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Fantasia 2020: ‘Hail to the Deadites’ is an opportunity missed | Awesome Friday!
Some B movies go nowhere, and others become cult classics. People love this latter category of film. People go out of their way to see them in special screenings and to collect memorabilia. What makes these films resonate is a question worth examining. Not only do they have to have a certain je ne sais quoi about them, whether that is amazing effects, the cast having a great time, or them being perfectly of their place and time, but something causes them to connect with audiences profoundly. Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Evil Dead movies are, all three of them, this type of movie. The Evil…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Block Island Sound’ is suitably creepy | Awesome Friday!
The Block Island Sound is a gorgeously shot horror film. Almost every exterior shot is beautiful and takes full advantage of the location. The score and sound design are also top-notch, with much of the tension being ratcheted up by the auditory experience. It is also well cast and –and I say this as someone who grew up on a small island– really captures that small island town feel of everyone knowing everyone. Chris Sheffield is doing good work here as Harry, the black sheep estranged from his family and most of the island. But, once things start going south, he…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Sleep’ blurs the lines between dreams and reality | Awesome Friday!
A confident first feature from director Michael Venus, the film is anchored by a phenomenal central performance by Gro Swantje Kohlhof as Mona navigates her own trauma, her mother’s, and, in many ways, the trauma of the German people. Schlaf is atmospheric, dark, moody, and unsettling, and one to add to your watch list. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-sleep-blurs-the-lines-between-dreams-and-reality/
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My Three Favourite Christopher Nolan Films | Awesome Friday!
We can still get our dose of Christopher Nolan’s trademark brand of incredible practical action and obsession with time, though. The man has made eleven films to date, and most of them have one or the other or both. So to help get you through, here are my three favourite Christopher Nolan films Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/home-video-matts-three-favourite-christopher-nolan-films/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Hunted’ covers some well-worn revenge ground | Awesome Friday!
The rape-revenge story is a well-worn film story. The bad man seems nice. The bad man gets the woman alone. The bad man reveals himself as bad man. Violence ensues. Hunted attempts to take a supernatural twist on this story, following our victim deep into a forest that will eventually become her ally. Or so the pitch goes. The problem is that the film doesn’t really follow through on the pitch. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-hunted-covers-some-well-worn-revenge-ground/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘A Mermaid in Paris’ is a fun, heartfelt fantasy | Awesome Friday!
A Mermaid in Paris is, shockingly, from this last group. A man, Gaspar (Nicolas Duvauchelle), finds the wounded mermaid Lula (Marilyn Lima) on the banks of the Seine one night and proceeds to nurse her back to health. In the process, they fall in love. It’s not exactly a new setup, but when you filter this story through the mind and aesthetic of Mathias Malzieu, you end up with something that looks like a cross between the classic 80s film Splash and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 classic Amélie. Let me be clear: this is absolutely not a complaint. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-a-mermaid-in-paris-is-a-fun-heartfelt-fantasy/
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Interview: Quinn Armstrong on his film “Survival Skills” | Awesome Friday!
Survival Skills is a film I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first watched it. A biting satire of police training, it frames a cold hard look at the way police are trained to interact with the people they’re sworn to protect. I watched and reviewed the film yesterday and today had the opportunity to sit down with writer and director Quinn Armstrong via Zoom to talk about police training videos, the timeliness of this satire, and what he hopes to expose with his film. Full Interview at Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-interview-quinn-armstrong-on-his-film-survival-skills/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘PVT Chat’ can’t decide whether it’s honest or sleazy | Awesome Friday!
The film crosses back and forth over the lines, from some moments that ring incredibly true and honest to others that are effectively softcore porn. Each actor gives 100% to the material; Vack and Fox bare all for the camera. The level of trust in the filmmaker must have been quite high for them to do so, given the level of nudity and sexuality they are portraying, but the film never achieves the level of insight I think it aspires to. In the end, the film doesn’t decide to come down on one side or the other, trying to be…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Free Country’ is a stark, engaging mystery | Awesome Friday!
Each lead actor is great, but Felix Kramer, as Markus, steals the show. He’s a brute, but he might be a bad man for good reasons. Does that work? I will let you decide for yourself, but it’s fascinating watching him portray that struggle and whether Markus will let his past define him. Alvart has created a taut mystery with characters easy to become invested in and does double duty as the cinematographer, photographing the stark German winter with grand, gorgeous aerial shots and a colour scheme as cold and disquieting as the story itself. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-free-country-is-a-stark-engaging-mystery/
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Don’t Go to the Movies Right Now | Awesome Friday!
I love the movie-going experience. Sure, people can be jerks sometimes (*cough* turn your phone off *cough*), a man was even arrested for assaulting another moviegoer at my screening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (seriously, that happened). But there’s nothing quite like seeing an exciting blockbuster film with a large crowd when that crowd is into it. It’s electrifying, and I miss it. On the other hand, there is a worldwide pandemic happening right now. Two hundred thousand people a day are catching COVID-19 worldwide, and anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 people are dying from it. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/dont-go-to-the-movies-right-now/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Survival Skills’ is way more than just a weird VHS nostalgia trip | Awesome Friday!
It would be easy to write Survival Skills off as a cheap nostalgia bid or a wacky experiment, and it would have been easy just to be that. Still, writer and director Quinn Armstrong’s script takes the story to some uncomfortably dark places and pits Jim’s desire to help against our society and all the ways it fails the people it tries to protect. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-survival-skills-is-way-more-than-just-a-weird-vhs-nostalgia-trip/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘A Witness Out of the Blue’ is a solid action thriller | Awesome Friday!
Opening with a gang of thieves storming a jewellery store only to be cornered by the police as they finish filling their bags, some quick thinking leads to the thieves escape but arrange in their wake. Then, three months later, a gang member is murdered, and the only witness to the crime is a parrot. Is that a hell of a setup? Yes! Does it live up to that setup? Mostly! Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-a-witness-out-of-the-blue-is-a-solid-action-thriller/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Climate of the Hunter’ is dark, weird, stylistic throwback | Awesome Friday!
To reiterate, this movie is deeply weird. It’s also shallow. Climate of the Hunter features several monologues from Wesley, stories of his travel, and his devotion to his wife, but nothing of any real substance is discussed in all his talk. Oh, sure, it sounds like there is, but it only sounds like it. The one interesting hook, whether Wesley is a vampire or just an ageing lothario with a weird sleep schedule and a particularly severe allergy, takes most of the film to resolve, but once it did, I had a hard time caring. For me, it could have gone…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Bleed With Me’ is a slow, but sure, burn set in the Canadian wilderness | Awesome Friday!
The remote setting of the story exacerbates all of this; the tiny family cabin set deep in the woods, further isolated by the winter’s snow, traps Rowan in an environment that is altogether warm and welcoming as well as unfamiliar and foreboding. Moses does an admirable job of letting the tension in the situation ratchet up slowly, and the location lends a lot to the character’s inner stories. As the story progresses and the lines between reality and Rowan’s paranoia begin to blur, you’ll be left squirming in your seat as you try to anticipate the twists and turns the…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Columnist’ is a revenge story we’ve all fantasized about | Awesome Friday!
Katja Herbers (probably best known for her recurring role on HBO’s Westworld) is fantastic as Femke, particularly in the scenes where she confronts the trolls she has managed to track down and asks them to their faces about the things they say online. Herbers navigates the changes in Femke’s demeanour as she moves from timid but upset to confident and furious. There is casual malice underlying everything she says in the scenes mentioned above, and a palpable sense of relief she exudes whilst doing what she does makes the scenes a delight to watch. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/08/fantasia-review-the-columnist-is-a-revenge-story-weve-all-fantasized-about/
I am a Rotten Tomatoes-approved, freelance film & television critic and podcast host from Vancouver, Canada! I am a co-founder of the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association and a voting member of the International Film Society Critics, Pandora International Critics, and the Online Film & Television Association.
I maintain bylines at Exclaim!, Awesome Friday!, That Shelf, ForReel, Movies We Texted About, KeithLovesMovies, and I can be heard regularly on the Contra Zoom Podcast and The LAMBCast.
