#Brendan Sexton III

[scaryrabbit]

Empire Records (1995) | Soundtrack and Bonus

[spawn-of-filth]

HAPPY REX MANNING DAY

[mydarkmaterials]

[specific90saesthetics]

[sugar-coated-saphic]

This recently came in the mail, here are the excepts I found most interesting

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[stuff-diary]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Movies watched in 2023

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017, USA/UK)

Director & Writer: Martin McDonagh

Mini-review:

I liked this much more than The Banshees of Inisherin, but it still left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the acting is simply phenomenal and the script has some biting social commentary. The story also packs a few twists that took me by surprise, which I always appreciate. However, some of its dark humor didn't really work. I feel like it was trying to criticize or parody certain types of people, but sometimes it ended up doing the exact same things it seems to criticize. In this regard, the comedic parts of the movie were somewhat confusing. At this point, I'm starting to think that Martin McDonagh's movies are just not my thing. They're obviosly well-made and he can direct the hell out of his actors, but his sense of humor and his choice of dramatic beats are too hit or miss for me.

[3slash74movies]

[cultfaction]

Cult Faction Podcast Ep. 66: Empire Records

Cult Faction Podcast Ep. 66: Empire Records

Empire Records goes under the spotlight in this week’s episode, as well as our usual chat and banter! https://cultfaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Episode-66.mp3  

[bubskino]

Don't Breathe 2

Ryhmä luihuja murtautuu sokean papparaisen taloon ja sieppaa adoptiotytön mukaansa. Homma ei jää siihen, sanoo grandpa ja lähtee peesiin.

Jatkis jonka olisi voinut jättää myös tekemättä. Muutamia jännähköjä kohtauksia mutta muilta osin tunteetonta shaibaleissöniä.

2/5

[darkmovies]

The Shade (2023) Date de sortie : En Post-production Réalisateur : Tyler Chipman Scénario : Tyler Chipman, David Purdy Avec : Mariel Molino, Laura Benanti, Brendan Sexton III

[mydarkmaterials]

[laserpinksteam]

Series finale: Russian Doll (created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, Amy Poehler, 2019-2022)

I am so disappointed with the second season of my otherwise favorite one-season show. The new premise that has Nadia and Alan gaining more agency over their time travels doesn't work, as it has significantly decreased the stakes for the protagonists, who, in the first season, had no idea what was going on. They don't know now, technically, but then they also seem to know to the point that they are not surprised about why this subway train suddenly starts transporting them to other realities. There are potent moments, here and there, with Ashley remaining my favorite supporting character of the show. But it's overall surprisingly bland.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo Queer Cinema Syllabus

Hello! After a holiday hiatus, I am returning to @bengiyo’s queer cinema syllabus. We will be ringing in the new year with Unit 4: Heartbreak Alley, the totally light-hearted, definitely not agonizing section of the syllabus where I get to watch countless acts of violence be committed against queer people. That fuck I have Lesbians waiting for me at the end of this unit. The films in Unit 4 are: Bent (1997), Strange Fruit (2004), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Parting Glances (1986), Philadelphia (1993), The Living End (1992), Holding the Man (2015), Jeffery (1995), and Boys on the SIde (1995)

Today I will be writing about 

Boy’s Don’t Cry (1999) dir. Kimberly Pierce

Content Warning: rape, murder, self harm

[Run Time- 1:58, Lang: English] [I was not able to find Strange Fruit anywhere online so will investigate my library to see if they have a copy]

Summary: A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska. 

Cast: *Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena *Chloe Sevigny as Lana Tisdel *Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter *Brendan Sexton III as Tom Nissen *Alicia Goranson as Candace

Side note: Boys Don’t Cry is based on the true story, and real life rape and murder of Brandon Teena, who was 21 years old when he was killed in Fall River, Nebraska. 

__

To start, I’m glad that I looked this film up before I watched it so that I knew what to expect. I don’t know how often this will occur throughout the syllabus, but while the syllabus itself is a lead in to BLs it seems to be structured towards Baby Gays, which means that I am expanding my knowledge of famous trans people in history beyond Stonewall. I didn’t know who Brandon Teena was until I looked up this movie, I didn’t see his name printed in anything until I read Transgender History. 

I am having a delayed reaction to this movie. While I was watching it, I was able to bear witness to the violence, it was graphic, and brutal, but I knew it was coming, I had time to prepare myself, I could abstract the violence being done in to a fictional character, I could remind myself it was a movie when the cameras panned away from the dead bodies and I could see the supposed corpses breathing. And then it was over and I couldn’t escape it anymore. I couldn’t escape the knowledge that this was real, that this actually happened, that what I had just watched, what I was not spared from, was bearing witness to an actual crime, to actual violence, rape, murder of an actual, real human being, of Family. 

I said this in my last post from Heartbreak Alley that I went in to this section just expecting to be put through the wringer for almost the entire length of a film. I would say I went in to this unit expecting to feel my skin crawling the way it did with Mysterious Skin. Instead I have been gifted all sides of queerness: acceptance, homophobia, love, hatred, joy, pain, gentleness, violence. I want to talk for a bit about how grateful I was to see Brandon happy. His experience in this film does speak to truth, to trans experience, the complexity of being loved by a family member but not having your identity respected. Brandon’s cousin cuts his hair short for him, but can’t call him a man. Brandon gets in a bar fight and is beaming afterwards cause he got a shiner, cause random strangers didn’t clock him as trans. Brandon stays in Fall River for far longer than he should because he is riding the high of just getting to exist as himself. I know a number of friends who wanted to immediately get the hell out of dodge when they started their transition. Hell, I barely return home myself. 

Brandon does stupid boy things, he flirts with every pretty girl, he pushes his own boundaries because he wants to prove that he is a man. He smiles. He smiles often. He smiles widely. He smiles. I loved how much he smiled in this movie. I love that his life was not all suffering. This movie is kind to Brandon while still having to put him through the inevitable. 

This movie speaks to queer strength and queer fears, Brandon knew the people who raped and murdered him. They were his friends, he was their friend. They smoked together, drank beer together, and tried to dodge cops together.  John (the man who will go on to murder Brandon) was one of the first people we saw affirm Brandon’s gender identity (at least in the movie). And I think this movie is smart in how they set John and Tom up. They are friendly but they are wild, we learn that John has issues with impulse control, we see how quickly John and Tom can escalate their behavior towards aggression. 

Lana serves a reminder to trans people that we are worthy of being loved, and that there are people who will love us. I love what it says about Lana when she notices Brandon’s breasts during their first sexual encounter. When they finish she feels his lap, searching for a dick, she strokes his cheek and comments on how smooth his face is, she calls him handsome. For me this is where I think Lana figures it out, even if she isn’t told until later. 

Lana (and later on Candace) serve as reminders to me that rural doesn’t mean bigoted. It can. It absolutely can. But there are queer people everywhere, there are allies everywhere, queer people can have a life, find love, experience joy anywhere. When Brandon returns to Lincoln for his court date, his cousin Lonny asks him “Fall River? You know they hang faggots there,” and that could be true. Fall River had people like John and Tom, it also had people like Lana,  Candace, and the nurse. 

[CW: the next few paragraphs will discuss sexual assault] 

I loved that Lana was committed to Brandon as a person, she did not care what his body looked like. I loved that she refused to participate in Brandon’s humiliation. When John and Tom forcibly stripped him and tried to show Lana his vulva, she refused to look. It’s Brandon’s business, she loves Brandon, she doesn’t care, she will ease as much pain and humiliation as she possibly can. 

The rape scene was brutual and hard to watch, especially because they don’t start it right away. Brandon is being interrogated, you get the implication, and while I was writing notes to myself I was just about to write “i’m glad they spared us the scene” when they cut to Brandon’s rape sequence. I sometimes struggle with displayed assaulted scenes, especially when they are associated with real people, because I think it is important to really, fully understand the violence that was committed against Brandon. I think the brutality he was treated with is very much an important thing to sit with and understand, and I am not one to feel like people should turn away from observing acts of violence. But I also don’t know that I love watching the assault of a man who actually existed who was really beaten and gang raped, I don’t think we have any way of knowing if he’d want to show that. I don’t think we have any way of knowing if that honors his memory. 

Either way, I did find it absolutely fascinating from a characterization standpoint what happened after Brandon was raped. Because before they get confirmation that Brandon is trans, they are using Brandon’s name and pronouns, then they get the confirmation and partway through they switch to Brandon’s deadname and misgender him. When they rape him, they misgender him. When he’s raped we see him getting thrown around, slammed against the car, punched in the face, etc. he is treated with such violence, and then it is over and Tom and John and Brandon kinda go back to normal? They gently place his shirt over his torso, they call him buddy, they help him stand up, they help him get in to the car, they ask Brandon if he is okay. 

They take Brandon home, and immediately go back to affirming his identity. Like Brandon is in the bathroom, trying not to hold back or quiet down his breakdown, and John and Tom refer to him as ‘little dude’ when they start asking him if he is okay and if he will need any help. Like???? I feel like I will need to sit in that scene for a while trying to pick apart what John and Tom’s brains are doing there. Don’t get me wrong, the less I have to hear Brandon be deadnamed or misgendered the better, but it was truly a wild thing to see Brandon’s cousin deadname and misgender him all the time while still caring about and loving him, and to see Brandon’s assaulters and future murderers just slip so easily back in to masculine terminology for Brandon in this scene. 

[Assault conversation over]

We get a similar thing with Candace where she is the first person to figure out that Brandon is trans, and she is horrified. But when Brandon comes a-knocking on her door, at first Candance cannot even meet his eye but she still uses his name, and the second she picks up on the fact that something is wrong with the way his voice wavers, she faces him, she softens, she asks him what they did to him, and she lets him back in to her home, she tries to hide him to keep him safe long enough to get out of town. 

And Brandon gets another moment of peace, he and Lana have sex with Lana knowing everything about him. Knowing that he lied about his life, knowing that he has a vagina. They have another moment alone to dream, to talk about leaving Fall River, to plan to run away together. I don’t know if any of that happened in real life, but the movie at least grants Brandon one more moment of joy before his entire life is ripped away from him. 

And it happens so fast. Candace is shot and killed instantaneously. Branon is shot in the head and he dies instantaneously, and John stabs him to make sure he’s finished the job, but in an instant, with the pull of a trigger Brandon is just…gone. Twenty-one years old, a whole life ahead of him. I think movies too often grant its characters a dying monologue. They get to have a final moment before they finally, slowly succumb to their injuries. But not here. Brandon is alive one second, and dead the next. There is no moment for silence right after, there is no remorse with John or Tom, they turn against Lana, they turn against each other. They are firing bullets at random, John is stopping Tom from killing Lana or Candace’s toddler. 

I’ll tell you what though, sometimes the parallels parallel. Two days ago, my friend and I learned of the death of someone we cared about and loved, it’s a devastating loss for our household, and a devastating loss for the broader community. As far as I know, they did not die from any violent action, but they were a part of an incredibly stigmatized and disregarded community. The last few people who have passed away in my life died slowly, I was able to brace for it, but this was quick, unexpected and I say this only because seeing Brandon die so quickly, knowing he was real, knowing he had so much time taken from him, that knowledge just wrapped itself right around the rest of my grief for the week. I had a delayed emotional reaction to this movie, it took a couple minutes of silence afterwards to feel the blow, but I think having watched this when I did, Brandon Teena’s story will live in a different, deeper part of me than most of the films I’ve watched so far. 

Favorite Moment

There isn’t one scene that really stands out to me, cause everything was so strong. I feel like my favorite moment is maybe right at the beginning when Brandon looks in the mirror after his haircut and sees himself and you can just see the happiness take root in his body. 

Favorite Quote

“You’re so handsome” 

Lana says this after she and Brandon have sex for the first time. I talked about it a bit above, but I think she figured out that Brandon was trans here, and I see her calling him handsome as affirmation.

Final Score

9/10

This was a fantastic film with incredible acting.

[justapillowpetpanda]

Fantasia Announces First Wave of Titles for Its 28th Edition

The Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 28th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning yet again at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée.

Poster art by Donald Caron The festival’s full lineup will be announced on July 3, but in the meantime, Fantasia has revealed a select first wave of premiere titles, along with a first look at its 2024 poster art. The festival’s 2024 poster art, created by Montreal visual artist Donald Caron, brings back two of the festival’s most beloved characters from earlier editions, returning by popular demand. The cinema-loving cat and pug, barreling into the future on a sidecar motorcycle, embody the excitement, playfulness, and absurdity that Fantasia has championed since its inception in 1996.

28th Fantasia International Film Festival

CHUCK RUSSELL RETURNS TO HORROR WITH WITCHBOARD, A WILD RE-IMAGINING OF THE CLASSIC 80'S FRANCHISE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr0d00hy1h8 From A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS and the beloved1988 remake of THE BLOB to THE MASK, ERASER, and THE SCORPION KING, director Chuck Russell has no shortage of imaginative fantasy/horror classics under his belt. Now he returns to the genre he’s marked so brilliantly with a radical reinvention of Kevin S. Tenney’s 1986 Canadian cult favorite WITCHBOARD. Emily (Madison Iseman, ANNABELLE COMES HOME) and her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez, Hulu's Only Murderers in the Building) discover an ancient Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, as they prepare to open a bistro in New Orleans' French Quarter. Emily becomes obsessed with the board's powers, exposing her to the ancient spirit of the Queen of Witches. Desperate to help his fiancé, Christian seeks the advice of occult expert Alexander Babtiste (Jamie Campbell Bower, Netflix's Stranger Things, the TWILIGHT saga), but Babtiste has dark secrets of his own. Shot in Montreal by cinematographer Yaron Levy (UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING). Also starring David La Haye (TRUE NORTH), Charlie Tahan (Netflix's Ozark), Antonia Desplat (AppleTV+'s Shantaram), and Mel Jarnson (MORTAL KOMBAT).

PRESENTED BY MIKE FLANAGAN, CHRIS STUCKMANN’S SHELBY OAKS IS HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4u3Z72KhN8 A woman's desperate search for her long-lost sister, a famous YouTuber who investigated paranormal happenings, falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that broke records across the platform, the highly anticipated feature debut feature from YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann is finally here and ready to scare the pants off the world. SHELBY OAKS delivers in all departments. Starring Camille Sullivan (HUNTER HUNTER), Brendan Sexton III (DON’T BREATHE 2), Sarah Durn (RENFIELD), Keith David (THE THING, NOPE), and Michael Beach (AQUAMAN). Produced by Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, and Ashleigh Snead, and Executive Produced by Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, among others.

MIGUEL LLANSÓ’S INFINITE SUMMER IS A TRIPPY, TRANSHUMANIST FEAT OF FILMMAKING Estonia-based Miguel Llansó (CRUMBS, JESUS SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY) is a singular gift to cinema. Fantasia is proud to be bringing the visionary iconoclast back to Montreal for the World Premiere of what may be his most compelling creation yet: INFINITE SUMMER, a trippy transhumanist sci-fi exploration vibrant with humor, poignancy, and gonzo invention. On a summer break, Mia and her friends try a meditation app that that’s somehow related to the operating system of the Tallinn Zoo, changing in the body chemistry of its users into something between pollen and cosmic dust. Mia will need to choose between saving her friends or joining them.  An astonishing film, produced by legendary US producing partners Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, AMERICAN HONEY), Rain Rannu (CHASING UNICORNS, THE INVISIBLE FIGHT), and Tõnu Hiielaid (KRATT), and Llansó himself, starring Hannah Gross (Netflix’s Mindhunter), Johanna Rosin, and Teele Kaljuvee-O'Brock.

TRUTH BE TOLD, CONFESSION IS A MASTERFULLY CRAFTED SINGLE-LOCATION THRILLER Every Winter since Sayuri’s tragic disappearance sixteen years ago, Asai and Jiyong climb the mountain where it happened to honor her memory. However, an intense blizzard and a catastrophic injury convince Jiyong he’s done for and, before forcing Asai to leave him to die, he shares a devastating revelation. Asai returns, however, after finding a nearby cabin and now, isolated for the night, the two have to deal with Jiyong’s not-so-last words... the hard way. Two award-winning Fantasia legends, director Nobuhiro Yamashita (LA LA LA AT ROCK BOTTOM) and actor/writer/director Yang Ik-june (BREATHLESS), along with superstar Toma Ikuta (THE MOLE SONG trilogy), team up to adapt a beloved manga into a narrative and technical achievement, one of the best single-location thrillers ever created. With stellar performances and masterful direction using every inch of his set to generate maximum tension, CONFESSION flirts with perfection at every level - and must be experienced in a theatre.

JAYRO BUSTAMANTE’S RITA WILL HAUNT YOUR MEMORY AND BREAK YOUR HEART Following up on the international success of his brilliant LA LLORONA (2019), director Jayro Bustamante’s RITA fuses mythical fantasy and whimsical imagery with themes of childhood innocence and the potent emotional register of a story based on a harrowing real-life event, wherein 41 young women needlessly burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage in the midst of a protest about inhumane conditions. At its core is the powerful performance of Guiliana Santa Cruz, who speaks for all the young women who suffered. As a result, the story speaks much to the power of female anger, and yet, not once does the director lose sense of the fact that at its heart, Rita’s tale is one of girlhood, of dreams, of an innocence lost, and regained within the bosom of female solidarity.

THIS MAN BLENDS WESTERN INSPIRATIONS WITH J-HORROR TROPES IN A PERFECT MELTING POT OF TERROR An inexplicable wave of tragic deaths plunges two investigators into the heart of a fateful whirlwind, where logic and facts have no value as a far-fetched urban legend seems to come true. A mother plagued by terrifying dreams, seeing her friends and colleagues disappear one after the other, and her family witness the horror unfold. Director and screenwriter Tomojiro Amano (TRAPPED IN MAKYO) skillfully fuses the styles of Eastern and Western classics, referencing RINGU, IT FOLLOWS, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET among others, to create an intimate, oppressive work that constantly keeps viewers on the edge of their seats as it slowly and subtly unveils the pandemic-like slaughter outside. At the crest of the international horror-film harvest of 2024, already a banner year, THIS MAN is sure to lodge itself in viewers' memories. With such potential, a Hollywood remake wouldn’t be surprising.

LOWELL DEAN’S DARK MATCH CONJURES SIX-TIME CHAMP CHRIS JERICHO AS A CULT LEADER! After his success with the WOLF COP films, Canadian filmmaker Lowell Dean switches it up and takes horror to the ring! When small-time wrestlers get a big payday for a private gig, they jump at the chance for fame and fortune, but the event, run by a mysterious leader who calls himself “The Prophet,” demands plenty of blood on the mats and involves a sinister, demonic deal! Set in the wrestling heyday of the 80s, DARK MATCH is an action-packed rumble on the ropes shot by acclaimed cinematographer Karim Hussain (INFINITY POOL, POSSESSOR). Starring wrestling legend Chris Jericho as the charismatic leader of its bloodthirsty cult, Ayisha Issa (TRANSPLANT), and Steven Ogg (AMC’s The Walking Dead), you’ll get more than your share of intrigue, action, and gore inside this ring! Septentrion Shadows section.

A SAMURAI IN TIME IS WORTH THE TIME AND TRAVEL TO SEE An Edo-period swordsman is flung into the future, arriving in modern Kyoto to confront utter confusion—and an acting career. The medieval warrior transported to modern times is a variant of the time-travel subgenre that has been explored many times around the world. Award-winning writer/director Junichi Yasuda (GOHAN), however, offers a take on the theme that’s not only clever, funny, and distinctly Japanese, but remarkably poignant. Shot on location at Toei Studios Kyoto, A SAMURAI IN TIME is held together by the subtle and convincing performance of lead actor Makiya Yamaguchi. More than just a fun fish-out-of-water fantasy, it’s an homage to samurai cinema as it wanes as surely as the shogunate once did.

SWIPE RIGHT ON ELRIC KANE’S DATING APP CHILLER THE DEAD THING A young woman, lost in a series of meaningless connections through dating apps, falls in love with a charismatic man who is hiding a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession. Smart, tragic and unsettling, Pure Cinema host Elric Kane’s first solo-directed feature is a character-driven supernatural nightmare that explores the demons of modern dating in ways that are both horrific and disturbingly relatable.  Swipe right on this profound piece of genre cinema that is destined to become a horror classic. Staring Blu Hunt (Netflix’s Another Life), Ben Smith-Petersen (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD), Katherine Hughes (ECHO 3), and John Karna (SCREAM). Co-Written by Webb Wilcoxen (The Frontier). Produced by Monte Yazzie, Matt Mercer (BLISS), and Rebekah McKendry (GLORIOUS).

MASHING UP GENRES, MASH VILLE IS A KOREAN CULT CLASSIC IN THE MAKING Someone has died after drinking the bootleg liquor brewed by Se-jong and his two younger brothers. While on a mission to retrieve their deadly booze before another person perishes from it, they come across two homicidal cultists who are terrorizing the villagers. The love that director Hwang Wook (LIVE HARD, DOG EAT DOG) harbors for the Western, action, and comedy genres shines through from start to finish with stylish cinematography, quirky characters, and an incredibly entertaining screenplay. Most importantly, pitch-black humor abounds. Hwang and company commit to their absurdity, and it’s an absolute blast, a genre-mashing crowd-pleaser sure to be a Korean cult classic as time goes on.

LUCÍA PUENZO’S ELECTROPHILIA CASTS A SUBVERSIVE NEW VISION A woman wakes up from a coma six weeks after being struck by lightning and finds herself compulsively drawn to electric currents as her body’s workings begin to change. She soon joins an underground support group of strike survivors led by a dangerously charismatic doctor, opening a doorway into unexpected new explorations. A gripping, sensorial experience with a visceral emotional core, ELECTROPHILIA is the latest creation from Cannes-award-winning Argentinian filmmaker and novelist Lucía Puenzo (THE FISH CHILD, XXY). Reminiscent of CRASH-era Cronenberg, it is a subversive and beautiful genre work, a different kind of self-discovery tale, and a new breed of dramatic thriller. Starring Mariana Di Girolamo (Pablo Larrain’s EMA), German Palacios (EL RAPTO), and Guillermo Pfening (THE GERMAN DOCTOR).

A MORALLY CHALLENGING TALE OF REVENGE, PENALTY LOOP TAKES A FAMILIAR THEME ON A DEVILISHLY TWISTED PATH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-uwF0-__uY Left bereft by the wanton and inexplicable murder of his girlfriend, Jun chooses his own justice, carefully planning the perfect murder of the man who led him to become what he wants to eliminate. Once the vengeance is consummated, he wakes up with a confirmed sense of déjà-vu and his target alive and well, repeating the same routine as the day before. Offering a breathless, dark, and innovative variation on the time-loop concept, writer/director Shinji Araki (THE TOWN OF HEADCOUNTS) establishes himself as a sure thing in contemporary Japanese genre cinema with this unpredictable, shocking narrative that constantly twists and turns toward a conclusion that’s as satisfying as it is devastating. Carried by a convincing duo of actors in perfect sync, PENALTY LOOP is an accomplishment condemning Araki to return to the forefront with each of his future projects.

THE ADAMS FAMILY BIRTH CREATURES AT A SERBIAN FRACKING SITE IN HELL HOLE A road trip through Canadian oil fields conjured up fantasies of secrets deep in the dirt for the Adams family, and inspired them to create HELL HOLE, an indie rock-n-roll monster movie set at a far-away fracking site. Known for their DIY ethos, John and Lulu Adams and Toby Poser, partnering with Shudder, have joined the team behind The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs and FX legend Todd Masters to shoot their latest in Serbia with a local cast and crew. Absurd, mutinous, and transgressively comical, Hell Hole is old-school sci-fi horror, yet in typical family fashion, they subvert the genre with textures of biological and environmental horror in tandem with questions of gender and bodily autonomy. This will be the fourth time that Fantasia World Premieres work from the gifted filmmaking family, following launches of THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS.

DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD MUTATES THE WHODUNIT GENRE Junior police officers Balraam and Zubeida make a cute couple, but not the most diligent detectives. Called to a posh apartment tower to investigate a reported murder, the seemingly straightforward case quickly becomes a conundrum that would confuse even Sherlock Holmes. When the victim herself returns from the afterlife, matters become even more muddled, and soon enough the question isn’t who killed her... but who didn’t?! With the deadpan delirium of his debut feature, Mumbai-based editor and filmmaker Pratul Gaikwad offers a very odd, otherworldly mutation on the much-loved mystery-comedy genre. Featuring paranormal powers and multiple manias, cosmic wonders and covert class warfare, celestial bureaucracy and dysfunctional love, and even a supernaturally transformed goat, Gaikwad’s surreal whodunit offers a bit of everything... except perhaps proper law-enforcement procedure.

VOIVOD: WE ARE CONNECTED OFFERS A THUNDERING TRIBUTE TO LEGENDARY PROG METAL PIONEERS From the moment they exploded out of Jonquière in the early ‘80s, Voivod have been widely hailed as one of the most original and influential metal bands in the world. Years in the making and produced with full access to the band’s archives, Felipe Belalcazar’s illuminating VOIVOD: WE ARE CONNECTED brings the story of a groundbreaking 40+ year career to the screen with energy, insight, and a palpable sense of love. The long-awaited doc will be launched in the very province that birthed the band and Fantasia couldn’t be prouder. With appearances by Tobias Forge (Ghost), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Jason Newsted (Metallica – and brief Voivod member), Zach Blair (Rise Against, GWAR), Tom G Warrior (Celtic Frost, Triptykon), and Ivan Doroschuk (Men Without Hats), among many others. Docs from the Edge section.

A FANTASTICAL JAPAN RETURNS IN FLY ME TO THE SAITAMA: FROM BIWA LAKE WITH LOVE After stealing hearts at Fantasia 2019, where FLY ME TO THE SAITAMA won the Audience Award for Best Asian Feature, director Hideki Takeuchi returns to a fantastical version of Japan—“definitely not a portrayal of any actual place”—with a completely original story independent from the ’80s manga from which it takes its name. Read the full article

[disappointingyet]

Desert Blue

Director Morgan J Freeman Stars Brendan Sexton III, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Ethan Suplee, Casey Affleck USA 1998 Language English 1hr 30mins Colour

Kids kill time in the middle of nowhere, fame looms for a couple of them

[Minor spoilers for this and a Wes Anderson movie]

American Graffiti … Diner …  Dazed And Confused … Desert Blue? … Short Term 12. I mean, no, that’s not actually a sequence, and yet it sort of could have been. Unlike Graffiti, Diner and D&C, this is not a much-loved classic that was also the calling card for a generation of actors. Nor is it Short Term 12, a film that’s maybe more admired than endlessly rewatched but certainly did an astonishing job of talent-spotting. But this low-key comedy-drama about teens in tiny desert town – made for $2 million – does have an impressive collection of young folk on the rise in 1998. 

Alongside the kids, you’ve got recognisable adults in John Heard, Michael Ironside (actually quite bad here) and Daniel van Bargen, whose name you probably don’t know but was the angry cop or army guy in so many things you’ve seen.

And fitting between the two groups in age is Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who plays an FBI agent here but seems to be reaching her peak in her fifties, getting an Oscar nomination in 2021, appearing in the new Color Purple last year – when she was also great in Justified: City Primeval – and starring in Origin, which as out in cinemas as I write this.  (Oh, yeah, and Sara Gilbert's in this too.)

While I was watching Desert Blue again, I had a nagging memory of something I had seen not long ago. A bunch of young people quarantined in tiny place in the desert that only survives because of a tourist attraction… ah! It's Asteroid City, isn't it? Parts of the set-up are quite similar, although everything else isn’t. 

In Desert Blue, the kids are largely locals: Blue (Brendan Sexton III), who is stubbornly working on his late father’s bizarre project of a water park in the arid landscape, Ely (Christina Ricci), who likes blowing stuff up, Kepler (Casey Affleck), who races quad bikes (they all ride them though), Cale (Ethan Suplee), who wants to be a sheriff even though all his mates are the ones the authorities harass, and Haley (Isidra Vega), who works in the town’s only shop. 

Then, one day, into town comes Skye (Kate Hudson), who is apparently a TV star but none of them has heard of her because cable hasn’t reached there yet. She’s reluctantly on a tour of roadside attractions with her dad (John Heard), who is a cultural studies academic.Skye just wants to get out of this dusty nowhere as quickly as possible, but – of course – events will conspire to keep her and her dad there long enough to interact with the locals. 

In my memory, this was a film in which very little happened, in a pleasurable way. Rewatching it, it turns out to be a movie in which it feels like nothing is happening even though there are at least five events that would be extremely dramatic if they took place in your life and which would be played up in most fiction. Here, though, because they seem to have minimal consequences, it’s like they barely happened. And that’s why the lingering memory is kids buzzing around on their quad bikes or sitting around a fire drinking, rather than (eg) committing a felony. 

Kate Hudson is well-cast as the Hollywood princess descending on this grubby place. Christina Ricci is prime 1998 Christina Ricci – her mates all have pretty nondescript looks (apart from Affleck’s occasional headgear) but she’s of course goth. And exploding shit. Sexton is kind of… unobjectionable… but not very interesting as the heart of the story. Casey Affleck and Michael Ironside are surprisingly rubbish. 

So who were these people at this point in history? Let me reiterate Kate Hudson is the female lead in this film, that she plays the character whose appearance is pivotal. And then tell you that this is her first credited role in a movie (she’s apparently a carol singer in Home Alone.) Maybe she’d done some TV? Two episodes of EZ Streets, whatever that was, and one of Party Of Five. On the other hand, of course, her mother and step-father were huge movie stars. Her break-through role in Almost Famous was two years away. 

Ricci, on the other hand, was in some ways at the peak of her career, a veteran at the age of 18. She’d got off to a big start in 1990 Mermaids with Cher and Winona Ryder and then memorably played Wednesday Addams (still, it seems, a star-making role these days)   in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. Through the 1990s she balanced kids movies (Casper) with not-kids stuff (Bastard Out Of Carolina) until ’97 and Ang Lee’s massively acclaimed The Ice Storm. With the Wednesday Addams attitude intact but now in her late teens when it played differently, she became the embodiment of stroppy youth. 

She was in six movies with 1998 release dates, not including the voice she did for the very enjoyable Small Soldiers. Desert Blue is probably the fifth most high-profile of these – I know nothing about I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, in which she is credited just as ‘Teenage Hooker’. She’s the lead in The Opposite Of Sex, which got some buzz – I hated it. She’s got a small but notable role in Terry Gilliam’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I can’t remember her particularly in John Waters’ Pecker, but I liked the movie and she was an obvious fit for a Waters film. And she’s in Buffalo ’66, more thoughts on which you can find here. 

And then… well, a long working career but (to use a semi-obsolete way of looking at these things) at no later point would you have put her on the cover of a magazine. A lot  of that, I think, is to do with a persona that Hollywood endorses in teenage girls but judges unappealing in adult women. Rather than working out what next to do with Ricci, they went looking for newer versions of the same thing. Indeed, Thora Birch – two years younger and Ricci’s co-star in Now And Then – seemed to have slotted into being the ‘next Christina Ricci’ as early as 1999! And then gone on to have a similar career – she’s in a bunch of stuff, but mostly I haven’t even heard of it. (Although she was in The Last Black Man In San Francisco, but I guess I didn’t recognise her in that.)

Finally, Casey Affleck – like Hudson, he was more famous for who was related to than for his own work, especially as the film he was in right before Desert Blue was Good Will Hunting. (To non-cinema bores, he probably still is essentially ‘Ben’s brother’ to this day.) Worth pointing out, maybe, that he was the first of the Affleck-Damon clique to work with Gus Van Sant (in To Die For). His rise was more of a slow-burn, though. 

So does Desert Blue deserve to be better remembered? Not necessarily, but it’s a film I remain reasonably fond of – it’s a film about people hanging out, and it lets you hang out with them. It’s very low key, very of its moment and if you like a 1990s teen indie movie where even when stuff blows up it’s no big deal, then this could be for you.