Alamo Drafthouse takes eight selections from this year’s festival for a victory lap around the country.

Get Your Genre Festival On

This year, the Alamo Drafthouse, Magnet Releasing and Well Go USA are bringing a sampler of this year’s Fantastic Fest on a “tour” of several cities where the Drafthouse has a presence. If you live in or near Austin, Dallas, Houston, Denver (CO), Kansas City (MO), Winchester (VA), or Yonkers (NY), you’re in luck. Each film is screening individually (one show only) at the Drafthouse, but unlike the actual Fantastic Fest, you can see them all, since the movies are not playing at the same time. They are ticketed individually at $10 plus the normal $1 “service charge.”

The movies are: Big Bad Wolves, Borgman, Cheap Thrills, Confession of Murder, The Congress,  Grand Piano, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, and Why Don’t You Play In Hell.

As luck would have it, half of these movies were those I missed at the festival (it’s impossible to see them all since there are at most 37 time slots available to full festival badge holders (press badge holders get a few extra screenings for the privilege of waking up earlier). I also invited friends to see Grand Piano, a movie from my FF2013 Top 5 list. Grand Piano is a good way to introduce people raised on Hollywood movies to independent film. OK, it’s not the batshitcrazy deep end of the genre pool, but it’s no less deserving of being an official selection.

Here’s a (spoiler-free) look at the four films that I had missed. Interestingly, they are all subtitled movies from other countries. I’ve included their country of origin and the main language; it’s quite a diverse selection.

Borgman

Most movies are easy to pin down in one sentence because they fit a type. For example, “masked killer chasing stupid teens around the woods” or something. Borgman defies any easy summarization. I can describe on a literal level what happens in the movie, but that probably won’t make sense. Fans of the French surreal film Holy Motors will probably appreciate the unexplained and “WTF?” moments in Borgman, but unlike Holy Motors, the surreal elements are very, very subtle. The effect is intriguing and unsettling. It’s about a mysterious man who calls himself Camiel Borgman, who is forced out of his “home” (he lives literally underground in the woods during the opening scenes) and goes door to door asking strangers for a bath. He manipulates a young (and obviously wealthy) couple into taking him in, and from there, things get subtly weirder as Camiel develops a kind of relationship with the wife and the couple’s children. You could say they fall under his spell. At some point, the film insinuates that Borgman and his mysterious associates may not be human. The narrative style reminded me of Shane Carruth’s indie favorite Upstream Color, which tells its story in an intriguing yet deliberately abstruse manner. There seems to be a reason for everything that happens in Borgman, even if you have to think hard about it afterwards. This is not a film you grasp on first viewing, but it’s definitely for cerebral film fans. From writer-director Alex van Warmerdam. (Netherlands/Dutch)

Big Bad Wolves

This is my personal favorite. Had I seen it at the festival, I might have put it in the top 10, maybe the top 5. (Sorry, Afflicted, you’ve been voted off the island.) I’m also told that Quentin Tarantino also considers Big Bad Wolves his favorite film of 2013. And I can see why. At its heart, it is a crime drama, albeit with lots of humor and violence. In short, it has all the ingredients of a good, classic Tarantino crime film–say–Reservoir Dogs. The backstory is that there is a pedophile-murderer running around killing young girls in gruesome ways, and the police suspect a quiet, unassuming high school teacher is the killer. The movie opens with the police trying to beat a confession out of him, but they simply don’t have enough evidence to make charges stick. The real “criminals” in the story are the disgraced ex-cop who was dismissed from the case after a video of the beating appears on the YouTubes, and the father of one of the victims, who buys a secluded house in the countryside with a nice dank basement which he turns into a makeshift torture chamber. Most of the second act plays out there, and what makes the movie work is the repartee and dynamic relationship between the three men. There’s a lot of humor and craziness and violence in those scenes, but it works the way a good tasting meal works by balancing salty, sweet, sourness, and body. Written and directed by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado. (Israel/Hebrew)

Confession of Murder

This movie is a delightful surprise. The Korean filmmakers have quite a history with Fantastic Fest, and action crime thrillers seems to be their forte. Western action crime movies rarely have that “Whoa!” edginess to them that the Korean thrillers have. Confession of Murder is one such film. The feature film debut of director Jeong Byeong-gil, it’s about a police detective, Lt. Choi, who has been chasing a masked serial killer. After a life-threatening chase and altercation, the killer escapes, and 15 years later, after the statute of limitations has expired on his crimes, the killer comes forward with a tell-all book titled Confession of Murder. The handsome killer promptly becomes a media celebrity and heartthrob in Korea, and wealthy from sales of the book. None of this sits well with Choi, who suspects the killer may be a phony. Meanwhile, the family of the victims have their own agenda, and have conspired to take their revenge. This is one of the most original stories I’ve seen, and most of it is well done (I had some minor quibbles with the way a car chase scene was edited, but that’s about it). This film is less violent and more clever than Oldboy or I Saw The Devil. Don’t miss it. (Korea/Korean)

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

This is one of the best reviewed movies of Fantastic Fest 2013, and a movie that appeared on many people’s top 5 lists. I was really jazzed to finally see it. Journey to the West was directed by Stephen Chow, director of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. It’s adapted from the 16th Century Chinese story Journey to the West about the Monkey King, except with Xuan Zang cast as the main character. Xuan Zang is a Buddhist demon hunter who roams the countryside trying to reform “demons” (big animal spirits that kill humans). He’s not very good at it, and he has yet to successfully win an encounter with a demon. His life is saved by the beautiful Miss Duan, an accomplished demon hunter, who subsequently falls for Xuan Zang. They’re both hunting the same demon, the “pig demon” named KL Hog. The movie has a bit of everything: big action set pieces, CG monsters, romance, physical and verbal comedy, and spectacular fight scenes. The fighting isn’t hand-to-hand martial arts, but more “anime style” light show. Basically, everyone but Xuan Zang has magic powers. While most festival entries were “small scale” films, Journey to the West thinks big, both in terms of visuals and story. It’s also a rare festival entry that’s tame enough to qualify as a mild PG-13 (this movie has no MPAA rating), should you want to take the kids–most genre festival films are unapologetically adult in content. (China/Mandarin)

Verdict

I enjoyed all four of these movies, and I was grateful to get a second chance to see them so soon after the festival. I hope they continue to offer the Tour in the future. While it’s not the “full festival experience” (which includes socializing with geeks and hipsters, alcohol, and breathing a lot of second-hand smoke), once the house lights dim, and the projection starts, it is Fantastic Fest (part 2).

If you want to get a taste for the genre films, this selection represents a good cross-section from this year’s excellent program. If you live near one of the cities on the tour, and you feel like seeing something edgy and unusual, don’t miss it.

For showtimes and advanced ticket sales in your city, check out the Fantastic Fest 2013 Tour website.

My other Fantastic Fest 2013 film reviews:

Part I: Best of Fantastic Fest 2013

Part II: Fantastic Fest 2013 Wrap

Part III: Man of Tai Chi and All The Boys Love Mandy Lane reviews.

I reviewed Cheap Thrills in my Best of SXSW 2013 Film.