Hey folks, Harry here with yet another wonderful report from Augustus Gloop at FANTASTIC FEST - ok, I've got to hit the shower and return to the fest myself. Enjoy...
Hi Harry, Completely exhausted and feeling warm & fuzzy from Day 3. I can't wait to see everything else on my list. ------------------------- Terry Gilliam's Tideland ------------------------- Today began with a movie that gave me very mixed feelings. Tideland is NOT what I ever expected for a Gilliam film with a child star. Twisted, macabre, wrong, are all words I could use to describe this. But I would also use quirky, eccentric, and delightful. This film is most certainly not an adult film that children can enjoy. Children should be kept completely away from this film until age 21. OK, just kidding about that last part. Seriously, though, topics covered include drug abuse, death, necrophilia, pedophilia, and prostitution. Other audience members described it as sick and a complete waste of time. I was torn, but decided in the end that I liked it. While it could stand to have about 20 minutes trimmed from it, the performance of child-star Jodelle Ferland was incredible. There wasn't a scene without her in the entire two hours, and most involved her flights of imagination. It was really the characters that made this work for me. Each is childlike and innocent in his or her way, and all are unique and interesting. This is a film that many people will not like, but it is beautiful in a poetic way. ------------------------- Nightmare ------------------------- A movie within a movie within a movie, Nightmare draws in the audience in an original way. The acting is solid, sound and music work well for the action, and it is well-produced. Like Tideland, Nightmare suffers from being very slightly too long. Certain events are repeated and certain scenes drag out just enough for some in the audience to lose the mood. Massawyrm said this is one just for filmmakers. I don't know that I agree. I'm not a filmmaker, but I enjoyed it. For me, there was a kind of American Psycho feel to it, maybe because of a passing resemblance the star has to Christian Bale. Great for a matinee, but not recommended for late-night. ------------------------- Shinobi: Heart Under Blade ------------------------- Ah, Shinobi, the DVD will go up on the shelf right between House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Tragic action/love story that mixes fire and water. Each of the ten ninjas has a unique special power, and some are taken directly from Ninja Scroll, but I was disappointed that it wasn't exactly clear what each of them were. One or two die without adequately demonstrating their powers. As a variation on star-crossed lovers, the story wasn't very original, and the dialog was standard. Really, though, I watch a movie like this for the mood, and for the action, and Shinobi delivers on both. ------------------------- Apocalypto ------------------------- I LOVED THIS FILM!!! I'm not a Mel Gibson apologist, nor even a fan. I refuse to see Passion of the Christ, because of the subject matter, and I have to admit I had no plans to see Apocalypto. Before tonight, I would not have paid money to see this film, but now, I'm so glad I got to see it. It was a surreal experience to be in one of the first audiences to see Apocalypto in any form, with the director and star sitting directly in front of me where I could have kicked them, or passed them a note, but that did not color my impression of the movie, itself. I enjoyed every minute that audiences will see in the theater, as well as those that will be cut. As the Q&A began, I honestly couldn't think of anything to criticize worth mentioning. Apocalypto is violent, extremely so, in fact, but the violence is central to the story being told. It is not gratuitous; it doesn't exist just to make you feel emotions for the characters. The violence seems to me to be presented simply as "This is what happened. People really did these things to each other. Here's how, and why." This film is a work of art, and as such, it is amazingly beautiful. It doesn't deliberately try to jerk your emotional chain, but you can't help but feel the characters' pain. The quote at the beginning about a society being destroyed from within before being destroyed from without didn't ring quite true to me, however. I'm sure this was meant to be a commentary on the religious practices of the Mayans assisting in the destruction of their society by Europeans. Unfortunately, the film begins with a counter-example as the healthy/successful village of hunter-gatherers is razed by the invading agricultural city-dwellers. I think a quote more appropriate to the action of the film would be "A thousand throats may be cut in a single night by a running man." Newcomer Rudy Youngblood deserves special recognition. This was a demanding role, physically and emotionally. With his devastating good looks and acting talent, he is sure to have a promising career in Hollywood. I only hope that he and this film are judged fairly in light of Gibson's recent bad press. That is going to be hard to shake, but there are thousands of people besides Mel Gibson who labored to create Apocalypto. They were working on the film for years before his arrest, and they should not have to pay for his indiscretion. Should Mel Gibson read this, I would like to say to him: This is your finest work to date. Thank you for sharing it with us, and please keep making films as worthy as this. ------------------------- The District ------------------------- I chose this for my midnight screening, because I was drawn to the innovative animation style presented in the trailer, as well as the fast pace, grooving music, and political statements of the film. The animation combines 3d, 2d-cell shaded, and some photo-realistic elements for a look that is stunning. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of film one should watch subtitled. It is very full of dialogue, and the white subtitles were often difficult to read over the film. The constant back & forth trying to read the subtitles and still follow the action almost completely ruined the experience for me. The most important thing this film's creators could do is arrange some decent voice actors and dub an English soundtrack. Time permitting, I will try to catch this one again so I can focus more on the animation and less on the high-speed dialogue. The musical numbers are fun and plentiful and I think worth another look. ------------------------- -Augustus Gloop
