Camino

A photojournalist chases the next assignment in the Columbian jungle, but when she sees something she shouldn't, she's forced to run for her life.

I'd heard that this film had generally bad reviews, but I don't see why.  The story is strong, as is the acting by stunt-woman nee star Zoë Bell and director nee adversary Nacho Vigalondo.  The film is shot very dark, mostly at night in the jungle, but was effective at conveying the closed in world around Bell's character.  I enjoyed it.

Camino

2015, 104 minutes, directed by Josh C. Walker

Columbia, subtitled, outdoors, survival

Darling

The writer/director of this film tried to weave a creepy story of demonic worship and insanity, but his only tools were unnecessarily-loud dissonance and split second cuts to people screaming.  I liked his choice of black & white and to set the film in the '60s, but all I left with was a headache.

2015, 78 minutes, directed by Mickey Keating

horror, descent into madness

Assassination Classroom

A supersonic alien octopus destroys the moon, invades earth, and threatens to destroy the planet next year if he's not stopped first.  But, he's virtually invincible, so to make the fight fair he agrees to become teacher to a group of reject Japanese middle school kids, training them in math, science, and the art of assassination, so that one of them might be able to kill him in time to save the planet.

The style is very reminiscent of Battle League Horumo, what with the cartoonish big smiley head monster integrated into the school environment.  It's silly, and it doesn't really make logical sense, but it's really enjoyable fun.  Look for a sequel next year.

Assassination Classroom

2015, 110 minutes, directed by Eiichiro Hasumi

Japan, subtitled, alien, children, action, comedy

Sensoria

This ghost story is best described as a classic haunting, with poltergeist effects and ghost-behind-you inserts for mild shock value.  But it's a good story, well shot and acted, and worthy of a late-night screening with your spouse.

Sensoria

2015, 82 minutes, directed by Christian Hallman

Sweden, subtitled, ghost, shockfest

What We Become

I believe this Danish film has to be the source material for the first season of Fear the Walking Dead.

What We Become

2015, 85 minutes, directed by Bo Mikkelsen

zombie, apocalypse, survival, horror, Denmark, subtitled

The Man Who Saved the World

I try to stay away from the Alamo's repertoire screenings.  There usually of low production quality and, like Dangerous Men, terrible.  This offering from 1980s Turkey, though, was billed as the Turkish Star Wars, and I thought it would be worth a chance.  Hilariously enough, it was.  The film is bad, very bad.  The film is like Star Wars because every single space scene is literally stolen directly from Star Wars, usually as a small out-of-place clip aired repeatedly with bad cuts.  Set in the far future, the film tells the story of two Turkish heroes fighting the evil Wizard, hell bent on destroying the world - again, apparently, since if I followed the plot it's been destroyed repeatedly yet survives both unharmed and blown into pieces.  The Wizard needs to analyze a human brain to know how to defeat Earth and thus lures the heroes to his planet, which turns out to be a large chuck of Egypt that was apparent blown off Earth in a past explosion.  It's populated by literally everything, from robots to stuffed monsters to mummies to stock footage of Star Wars aliens.  Also, there's a population of humans, which the Wizard must not have noticed even though he fights them in his arena.  The locals befriend the heroes and tell them about the Wizard, helping them train to prepare for the repeated and unintentionally hilarious combat.  Obviously it goes well; the death of one hero drives the other forward, who eventually wins by literally splitting the wizard in half with the most amazing karate chop ever.  Then he randomly flies home in the Millenium Falcon.  The end.  If that sounds good, grab some popcorn and a few friends and enjoy this terrible masterpiece.

The Man Who Saves the World

1982, 91 minutes, directed by Çetin İnanç

space, adventure, action, robots, aliens, undead, Turkey, subtitled

The Martian

It's gravity, but with science.  And humor.  It was a smarter, more intelligent film, but I don't know that office politics will play well with general audiences.

The Martian

2015, 120 minutes, directed by Ridley Scott

space, adventure, sci fi, survival

Dangerous Men

This is a perfect Drafthouse Films acquisition.  It's a horrible film.  The life work of writer/director/composer/producer/editorJohn S. Rad, the film lacks a coherent plot.  Stories are picked up and dropped, and the film ends with the capture of a guy who didn't appear until 10 minutes prior, by a minor character at that, as the plots of both leads had abruptly ended a while before.  I can picture the Drafthouse employees sitting around and salivating over film they think is so bad it's good, but it's not.  It's just bad.  It'll fit right in at Drafthouse Films.

The 2005 date is misleading; the film was shot in the mid '80s and it took Rad twenty years to finish.

Dangerous Men

2005, 80 minutes, directed by John S. Rad

action, comedy, police, biker

The Similars

1968: a bus terminal, four hours from Mexico.  A group of strangers are brought together, huddling in the bus station to avoid the incessant rain, waiting for a ride that will never come.  A husband, missing his children's birth.  A pregnant woman, desperate to save her child.  A mother and her sick son.  But there's more to the rain than they know, and someone is not who they appear to be.

This film is an homage to 1960s Twilight Zone, with a Mexican political bent.  The thing is, Twilight Zone episodes can present a scenario, and leave it unresolved, as just part of that brief but scary world.  Ninety minutes of the same thing with no resolution doesn't make it better.

Los Parecidos (The Similars)

2015, 89 minutes, directed by Isaac Ezban

Science fiction, mystery, alien, Mexico, subtitled, world premiere

The Wave

Disaster films often use rolling events ("Here comes the next tornado!  Oh no an aftershock!  We're leaving the eye of the storm!") to continue creating adversity for the protagonists.  Those that don't have to decide where in the film to place the disaster.  Norwegian documentary The Wave uses half the film for pre-disaster exposition and explanation; of course the hero of this rock slide / tidal wave story is a geologist at his last day on the job monitoring the mountain, before leaving with his wife and kids for the city.  And of course only he knows the gravity of the danger.  Eventually tension does build, and the immediate build-up to and aftermath of the wave is intense.  Then the film has to switch into Action Man rescue mode, with unfortunately typical plot cliches.  I do appreciate the strength written into his wife's character as she uses all her strength to protect her family as well.  Overall it was a good story, worthy of a cinema experience.

The Wave

2015, 105 minutes, directed by Roar Uthaug

disaster, action, Norwegian, subtitled

The Brand New Testament

So why not make God an irreverent 50-something grouch, who spend his time making up rules to torment humans from his apartment in Belgium, living with his submissive wife and ten-year-old daughter Ea (his son JC escaped a while back and "got himself killed")?  That's the premise of this irreverent European comedy.  Ea has finally had enough of her dad's abuse and decides to escape as well, but not before messaging everyone with their exact time of death and then locking up God's computer so he can't fix the mess.

In the outside world, Ea enlists help to track down her six apostles (12 didn't work very well, and besides six more bring's the total to 18, the number you need for a baseball team) and record the Brand New Testament, all while God follows her into the real world and sees the results of his creation.

The Brand New Testament

2015, 110 minutes, directed by Jaco Van Dormael

religion, comedy, French, subtitled, superpower 

Zoom

Emma is dissatisfied with her life, crafting a better alternative in the pages of her graphic novel.  Edward is a famous director, dealing with personal and professional turmoil on the set of his latest film.  And Michelle, model, wants to break the stereotypes and free herself as an author.  The absurdity of how these three stories intersect forms the basis of this generally enjoyable, if somewhat stupid, comedy-ish film.

Zoom

2015, 96 minutes, directed by Pedro Morelli

animated, minor subtitles, comedy

Lovemilla

Aimo loved Milla.  And aliens invade regularly, dispatched by friendly super-heroines.  And drunks become zombies. And mech power suits are a fad.  And giant pandas.  It's a crazy world where all genres blend together, all revolving around our leads' romance.

Or that's how it's supposed to be.  In reality, there's nothing redeeming about Aimo at all.  Even his supposedly big heart for Milla is metaphorically (and literally) unable to give his stupid choices merit.  I just didn't care what happened.  And I don't mean that sarcastically.

Lovemilla

2015, 97 minutes, directed by Teenu Nikki

stupidpeople, zombie, alien, comedy, superhero

Office

People seem to love or hate Office, a Korean suspense/horror film.  Office mate Kim goes home one day and bludgeons his family to death, then goes on the run.  Even as his coworkers, like young intern Mishae, try to sweep everything under the rug and move on, strange things start happening at the office, leading them and the police to believe Kim may have never left...

One or two people are hailing this as the best suspense horror of the festival.  Another large group walked out of the screening in process, and are panning it as shallow and predictable.  I don't think it was horrible, just ... below average.  The employees are stereotypical and foolish.  The police are woefully incompetent.  It just could have been a much better film.

Office

2015, 111 minutes, directed by Hong  Wan Chan

Korean, subtitled, horror, suspense, thriller, gore, mystery

The Invitation

Will is consumed by grief from his broken life, even as he lives on.  A surprise invitation to his ex-wife's house leads to a dinner party with old friends, one where Will and his ex take different approaches to face and resolve their pasts.

The Invitation

2015, 97 minutes, directed by Karyn Kusana

cult, suspense

Southbound

I try to know very little about a festival film before I see it.  I read the descriptions to pick the films I plan to see, but I read 50 descriptions in a row and they all get jumbled together.  So when I sit down, I really have no idea.  Usually it's great, but this time I keep wondering why they are changing lead characters so often.  By the third time, though, I realized this was an anthology film.  :). And as such it was great.  The seamless transitions between segments ("zippers") as the directors called them didn't just keep the action driving, they became part of the story, the same as the desert, a small southwestern town, and the long highway south.

Southbound

2015, 87 minutes, directed by Radio Silence, Roxanne Benjamin, Patrick Horvath, David Bruckner

cult, occult, demon, gore

Follow

I'm a huge Owen Egerton fan from way back at the original Alamo downtown.  And so of course I go in with hesitation when someone I live in one field (MC making fun of things on screen) tries something new (puts thing on screen).  In Follow, Quinn is a 20-something artist waiting for his big break, deeply in love with his girlfriend Thana.  A few days before Christmas, something life-changing happens, and Quinn must figure out how to handle it.

Overall, the film is okay, good even, but Quinn just make a long series of bad decisions.  My tag "stupidpeople" exists for this type of character, the ones that deserve their fate through their utterly stupid choices.  By the end, Quinn and the film redeem themselves somewhat, but I really struggled through the second act between when I wrote him off as an idiot and when I realized his true fate.

Follow

2015, 74 minutes, directed by Owen Egerton

stupidpeople, gore

High-Rise

A pretty accurate rendition of J. G. Ballard's book of the same name, High-Rise is both retro and futuristic, set clearly in the 1960s yet portraying a dystopia future usually reserved for science fiction films.  The science here is psychology in the form of a communal descent into madness.  Most of the film takes place within a self-contained high-rise block, complete with grocery store and gym and a clearly-established hierarchy between the aristocrats of the upper floors and the "lesser" folk below.  A power outage and conflicting parties start the madness.  It's surreal though, in a sort of lord-of-the-flies-meets-hoarders way, for most are free to leave at any time but choose to stay in the insanity.

In the center is Dr. Laing, a psychologist who straddles the divide between classes yet is too wrapped up in his own turmoil to stay above the clashes.  I left the film feeling that only the babysitters taking care of the lower floor children have any measure of sense.  There's not really any resolution, either; like with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by the end the characters are wading in filth without questioning the source.  It's a surreal portrait of life that will win over critics and perform poorly at theaters.

High-Rise

2015, 118 minutes, directed by Ben Wheatley

descent into madness

Stand By for Tape Backup

This is somewhat special as a film.  For this screening only, the writer/director performed this work as an 80-minute monologue, set against the backdrop of a constantly rewound '80s home videocassette.

Ostensibly the story is about the synchronicity of life.  Practically though it's an autobiography through the medium of found footage, a copied over VHS tape from the writer's youth.

Too bad the theater wasn't full - I think it will get a great audience score.  The repeat will be all pre-recorded, so today's version felt like a one-time opportunity to see the creator's passion for his work in first hand.

Stand By for Tape Backup

2015, 65 minutes, directed by Ross Sutherland

autobiography

April and the Twisted World

I(This film is billed in English as April and the Extraordinary World but Twisted is used in subtitle.)

I don't watch many family-friendly animated adventure films.  I had too look back to 2007's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to find one that was worthy of the genre.  And now this.  Scientists have disappeard, leaving the world stuck in the steampunk era.  Endless war is waged for trees to fuel the charcoal machines.

I wish they had used a crisper animated style so as to better illustrate the technology of the steampunk world, but the story and characters were superb.  Mild violence would yield a PG rating but otherwise family friendly.

April and the Twisted a World

2015, 90 minutes, directed by Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci

animated, French, subtitled, sci fi

Crimson Peak

We were asked not to share any details of last night's secret screening Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro's latest gothic masterpiece.  In appreciation of being in the audience of the premiere screening of the finished cut, then, I'll just say what del Toro himself said when introducing the film.  Hollywood might market this as horror, but this is gothic romance through and through.

Crimson Peak

2015, directed by Guillermo del Toro

ghost, mystery, world premiere

The Tale of Tales

Three kingdoms, three rulers.  A father, obsessed with minutia, who must find a husband for his princess daughter.  A queen, desperate for a child, who cannot let go.  And a king who cannot cease bedding his way across his subjects.  Three tales are woven together to tell one, a tale of tales.

This story is based on three Italian fairy tales by Gianbattista Basile.  Unfortunately all the plot twists and turns are distinctly Fairy Tale: unpredictable if you don't know the story, yes, but obvious in retrospect.  It was an okay experience to watch, but left an u satisfying taste in my mouth.

The Tale of Tales

2015, 125 minutes, directed Matteo Garrone

fairy tale, fantasy

Anomalisa

Michael is tired, tired of the monotony of people, monotony of life.  Who can stand out as special, unique, distinct?  Michael has found her, his Anomalisa.

This distinct stop-motion animated film relies on the amazing performance of Tom Noonen as every character besides Michael and Lisa, together with detailed animation down to the characters' breaths and hair, yet distinctly "real" somehow through the choice not to cover the joints between the puppets' facial plates.  They are simultaneously alive and not, and the effect works.

Anomalisa

2015, 90 minutes, directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman

animated, uncomfortable

Yakuza Apocalypse

Ok, this is straight forward enough.  The yakuza are led by a nice boss, who takes care of his area's civilians and happens to be a vampire.  The story is told in the voice of a young henchman, hoping to rise in his boss's footsteps, but who must instead seek revenge when his boss is betrayed by his top lieutenants and murdered by the goblin and his crew.

But then the civilians start getting bitten, instantly turning them into yakuza vampires, and the lady has snot shooting out of her ears, and there's the frog ninja, and I know it was late and I was tired but the plot just stopped making sense.  I'm usually down with Japanese crazy but this time I was expecting more blood and less weird.

Yakuza Appcalypse

2015, 115 minutes, directed by Takashi Miike

Japanese, subtitled, action, gangster, vampire, weird

Lazer Team

Alien invaders approach.  Life on Earth hangs in the balance.  But humanity has been given a gift - advance notice to train a champion, and power suit: helmet, boots, shield, sword, that the champion can wear in battle.  Except, instead of the champion selected from birth, the suit falls into the separate hands (and feet, and head) of four local yokels, who now must work together to save the planet.

This Indiegogo-funded film from Austin locals Rooster Teeth (best known for their Halo machinima Red vs Blue) raised $2.5 million dollars, which the production crew wisely spent on a quality cast, crew, and special effects.  It's obvious it's an indie film, but it feels polished, well-edited, by an experienced team.

Lazer Team

2015, 110 minutes, directed by Matt Hullim

world premier, alien, invasion

The Lobster

Break up?  Spouse pass away?  Single and alone?  No problem.  You have 45 complementary days to stay in the singles hotel.  After that of course, if you can't find a compatible mate and fall in love, you will be turned into an animal - of your choice.

The key feature of The Lobster is that everyone takes the absurdity of their world absolutely seriously, from those who run the hotel, or check mall patrons for their unexpired marriage certificates, to the rebel loner faction who live in the woods, disavowing all relations and punishing members who flirt, even as they hide from hotel hunting parties who try to capture them for immediate transformation.

David, recently divorced, must find a compatible mate, perhaps one nearsighted like him or who can also speak German.  His desperation leads him on, through the hotel and the woods, as he tries to avoid his choice of fate - to become a lobster.

The Lobster

2015, 119 minutes, directed by Yorgos Yanthimos

distopia, minor subtitles, dry humor, surreal, outdoors

Shelter a.k.a. 6 Souls

Adam, a young psychiatric patient with multiple personality disorder, seems to be exhibiting personalities of those who actually lived - all murder victims.  As his doctor, Cara Harding, digs into his pasts, it starts to appear less psychiatric and more supernatural...

This film was made in 2008, released in Japan in 2010 as Shelter, then released in the U.S. in 2013 as 6 Souls.  Apparently it was considered so bad that a name change was warranted before release in its home country.  I agree.

Shelter a.k.a. 6 Souls
2010, 112 minutes, directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein

Kick-Ass 2

I love the dichotomy of the hit-them-with-sticks heroes in spandex and the blood-and-guts of Hit Girl.  It's like they don't belong in the same film, yet here they are, playing out in unison.  Where is the next sequel?

Kick-Ass 2
2013, 103 minutes, directed by Jeff Wadlow

Columbiana

With recent life events, my time for cinema is short.  I certainly didn't expect to watch, much less enjoy, this love story, laced in a long arc of violence and revenge.

Columbiana
2011, 108 minutes, directed by Olivier Megatron