As I mentioned in a prior post, fellow Austinite John Gholson is contributing to Arthouse Cowboy during this year's Fantastic Fest. He's helping cover the gigantic amount of content that no one correspondent can cover on their own. Without further ado, here's John in the first of his sum-ups of his day at this year's Fantastic Fest:
First Squad - Russia/Japan - Directed by Yoshiharu Ashino
Synopsis: Russian scientists use a team of teen psychics to journey into the netherworld to stop the Nazis from resurrecting a German warlord.
While an animated film about young psychics fighting Germanic ghost warriors (raised from the dead by Nazi occultists) sounds like a must-see, it ends up being fairly typical dramatic anime. "Talky" is not a word I want to use when describing an animated film, but First Squad offers heavy doses of exposition, not only from the characters in the animated segments, but also from live-action "talking head" experts on the historical fiction featured within. First Squad does little to transcend itself into being an actual good movie, but anime die-hards will probably be more forgiving of its slow pace and underdeveloped characters. Like many recent anime projects, it ends just as things get heated up (to set up the inevitable sequel), and the animation is suprisingly static (a cost-cutting measure, I'm sure).
Gentlemen Broncos - USA - Directed by Jared Hess
Synopsis: A young, unpublished writer has his novel, The Yeast Lords, stolen by an established science-fiction author.
If art exists to satisfy the needs of the artist to create, then Gentlemen Broncos is certainly a work of art. It's also a terrible movie. I get the feeling that Jared Hess and co-writer (and spouse), Jerusha Hess, were endlessly amused by the mugging, unpleasant grotesqueries that populate Gentlemen Broncos--a mean-spirited comedy that feels like a Farrelly Brothers adaptation of a Daniel Clowes comic book. As an audience member, I felt like I was being asked to join in the mocking of those that the Hess's look down upon as the dregs of society, which, in the Gentlemen Broncos universe, is everybody.
Unlike other cinematic enthusiasts of white trash (John Waters, The Farrelly's), the Hess's show open disdain toward their characters. The plot hinges on the writing talent of Benjamin (Michael Angarano), and the filmmakers bring Benjamin's work to life through fantasy asides starring Sam Rockwell as Benjamin's protagonist, Bronco. These asides are so ridiculous (most, if not all of them revolve around Bronco trying to retrieve his stolen gonad), that you can't buy into anyone thinking that this kid is talented, much less that a best-selling science fiction writer (Jermaine Clement as Dr. Ronald Chevalier) would want to plagurize such utter nonsense. The cut-aways to Chevalier's version of Benjamin's story are even more inexplicable, featuring Rockwell as a prancing, lisping transgender albino named Brutus who rides a missle-launching reindeer. Remember, this is supposed to be the hero of a well-regarded science fiction novel. The bizarre treatment of the fictional writing in the film is hugely detrimental to the characters and the central conflict. It's also insulting to the audience to ask us to buy into a story that the Hess's don't really stand behind in the first place.
It's all one big gross, stupid joke. Gentlemen Broncos features an hour and a half of slack-jawed, talentless idiots talking about gonads, when they aren't puking or doing something that involves feces in some way. It's vile, and unfunny on an almost profound level. Jared and Jerusha Hess have created quite a movie for themselves.
Solomon Kane - UK - Directed by Michael J. Bassett
Synopsis: A Puritan with a penchant for violence seeks spiritual salvation as he hunts down the forces of darkness.
I'm curious to know how they plan on marketing Solomon Kane. They've got a star (James Purefoy) who's a dead ringer for Hugh Jackman, and they've dressed him almost exactly like 2003's Van Helsing. Not only that, but most of Solomon Kane's "money shots" feature him in slow-motion battle with demons and monsters. I fear that mass audiences will dismiss it as a wannabe Van Helsing, and deprive themselves from an exciting (albeit unambitious) action swashbuckler.
Kane gets the job done in the ass-kickery department, delivering the simple, predictable pleasures you'd expect from a property based on a pulp hero (created by Conan's Robert E. Howard). Kane's religious journey makes him slightly more interesting than the average sword-slinger. He's damned to Hell by a situation beyond his control, and is searching for answers from a God who isn't providing any. Honestly, the spirituality is just window dressing on what's essentially a story about a one-man army facing down an army of monsters, but the effort to make Solomon Kane even a little bit different is appreciated. I don't even think of myself as a "sword and sorcery" guy, and I had fun with this one.
Paranormal Activity - USA - Directed by Oren Peli
Synopsis: A couple, plagued by demonic forces, decide to document their haunting via video camera.
It's easy to call Paranormal Activity the best film of its type since 1999's The Blair Witch Project, but, more than that, Activity is the best haunted house movie in years. Katie Featherston and Micha Sloat make for a realistic on-screen couple, and they don't behave too actor-ly, a simple thing that's ruined many a pseudo-doc before it.
If you like being freaked out, Paranormal Activity is a must-see, but the nature of the scares (nail-biting anticipation, where often the only pay-off for your fear is a bump in the night) mean that the film's impact is immediately diminished on repeat viewings. If you have a wild imagination, watch out--Paranormal Activity is going to give you a coronary. The film forces you to become an active viewer, involving your senses in a way that I don't think I've ever seen a film do before. I watched every corner of the screen, listening for even the slightest unusual sound. Often, captured video is used to create an immediacy, but, in Paranormal Activity, it also creates intimacy, and that intimacy pays off in unforgettably hair-rasing ways.