Hey folks, Harry here working behind the scenes and writing up a storm to cover the wonders of FANTASTIC FEST. Massawyrm here took a separate road from me, and as a result saw films that I hope to see in the upcoming days. I'm dying to write about Zathura, if anything just to drop 1000 words about how badass the Zorgons are. But alas - His take on WOLF CREEK I did hear echoed by others, but Tarantino really digs this film... and the Alamo's LARS dug the hell out of the film - and for me... those two I trust far more upon the subject of foreign slasher films than Massawyrm. After the night wrapped up, he could be heard bemoaning the lack of creative kills. The notion that this is based on REAL EVENTS seemingly lost on him. Real murderers tend to be fairly mundane in their art - usually, it's only in the films that gratuitous exploitative kills are done. But maybe he's right, I see this one tomorrow at midnight. I'm not gonna be able to see G.O.R.A. and it kills me. ARGH! And I see THE BIG WHITE on Saturday around 1pm. Rav and Quint seemed to dig it quite a bit more than Massawyrm, so we'll see. There's a part of me that wants to skip that morning/early afternoon screening to catch the UT vs OKLAHOMA game. Sigh - such a hard life.
Hola all. Massawyrm here. Well, I’m hip deep in Fantastic Fest and thus far is has proven to live up to its name. 4 movies in 10 hours, 3 of which will no doubt see, at the very least, hundreds of screens in the US while one may never see a US screen again after this weekend. Here goes.
Zathura
Perfect. Absolutely perfect. I’ve always liked John Favreau, from his wryly comic style as an actor, to his sharp adult writing for Swingers and Made (the latter which he also directed) and ultimately his ability to direct a great family film which breathed new life into Will Farrell’s already tired man-child shtick with Elf. But with Zathura, Favreau officially steps up into the Majors, hitting this one right out of the ballpark. Family films are a tough act to balance. Too goofy and pandering to children and the parents will want to run from the theatre screaming, too heady in its attempts to pander specifically to adults and the children will get bored. It’s a delicate tightrope that few films manage to walk across without stumbling. Zathura, however, never stumbles, never falters and instead turns out to be a hilarious, whimsical, sweetly emotional film that accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
When John Favreau set out to make Zathura, he did so with the hopes of making something akin to E.T. – a film that was touching, funny and, at times, frightening. He wanted to make a film that parents, such as himself, could endure watching 50 or so times a week while ensuring that it was a film children actually wanted to watch that often. And he succeeded. Zathura immerses you in the strange retro science fiction universe of the board game in question, complete with malfunctioning killer robots, wayward astronauts, flesh eating lizard creatures that need to burn the galaxy down to stay warm in the cold bleakness of space and good old-fashioned rocket ships that would make Buck Rogers or Commander Cody proud. From the minute the house leaves Earth, Zathura exists is a world all it’s own, proving to not only be a majestically beautiful feast for geek eyes, but wholly original despite it’s retro sensibilities. You have never seen a film like Zathura. It is, simply put, magic at 24 frames per second.
This is one of those “Kid Again” movies that makes you feel 8 years old as you sit there, eyes agape at the world before you. You marvel at the vast gorgeousness of Saturn, at the fleet of Zorgon ships, at the Stan Winston creature effects and you begin to forget that this floating house ever was rooted on earth, because clearly, it belongs in space. And all the while you’re laughing, because Zathura contains a constant barrage of jokes, some cleverly disguised gags for adults mixed into a healthy amount of bits for all ages. Never does the film stoop to cheap jokes just for the kids. Every joke is something an adult audience can, and will, laugh at. Favreau knows comedy, that’s a given, but his ability to integrate it so seamlessly into such a great adventure story with so many special effects is just amazing.
And Dax Shepard, man oh man, did this guy catch me off guard. When he showed up at the screening I thought “Hey, why did Fav’s bring the Punk’d guy.” Why? Because as it turns out, Dax Shepard’s wayward astronaut is the very heart and soul of Zathura. He delivers a wonderfully textured performance unlike anything anyone would have expected out of him. He ends up being so lovable, so soulful, so undeniably the likable smartass that it becomes hard to imagine anyone else in the role. Yeah. The Punk’d guy. The Without a Paddle guy. Funny and soulful. Who’d of thunk it? But there it is.
With Harry Potter getting the dreaded PG-13 this time around, Zathura looks to be the family film to beat this holiday season. It’s wholesome, adorable and a film, that despite my complete and utter lack of spawn, will no doubt see a lot of play in my household for years to come. An absolutely perfect family film that I encourage anyone and everyone to run out and see as soon as humanly possible.
The Big White
The latest independent film starring Robin Williams breaks his streak of interesting indie roles, proving to be a fairly uninteresting mess that strives to be this decades Fargo and just barely misses becoming this decades Drowning Mona. A “Dark Comedy” (and I use the term comedy in the loosest of all possible terms) about a down on his luck travel agent in Buttfuck Nowhere Alaska whose brother is long thought dead, prodding him to try and collect the pending life insurance. When he’s informed that he needs a body, surprise, one mysteriously turns up in the dumpster by his work and the kooky hi-jinks ensue. A dark comedy retool of the Jonathon Silverman/Andrew McCarthy “classic” Weekend at Bernies, things get steadily more complicated by Williams’ “tourettes syndrome” suffering wife (Holly Hunter), an obsessed insurance agent (Giovanni Ribisi), his suddenly reappearing brother (Woody Harrelson) and of course the two thugs who killed the stiff in the first place.
What’s odd about this film is that the first two acts are borderline bad, never quite getting terrible, but never being funny or interesting either. There were times, however, that I just wanted to walk out because of how bored I was. But the third act, the place where most films fall apart, is actually where The Big White comes together. The last 20 minutes accomplishes what the first hour and ten never do – they make you actually care about every single character in the film. And the resolution is pretty great. While it doesn’t wrap up all of the loose ends, it does wrap up enough to make it not a complete waste of time.
There are a few chuckle worthy moments, and one descent belly laugh at the end, but mostly the film is a series of misfiring jokes not worthy of the fantastic cast assembled for them. The ending certainly doesn’t make the first 2/3rds of the film worth watching again, but it might make hardcore fans of dark comedies happy enough to remember having seen it. Come Monday I’ll have probably completely forgotten it.
Wolf Creek
A lot of buzz with very little payoff. Wolf Creek proves to be one of those frustrating movies that you can walk in 45 minutes late to and not have missed a single god damned thing. Not a drop of blood, not a plot twist, not a single defining moment of the film. Wolf Creek is the based on true events Australian 70’s style deranged psycho killer film about three 20 something’s on a road trip gone wrong. Yes, their car breaks down. Yes a mysterious stranger offers to help. Yes, said mysterious stranger kills them one by one. And along with the tired premise we’re treated to a series of tired kills and frustrating stalks through the outback as the characters seem to get dumber and dumber as the night wears on.
Yes, I know it’s based on a true story, but those that were killed were never found and those that survived never witnessed their demise – so it’s clear that these sequences had to be invented by the filmmakers. And these sequences ultimately are a let down. What makes it worse is the 45 minutes of “character development” that amounts to little more than watching 3 relatively uninteresting characters wander around Australia on a road trip. Seriously. The Alamo Drafthouse wait staff brought me my check before anything had happened at all.
But if there’s anything worth watching this movie for, it’s the note perfect performance of John Jarratt, who gives the best psycho killer performance in recent memory. The scenes of him torturing the main characters and of him stalking them in the dead of night are great – whenever he’s on screen. He brings this perfect, crazy as fuck, brooding menace to the film that sadly is the only thing going for it. If only Writer/Director Greg McLean had dreamed up something more devilish for him to do, thought up more brutal, disturbing ways to kill these pour souls, this would have been a film worth sitting through 45 minutes of the blahs to get to. But he doesn’t, and ultimately Wolf Creek turns out to emulate both the best, and the worst, of 70’s psychodrama, without adding anything new to the genre itself. Those unfamiliar or with only a scant background in this type of slasher film might find it disturbing or interesting, but for anyone fluent in this type of film, there’s just nothing much to see outside of Jarratt. Only recommended for those easily freaked out or for those who just can’t get enough of psychodramas. For everyone else, it’s a waste of time and Jarratt’s talent.
G.O.R.A.
Easily the strangest film I saw today and quite possibly the weirdest I’ll see this weekend is the Turkish blockbuster G.O.R.A., the fucked up, bizarre, sci-fi comedy spoof that plays out like an insane Turkish version of Ice Pirates. Deliberately and very obviously spoofing every major science fiction film made in the last 30 years, G.O.R.A. succeeds where most spoofs fail because it actually manages to create a world all its own. This film transports you into an alien world as seen through the eyes of Arif, a Turkish asshole of a man who is abducted by aliens to become a slave, but ends up setting out to save the world and win the love of its princess. All the while, G.O.R.A. takes shots at American sci-fi with varying levels of subtlety – some small jokes in the background, others easily recognizable end yet others that are explained. One such moment occurs when a giant hurtling ball of fire is rocketing towards the planet Gora when Arif explains “Wait, I’ve seen this movie. This is the Fifth Element.” “What?” “The Fifth Element, you know, with Bruce Willis. The short bald guy.” Arif then sets out to explain the climax of the movie to the elders of Gora to help them save the planet. And the movie just gets crazier and crazier from there. From gay robots to Rastafarian Turks, from power mad, mustache twirling, bi-sexual villains to a blind master that smells everyone to find his way, this film pushes the limits of strangeness without ever going so far as to descend into mind boggling absurdity. It is a very specific comedic universe that sets its own rules, then plays by them.
G.O.R.A. is effectively the Turkish Austin Powers, having it’s way with science fiction rather than spy films, complete with the lead actor (Turkish Comedian Cem Yilmaz) playing both the hero and the villain. But god damnit is this film strange. What’s amazing though, is just how readily the comedy transcends the language barrier. Subtitled comedies are probably the hardest thing in the world to laugh at, as most comedy resides in the delivery, not the joke itself. G.O.R.A., however, is consistently funny, proving to be much smarter than it’s pretending to be. As goofy and slapstick as it is at times, there is subtle geek humor that just cuts right through the language barrier to leave you in stitches.
Unfortunately, because the film is in Turkish, it will never see play on American screens, so to find this little gem, you’ll have to check your local indie store for a pal version of it. But to my European friends out there, well, you’ve no doubt probably heard of this, and if you haven’t seen it, do so. For anyone who loves a good spoof or just enjoys a strange fucking film, G.O.R.A. never fails to disappoint.
More tomorrow.
Well, until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
Massawyrm
I want a Gay Robot of my own!
