Fantastic Fest 2014 is history. Ah, the melancholy of returning to a post-Fantastic Fest world. It’s hard to do the full festival, let alone while writing reviews every day. Attendees with press badges write reviews, but they usually cover a smaller selection of films, and they’re given access to press screeners which they can view on their own time. I’m catching films in every time slot. This year, I screened 38 films (rather than the usual 37, because an extra slot was added on the last day). During the week of the festival, I only averaged about 5 hours of sleep each night. Smart people will pace themselves and sleep in (and miss their first screening) or bail on a midnight screening at some point in the 2nd half of the festival to catch up on sleep, but I chose not to.

That doesn’t leave much time to write reviews, but I did write them between screenings on the iPad. (The iPad is the perfect companion tech for attending Fantastic Fest because it is lightweight, has an all day battery, and is usable standing or seated). After getting much needed sleep on Friday and Saturday (I caught some kind of virus towards the end of the festival), I’ve still got a little more to report on. Here’s what I saw on Day 7.

 

Kung Fu Elliot
This won the festival award for Best Documentary Feature, and it sounded intriguing anyways, so I made plans to see it in the second half. The subject is one Canadian amateur filmmaker and self-professed karate and kickboxing champion named Elliot, who lives in Nova Scotia with his girlfriend, Linda. The filmmakers started out to make an earnest documentary about a quirky but talented person, but as the documentary continued, the cracks started to appear in Elliot’s facade. Over the course of the film, it slowly starts to crumble until the lies come to a head and Linda confronts him about it, with cameras rolling. What emerges is a documentary about a delusional self-aggrandizing myth maker. I don’t think it was the best documentary (in terms of what went into making it), but Elliot makes for a fascinating and disturbing subject because he is a slow motion train wreck. (8/10)

The Duke of Burgundy
This is director Peter Strickland’s follow up to the excellent and moody tribute to giallo cinema, Beberian Sound Studio. And like Beberian, The Duke of Burgundy is mostly an exercise in cinematic style, but with an added dose of sly humor. It focuses on the dominant/submissive sexual relationship between two women. Most of the movie takes place in an elaborate manor home, with no clues given to establish the time period. There are no cars or technology shown, and the clothing style is antiquarian. The film itself is meant to look like something shot in the 1960s, except it has a lot of lesbian sex, and quite possibly one of the best lines I heard at a film festival ever: “this would never have happened if I’d gotten you that human toilet.” Fantastic Fest favorite Ben Wheatley (Sightseers, A Field in England) is also one of the executive producers. (9/10)

Felt
Felt got a lot of buzz from its first screening, and it was definitely on my radar anyway so after it won a festival award for Best Actress (Amy Everson, who also co-wrote the script) in the New Wave category, I made plans to see it during the second. It’s the second film from director Jason Banker (Toad Road), and it will sneak up on you. Everson plays a character named Amy (whom I’m told is playing a version of herself), an artistically inclined young woman who is haunted by her past relationships with men. She expresses herself through costumes that she creates out of felt. Then she meets a nice guy who seems to really get her, and she opens up to him and lets him into her world. But he’s not the person she thought he was. I summarized this movie in a tweet: a low-key portrait of feminist angst, until the final scene. You won’t be disappointed when that scene comes. (8/10)

Tombville
Tombville is an intense, surreal, low-budget style exercise that takes place in a mysterious place called Tombville. Tombville is never clearly explained, but it appears to be a “dream world” shrouded in complete darkness; Only the main characters and their immediate surroundings are lit, and beyond that it is pitch black. The story follows a young man who wakes up on a road outside of Tombville, but no matter where he goes he ends up in Tombville, which is seemingly populated by nightmarish characters, many of whom want to do him harm. The key to his escape may be to confront issues with his mother, which is told in flashbacks. The film stands out in its use of sound: an intense, overbearing cacophony of dissonant noises and low-frequency effects like heartbeats or taiko drums. The use of sound reminds me of Beberian Sound Studio or The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, which are as much aural as visual experiences. In the end, I get why this film was picked for the festival: it is artistic and the soundtrack creates an oppressive mood. Unfortunately, the narrative easily gets lost, and I didn’t care for the main character. I saw a few people walk out of the screening I was at. I considered doing the same, but sat through to the end. (4/10)

It Follows
My midnighter for Day 7 was another film that got a festival award for Best Screenplay in the New Wave category. It stars Maika Monroe (The Guest) as a teen being stalked relentlessly by a malevolent creature(?) or supernatural force(?) that is invisible to all except those who have been “chosen.” To the chosen, the creature appears as a person (whom the chosen may or may not know). The rules for being chosen are pretty simple: you had sex with the last chosen person. Once chosen, you can never become unchosen, but you can buy time by having sex with another person who then gets chased by the creature. As long as that person stays alive, you stay alive (the creature only stalks the most recent victim). The premise recalls The Ring and Ringu. The teen characters in this movie are a lot smarter than the dumb victims who populate slasher movies. (8/10)