Fantastic Fest 2019: 5 Picks From The 1st Wave Of Programming (Noah)
When John Laird shot me over the announcement for the 1st Wave of Fantastic Fest 2019 films this morning it was as if a portal opened beneath my chair and the smells of hard-fried everything, burnt coffee and nerd sweat were right there in the room with me. It smelled liked heaven. Big, neck-bearded, cinematic heaven. I am returning to the wet blanket heat of Austin, Texas in September to once again try to scrape away any semblance of grey matter with a long stretch of pure cinema.
I have spent far too much time today reading and then re-reading and then re-reading again this very first list of films the lord gods over at Fantastic Fest have blessed us with. My excitement has ballooned my soul to an ungainly, near painful size and the only way I can relieve the pressure is to projectile vomit the 5 films, from this wave of programming alone, that I’m hankering to rest my weary eyes on. Put on your ponchos and close your mouth – here comes some recommendations.
0. Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi
This one doesn’t get placed on the list because it is a film by Taika Waititi and as a certified lover of films (I have a document in a gold frame) it is required that I consume each of his delicate, hilarious, absurd efforts as soon as decently possible. Thus, placing Jojo Rabbit – Waititi’s film featuring Hitler as a joyful imaginary friend – on this list isn’t exactly a choice, it’s an imperative.
1. In The Tall Grass, Vincenzo Natali
A while back, master of horror, Stephen King sat down with his son, burgeoning master of horror, Joe Hill to pen a novella for Esquire. What emerged was In The Tall Grass, a chilling slice of scares about two kids searching for the source of a cry for help in the titular tall grass. This is Stephen King and one of his brood at work so it isn’t particularly surprising that what lies in wait isn’t exactly pretty. Vincenzo Natali – the man behind Cube and Splice and other non mono-syllabically titled films – has adapted the film for Netflix with Patrick Wilson and Rachel Wilson in toe. Netflix has done right by Stephen King’s odds and ends in the past and the premise seems built for visual terror.
2. Deerskin, Quentin Dupieux
I came into last year’s FF uninspired to spend two hours in the absurdist realm of Quentin Dupieux’s Keep An Eye Out. As it turned out, the two hours I spent in the director’s attractively bat shit brain was a highlight. His newest – Deerskin – finds a man who finds a deerskin jacket and is, implausibly, driven to madness in his quest to, ahem, “be the only man wearing an overgarment.” As a man who enjoys an overgarment I am curious to see what might drive a man into an overgarment-related rage. What small indelicacies of a personality would shift just the right amount to turn an item as pure and wonderful as an outer layer into a vehicle for murder. Mr. Dupieux, I can only hope you’ll provide me with the needed answers.
3. First Love, Takashi Miike
If one was to place a flashlight next to Takashi Miike’s ear-hole (the scientific term, thank you) and then peer into the, now, well-lit chamber of his mind it would, in layman’s terms, be a pretty fucked up place. Oh sure, Mr. Miike has moved away from the ankle slashing and extendo-jaws of his early films, but the current of thoughts that fuels his imagination is one choked with gore, bone chunks and tantalizing badness. It doesn’t matter what genre you dip into the filth, it’s going to come up the best way. A gangster film about a boxer trying to save a girl over a punch-filled night sounds like a 30s noir, but with Miike at the rudder (ship metaphors!), it’ll probably be dripping with fluids.
4. Son of the White Mare, Marcell Jankovics
My interest was peaked at “psychedelic animated cult classic.” My ticket was purchased when the trailer featured a surprising number of chubby, pastel horses angrily tromping through what seemed to be a forest made of painful lightning bolt trees. After indulging in the blissful experience of viewing chubby, animated pastel horses I turned back to another window to write about chubby, animated, pastel horses without closing the previously viewed window. Thus, in the background, for the time it has taken me to write this thoughtful recommendation, a woman has been whispering “Forbidden Planet” and a cartoon cat has been pontificating over how many women he can sleep with at once. All-in-all, I’m stoked to see this movie.
5. The Wave, Gille Klabin
I have always enjoyed the actorly work of Justin Long. I think this is partly because my brother’s name is also Justin and when I watch reruns of Ed, I like to imagine my brother in place of the other Justin. It’s almost like I know someone famous. Beyond that, Justin Long has brown hair, so too does my brother. I don’t have a particular affinity for brown hair on actors, but it is another nice coincidence. Anyways, this film involves a psychedelic journey caused by drugs with Justin Long (or maybe Justin Sanders…) right smack in the middle. Sounds swell.
Honorable Mention: Wrinkles The Clown
I sometimes like to imagine what it would take to scare me so badly that I never slept ever again*. Though during these times of imagination I have never dug deep enough to imagine a film titled Wrinkles The Clown, the combination of words (and the images of an extremely loose-skinned clown) have now settled into the cracks of my thinking organ, and it is certainly in the running for eternal sleep depriving, uh, thing. Even more sleep depriving, this is not just a scary film, it is a true story scary film. A “documentary” about a clown in Florida who is hired to scare children. Which to me sounds like child abuse. And child abuse is also scary.
*This is categorically not true. I enjoy sleeping.
