why and how the show happened but it also explains the marketing that made Star Wars what it is today. It’s a film that speaks to more than just Star Wars but our culture and society. It shows us how we got to here and why that happened.

While I think the Special is mostly awful it has some great bits in it (the cartoon), this doc is a blast. Made with love it’s a celebration of an outlier of something that is very much part of our cultural DNA that reveals it to be a key stone to understanding it. Best of all DISTURBANCE is just great fun on it’s own terms.

Recommended

Divinity (2023) Fantasia 2023

DIVINITY maybe coming out 50 years too late. This is a film that should have come out in the early 1970s when it could have played the midnight circuit and did a late night double feature with ERASERHEAD and broken everyone who saw it.

Then again maybe it's a good thing it waited until now to be released because this film is a trip.

The minimal plot has two bald brothers kidnapping a pharmaceutical mogul who sells Divinity. Divinity is a drug that stops aging and makes 97% of women who use it infertile. They want to put a stop to the madness. Meanwhile, a group of women in a bright void make their own plans to rescue humanity.

The plot and characters are a mere pretense for a series of stark black and white sequences that hook us draw us in. This is  a trip across a nightmarish landscape to the center of our souls. And while the film is trying to say something about society and the way we favor the young, the beautiful and are becoming more and more centered on ourselves, the reality is the film is more interested in creating a head space that alters our sense of reality.

It's this last bit - the head trip aspects of the film - that makes the film feel like a blood relative to David Lynch's first feature. Director Eddie Alcazar wants to make us feel that we are not only not in Kansas any more, but that we aren't even in Oz. We are somewhere darker. I know the film is getting noticed because Steven Soderbergh is connected to it, but the truth is this is Alcazar's baby and he should be getting all the credit. I can't see Soderburgh doing anything but making sure the film got made.

Is this a good or bad film? Honestly good or bad doesn't enter into it. This is an experience. It is something you experience to go somewhere else. It's a film that you see in the hope of changing how you see the world. This is not a film that is operating on an intellectual level but a visceral one. You can't objectively react to it because it's so primal and because to do so will result in picking the plot and details apart. This is all emotion and the film is having at you with hammer and tongs leaving to broken and bruised. It's a film that emotionally hits all the right buttons and leaves you staring at the screen at the end wondering what in the holy hell just happened while completely accepting that what just happened made absolute perfect sense.

This is a film that demands to be seen in a darkened theater with no distractions. More than any recent film this is not a film to watch on your phone because you need this twisted vision of the future to be larger than life and six times more ugly.

Highly recommended. This is a must see for anyone who loves the movies and wants to see what they can do.

Hundreds of Beavers (2023) Fantasia 2023

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS is the sort of film that Hollywood would never make. A black and white live action silent cartoon with synchronized sound and people in animal suits is not anything that any rational person in Hollywood would touch. Never mind that that THE ARTIST won, Hollywood doesn’t want to see this sort of thing.

On the other had  fans of Looney Tunes, Tex Avery, Bill Plympton, the Umbilical Brothers and other deranged animators and comedians are going to eat this up.

The plot of the film has a man named Jean --- who grows apples having his livelihood destroyed by beavers. Seeking revenge he decides them hunt them down for their fur. There is more to it of course, but it’s all told with a cartoon dream logic that is only possible in the movies.

This film is a blast.

This is the sort of hidden gem of a film that true film lovers search out. This is one of those films that end up being whispered about during it’s festival run as people stumble in and stagger out gob smacked at the marvelous thing they have just seen. They then go out and start telling anyone who will listen about this wondrous thing. In the old days this was the sort of thing that you’d have to hope a repertory theater would run, now we wait for the VOD drop. Though frankly you’ll want to catch this in a theater because… well trust me you will understand why when you see it.

What I love about the film is that it leans hard into everything, jokes, plot, men in beaver suits. It is a film that is full of joy, not to mention love of cinema and a good time. It is as if the filmmakers had the attitude that if they were going to do it they would do it big.

And they did.

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS is an unclassifiable cinematic joy bomb. It’s a film that explodes on the screen and makes you laugh and smile in ways that major Hollywood films can only dream. It is brilliantly smart in it’s low brow humor.

I can not explain what a magical experience this film is.

I highly recommend it

A pointer toward irlande cahier bleu (2023) Fantasia 2023

This is more a pointer than a review. I say this because the film never really clicked with me. This is in no way a statement of quality, rather it is simply to say that the film wasn’t my cup of tea.

According to the festival write up the film  is the story of a regular guy who becomes a great basketball player when he dreams. The reality is a bit more complicated as he jumps through realities.

More art house than grind house or even typical movie house, the film is very formal  and very mannered. While I liked the story, I like some of the twists the film takes but the mannered nature of the presentation didn’t work for me. On the other hand I know a number of people who would eat this film up, which is why I won’t review the film.

Worth a look if you like art house mind game films.

APORIA (2023) Fantasia 2023

A year after her husband was killed in a drunk driving accident a woman makes the acquaintance of man who might be able to bend time and bring her husband back. The trouble is if they bring him back there is no way to know what the repercussions of doing so will be.

Moody examination of grief and the things we sometimes do to end it. Would we better if we bring someone back? Can we live with the changes that doing so will bring? The answers are not always what we’d expect.

I really like the path this film takes. Not taking the same old path that was taken by similar films, the film brings us a lot of really interesting twists that most filmmakers don’t deal with. The most obvious is that the film treats everything that happens as a matter of life and not as part of a science fiction thriller. The emotion is real and not something created by a screenwriter.

That the film remains grounded is due entirely to the great cast headed by Judy Greer. They play everything as if this was just a regular drama so the emotions are closer to real. I was moved.

If the film has any problems its that at times it’s a bit too brooding. There times where a sadness overwhelms some of the proceeding. While it give the film a wonderful bittersweet feel, it also makes the film not always some place we want to dwell. At other times the film pauses to take a look at life so that we see life is going on while the characters stagnate and while I appreciate what they are doing they also tend to be a little bit too long.

Reservation aside I like the film  and if you want a differing take on “time travel” give this film a look.