The Unrepentant Cinephile

by Jason Coffman

  In addition to the new features (which also included Most Beautiful Island, this year’s big winner at SXSW, Massachusetts video artist Skip Shea’s Trinity, and closing night feature Bitch directed by Marianna Palka), this year’s Boston Underground Film Festival included a repertory screening of Richard Kelly’s bizarro sci-fi epic Southland Tales, over 80 shorts and music videos in programs and paired with features, the return of the “Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cereal Cartoon Party” curated by film writer and programmer Kier-La Janisse, and the festival’s first secret screening. Stay tuned to the official festival site (www.bostonunderground.org) and count the days until BUFF 2018, because this fest keeps getting better every year.

  Festival Report: 2016 Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 20 October 2016

  2016 is the inaugural year of the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival, a new DIY festival created to showcase the work of independent genre filmmakers from around the world. The first year’s schedule includes a number of shorts and six features that screened over the weekend of October 6th through the 9th. Daily Grindhouse’s Jason Coffman covers all the features screened at the festival, listed in the order in which they screened at the fest.

  Egomaniac (UK, dir. Kate Shenton)

  Catherine Sweeney (Nic Lamont) is an independent filmmaker trying to get her zombie horror romantic comedy feature off the ground. It’s not going well. One producer, Derek (Simeon Wells), insists she put a talking dog in it to make it more marketable, and another extremely suspect producer Nathan (Adam Rhys-Davies) agrees. Catherine bickers with Kevin (David Wayman), the leading zombie in her screenplay, about making the film and maintaining her artistic integrity. Who’s a girl have to kill to get a movie made these days? Egomaniac is a super low-budget DIY feature from filmmaker Kate Shenton, who drew on her own experiences working in independent film. This is pretty vicious satire, not just of the predators willing to take advantage of Catherine but of her own issues with ego—hence the title. Nic Lamont is fantastic in the lead, and it’s often very funny, but it turns very dark in the final act. It definitely feels earned, though, and Egomaniac is one of the best independent horror films of the year.

  Dead Body (USA, dir. Bobbin Ramsey)

  Following their high school graduation, Dominic (Jay Myers) invites exchange students Mariko (Miho Aizawa) and Kenji (Koe Sakuta) and his friend Ilsa (Rachel Brun) to a weekend at his dad’s lake house. He’s deeply annoyed to discover that Ilsa has invited five more people along, including the vaguely threatening 23-year-old Dwayne (Cooper Hopkins), who she hooked up with at a recent party. Rumor (Nic Morden) suggests they play “Dead Body,” a murder mystery parlor game, but once the game gets started somebody starts killing people for real. Dead Body is a fun slasher/murder mystery that doesn’t hold back on the gore. It’s surprisingly gruesome for something that feels fairly light until the murders start. Its main issue is a typical one for indie horror films: virtually all the characters are insufferable, making it tough to work up too much empathy for them before they are brutally dispatched. Still, it looks nice, the cast is good, and those practical effects are impressively nasty.

  Night of Something Strange (USA/Canada, dir. Jonathan Straiton)

  Before the title card for Night of Something Strange is even displayed, there is a scene of a morgue janitor raping a female corpse followed by one where he goes home, turns into a zombie, and rapes his wife. It isn’t until shortly after the title card that it becomes clear that this is supposed to be a comedy. As far as that goes, it’s a standard low-budget zombie horror movie, although one that goes out of its way to be as crass and disgusting as possible at every opportunity. Every bodily fluid you can think of gets trotted out for a gag: blood, vomit, urine, semen, menstrual blood, etc. etc. It’s not until the final act that things start getting really crazy with some inspired genital monsters, showing off some great monster effects, but by then it’s too late to save Night of Something Strange from registering as anything more than yet another low-budget zombie movie.

  Bad Blood (USA, dir. Tim Reis)

  College dropout Victoria (Mary Malloy) sneaks out of her house and steals her stepdad Wade’s (Brian Troxell) car to go to a party with her best friend Kelly (Chelsea Howard), but when they stop for gas they’re attacked by some kind of creature. A month later, Victoria’s parents have hired a private detective named Paul Stensland (Troy Halverson) to find her. He manages to bring her home in between bouts of psychotic delusions of his own, but while Wade thinks Victoria is just on drugs, the truth is much more dangerous. Bad Blood was produced and features incredible makeup and creature effects by James Sizemore (The Demon’s Rook), and the monster at the film’s center makes the movie worth watching on its own. The story feels oddly complicated, especially in regards to Stensland’s violent hallucinations, which culminate in a frankly anticlimactic payoff. Regardless, anyone looking for a gory, entertaining creature feature will find Bad Blood well worth seeking out.

  Karate Kill (USA/Japan, dir. Kurando Mitsuke)

  Kenji (Hayate) flies to Los Angeles when he’s unable to get in touch with his sister Mayumi (Mana Sakura) for a month. He follows a trail of clues that lead him to a cult called Capital Messiah that runs a web site streaming snuff videos for high-paying subscribers. Mayumi was kidnapped by the cult’s Mansonesque leader Vendenski (Kirk Geiger), eyepatch-wearing femme fatale Simona (Katarina Leigh Waters) and Benning (Tomm Voss), who looks like a Metal Gear character. Kenji finds Capital Messiah’s home base and joins forces with Keiko (Asami), the only victim to ever escape the group, to save Mayumi and kill all of Capital Messiah. Karate Kill’s gory action is defined by some really good fight choreography and some really bad CGI blood effects. The latter are particularly frustrating because the fight scenes are shot in longer takes than most modern action films on any level so you can really see what the fighters are doing. It deals with some dark stuff, but never gets to the same level of grimy exploitation as something like Gun Woman. It’s very reminiscent of low-budget late 70s/early 80s action films, although it’s never quite as much fun as the best of them. It’s still a solid independent martial arts action movie, though, which is exceptionally rare, and it’s probably a blast to watch with a game audience.

  Fantastic Fest 2016: Day 1

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse

  Arrival (USA, dir. Denis Villeneuve)

  When twelve alien ships suddenly appear all over the globe, linguist Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is enlisted by the government to attempt to communicate with the creatures that landed in the Midwest. Joined by physicist Dr. Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Banks manages to make progress but the operation is threatened by the tensions between governments of the world and the pervasive civil unrest that follows in the wake of the arrival. Arrival is an intelligent, mature and emotionally affecting science fiction feature. It’s frankly a miracle that it was produced by a major studio in the current climate of superhero blockbusters and endless sequels. Amy Adams is perfectly cast and leads an ensemble of great performances, and Denis Villeneuve proves again that he’s one of the best and most interesting directors working at this level. Anyone with reservations about his upcoming Blade Runner sequel may well change their minds after this.

  The Handmaiden (South Korea, dir. Chan-wook Park)

  Sook-Hee (Kim Tae-ri) is hired to be the handmaiden of the beautiful but reclusive Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), a Japanese woman who has grown up in her uncle’s large manor in Korea. But Sook-Hee is actually working in tandem with con man Count Fujiwara (Jung-woon Ha), who is scheming to marry Hideko and abscond with her father’s vast fortune. Sook-Hee’s job is to help Hideko fall in love with Fujiwara, but the situation becomes even more complicated when Sook-Hee falls in love with Hideko. The Handmaiden is a spectacular return to Korean cinema after Park’s English-language debut Stoker. Adapting Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith, director Chan-wook Park has created an intricately designed pu
zzle box of a film that deftly combines period drama and erotic thriller. It’s also surprisingly funny and unafraid to be swooningly romantic, all shot through with Park’s trademark stylish direction. The cast is brilliant, and the costume and production design is stunningly gorgeous. In a career that has already included more than one certified classic, The Handmaiden stands out as one of Park’s best.

  The Void (Canada, dir. Jeremy Gillespie & Steven Kostanski)

  Police officer Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) is almost done with his shift when he sees a man stagger out of the woods and collapse in the road. He gets the man into his cruiser and heads for the nearest emergency room, which happens to be the only thing left operational in the local hospital after a fire severely damaged the building. Carter’s estranged wife Allison (Kathleen Munroe) is running a skeleton crew, and shortly after Carter arrives a cult of white-robed figures and two men bent on killing the man Carter brought to the hospital arrive. But those are the least of their problems when they’re forced to defend themselves against an otherworldly threat. Directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski are two members of Canadian comedy filmmaking collective Astron-6, and it’s no surprise they’re so adept at creating truly horrific atmosphere--even some of Astron-6’s comedy is really disturbing. In some ways, The Void is a familiar siege horror film with characters barricaded in one location and dealing with threats from inside and outside. What sets it apart are its absolutely incredible practical monster effects and a grasp of what makes Lovecraftian horror so unsettling. This captures the feeling of that style better than anything since From Beyond. In world where “Hello Cthulhu” exists, The Void brings terror back to cosmic horror.

  Fantastic Fest 2016: Day 2

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse

  24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters (USA, dir. Kevin Burke)

  The rise of collectible screen prints and movie posters over the last decade or so has happened in conjunction with the growth of the Alamo Drafthouse brand--and, by extension, Fantastic Fest--so it makes perfect sense that a film about the art of American movie posters would have its premiere here in Austin. Kevin Burke’s 24x36 covers the history of movie poster and promotional art from before the invention of motion pictures all the way up to the present with the annual Mondo Con. The bulk of the film is interviews with artists, historians, collectors, gallery owners, and many others who offer a view into a different facets of the form’s history and process. It’s most interesting when it covers poster art up through the 1980s and feels a little heavy on the most recent past, but it’s packed with fun stories and information throughout.

  Original Copy (Germany, dir. Georg Heinzen & Florian Heinzen-Ziob)

  In the last movie theater screening 35mm prints in Mumbai, the last handpainted poster artist and his assistants create huge billboard murals to draw in audiences. The business seems to be on its last legs, though, and it seems the art of film projection and poster painting is doomed. Original Copy follows the staff of the Alfred Talkies theater as they struggle to keep their doors open and keep the classic experience of moviegoing alive. Watching the process of creating one of the billboard posters is amazing, although it’s a little tough to tell how much time passes in the film to get an idea of just how long it takes to paint it. The interviews with the managers and artists are fascinating but also sad: it’s clear everyone has an enormous amount of love for the theater and for movies, but it’s also just as clear that it’s an uphill battle for them to stay afloat.

  Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl (USA, dir. A.D. Calvo)

  Adele (Erin Wilhelmi), a young woman living with her pregnant mother and her mother’s lecherous boyfriend, is sent to care for her agoraphobic aunt Dora (Susan Kellerman) in her imposing Victorian home. Dora refuses to leave her room, communicating mostly through handwritten notes slipped under her door. When Adele meets Beth (Quinn Shepherd) while out running errands, the two young women strike up a friendship. But Adele’s restlessness and Beth’s influence cause Adele’s relationship with Dora to change, possibly setting them on a tragic course. Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl recalls 70s “psychotic women” films, but unlike other recent throwbacks to that era it is more tonally reminiscent of regional horror films from the 70s and early 80s like Terror at Red Wolf Inn and Don’t Look in the Basement. It’s much more artful than that comparison might suggest, though. The simple but effective score and gorgeously autumnal look of the film, as well as a pair of solid, understated performances by Wilhelmi and Quinn all help to create a powerfully creepy atmosphere.

  The Autopsy of Jane Doe (UK, dir. André Øvredal)

  Several bodies are discovered in a home in a small town in Ohio, including a woman (Olwen Kelly) partially buried in the floor of the basement. The local police are baffled and take the body to the funeral home run by Tony Tilden (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch) for an autopsy. The clock is ticking and the police need a cause of death before the press can get hold of the story and start a panic, but as the men begin the procedure they find increasingly strange things in the body that they can’t explain. As a violent storm rolls in and traps the men in the basement of the funeral home, even more inexplicable events threaten their lives. Director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) wrings this setup for all it’s worth, creating a series of scare set pieces that work much more often than they don’t. That said, there are a few familiar problems with the story and structure here, including a mostly superfluous love interest and an overreliance on shrieking jump scares. The relationship between Cox and Hirsch provides the film with a strong emotional center, though, and there are plenty of fun twists. A funeral home and morgue are already great places to set a horror movie, but The Autopsy of Jane Doe ups the ante with one of the most remarkable interior locations in a horror film in recent memory. It was honestly disappointing to find out during the Q&A following the film that it’s not a real location!

  A Dark Song (Ireland, dir. Liam Gavin)

  Sophia (Catherine Walker) enlists occultist Joseph (Steve Oram) to assist her in an extremely difficult and protracted magick ritual, one that will take months and which requires the two of them to stay inside a house together for its entirety. Joseph balks when they meet, but when Sophia reveals her true intentions for wanting to perform the ritual, he reluctantly agrees. As they seal themselves inside the house and begin the rites, reality seems to break down and the nature of their relationship fluctuates dangerously as the fragile nature of their progress is constantly threatened by forces they cannot comprehend. A Dark Song is a claustrophobic drama in horror finery. Walker and Oram are the only people on-screen for nearly its entire running time, and they’re both excellent in a pair of emotionally and physically demanding roles. Debut feature writer/director Liam Gavin has crafted something truly unique here. There are countless films about the occult, but I can’t recall one quite like this. Making its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, A Dark Song hopefully will not be overlooked in the avalanche of incredible programming at this year’s festival. This is one of the best genre films of the year.

  The Bad Batch (USA, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour)

  Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is marked “Bad Batch” and banished to a vast desert wasteland established for undesirables in Texas by the U.S. government. With only a backpack and a gallon of water, she is quickly caught by cannibals called the Bridge People and loses her right arm and leg before managing to escape and find her way to the comparatively peaceful town of Comfort. Her anger at the Bridge People unexpected leads her to cross paths with Miami Man (Jason Momoa) when he leaves the Bridge village to find his missing daughter. The Bad Batch is writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and while it’s obviously a very different beast it still feels like the work of the same imagination. Like her first film, this one follows a disparate set of characters inhabiting a vividly realized world whose paths cross in unexpected ways. Instead of building that world from silent films, horror, and spaghe
tti western influences, this time around it’s an amalgamation of 80s post-apocalypse and desert films. It’s deliberately paced and quiet, punctuated with an evocative soundtrack that helps enforce the idea that this world exists outside of any specific time period. It’s as odd and confounding as it is beautifully shot and designed, and like Amirpour’s first film it will probably only improve given more time to reflect on and rewatch it.

  The Young Offenders (Ireland, dir. Peter Foott)

  15-year-olds Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) are best friends who look like, talk alike, and both have less-than-great single-parent families. They dream of leaving their small town, and when they see a news report about boatloads of plastic bags filled with cocaine start washing up on a shore following a major police operation, they make a plan to steal one and get rich selling it off. Most of The Young Offenders follows the two boys on their leisurely trek to the beach, on the run from a seriously overzealous local cop who is determined to catch them for stealing bikes. It’s bright, loud, and profane, and for the most part it’s very lightweight fun but not terribly memorable. If you love watching teenage boys do dumb stuff and mouth off a lot, you’ll probably want to check it out; otherwise proceed with caution.

  Fantastic Fest 2016: Day 3

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse

  Kammattipaadam (India, dir. Rajeev Ravi)

  Krishnan (Dulquer Salmaan) is working as a guard on a movie studio lot when he gets a cryptic phone call from his old friend Ganga (Vinayakan). After he starts to make calls and discovers Ganga has gone missing, Krishnan reluctantly heads back to the home he hasn’t seen in thirty years and finds himself right back in the middle of the same mess that he had thought he left behind forever. Kammattipaadam runs on a pair of parallel storylines following Krishnan in the present and in his wild teenage years running with a street gang. It’s obviously heavily indebted to sweeping crime epics like Once Upon a Time in America, which is no surprise as director Rajeev Ravi was cinematographer on two of fellow Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s similarly large-scale crime dramas. Ravi’s film is nowhere near as gritty as Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, but it’s also not quite as slick as Once Upon a Time in Mumbai (the lack of song-and-dance numbers in particular sets it apart from more mainstream Indian movies). This leaves Kammattipaadam in an odd limbo that it never quite escapes. It looks good and the performances are solid, but similar stories to this one have been told much more compellingly in recent memory. There is a four-hour version that will be released on Blu-ray, though, and it’s compelling enough to inspire checking out the longer cut to see how it stacks up to those other films as well.