FANTASIA 27 - Week 2

Fantasia International Film Festival
27th Edition
Week 2

By “Doc” Hunter Bush, staff writer and podcast czar

This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival is rolling right along and I’m just trying to hold on, y’know? With a staggering amount of feature films, and almost a dozen short film blocks, there’s more than enough to keep anyone entertained. And trust me when I tell you that I am being entertained.

This 2nd week has been very surprising for me. You never know what you’ll be getting with a movie, but especially at a festival. Some of these films have only the briefest of descriptions to go by, and though sometimes they don’t live up to the expectation, sometimes (the better times) they exceed them! Below are a couple of recommended flicks from Fantasia week 2!

#Manhole

Written by Michitaka Okada

Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri

Starring Yûzo Nakajima, Nao, Kento Nagayama

When a film’s title has a hashtag in it, I am less likely to take it seriously. I’m gonna say the word “hashtag” in my head at every applicable moment, which can severely damage your film’s tension. That’s just how it is. And when the film’s plot is as simple-seeming as “a man falls down an open hashtag-manhole and becomes trapped”, I am likely to think I know what this film has in store for me. In this instance, I could not have been more wrong.

A man absolutely does become trapped after falling down an open hashtag-manhole, and yes, some of the runtime is him exploring the space, trying to devise clever ways out, as expected. But when #Manhole bucks my expectations, it really threw me in the best way. If like I did, you think you know where this film is going, I can assure you: You do not! This sits comfortably alongside Crawl (2019), Fall (2022), and (even though it’s not quite as good a film as the others) The Pool (2018) as simple-seeming concepts that wring every ounce of entertainment from their set-ups.

Blackout

Written by Larry Fessenden

Directed by Larry Fessenden

Starring Alex Hurt, Motell Gyn Foster, Marshall Bell

In Blackout from writer/director Larry Fessenden, the acclaimed genre mainstay finally gets to tackle the werewolf mythos, and as he usually does when treading in seemingly familiar waters, he manages to approach the subject from a unique direction. Sure we have a protagonist who believes he is the unknown beast committing the killings in Talbot township (nice reference btw), but Fessenden makes his story about the emotional arc as well as contrasting the townsfolk’s reactions with a very timely commentary on xenophobia.

These parallel through-lines give the story both a macro and micro focus that’s interesting for a classic monster movie. What’s more, this may be Fessenden’s best shot, strongest directed film. The use of Charley (Alex Hurt)’s own paintings to help tell his story is incredibly effective and feels surprisingly fresh, even though the first time it happens I wondered why this isn’t done in more films.

River

Written by Makoto Ueda

Directed by Junta Yamaguchi

Starring Riko Fujitani, Manami Hanjô, Gôta Ishida

The story of a small inn located in the mountains of Kyoto which becomes stuck in a two-minute loop of which only those in the immediate area are aware, River sounded like a “cute” idea, but I didn’t expect to as thoroughly enjoy it as I ultimately did, or to be as drawn into the handful of characters’ stories as I was.

Without resorting to much broad comedy, and even while skirting dark emotional territory, I was laughing out loud multiple times. There is a Wes Anderson quality to the directness of the characters’ approach, the matter-of-fact way they accept the strangeness of what’s happening, as well as the overall curated diorama quality of each character’s small-stake storylines that I think would appeal to wider audiences. It’s also notably a film without a villain, of which there are shockingly few, which also lends it no small amount of charm.

Aporia

Written by Jared Moshe

Directed by Jared Moshe

Starring Judy Greer, Payman Maadi, Edi Gathegi

With its strong emotional core and bold story moves, Aporia is a modern bit of science fiction that falls somewhere between Primer (2004) and Something in the Dirt (2022). When a scientist (Edi Gathegi)’s widow (Judy Greer) and physicist best friend (Payman Maadi) use an experimental device to correct his death, they begin a chain of events with unforeseeable consequences for them. As much a film about guilt and personal responsibility as it is about quantum theory, Aporia hits surprisingly hard.

It should come as no surprise when I say Judy Greer is great in this (when isn’t she?) but she’s rarely given the chance to anchor a film with such emotional complexity and she shines here. My one quibble is that the direction here is a bit matter-of-fact and could have used an extra hit of emotionality or sentimentality. Still, Aporia is a modern take on the monkey’s paw concept that will leave you with an appreciation for everything and everyone you have in your life.

Skin Deep

Written by Dimitrij Schaad, Alex Schaad

Directed by Alex Schaad

Starring Mala Emde, Jonas Dassler, Thomas Wodianka

Similar to something like The Lobster (2015), Alex Schaad’s Skin Deep takes a science fictional conceit and uses it to examine very common concerns. When couple Leyla and Tristan (Mala Emde and Jonas Dassler respectively) visit a secretive island commune to try out the body-swapping technology offered there, they’re forced to reexamine not just their relationship, or their places in it, but themselves and each other as people.

Skin Deep is a profoundly affecting examination of empathy and love. The old maxim about walking a mile in another’s shoes is meant to give us a concept of empathy and what Skin Deep does is give us a deeper level to contemplate: What if you could walk that proverbial mile in another person’s body? Imagine how much deeper you could learn to love them.

Hundreds of Beavers

Written by Mike Cheslik

Directed by Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews

Starring Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tank

A few years back, I was lucky enough to see The Lake Michigan Monster, a silent sci-fi monster movie epic made with a love of 1950s b-movies and the aesthetic of a Saturday morning kids’ show. It’s an absolute blast, so when I heard that the same creative group were behind Hundreds of Beavers, I was beside myself with anticipation.

When a former applejack distiller (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) is forced to live off of the land, he falls in love with the local trader’s daughter (Olivia Graves) and will have to defeat the titular amount of semi-aquatic rodents to win her hand. And he’ll do so in the style of a (nearly) silent film with healthy doses of Looney Tunes, Sid & Marty Krofft and just a pinch of Jackass. The film falls firmly into both the So Dumb It’s Genius and So Smart It’s Hilarious categories and I can not recommend it enough.

With Love and a Major Organ

Written by Julia Lederer

Directed by Kim Albright

Starring Anna Maguire, Hamza Haq, Veena Sood

Another in the illustrious history of science fiction being used to examine human nature, With Love and a Major Organ takes place in a near future (or possibly alternate now) where most people use an app to make all of their major life decisions. Most people that is, aside from painter Anabel (Anna Maguire) who fully embraces the chaos and messiness of being truly human, until a string of bad fortune and heartbreak drives her to remove her own heart - which, it should be noted, is just a thing that a person can do here.

Yes, it’s a strange world. One that asks the audience to buy into a lot of odd conceits, but beneath them is a truly touching film that creatively visualizes emotional states and examines numerous aspects of love: not only love for yourself and others, but also the dangers of never opening yourself up to love for fear of being hurt. With Love and a Major Organ is quirky, which can turn some people off, but for those willing to commit, it’s a unique and moving experience.

Where the Devil Roams

Written by the Adams family

Directed by the Adams family

Starring Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams

The follow up to Hellbender from mother/father/daughter writing/directing/starring collective the Adams family, Where the Devil Roams follows circus performers Maggie (Toby Poser), Seven (John Adams), and their daughter Eve (Zelda Adams) as they try to make ends meet in a raggedy sideshow traveling from town to town through Depression-era America.

Driven to increasingly extreme ends by a combination of desperation and Maggie’s own violent tendencies, the family set themselves on a path to their own dismantling and eventual reassembly via supernatural means. From the grainy feel of the entire carny aesthetic to the occult tensions bubbling under the surface as the family leave a trail of bodies in their wake, this one, as the kids say, is all about the spooky vibe.

Fantasia International Film Festival runs until August 9th in Montreal, Quebec. Tickets are available HERE.