The Fantasia Daily, 2012.17 (4 August 2012): Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal, Grabbers, and Revenge: A Love Story

Once I saw I was running too late to catch Berserk, I figured some brunch may be a good idea, and remembered Kurt Halfyard raving about a place called Cacao 70 earlier in the festival (and also still highly wired from the mocchachino, hours later). So I figured I'd try that out - an hour would surely be enough time to get in and out, right?

Apparently not - it was fifteen minutes after I was seated before someone took my order, and 50 minutes after that before my breakfast came. Maybe they were short-staffed or something, but really, how long does it take to make a waffle? A good waffle, with delicious melted chocolate and caramelized bananas, but honestly...

Combine that with not wanting to see Excision again and the short program opposite it being in French, and it was a short day that maybe should have been shorter - by the time midnight came, I was full of poutine and couldn't make it through Revenge.

Horrible photography? Sure!

The Q&A for Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal was a good one; Boris Rodriguez is local and had a lot of friends and family there. Dylan Smith, second from the right, played Eddie, and there was a fair amount of "we can joke about it now, but damn, I almost got frostbite" when they discussed shooting him running aorund out in the snow in his underwear. Real snow, real cold.

Fantasia's Nicolas Archambault with "Attack of the Brainsuckers" co-writer Chris Bavota and director Sid Zarforlin. Their short played before Grabbers, and was a pretty good one (loved the sci-fi-loving little girl in it), and they mentioned that they had come to the festival for years but this was their first time with a film.

OK, time to hit the metro. My plan is Blood-C, The Sorcerer and the White Snake, Berserk, Columbarium, Poongsan, and Hail.

Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 4 August 2012 in Concordia University Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2012, 35mm)

We've all heard (or used) some variation on "my art comes from a dark place" before; there's also its close relative "suffering for one's art". Not exactly the inspiration you'd expect for a movie named "Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal" - which, not surprisingly once you accept that premise, turns out to be more about other people suffering for ones art. By proxy.

At one time a brilliant painter, Lars Olafsson (Thure Lindhardt) hasn't produced new work in years, and is now starting a teaching job at an art school in rural Canada. A recent bequest to the school requires it to see to the well-being of the benefactor's nephew, Eddie (Dylan Smith), a tall, simple mute of a man, and since he and Lars hit it off, Eddie winds up staying at Lars's place. It turns out that Eddie had a sleepwalking issue as a child, which involved attacking and eating small animals without knowing it, and it returns his first night in a new house. Except now he's bigger, the issue escalates... and when he sees the result, Lars is suddenly painting again.

The way Eddie approaches the artistic process is interesting. Many movies have played with the idea of artists claiming that a lasting great work is being worth sacrifice, but the merit of the art in the larger world is seldom the issue here; it's all what Lars will do or allow, directly or indirectly, to be the one who creates it. Writer/director Boris Rodriguez never actually shows completed artwork, but does a great job of showing how an empty canvas can draw or taunt an artist so that the audience gets a feel for the forces acting on Lars, and how it can cause him to respond in terrible ways.

Really, Lars is a heck of a role, and Thure Lindhardt is pretty much perfect in it. He seems to shrink and expand along with Lars's connection to his art, and even after Lars has enabled monstrous things, there's a humility to him that keeps the character quite appealing - it's that quality being stripped away that makes Lars seem his worst. He's also got a natural, unforced chemistry with Dylan Smith as the title character. Eddie is interesting on his own, as well - Smith is expressive without words or much exaggeration in his facial expressions, and he embraces the man's childlike nature without seeming to play an overgrown kid. Then, of course, he changes his whole performance when Eddie sleepwalks, in a fog but also far more sharp and decisive.

For as much as things feel real, they play into a plot that is more than a bit absurd, and Rodriguez shows a wonderfully twisted since of humor about it. The mayhem is gross but also played larger-than-life, and the radio is a great running joke. The complex main characters are countered by simple, funny supporting ones, particularly Stephen McHattie as Lars's agent, Alain Goulem as the ever-optimistic school administrator, and Paul Braunstein as the local constable. Georgina Reilly splits the difference as Lars's love interest, mixing personality and easy charm with enough substance to play off Lindhardt very well indeed.

Rodriguez does a really fine job mixing the movie's two tones, building Eddie so that it just needs the right nudge to go from funny to serious and back again, getting every point he's looking to make across from the first scene. The operatic soundtrack is well-chosen, and he makes good use of the wintry, barren environment without overdoing it as symbolism.

There's a lot of ways that this movie could have been overdone, but most if not all are avoided, and avoided without feeling like the film has been neutered in any way. "Eddie" has an out-there premise and some odd humor, but it's also quite smart and savvy when at its best.

(Dead link to) review at EFC.

Grabbers

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 4 August 2012 in Concordia University Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2012, 35mm or DCP)

Even if the name of Grabbers didn't make one think of the monsters in Tremors, the rest of the movie would, in the best possible way. It has the things that this sort of movie needs to succeed - a cryptozoological threat and an enjoyably eccentric cast of characters, with the latter naturally providing humor from their interactions while still having the sort of ingenuity needed to counter the former's very real danger.

Soon after the crew of a fishing boat mysteriously disappears near Erin Island, Ireland, another boat arrives, this one a ferry bringing model Dublin Garda Lisa Nolan (Ruth Bradley) to work alongside Ciarán O'Shea (Richard Coyle). The two events aren't related; the island's other local officer just needs someone reliable to share duties with oft-hungover O'Shea while on holiday. Of course, when a pod of pilot whales washes up on sure, mutilated, and local lobsterman Paddy Barrett (Lalor Roddy) catches a small "sea monster" in his trap, things start to get hairy for the cops and marine ecologist Adam Smith (Russell Tovey). It seems that this never-before-seen organism feeds by sucking its victims' blood, and can do so from a distance, but the good news is that it reacts poorly to alcohol.

Yes, writer Kevin Lehane means to have some fun with certain Irish stereotypes, and if you don't foresee large chunks of the last act involving the characters "defending themselves" in the island's pub, you are very easily surprised. It's good fun, though, in part because it never seems to be the result of laziness or a celebration of boorishness - there's thought put into how this is deployed, the characters are different sorts of drunks, and O'Shea's alcoholism doesn't suddenly become a good thing. Grabbers isn't a one-joke movie earlier on, and it doesn't become one in its last act.

An even more pleasant surprise is that while "straight-laced cop has to get drunk to save the day" is pretty much inevitable, Lisa is actually a lively character from minute one, chipper, confident, and capable rather than being a humorless hard-ass. Why, she and Smith even flirt adorably, much to O'Shea's consternation. She is fun just about every second that she is on-screen, which holds true for just about the entire cast; it's an enjoyable ensemble of actors and characters that each has a distinct personality and who all work well together; there's nary a weak link to be found.

The monsters are as much fun as the humans, establishing themselves as a threat early on and actually scaling nicely - director Jon Wright has exciting scenes in a bathroom and then increasingly larger environments before getting to an SUV being chased on an open road (with the tentacled beast looking and moving much better than such things usually do on land). The effects work is nice - the CGI is often aided by darkness, but still looks good, and the practical effects are actually effective rather than lame and rubbery.

Wright creates a fun atmosphere without winking at the audience too much; there is seldom a gag that doesn't arise naturally from the characters and he's not looking to gross the audience out with blood and mutilation. The big finale is a proper action set piece, the soundtrack is occasionally slyly funny (Wright and composer Christian Henson opt to pay homage to the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia at one point).

It's a genuinely entertaining movie from what could have been a highly annoying premise. Charming monster movies aren't a dime a dozen, so this one is worth checking out.

(Dead link to) review at EFC.

Fuk sau che chi sei (Revenge: A Love Story)

N/A (out of four)
Seen 4 August 2012 in Concordia University Cinema de Seve (Fantasia 2012, video)

I strongly suspect that while Revenge: A Love Story is many things, a midnight movie is not one of them. It's got a fractured timeline, events re-examined from different perspectives, and what seems like a really tight, intricately constructed story.

It seems to, because I was out for a good chunk of it. Not the movie's fault at all - it starts with grisly, memorable imagery (murders of pregnant women who had the fetuses snatched from their wombs) and what I did see looked like a pretty great crime story. It's going on my list of "screeners I want", that's for sure.

The Fantasia Daily, 2012.10 (28 July 2012): A Letter to Momo, Mon Ami, Nameless Gangster, Graceland, and Z-108

Q&A's can get weird, folks.


Cast & crew of Mon Ami: Sound designer Ian Robinson, costume designer Ellie Schultz, producer Joe (last name not legible), stars Scott Wallis & Mike Kovac, and writer/director Rob Grant

The makers of Mon Ami were pretty great, joking with the audience and generally showing the same kind of charm that's one of their movie's assets. One thing that struck me weird, though, is how Grant mentioned that some of the choices made were meant to reflect what sort of choices the characters would have made if they were making the movie, such as using all the slow-motion and classical music for the underscore, because they thought they were a lot more sophisticated and suave than they actually are. I don't know if I really see that - I think part of what makes it work is that Cal & Teddy don't really think they're criminal masterminds, but are in over their head anyway. What works is that these guys are sort of average, know it, and still find their plan falling apart.

Seriously, it's okay to just admit that you used that music because it was free.




Graceland had a lot of folks in town, so much that I should have tried to figure out the panoramic features of the camera-phone. Writer/directer Ron Morales is in both shots, with producers to his left and the festival's Stephanie Treppanier and the musicians to his right. Not pictured: The guys from Resolution doing a great introduction since Ms. T had lost her voice.

The Q&A got kind of weird in the way they do for movies set and shot in a poor country with an audience that wants to be empathetic but sort of verges on the edge of being patronizing. Plus, it got into a real "issue" groove when the producer on the far right said he got involved because he felt it had a lot to say about the exploitation of women and girls. I guess that's sort of true, but I kind of thought that if you wanted to make a movie about that, you might choose one which has women in a substantive role or two. Graceland is a lot of things (I kind of wish I'd been sure enough about the plot of Kurosawa's High and Low to ask about that), but its main characters are men and the conflict driving the plot is class and corruption, not really mysogyny and pedophilia. Those are there, but not really central.


King-wei Chu and director Lonnie Martin introducing his short film "Cougars".

Zombie 108 had a short film before it, and, man, did that ever not need to start later. "Cougars" was cute and clever enough, although the twist cold be seen coming a mile away, but could use a lot of refinement before going to the feature-length version.

Today's plan: The Kick, Quick, Roller Town, The Warped Forest and The Human Race. So, basically just living in Hall all day.

Momo e no Tegami

* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2012 in Concordia University Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2012 AXIS, HD)

You can do a movie like A Letter to Momo with live-action nowadays, and it's increasingly common, but animation of the traditional variety still seems the best medium for this sort of fantastical but relaxed family entertainment: It makes everything part of the same world and allows for things to slow down a bit, and is especially fitting here, were drawings literally come to life, in a fashion.

After the death of her father, 12-ish Momo Miyaura (voice of Karen Miyama) and her mother Ikoku (voice of Yuka) move from Tokyo to Shio Island on Japan's Inland Sea, where Ikoku grew up. Momo, who carries a note her father started to write her (without getting beyond "Dear Momo"), is not especially thrilled with her new home, and that's before discovering that they are not the only new arrivals - although nobody else can see or hear goblins Iwa, Kawa, and Mamé (voices of Toshiyuki Nishida, Koichi Yamadera, and Cho).

Parents shouldn't worry, though - A Letter to Momo is never in any particular danger of turning into a particularly scary movie. The goblins are more pests and comic relief than any kind of real threat, although it's understandable if Momo initially thinks otherwise. The design and animation of the trio is particularly clever in this regard - despite the resemblance to the Edo-era drawings that inspired them being absolutely unmistakable, the filmmakers manage to twist them into something friendlier. For example, the way Iwa's massive mouth is always open to display his pointed teeth comes across as sort of dumb and vacant rather than intimidating.


Full review at EFC.

Mon Ami

* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2012 in Concordia University Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2012, HD)

Mon Ami, despite its title, is in English, so its audience needn't fret about having to deal with subtitles. It's still rather off the beaten path, a buddy black comedy, with as much enthusiasm as gags involving grievous injury; maybe enough to win audiences over.

Teddy (Mike Kovac) and Cal (Scott Wallis) have known each other since they were six, though their lives are in a bit of a rut - they've been working in the same hardware store for a years, with Cal actually crashing in the back room when not in his parents' house and Teddy married to a very demanding wife (Teagan Vincze). When the store's owner Hank (John Fitzgerald) opts to put his sons in charge rather than promote Teddy after retiring, he and Cal decide to take control of the situation: Telling everyone that they're going on a fishing trip, they kidnap Hank's pretty nineteen-year-old daughter Crystal (Chelsey Reist) with the intent of holding her for ransom. They've got a plan, but it's not nearly as foolproof a plan as they think, especially given the fools involved.

Give this movie one thing; the energy level is very high indeed. The characters often talk fast, gags come at a quick pace, and nasty physical comedy produces plenty of blood. There's quick cuts and slow motion, and rather than get bogged down, things accelerate toward the end. The movie relies on this energy, both in terms of keeping the audience with the characters as things get further out of hand and having the characters continually make things worse for themselves when stopping to think might solve a lot of problems.

Full review at EFC.

Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time)

* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2012 in Concordia University Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2012, DCP)

Can I be honest? I don't really like gangster movies that much. Crime movies, yes, but movies about the mob tend to leave me cold. For me, "the outfit" in Richard Westlake's "Parker" novels is close to ideal - vaguely corporate and threatening, but off to the side of the action.

So I suppose it's both a bit of an achievement that I liked Nameless Gangster but inevitable that I didn't love it. The conflict between distant relatives played by Choi Min-sik and Ha Jung-woo never quite becomes operatic enough to really fascinate, and Choi's character just seems put together wrong: On the one hand, he's a fat stumbler without a subtle bone in his body, but on the other, his apparent strength is that he knows everybody and can network and call in favors like a pro. It's possible to be both, but the movie never really makes a case for it.

Full review at EFC.

Graceland

* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2012 in Concordia University Cinema J.A. de Seve (Fantasia 2012 Spotlight: Filipino Cinema, HD)

Though a low-fi picture that appears to have scraped every penny together to get made, Graceland has a pretty darn excellent hook - a twistier, more noirish take on High and Low with the chauffeur keeping things from his employer to save his kidnapped daughter - which it plays out just excellently. There are a few gaps in the plot at points, but calling most out would be called quibbling.

What's really excellent is the way it goes from an efficient and brutal setup - it makes you really like certain characters before doing something awful - to a noose that starts out pretty darn tight and only gets worse from there. Things can only end badly in this movie; the question just being how badly things will end.

Very much recommended.

Full review at EFC.

Zombie 108

N/A (but likely low)
Seen 28 July 2012 in Concordia University Cinema J.A. de Seve (Fantasia 2012, DCP)

I can't legitimately grade this, since about half an hour in, the need to get some sleep started acting upon me like a force that could not be denied and I was in and out, doing that head-jerk thing every few minutes. This, despite the iced tea I'd purchased at the concession stands - which, naturally, kicked in after the movie.

Pretty sure I still wouldn't like it, though - the story was choppy and all over the place, and frequently just ugly in ways that tended to push it past my threshhold for such things. The washed-out color palette just made it drearier and harder to keep attention.

The Fantasia Daily, 2011.11 (24 July): Urban Explorer and Wake in Fright

Believe it or not, this two-movie day was a Sunday! I'd seen much of what was playing during the afternoon - Battle Royale, Endhiran, and Detective Dee - and the other presentation was "La Mythologie Hammer + Frankenstein Created Woman", and though I would have totally dug seeing the movie on the big screen, it would come after an hour of panel discussion, which looked to be in French, and since my skill with the language is pretty much at the "catch a few words, read something meant to be understood by children" level, it would have been an awkward start.

Well, there was also Pop Skull, and I missed that the old-fashioned way - paying attention to the MLB Gameday window and not getting there in time. I'm not hugely disappointed by this - I was in the "like, not love" camp for Adam Wingard's entry at BUFF this year (A Horrible Way to Die), missed this one at BUFF four years ago, and just generally found that the Wingard retrospective was stuff I could afford to miss. And it game me time for dinner at m:brgr, one of a half-dozen great burger places you can find around Concordia.

Then, it was time for movies with directors in attendance:


Urban Explorers producer Oliver Thau, co-star Catherine de Léan, and director Andy Fetscher. Nice folks all; it's a shame that their movie had really severe problems, because I admire their ambition and willingness to do crazy things to make a horror movie. Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to great results. I dissect why a big scene in this movie flops in my review, and it's worth noting that I wasn't the only one laughing during that scene, which was supposed to be thrilling.


Wake in Fright director Ted Kotcheff, who is just a wonderful gentleman. As you can see, he had a lengthy written introduction for the film, and even more to say without so many notes afterward. It was one of the more interesting discussions I've heard at Fantasia (or any festival), because they frequently tend to draw younger filmmakers rather than the men with the wealth of experience Kotcheff has. He's an intelligent man who doesn't have to connect with other fans via pure enthusiasm, which was a refreshing change of pace.

And now, reviews:

Urban Explorer

* ½ (out of four)
Seen 24 July 2011 in Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2011)

Sort my reviews alphabetically, and this one will wind up next to Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness, a 2006 documentary made on a similar shoestring which also shot plenty of footage in places the filmmakers really shouldn't have been. The subjects of that doc will probably resent this horror movie something fierce - it's one thing to be seen as daring to the point of recklessness, another just to be stupid.

Four tourists have converged on Berlin to do a bit of urban exploring (sneaking into abandoned structures and infrastructure even if it's off-limits). Because of the illegal nature of the activity, they connected online and meet under aliases. "Mickey" (Nick Eversman) is American and excited, while his Venezuelan girlfriend "Mallory" (Nathalie Kelley) is not nearly so enthused. Brash "Haiku" (Brenda Koo) hails from Korea (though her accent when speaking English is quite North American), while camera-toting "Olympia" (Catherine de Léan) is from France. Their local guide, "Dante" (Max Riemelt), has offered to show them the "fahrerbunker", a recently discovered World War II bunker for Nazi party drivers that was quickly resealed to prevent modern hate groups from making a shrine of it. They still encounter some neonazis along the way, but an accidental fall proves a more immediate danger, sending two of the party to find help while the others stay with the injured member. Help does arrive, but in the form of disheveled hermit Armin (Klaus Stiglmeier).

The viewer may wonder, when watching Urban Explorer, whether its characters are meant to actually be any good at urban exploration. Nobody ever says that it's their first time, but none but Dante seem to have any particular skills. Heck, of the girls, only Olympia dresses like someone expecting to be in an environment featuring rusted metal, standing water, and biting animals - although to make up for her sensible clothing, it's her tendency to wander off and flash her camera that leads to many of the group's troubles. Dante is leading this apparent group of novices to a place he's never been before, and he's got an unusually casual attitude toward causing damage along the way. If this is deliberate, it's a bad idea - instead of believing the characters are maybe just a bit over their heads and having the rug pulled out, they seem doomed from the start - and if we're supposed to believe they're capable, well, that's just a huge misfire.

"Huge misfire" seems most likely, though, as the movie soon descends into an ugly morass of clichés and bad execution, including what may be the stupidest sequence I've ever seen in a horror movie. It starts with the "someone awakening handcuffed to a bed" chestnut (albeit only by one hand, making escape possible), has this person watch a friend be tortured and nearly murdered three times before running off (making a lot of noise) to search for a weapon much less effective than the heavy-but-grippable piece of steel bed frame still on the other end of the cuff... And that's without serious spoilers; things get a lot more nonsensical with detail. Sure, there are a lot of thrillers that fall apart in hindsight, but this is laugh-inducingly dumb in the moment, the sort of thing that might perhaps work as satire if there were any sign that this movie had any self-awareness or sense of humor. Instead, it's one of several mind-bogglingly silly action/"suspense" sequences that should have even relatively undemanding audiences asking why even a panicking person would react to a situation like that.

This, obviously, leaves the cast pretty much high and dry. None of the five actors playing the explorers are done a particularly spectacular injustice, at least - they're likable, good-looking kids who sell the material as well as they can and should all land on their feet. The show is inevitably stolen by Stiglmeier's Armin, who is genuinely individual and eccentric in a way that the rest of the cast really can't be, owning every scene he's in. He's the one that the audience can go in any direction at any time because Stiglmeier wrings every last drop of weird out of what he's given.

The whole cast does go above and beyond the usual call of duty, shooting a great deal of the movie on location with minimal doubling. There's a genuine sense of authenticity to these scenes, and for all the many problems the filmmakers have with the story, they sure do shoot the heck out of it, making the surprises found in the dark tunnels and the resulting mayhem look good (in appropriately inky, disgusting ways).

But, ugh, is there a bunch of unforgivable idiocy going on in those dark tunnels! Horror fans will put up with a lot, but there's a much better "urban explorers find trouble" movie to be made than this.

Full review at EFC (dead link).

Wake in Fright (aka Outback)

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 24 July 2011 in Theatre Hall (Fantasia 2011)

Wake in Fright is one of the most lauded films to come out of Australia, but went practically unseen for years (decades!) due to a poor commercial showing and the lack of quality prints. A ten-year search for the original negative and careful restoration has it back in circulation, looking good, and still frequently overpowering.

John Grant (Gary Bond) is an elementary school teacher in the Australian outback, and he hates it there. Christmas is coming, though, and with it summer break, which he intends to spend with his girlfriend in Sydney. Getting there means a stop in Bundanyabba, where he emerges from a night drinking with sheriff Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty) without the money for his plane ticket or even for another night in the hotel. A man at the bar, Tim Hynes (Al Thomas), invites him to spend the night at his place, but the attention Grant pays his wife Janette (Sylvia Kay) doesn't go over so well, although "Doc" Tydon (Donald Pleasence) winds up being agreeable company to the stranded Grant.

"I'm an alcoholic", Tydon informs Grant, "but out here it's scarcely noticeable." And brother, is that ever the case. There may be movies where characters drink more, but likely few in which it is such a constant, desperate activity. The men of Wake in Fright drink like characters in old movies smoke, constantly and with the implication that nobody would conceivably not be doing so, because what would you be doing with yourself otherwise; when Grant briefly opts to do something else, the rest are thoroughly confused. The first half of the movie gives the impression of starting a bender - starting out in control, but with fun/relief not coming; instead, the reasons for drinking seem to come into sharper relief, with the attempts to banish them with more drink only making things worse.

Then the second half becomes a fever dream. By this point, the almost complete lack of any female presence is making the men crazy, fights are being started just to let aggression out, and while director Ted Kotcheff and company don't change the look of the film so much, things get more and more frenzied, with the high (or low) point being a kangaroo hunt that just seems like madness. Kotcheff filmed the actual activity rather than using animatronics or any sort of special effects, so it's not just realistic, but real (though no roos were killed specifically for the film; this was going on anyway), and there's a frightening inhumanity to it. As this part of the movie goes on the audience feels how the combination of heat, isolation, and lack of a positive emotional outlet creates this all-consuming madness.

The cast does so, too. Gary Bond is extremely impressive, hitting every step in Grant's descent from smug superiority to mania squarely, giving us early hints that the possibility of this exists in him from the start, though "The Yabba" is going to bring it out. Rafferty and Thomas play two faces of the place's enforced jocularity, friendly but intolerant and insistent. It leaves Pleasence as the most stable of the bunch, and he knows that he's an utter mess.

It's also an expertly-constructed film visually. Kotcheff and cinematographer Brian West do a really marvelous job of capturing both the grand beauty of the outback when viewed as a panorama and the hot, punishing, fly-infested reality up close. Many little details are perfect, like how the train station clock in the opening shot has no hands. It's all directed to showing just what sort of madness this world can induce.

An amazing film; the idea that it might have been lost forever is genuinely horrifying, but that's thankfully not the case.

Full review at EFC (dead link).