Film School Rejects » Fantastic Fest 2008

Fantastic Fest Review: Zombie Girl: The Movie

Adam Sweeney — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:50:50 +0000

Every film festival has a diamond in the rough. For Austin’s Fantastic Fest the honor belongs to Zombie Girl: The Movie, the story of local writer/director Emily Hagins who made a feature-length zombie movie… at the age of twelve.

Those who enter Zombie Girl expecting to see a fictional tale that belongs on the CW will be disappointed. Shannon Doherty makes no appearance in this film. What the documentary does offer is a journey into the hardships every aspiring filmmaker, much more so for a 12 year old girl, has trying to get their first film done. The process ended up taking two years as Emily dealt with actors who had to leave filming to watch Riverdance, finding a budget and time to shoot between doing homework for middle-school, and self-doubt. You know, the typical stuff every pre-teen filmmaker goes through.

Emily and her mother, Megan (who is easily the coolest mother ever), team up to create Pathogen, a zombie flick that contains decapitations and the youngest group of zombies to ever stalk a human, if you don’t count the baby in Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive. Megan is the Anti-Culkin parent, constantly supportive throughout Emily’s journey to get her film done. Whether it’s holding a boom mic or bringing food to all the cast, Megan is by Emily’s side every step of the way. In a world of softball dads and soccer moms who push their children to the point of burnout, Megan is an inspiration. In the end all she cares about is helping Emily pursue her dreams, something more parents should keep sight of.

Emily, the main subject in the film, is an exceptional person and a budding filmmaker. While she makes the mistakes every student filmmaker does, she possesses instincts many filmmakers decades older than her lack. She’s self-deprecating and never once in the film does she ham it up for the character, instead offering candid details of her experience. Emily isn’t concerned with success or name recognition. “I’ve never been popular,” she said at the film’s Q&A session. It’s simple, she just wants to make films.

What Emily lacks in a budget, shot list, or expensive sound equipment she makes up for with resourcefulness, energy, and a drive that pushes her through the many obstacles in her way. A self-described vegetarian and pacifist, Emily is a great example that graphic films don’t turn youth into psychopathic killers. Sometimes they spark imagination, like the zombie film Undead did for Emily.

Much of Zombie Girl concerns Emily’s pursuit in genre filmmaking, but the triumph of the film lies in the relationship between Emily and Megan. The bond between the two is one of a kind and their honest admiration helps to create a heartwarming story. At the risk of sounding sappy, Megan and Emily’s relationship is touching and inspirational.

Directors Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall, and Eric Mauck, in their first feature-length effort, have made a touching film that is both personal and objective, a hard pair to balance in the world of documentary filmmaking. (Michael Moore anyone?) The directing trio display a maturity and subtle style that is inviting and allows the viewer to grow closer to the subjects on-screen. This is much to the credit of their technique, which they described as a fly on the wall point of view. Consider the fact that they cut down 146 hours worth of footage to an 89 minute film, a process that would make even Oliver Stone cringe, and it’s clear that the group have the patience and ability to tell a powerful story.

The film is given an extra dash of charm from musical composer Christopher Thomas, who creates music that carries the story along, adding just the right amount of humor or seriousness at the right time.

On a side note, one of the rewards of covering a film festival is getting to meet the talent behind films. Often when the actor, writer, or director is approached it’s very impersonal. This isn’t the case with the Hagins family or Johnson, Marshall, and Mauck, who were all engaging and some of the nicest people that you will ever meet. Even if Zombie Girl: The Movie wasn’t a great documentary, which it is, it’d be hard to root against such a sincere and ambitious group.

Much in the vain of the 2002 documentary Spellbound, Zombie Girl offers a glimpse into the world of a young talent feeling the pressures to succeed. But Zombie Girl separates itself by displaying real relationships, moments that will make you smile and laugh, and a story that teaches us age makes no difference when it comes to following your dreams.There will be a ton of films with bigger budgets, bigger names, and bigger advertising than Zombie Girl that will claim to be one of the feel good stories of the year. But Zombie Girl: The Movie actually lives up to that bill.

Have a look at more stills from Zombie Girl: The Movie below. For more information, check out ZombieGirlTheMovie.com.

Fantastic Fest Review: Seventh Moon

Adam Sweeney — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:54:51 +0000

Love it or hate it, and I personally loved it, The Blair Witch Project stands as one of the greatest independent film successes in history. The mythology contained in film was so well put together that many people thought it really contained elements of truth. Nine years removed from his first smash hit, writer/director Eduardo Sanchez has tapped into Chinese mythology with his latest creation, Seventh Moon.

According to a Chinese myth, the dead are free to roam among the living every seventh full moon. This creates more than a tiny inconvenience for Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou), two Americans honeymooning in Hong Kong and celebrating the “Hungry Ghost” festival that honors said spirits. Thank God he didn’t choose to do a film based on the chupacabra.

The film opens with the newlyweds roaming the streets of Hong Kong as tourists, but the musical layer makes it clear that something very bad awaits them. And that something comes in the shape of moon demons, based on Sanchez’s belief that there is nothing creepier than crazy naked figures running around. Amen. Sanchez chooses to pass on any digital effects, the same as he did for Blair Witch and his 2006 effort Altered, and it pays off. The demons are what the creatures from I Am Legend would have been without CGI. That’s a good thing and other directors could learn lessons that there is nothing that can replace a concrete figure that you can touch. Having said that, Jar Jar Binks still represents one of the scariest figures in film history.

Seventh Moon uses many of the same shot techniques that polarized audiences in Blair Witch. This time Sanchez amps up the feeling of claustrophobia, filming the majority of the film inside cars and caves. The theme throughout Sanchez’s film career is a focus on the isolation of characters in foreign surroundings, a concept that never gets old.

Smart and Chiou carry the entire film as they struggle to make sense of the chaos taking place around them. Smart, who recently starred in the horror Mirrors, continues her journey to become the Jamie Lee Curtis of our generation. By the end of the film you truly are pulling for her character to get out. Tim Chiou, who I haven’t had the opportunity to see before, displays humor and strength in his performance, not intimidated by the fact many viewers will go to see Smart in the film. Both characters make realistic decisions for the most part and shake off the trend of characters in horror films committing boneheaded mistakes that only serve to exacerbate the problems. Does it end up getting them out of their predicament? Well, you have to go see the film to find out.

Seventh Moon was largely shot in chronological order, a rarity in a film universe full of non-linear shooting and editing. The choice plays out in the actors’ performance and the overall mood of the film. It remains to be seen whether Sanchez will strike lightning the way he did with The Blair Witch Project. In Seventh Moon he brings the best of Blair Witch, lessens the need for Dramamine, and shows that he has learned quite a few new tricks on the way.

Fantastic Fest Review: Eagle Eye

Adam Sweeney — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:57:36 +0000

The Summer movie season may be over but director DJ Caruso has made an Indiana Jones-esque slide under the closing blockbuster wall with the paranoia driven Eagle Eye. (Appropriate since Steven Spielberg serves as executive producer on the film). Eagle Eye is a frantic action thriller that dabbles in political philosophy as it questions how far the powers that be would go to defend the fundamentals America was built on.

Paramount and Dreamworks golden boy Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, an underachieving copy boy who finds himself on the run after a mysterious entity contacts him. Hunted by the FBI on charges of terrorism, Shaw is guided through escape after escape at breakneck speed. The ability of the government’s technology to watch Shaw’s every move provides plenty of chances for crashes and character conflict. The technology brings Shaw in contact with Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), a mother whose son Sam’s life is threatened unless she also follows the entity’s directions. Shaw takes the lead for the majority of the film but Monaghan isn’t far behind as she puts on a motherly charm that helps you forget that the script seemed to be concerned more with Shaw’s character development. Billy Bob Thornton stands out as a skeptical FBI agent, Thomas Morgan, and it’s nice to see Ethan Embry make an appearance. We’ve been wondering what he’s been up to. Other solid actors like Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis are unfortunately thrown away. Literally any character actor could have played their parts and they merely serve as a recognizable face.

Director DJ Caruso’s shot selection and frenetic pacing parallel the chaos that is taking place in the story. He offers plenty of oohs and ahhs for the crowd, using the latest technology to effectively display how close Big Brother could be if they wanted. In a world of wiretapping and Homeland Security it rings very close to home. Very rarely does the film let up, but when it does Caruso wisely utilizes the time to offer insight into Jerry and Rachel’s dysfunctional lives. The car chases in Eagle Eye stand out, no shock considering Caruso has been through quite a few in his own life, allowing for an art imitates life moment. We’re guessing that Caruso probably never experienced any crashes like the ones in the film though, thankfully. It will be interesting to see Caruso’s next effort. I loved his work on The Salton Sea and he obviously has the talent to attack any genre he chooses.

The problem many will have with Eagle Eye is the often over the top plot. There are sobering moments like the prologue, a very realistic situation that addresses the difficulty our military would have during an assassination attempt. The funeral scene where Jerry helps bury his brother also offers a tender moment, if not a chance to breathe before the roller-coaster gets rolling. But by the time we are given the answer to who is navigating Jerry and Rachel we have already been asked to suspend our disbelief a little too far. There are several films to which most people will compare Eagle Eye; The Matrix, Enemy of the State, and 2001: A Space Odyssey all work because they either work towards creating a world completely unlike ours or one that is grounded in reality. But when a film contains a such an absurd twist inside an otherwise contemporary story, well, you can’t be surprised when viewers object. Eagle Eye chooses to make an attempt to find a middle ground between reality and the fantastic, and in doing so it has a hard time making its’ own mark.

Spielberg initially conceived the idea of Eagle Eye ten years ago and had it been made then it would have played to the strengths of other Spielberg creations, ones that offer an otherwise unbelievable story in a not too distant future. At worst it will have people walking out of the theater asking “Could the government really do that?” Part of the story is based on a scientific experiment in Japan so maybe it’s not that far off after all.

Eagle Eye will give action fans exactly what they want and should be commended for trying to take a smarter approach to a blockbuster film. However, the difficulty to cross genres and create a cohesive script seems a bit out of reach for the film’s writers. It’s not often that you walk away from a film where you feel there was solid acting and directing and yet still feel that something is missing. Eagle Eye is the exception to that rule.

Fantastic Fest Review: Repo! The Genetic Opera

Adam Sweeney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:24:27 +0000

In the past decade Hollywood has grown fond of making film adaptations of musicals. Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Producers all have had their time to shine, but none have offered the mixture of fun and outrageousness that The Rocky Horror Picture Show was able to. For years, musical film fans have waited for a film they could latch on to and call their own. Repo! The Genetic Opera is that film. A futuristic cautionary tale of greed and revenge, the folks behind Repo! have created a film that somehow has flown under the radar. If there’s any justice in the movie world, it will be flying into every theater at midnight for years to come.

Repo! is set in 2056 where the world is forced to deal with a massive epidemic, leaving most with organ failure. Enter Geneco, a biotech company willing to offer salvation. But there’s a heavy price to pay, as all the characters learn, and those who don’t make good on their payments have their organs repossessed, facing the wrath of menacing Repo Men.

The central character, Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega), is a seventeen year old girl weakened by a life threatening disease. Sheltered by her father from a world that sees surgery and the painkilling Zydrate as bliss, she becomes curious about the story of her family. Lured in by the possibility of a cure for her illness and the glamorous Genetic Opera, Shilo looks to break from her family bonds and claim her destiny. Meanwhile, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino) struggles to come to terms with his own mortality. Left with few options or acceptable heirs, Largo chooses to take matters into his own hands in deciding who will be the heir to his ruthless empire.

The audience’s reception to Repo! at Fantastic Fest was sensational and there isn’t a film more deserving of it. Fans waiting in line were shouting the lyrics to “Zydrate Anatomy”, one of the infectious songs in the film. Repo! was so well received that it received an additional screening on the night of the premiere, and many moviegoers were so impressed they attended both screenings.

The cast of Repo! is a who’s who in pop culture, showcasing the talents of Anthony Head (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Bill Moseley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), singer Sarah Brightman, Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre, and even Paris Hilton all play characters that possess individual styles and memorable stories. Throw in the heavyweight talent and vocals of Paul Sorvino, a breakthrough performance from Alexa Vega, and the cast of Repo! can stand toe to toe with other cult classic casts like The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Director Darren Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV) masterfully interconnects characters in a complex tale of love and loss with seeming ease. Bousman’s ability to achieve such a vision with virtually no budget in Hollywood terms makes the feat even more impressive. The choices to weave comic illustrations into the narrative help to move the story forward and solve issues that otherwise might have been present given the financial limitations.The Saw franchise displayed Bousman’s knack for the dark and disturbing, but Repo! has put him on a whole different level. Bousman paints a visual landscape that is one of a kind.

Making an opera entertaining to a mainstream audience is a daunting task, but somehow the writers (Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich) pull it off. The story behind the story is just as impressive, as the journey to the big screen for Repo! was nine years long. Smith and Zdunich honor the structure of an opera but never compromise their own world. The result is a labor of love that is worthy of all the praise it will receive and then some.

Zdunich has his hands all over the film, also serving as the narrator Grave-Robber and illustrator for the film. His performance as the Grave-Robber is only one of the characters people came dressed as. Imagine if The Lord of The Ring’s Legolas put down the bow and arrow and decided to pick up a syringe.

But no musical is complete without a score and musical producer Joseph Bishara is the man behind the madness .The soundtrack of Repo! is one you could put on your iPod and play repeatedly. We should all be so lucky as to have the talent of Sarah Brightman, Joan Jett, and Poe working with us. Bishara honors that opportunity and finds a way to create a completely novel style of rock opera.

Repo! may not be for everyone and that’s okay. Plenty of people hated the theatricality of bands like Kiss or the flamboyant behavior of Tim Curry as Dr. Frankenfurter. That didn’t stop those who loved it from turning them into cult heroes. In an age of cookie cutter films not worth our time, Repo! is a refreshing story that takes risks and reminds us what it’s like to, gasp, have a good time at the movies! Outlandish, outrageous, and above all things outstanding, it’s time for Repo! The Genetic Opera to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Fantastic Fest Review: Zack and Miri Make A Porno

Adam Sweeney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:44:20 +0000

Each film in the New Jersey Trilogy ranks in my top 20 films ever and writer/director Kevin Smith may give the best Q&A sessions of all time. So it goes without saying that I was excited about seeing the highly anticipated, as well as highly controversial, North American premiere of Zack and Miri Make A Porno at Fantastic Fest 2008 in Austin’s amazing Alamo Drafthouse. Zack and Miri represents a return to what Smith did best in films like Chasing Amy, hiding a touching romance inside of a script peppered with crude humor.

The two title characters, played by Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, are struggling to pay the bills and come to terms with their mediocre high school reputations. When they head to their high school reunion the two have a hilarious encounter with Miri’s high school crush Bobby Long (Brandon Routh), as well as his lover (Justin Long), an adult film star that makes his name in gay porn. Routh finds a way to balance an over the top argument with Long, who is so damn funny in the film that I will not roll my eyes next time I see an Apple commercial. Inspired by a chance to cash in on sexual exploits, Zack and Miri decide to… well, if you don’t know by now then maybe procreating shouldn’t be for you. The circumstances the porno place Zack and Miri in result in a sweet and sincere realization of love for each other.

Smith doesn’t pull punches in displaying vulgarity or nudity, even going so far as to let Jason Mewes display his manhood. Smith joked at the Q&A that the endowments of Mewes were exaggerated on-screen. The jokes come at a fast clip and I missed some of the dialogue after many of them because the audience was laughing so loud. There are moments that make it clear why the MPAA was threatening the View Askew family with an NC-17 rating, including one, how do we say it without truly spoiling it, “oh shit” moment. But in reality Zack and Miri isn’t doing anything that Trainspotting and Taking Lives didn’t do before it, as Smith pointed out in the Q&A afterwards. Maybe the members of the MPAA needs to star in Swallow My Cock-ucinno, the title of the hysterical porno in which Zack and Miri star. It might loosen them up like adult film star Katie Morgan in the film.

Seth Rogen, seemingly on his way to being sued for a monopoly of all things comedic in Hollywood, reminds us why he got so much praise in Knocked Up. Elizabeth Banks, who I first saw in Wet Hot American Summer, continues her climb up the comedic ladder and provides a likable character that everyone can relate to at one point in their life. The relationship between Rogen and Banks feels genuine, Mewes is hilarious as always, and Craig Robinson will have the crowd laughing in every scene that he’s in.

Smith told the audience that he had intended to put George Carlin in the film before he passed away and it would have been great to see where he went with this type of a film. His cameos in Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back were highlights. Having said that, a minute of Carlin’s stand-up routine probably would have been just enough to get the MPAA to slap an NC-17 on the film for good.

If there’s one issue people may have with the movie, it would be that the resolution comes perhaps a bit too easy. Still, the ending is satisfying overall and offers a message that love can come out of the most fucked situations, literally.

Most people will walk away from Zack and Miri quoting all the jokes from the movie. Smith has proven once again that he can scribe some of the funniest dialogue in film. But the true achievement is how he is able to take a film with such a daring premise and craft it into a love story. It would have been easy to strictly focus on shock factor. Smith has both the self-respect and talent not to.

Writing is often autobiographical and Smith explained that Zack and Miri is a more entertaining interpretation of his time spent making Clerks. “The movie basically is, once you strip away the porn and the romance, how we made Clerks but we [Smith and producer Scott Mosier] didn’t fuck. The result is his best effort in quite some time and one that has an excellent chance to top the box-office when it gets a nationwide release. With Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Smith has made a romance well worth watching.

Film School Rejects » Fantastic Fest 2008

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