In Review: Fantastic Fest 2019
Another Fantastic Fest is done and done! As always, it was a great time and I saw more films in a week than most people watch in a year – 31, to be exact. Below you’ll find my Top 10, plus a smattering of notes for the other movies I caught at the fest.
Side note, thanks to the Fons PR team for taking good care of Noah and myself throughout the fest. It wouldn’t be the same without them around.
THE TOP TEN:
Plot: When their buddy, Dick, unexpectedly dies after a weird, wild night of partying, a pair of pals must deal with what really happened and the potential consequences of it.
Review: I could have put Parasite or Jojo Rabbit in the top spot here and felt good about it, but I decided to stick with The Death Of Dick Long simply because of how much it has stuck with me. Frankly, it’s a weird movie, but it’s also very funny, sharp and heartfelt. Also, I think it’s really impressive that director Daniel Scheinert delivered an objective, understanding look at a particularly bizarre sexual kink instead of mocking it relentlessly. I’m definitely looking forward to whatever he decides to do next.
02) Parasite
Plot: A wealthy family hires a young man to give English lessons to their teenage daughter. He seems like a great fit and even helps connects them with contacts for help they need elsewhere, but what they don’t realize is that it’s all a scheme to get his sister, father and mother hired on right alongside him.
Review: While the plot of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite never goes where you expect it to, the film itself steadily provides a poignant look at the various classes of society. I laughed, gasped, empathized and ultimately walked out of the theater feeling as though I had seen one of the year’s best films.
03) Jojo Rabbit
Plot: Jojo is a precocious boy with dreams of joining Hitler’s personal guard. After discovering a young Jewish woman living in the walls of his home, he finds himself having to reevaluate everything he thought was right.
Review: After the initial reaction to Jojo Rabbit proved to be fairly mixed, I wondered if maybe Taika Waititi’s latest was missing the magic that made The Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok so good. Nope. It’s here in full force, and I will happily scoff in the face of anyone who doesn’t think that this is a great film. Be fully prepared to fall deeply in love with every character. And to laugh and cry heaps.
04) Knives Out
Plot: A very wealthy, famous author is found dead. It appears to be a suicide, but famed investigator Benoit Blanc is certain that someone in the man’s family is responsible for the crime.
Review: Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is one of the most fun films that I’ve seen this year. Remember 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express? Well, this is that, but with a better cast, a grander sense of humor and a flat out more entertaining story. Daniel Craig’s weirdo southern-fried Benoit Blanc is the biggest delight here, but Johnson should receive a lot of high-fives, too. This movie simply wouldn’t work without the way he masterfully strings together all of the various twists.
05) Sea Fever
Plot: A student joins a fishing crew and heads out to sea for a research project. After they run across a creature they’ve never seen before, horrific things start happening.
Review: Sea Fever is one of the smartest horror movies that I’ve come across in along while. Its characters take calculated risks, they talk to each other, and when the shit hits the fan (and boy does it), they do their best to work together. This left me without the chance to huff and puff at any stupid decisions, which means I just ended up feeling bad whenever something terrible would happen, like a character’s eyes exploding. How refreshing!
06) Swallow
Plot: A woman finds herself in a very weird, uncomfortable spot with her husband and his family, so she takes to swallowing various kinds of household items.
Review: I don’t know if I’ll ever watch Swallow again, but I did really like it. Hayley Bennett (who looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence) is fantastic as Hunter, a downtrodden woman who only has control of one thing in her life – the stuff she decides to ingest. She starts small, but as the movie goes on and you learn about her past and her current situation, the objects get larger and more dangerous until things come to a head. It’s definitely not an easy film, but it’s certainly a compelling one.
Plot: The true story of comedian/rap legend Rudy Ray Moore and his creation of Dolemite, a 70s Blaxpoitation hero.
Review: I know it’s just one movie (who knows how any of his other upcoming projects will shake out), but Dolemite Is My Name is so good that it’s hard to not just go ahead and declare Eddie Murphy as being fully back. Hell, it even seems like the right time to welcome back director Craig Brewer, who hasn’t put out anything worthwhile since 2006’s Black Snake Moan. In any case, this one is going to be very well received when it hits Netflix.
08) Come To Daddy
Plot: A hipstery man runs off to see his estranged father. He assumes that his presence has been requested so that they two can reconnect, but he turns out to be very wrong.
Review: Outside of Parasite, there wasn’t another film at the fest that steadily through me for a loop like Come To Daddy. This is a nutty affair with a lot of plot twists and really weird characters, and none of it seems like something that should work, but somehow someway it does. I don’t know what will end up happening to this oddball flick, but if you ever get the chance to see it, you should give it a go.
09) The Lodge
Plot: Two siblings have to go on Christmas vacation with their father and his soon-to-be new wife. After the dad is called away for work, the kids and their future stepmom are left alone in a lodge way out in the middle of nowhere.
Review: The Lodge seemed to generate a lot of shoulder-shrugs at the festival, but I really liked it. If you’re into movies like The Witch or Hereditary, then you should definitely seek out it. Just know though that it’s not an easy film to watch – which is why I think it didn’t win everyone over – and you’ll likely come out of it wondering if starting a family is something you stay far away from.
10) The Platform
Plot: A man opts to enter a prison in exchange for a degree. He expects a quiet experience, but instead he finds himself in a vertical structure where the food starts at the top and then slowly makes its way downwards, which means the upper floors eat well and the bottom ones get scraps (or nothing at all).
Review: The Platform is a minimalist film, but it has quite a lot to offer. Ivan Massague is great as Goreng, a man who would likely be better off simply doing his time in the terrible prison that he’s in, but he just can’t seem to not do the right thing. I also really dug the sharp social commentary that’s ever-present throughout the movie.
THE OTHER 21:
11) Color Out Of Space – A lot of people I talked to were all about Nicolas Cage here, but I think it’s director Richard Stanley that should be getting all of the praise. His latest is a really fun (and occasionally grotesque) slice of sci-fi horror.
12) The Vast Of Night – I love pulpy sci-fi, and that’s exactly what this is front start to finish. Props to Sierra McCormick for legit operating a switchboard for what seems like forever in one of the film’s many tracking shots.
13) Happy Face – Heartfelt, charming, funny. I hope this gets an official release so that you’ll be able to see it.
14) First Love – There’s a scene in Takashi Miike’s latest where a cop gets laid out by an unexpected punch, and the sound it makes is so gnarly that you can practically feel the hit. As for the film itself, I liked it.
15) Deerskin – I’m still laughing at the part where a young boy gets pegged in the face with a huge rock. On another note, the movie itself is kind of sad and much more streamlined than anything else that director Quentin Dupieux has done.
16) In The Tall Grass – I thought that this film was going to be really scary, but it’s not at all. I had a pretty good time with it though. Patrick Wilson has a lot of fun with this character.
17) The Pool – The irrefutable winner of this year’s “so bad it’s good” award.
18) Sweetheart – This film’s third act is super shaky, but at that point I was too caught up in Kiersey Clemons’ awesome performance to care all that much.
19) Nobadi – First of all, this movie features the most casual amputation of a limb that I’ve ever seen. Secondly, it’s a really sad look at the lives of undocumented immigrants.
20) Amigo – This one is a bit of a slow burner, but it’s worth the effort. What a tough ending.
21) In The Shadow Of The Moon – Boyd Holbrook is great in this. Too bad that the film itself is kind of dumb and only moderately entertaining.
22) Vivarium – Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg turn in nice performances, and I found the story to be pretty interesting, but it’s all toppled by the lack of a payoff in the final act.
23) The Whistlers – Here’s a good example of a film that completely crumbles when you start to really look at it. The performances are good though, and I’m pretty into whistling now. Also, Catrinel Marlon is distractingly beautiful in it.
24) Synchronic – This is essentially a Syfy Channel film with a nice budget, but it’s not terrible. Anthony Mackie is pretty solid in it.
25 Homewrecker – It looks like it was made for about $2,000 and it doesn’t always make much sense, but it’s fun in a low-rent sort of way.
26) 4×4 – I was real into this one until the third act, where it just fully falls apart. Bummer.
27) The Wave – Justin Long is fun in this weirdo, drug-infused, time-travel flick. However, it’s so twisty-turny that I eventually just stopped paying attention.
28) Butt Boy – The gross-out value is high here, but there’s not much else to be had.
29) Koko-Di Koko-Da – I never could quite figure out what the goal/message was here. I did, however, enjoy the little ditty that the villains sing.
30) Night Has Come – Archived footage + a monotone voice-over + a fictional story will put me right to sleep, apparently.
31) Tammy And The T-Rex – Released back in 1994, this one of the worst movies ever made. It sure is funny though.
