Review: "Spiral"

Amber Tamblyn is trying to break your heart.

In "Spiral", she turns in an amazing performance as a completely adorable and strangely vulnerable young woman who makes the curious choice of striking up an office friendship with an oddball loner. I haven't seen such irresistible quirky charm since Sandra Bullock in "While You Were Sleeping". Major credit goes to the script and the effortlessly skewed observations and quips it gives her, but Ms. Tamblyn also deserves accolades for the massive doses of charisma she brings to the role.

However...obviously, this is NOT a romantic comedy, and we know from the very beginning that Something Bad is going to happen. We're left guessing up until the very end about what that might be, and who will be doing it to whom. Clearly, the oddball, a psychologically damaged jazz aficionado and artist, is haunted by a traumatic past and is more than a little unhinged. But his only friend, his callously womanizing boss who has known him since high school, also comes across as a bit ominous. And there's always the chance that Ms. Tamblyn's character is playing them all.

The excellent script is by Jeremy Danial Boreing and Joel Moore, the latter of whom wears many hats in this film, co-directing, producing, and also starring as the troubled outsider. The other director is Adam Green, who previously helmed "Hatchet", which won great acclaim at last year's fest. I didn't see that, but I've heard about it, and "Spiral" is very much different from his previous work. Zachary Levi (now appearing in the lead role in TV's "Chuck") is effective as the boss and confidante, and he also was one of the producers. Tricia Helfer from "Battlestar Galactica" appears briefly.

This has been one of the highlights of the festival so far for me. The very strong script unfolds itself slowly, gradually giving us insights into Moore's character. The direction is solid. Gore is absent--this is purely a psychological thriller. Mainly, though, it comes down to a hugely stellar performance on the part of Amber Tamblyn. I'll have to keep an eye out for her, and for future work by Moore and Green.

Review: "Wolfhound"

At last year's festival, the Russians tormented me with the inscrutable "Zhest", for which I have yet to fully forgive them. So my expectations were not high for "Wolfhound", and yet I had little choice but to see it, since the fantasy pickings this time around are a bit slim. While Putin and his lot still have a great deal to answer for, at least we can be thankful for this particular export.

"Wolfhound" plays it pretty much by the numbers right from the start, including a "Conan the Barbarian"-style village massacre at the opening, leading into a "You killed my father!" revenge plot that segues into a Campbellian hero's journey toward destiny, complete with assorted quest companions. However, whilst it might be a tad bit formulaic, the Russian spin makes this tale fresh to Western eyes, and the production values are great. Magnificent scenery, spectacular costumes (often elaborate and colorful), great props, plenty of extras. The numerous fight scenes are well-staged and the special effects, while never quite stellar, are sturdy enough. And the performances are pretty damn good.

One of the more interesting things is that even when the movie is near the three-quarter mark, it's still busily introducing characters (partially because the entourage of the princess seems to have an unearthly ability to keep growing even in the middle of nowhere...I'm pretty certain she set off with maybe 15 followers, and by my count she must've had close to 60 by the end). The script is very generous to the numerous supporting characters (particularly Ertan the woman warrior, who more or less comes out of nowhere), and easily a dozen or more of the second-rankers get their big scene and a good number of lines.

This probably would've played better as a two-part four-hour miniseries, and since it's evidently based on a fantasy tetralogy, there certainly isn't any lack of material. But even as a movie, it's stirring and magnificent, at least to fanboys.

Oh, and Wolfhound's bat companion is awesome--and done completely through CGI.

I gave this one a 9 rating, and was stunned when my friend Comic Book Lad concurred. So you know it's gotta be good. Find a chance to see it somehow, somewhere!

Review: "Five Across The Eyes"

This movie was heavily prefaced by myriad warnings from the festival grand poobahs, who cautioned the audience that it was apparently shot on a VHS camcorder with a mic from Radio Shack, and that the lighting was poor, and that the dialogue was not always polished, and that the performances were not necessarily above the community theater level, assuming the community in question was East Podunk. Then they went on to assure us all that the movie was totally awesome. Well...some of these statements were accurate.

I admire the enthusiasm shown by the actresses in their fearless and unreserved performances, which included having to deal with some literally degrading scenes. I also admire...um...well, the sountrack was...no, that's not it. Uh, there were a couple of good bits, like how the Unstoppable Killing Machine finds the hidden car, and when one of the girls has enough wit to siphon some gas in a critical situation. Also, it was interesting that you could not really tell who the Last Girl was meant to be, although whether this was a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers or just sloppy writing isn't quite clear (and of course, the issue ended up being not entirely relevant).

I was not entirely comfortable with having high schoolers as the heroines/victims, which in turn made me question why I'd be all right if they'd been college freshmen. Also, the movie avoids making any of them a traditional doomed target, like the slutty girl, who in slasher film tropes "deserves" what she gets. At worst, one of them might be a Mean Girl. So their brutalization was rather hard to deal with.

On a more technical issue, the story could easily have been tightened up and lost ten minutes or so. The cat-and-mouse game became too much of cat and mouse and cat and mouse and cat.

I commend the filmmakers for an interesting ultra-low budget effort that's sure to draw "Blair Witch" comparisons, but ultimately I just couldn't get behind this one. The final scene is cute, though.

Review: "The Cold Hour"

I'll admit that I haven't seen very many non-English language horror flicks. Sure, I saw France's grossly overpraised "High Tension" and a smattering of imports from Japan and Thailand, but I had no clue that Spain had the capacity and determination to put together a high-quality horror movie. I mean, the last I knew of them, their armada was getting its ass kicked by the English. And then there was some stuff about El Greco and Velasquez. I...really should have stayed awake more in high school.

At any rate, "The Cold Hour", or "La Hora Fria", if you prefer, is your basic "a group of people in a remote outpost are imperiled by The Other" type of story, with one major difference: everyone speaks in Spanish. Also, the remote outpost is some kind of apartment building serving as a safe haven in the aftermath of a ghastly NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical) global slugfest a decade or more ago that has exterminated most of mankind, not to mention apparently all of dogkind and catkind and a lot of chickenkind. Oh, and most of those that were not outright vaporized have become infected with a skin-sloughing brain-killing disease, thereby transmogrifying into the Strangers. To add to this, the Invisibles come poncing by every couple of nights to paint the walls in a layer of rime and to rattle doorknobs. Also they kill the odd chicken. Non-odd chickens are left alone.

With this type of story, you know that at least one person is gonna snap and go nutso, and that 75% of the cast will be picked off by the enemy, and that eventually the outpost defenses will be breached. Also, with all the vague allusions and hint-dropping, you know as well that someone is gonna spill the beans about what REALLY happened in the Final War.

Despite the predictable adherence to this formula, "The Cold Hour" has some degree of novelty in using a kid as the lead protagonist and POV character. Additionally, the appearances of the Invisibles are staged in quite a creepy and unsettling fashion. The introduction of the characters is done efficiently, and the slow unfolding of the story is handled well as we are gradually clued in on what took place long ago and how the current situation came to be. Production values are high, the FX are entirely acceptable, and the DP skillfully uses a deliberately limited palette of colors to suggest the isolation of the group. Overall, the performances are pretty good, particularly for the roles of the kids and the women. (With the exception of Judas, most of the men are pretty disposable.)

I enjoyed this one quite a lot and it's been one of the high points of the festival for me so far. And now, an opposing viewpoint from my friend Comic Book Lad: "This sucked." Eh, everyone's a critic.

Fantastic Fest 2007: The Prelims

Last year's festival opened on a double buzz-kill note for me, when I took in the dual vortices of suck that were Tideland and TCM: The Beginning. Ugh. They were more opposite of "good" than the word "bad" can ever hope to convey. Double-plus anti-good, maybe. However, I remain undaunted by this personal tragedy, and I look forward to the cinematic delights that now await me in the upcoming 2007 incarnation of Austin's most completely awesome movie extravaganza, even though Harry Knowles, my recurring villain, is certain to be lurking about as he is wont to do.

These are the flicks that I am most eagerly anticipating, arrayed in convenient alphabetical order: The Backwoods, Devil's Chair, End of the Line, The Ferryman, Five Across the Eyes, Flight of the Living Dead, The Last Winter, and Retribution. I'd really like to see Wrong Turn 2, but I'm pretty certain that it'll be one of the most bum-rushed shows of the entire festival, and I have to give it up if I want to see Flight. Besides, WT2 will certainly have a major national release. I'll catch it later. At the mall theatre with the mundanes. Sigh.