Fantasia Festival reviews: Saturday August 1st
After a great continental breakfast and a short walk to the theater, we were ready to begin day two of movie awesomeness:
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal - (2015/China/fantasy) Demon hunter Zhong Kui has stolen the Dark Crystal from Hell at the behest of his master Zhang, a Heavenly official. Zhong must protect the crystal from demons until after Reincarnation Day, which will allow Heaven to triumph over Hell forever. The demons send Snow Girl and her minions to recover the Dark Crystal, which is complicated because Zhong and Snow Girl were once lovers. There are plans within plans, betrayals, love, and lots of fighting before all is said and done! I was expecting this to be more of a martial arts movie, but it's more a straight up fantasy. Lots of CGI creatures and effects (some better than others), and a story that is more complex than expected. It's a very light hearted movie with moments of tenderness and some good action scenes. A great way to start off our day! Rating: 4/5 crystals
Sunrise - (2014/India/drama) This is definitely not a Bollywood production! Inspector Joshi's daughter was abducted and never found, these old wounds are reopened when his next case involves another kidnapped girl. He searches for an elusive shadow man only he can see. Reality starts to blur as he stumbles across Paradise, a club where young girls are sold to the highest bidder. Joshi gets closer and closer to the missing girl, will he find his own daughter among them? Are the club and the shadow man real, or illusion? This movie has a great noir feel to it: the streets are drenched in rain, it's almost always night. You slowly learn about Joshi's loss and how it gutted his marriage. You also follow one of the kidnapped girls, forced to live with the other dancers while awaiting her turn. The film is never gratuitous or graphic, but the underlying fate of the girls is sadly very clear. The film moves in and out of perception and reality, with an ending that offers a glimmer of hope if you are inclined to look for it. An engrossing and powerful look at a very real problem in India. Rating: 4/5 dancers
Orion - (2015/USA/fantasy) A man wanders through a post apocalyptic landscape (filmed in Detroit of all places), following the constellation Orion. He stops at the tent of an old mystic, who is holding a woman prisoner. The mystics powers are very real, as the wanderer finds out when he tries to rescue the woman. their conflict ranges over the city through myth and mystery, until a final conflict which will prove whether the wanderer is the savior prophecy predicted... or just another victim. This is the perfect example of the gems you will find at Fantasia. Shot on a very low budget with an often confusing and hard to watch camera style, the film draws you in despite all that with a unique mythology and slow burning conflict. The backgrounds are amazing, especially considering they are the actual ruins of Detroit. Orion proves that a low budget film can still look amazing, if the vision of the director is strong enough. It broke my brain, in a good way. Rating: 4/5 trees (it makes sense if you see the movie)
Nina Forever - (2015/UK/horror-comedy) Rob is barely hanging on after his girlfriend Nina died in a car crash. Holly is drawn to Rob's grief and wants to comfort him, but there is a small problem: whenever Rob has sex, Nina appears in his bed, bloody and sarcastic, mocking both of them and utterly killing the mood. Holly and Rob try to make it work, but Nina will not go away, and all of them will have to eventually figure out how to move on. This is barely a horror film (bloody ghost notwithstanding) and only lightly a comedy. It's a moving, beautiful movie about grief and how to over come it. It's incredibly well put together for a independent film. Editing, sound, pacing, dialogue are all top notch. I was the only person of our crew to watch the movie, but by time I finished describing it everyone wished they say it. Do yourself a favor if it ever shows up on Netflix or at the Brattle: SEE IT! Rating: 5/5 bloody beds
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal - (2015/China/fantasy) Demon hunter Zhong Kui has stolen the Dark Crystal from Hell at the behest of his master Zhang, a Heavenly official. Zhong must protect the crystal from demons until after Reincarnation Day, which will allow Heaven to triumph over Hell forever. The demons send Snow Girl and her minions to recover the Dark Crystal, which is complicated because Zhong and Snow Girl were once lovers. There are plans within plans, betrayals, love, and lots of fighting before all is said and done! I was expecting this to be more of a martial arts movie, but it's more a straight up fantasy. Lots of CGI creatures and effects (some better than others), and a story that is more complex than expected. It's a very light hearted movie with moments of tenderness and some good action scenes. A great way to start off our day! Rating: 4/5 crystals
Sunrise - (2014/India/drama) This is definitely not a Bollywood production! Inspector Joshi's daughter was abducted and never found, these old wounds are reopened when his next case involves another kidnapped girl. He searches for an elusive shadow man only he can see. Reality starts to blur as he stumbles across Paradise, a club where young girls are sold to the highest bidder. Joshi gets closer and closer to the missing girl, will he find his own daughter among them? Are the club and the shadow man real, or illusion? This movie has a great noir feel to it: the streets are drenched in rain, it's almost always night. You slowly learn about Joshi's loss and how it gutted his marriage. You also follow one of the kidnapped girls, forced to live with the other dancers while awaiting her turn. The film is never gratuitous or graphic, but the underlying fate of the girls is sadly very clear. The film moves in and out of perception and reality, with an ending that offers a glimmer of hope if you are inclined to look for it. An engrossing and powerful look at a very real problem in India. Rating: 4/5 dancers
Orion - (2015/USA/fantasy) A man wanders through a post apocalyptic landscape (filmed in Detroit of all places), following the constellation Orion. He stops at the tent of an old mystic, who is holding a woman prisoner. The mystics powers are very real, as the wanderer finds out when he tries to rescue the woman. their conflict ranges over the city through myth and mystery, until a final conflict which will prove whether the wanderer is the savior prophecy predicted... or just another victim. This is the perfect example of the gems you will find at Fantasia. Shot on a very low budget with an often confusing and hard to watch camera style, the film draws you in despite all that with a unique mythology and slow burning conflict. The backgrounds are amazing, especially considering they are the actual ruins of Detroit. Orion proves that a low budget film can still look amazing, if the vision of the director is strong enough. It broke my brain, in a good way. Rating: 4/5 trees (it makes sense if you see the movie)
Nina Forever - (2015/UK/horror-comedy) Rob is barely hanging on after his girlfriend Nina died in a car crash. Holly is drawn to Rob's grief and wants to comfort him, but there is a small problem: whenever Rob has sex, Nina appears in his bed, bloody and sarcastic, mocking both of them and utterly killing the mood. Holly and Rob try to make it work, but Nina will not go away, and all of them will have to eventually figure out how to move on. This is barely a horror film (bloody ghost notwithstanding) and only lightly a comedy. It's a moving, beautiful movie about grief and how to over come it. It's incredibly well put together for a independent film. Editing, sound, pacing, dialogue are all top notch. I was the only person of our crew to watch the movie, but by time I finished describing it everyone wished they say it. Do yourself a favor if it ever shows up on Netflix or at the Brattle: SEE IT! Rating: 5/5 bloody beds