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AICN & Twitch Present International Eye Candy: RUBBER, PSYCHOMANIA, BREST FORTRESS, A CAT IN PARIS, More!!
An Iron Chef fights terrorism in Turkey! Animated giants! Czech fantasy! Satanic social networking! Bruce Lee shaking his booty! And an angry, psychic tire! This can only mean one thing, boys and girls, this is Todd from Twitch here once again with another edition of International Eye Candy. What awaits you as we jaunt around the globe to find the best and worst of what awaits us? Read on and find out!
We’re going to start things off with the angry tire. By this point everybody reading this should be well aware that I’m talking about RUBBER, the cult hit from director Quentin Dupieux – that’d be Mr Oizo to electronic music fans – which features an angry tire named Robert rolling around the desert exploding people’s heads. RUBBER is about to receive its French theatrical release and on the eve of that they’ve released a proper theatrical trailer, which is actually a scene in which confused police are sent off to apprehend their rolling villain. No exploding heads in this but it is pretty damn funny.
We’ve got a few gloriously bad titles mixed in with the good ones this time out and for the first of those we head to Indonesia for the simply titled SATAN FACEBOOK! Which confirms what Twitter users have been saying for ages. Apparently Mark Zuckerberg is not the devil after all, he just built the devil a cosy home.
After promoting Mexican cannibal film WE ARE WHAT WE ARE religiously for months I was more than a little pleased to see it win the big prize – that’d be the Next Wave Best Film, to go along with a Best Script award – at Fantastic Fest this year. Though clearly not for everyone – those I know who don’t like it REALLY don’t like it – I personally think it’s a gem of a film and hot on the heels of the festival win came a spectacular new trailer prepared for the film’s UK release.
Anybody else out there getting tired of Sean Byrne’s stellar – and award winning – Australian horror picture THE LOVED ONES to get a decent release on North American soil? At this rate it risks becoming another ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, a film talked about by many but seen by few. Well, if you’ve been feeling anxious then this new trailer isn’t going to help at all. The first promo piece for the film gave away way too much of the plot but this ... this one is perfect, largely because it focuses tightly on the deranged, candy colored killer at the center of the film. Who I just happen to think is the most iconic horror character to appear on screen in years.
A blast from the past, now. One that involves undead bikers and magical toads. Severin Films have become the go to source of all the best from the cult underground in recent years and coming soon from them is their remastered release of cult UK title PSYCHOMANIA. Never before available this is one wild piece of trash cinema with a gang of bikers discovering the path to immortality lies in death and a magic toad. So they set about killing themselves so that they can come back and do an even better job of wreaking havoc on the community.
Like a good supernatural horror story well told? One that oozes atmosphere? Then I’d say that Fouad Benhammou’s VILLAGE OF SHADOWS may very well be the one for you. The story in this one is familiar – a couple car loads of young people end up in a mysterious village – but it’s all about the execution with these things and this one just screams classy style in a way I haven’t seen since J.A. Bayona’s THE ORPHANAGE.
Another genre that requires perfect execution to really work is the war epic – a style of story that we’ve all seen over and over again but one that can still be powerful in the right hands. And upcoming Russian effort BREST FORTRESS appears to be a good one. Based on a true story and boasting a high degree of historical accuracy – much the same way that GLORY was based on an actual troop of soldiers and accurate down to the place where each died – this one plays the Russian patriotism card pretty hard but looks to be so well done that that shouldn’t be an issue for audiences elsewhere.
Fans of THE THICK OF IT or IN THE LOOP need no introduction to the man in the pig nose. That’s Peter Capaldi who plays the enormously foul mouthed Malcolm Tucker in the popular UK satire and its feature film spinoff. Well, one of the behind the scenes folk in the THICK OF IT world has stepped it up a bit with writer Sean Gray casting Capaldi in his directorial effort, a blackly comic short titled BISTRO. Produced for an online competition the entire piece is available online for free and is well worth the time.
Jose Padilha’s original ELITE SQUAD – a cracking story of police corruption – caused a major controversy at home in Brazil before going on to win at the Berlin Film Festival and then becoming such a huge hit that it got its own version of Grand Theft Auto. In the face of that success Padilha has done the only sensible thing: He made a sequel. It’s out in Brazilian theatres now and looks every bit as strong as the first.
Words fail to describe YAKSHIYUM NJANUM, a spectacularly bad Malayalam horror picture from a director known simply as Vinayan. I have no idea if I could sit through an entire feature of this but in trailer form – and there are two – this is brilliant. And hysterical.
If you’re in the need of a little palette-cleanser after that, then I suggest the second entry in Yann Benedi’s series of one minute GIANT animations. The first of these screened at Fantastic Fest and I love them immeasurably. They’re just beautiful, charming, funny, wistful pieces that make me happy to be alive. And the second one is freshly arrived.
Seems everyone is getting in on the first person horror thing these days and you know what? If people keep making good ones then I see no reason not to let this trend keep right on going. And a very good one that just premiered at the Sitges festival in Spain is Spanish-Mexican co-production ATROCIOUS, a film that purports to tell the story of a family brutally murdered while on vacation in their summer home. I liked this one enough that I caught it twice in Sitges – something I almost never do at festivals – and the first trailer gives a brief taste.
Anybody out there remember UK kaiju film GORGO? Because director Benjamin Craig certainly does and he’s bringing the beast back – sort of – with his short film WAITING FOR GORGO. The charm of this one lies in the detail, the loving recreation of films of this type and era. Pay attention to the little touches in the background on this one. The production design and set dressing is fantastic.
Ah, Mark Dacascos, where has your career gone? Once one of the brightest up and coming talents in the martial arts / action world thanks to films like DRIVE, CRYING FREEMAN and BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, Dacascos stumbled some when the CROW tv series sank and now he’s mostly known for his gig on IRON CHEF. But that can’t stop him from going to Turkey to kick some terrorist ass! The film is SULTANIN SIRRI and it actually looks pretty damn passable.
We’re nearing the end now but before we get there it’s time to head to the Czech Republic and upcoming fantasy picture THE LAST OF APORVER. Already shot and edited the release of this one is being held until late in 2011 to give the crew time to complete the more than 1600 effects shots included in the film. But if the first teaser is any indication the wait will be worth it because what they’ve done so far looks great, a nice balance between ‘dark’ and ‘kid-friendly’.
Another entry in the kid-friendly category here – and one that is entirely charming – is the upcoming animated feature A CAT IN PARIS. It’s the story of a cat leading a double life – by day loyal pet, by night assistant to a wanted thief – all of it executed in a gorgeous animation style that looks to be hand done with pencil crayons. A good reminder that not all animation needs to be American style, Pixar, or CGI and thank god for that.
And, finally, it’s time for a bit of Bruce. Bruce Lee, that is. The iconic action star is the subject of an upcoming biopic from director Raymond Yip, the catch being that this one is based on the memories of Lee’s brother Robert and covers the years of his life before he left Hong Kong for San Francisco. It’s the birth of a legend, basically, with newcomer Aarif Li playing the Dragon. And it’s looking pretty damn solid.
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