Welcome to the 9th annual Fantastic Fest film festival here in Austin, TX. This is my daily recap which over the next week will primarily recap the film experiences I have as well as touch on the mental and physical status of the Festival going folk, myself included. My entertainment is guaranteed but please, pray for my well being. To the fest!
THE CONGRESS:
How do you write about a film like The Congress? It is hard to really summarize. What we have here is one of the purest forms of a spiritual science-fiction film I can recall seeing in a very long time. Robin Wright (The Princess Bride, Forrest Gump) features, playing a somewhat fictionalized version of herself. She is facing the end of her acting career and confronted with the reality her situation by her agent (Harvey Keitel). Walking off sets, meltdowns, contract disputes: Wright has burned bridges within the industry and has few options or offers left. She is approached by the head of ‘Miramount’ pictures, played with aplomb by the fantastic Danny Huston (Children of Men, 30 Days of Night), with “the last offer you’ll ever get.” He reminds her of her wasted potential and bad decisions, and gives her the chance to fix those mistakes by ‘scanning’ her — making a digital version, preserved for eternity — with which the studio can use in their features as they see fit. Immortality then, and in return they ask that she give up all forms of acting, as there can be only one Robin Wright in the business (theirs).
Spoilers for how the rest of the film unfolds follow from here.
A intriguing premise and one I looked forward to exploring immensely. Watching Wright torn up with her choice is a showcase of her unmistakable talents. In the film she has a family, notably a son Aaron (Kodi-Smit McPhee) who is exhibiting signs of an ongoing autistic/sensory disability that is never specifically named. Giving up her acting for an income, stability, preservation, and time to spend caring for her son is too tempting. The ‘scanning’ process itself is a beautiful and heartbreaking sequence, Keitel and Wright interacting to show off the ‘human element’ of acting (ironically, in a scene where that element is being removed from the equation).
After this, the film changes gears and we skip ahead 20 years, seeing the films Robin has been used in and how a new form of interaction and entertainment is taking over. It’s not enough for people to watch and idolize their stars, they want to become them and journey into digital worlds, escaping their mundane existence. This new experience is being facilitated by a chemically-induced trip, which Miramount now is part of, and Wright joins this experience for renegotiation of her contract and the next ‘phase’ of using her image. In this portion of the film we journey into animated sequences to portray this new world, reminiscent of ‘Yellow Submarine’ imagery. It’s somewhat beautiful, but a unexpected journey, and as Robin gets deeper into this chemical world she remains focused on getting back to her son.
Her journey though this animated/chemical world is spiritual in nature. I found it engrossing but also distracting, meandering away from what the film opened with. It sets up a discussion on ageism in film and on personal artistry in a age where we already are using computers to portray actors (think Oliver Reed in Gladiator or Gene Kelly in this advert for Volkswagen). To then switch from live action to a animated form seemed an odd choice. I missed seeing Robin Wright on screen — it was as simple as that. Her performance in the first act was astonishing and her presence became sorely missed. While the animated spiritual trip was interesting, my mind harkened back to that earlier portion of the film and what it promised.
I understand the plaudits this film has received, it really is something special. Did I like it? I’m not sure. I really feel like this deserves multiple screenings to get to grips with. It did not deliver the film I was expecting based on the first act. What I got was something harder to define and digest. A trippy, fascinating film that I am still pondering even now.
LFO:
In the vein of another favorite film I saw earlier this week (Coherence), LFO is a low budget, small scale, clever little sci-fi film. Robert (Patrik Karlson) seems to spend most of his time in the basement avoiding his wife Clara (Ahnna Rasch). Down there, he conducts unusual audio experiments and discusses his findings with friends over radio. This project was prompted one day because his wife’s ‘relaxation moods’ music sent him into a unfathomable rage. Believing there are audio frequencys to invoke emotion, he sets out to find them. In the course of his work he stumbles across a frequency that opens up listeners to subliminal suggestion. The scientist in him experiments, first on himself, then his new neighbors, Linn (Johanna Tschig) and her husband Simon (Per Lofberg).
You can imagine the material such a theme gives — we start off with the amusing, (“Simon, you want to clean my windows”) and then meandering darker territory, (“Linn, you find your neighbor Robert very attractive”). These darker themes give you a little more pause — we still have sporadic funny moments, but delving into control and essentially abuse and rape make this a more thoughtful film than it seems on the surface. The performances are great and Karlson is able to provoke a great deal of sympathy that when he does cross such disturbing lines you don’t lose interest in the man. He has deeper issues at play which come to light throughout the film.
A very clever movie that starts off amusing but then goes into broader questions about morality, identity, Robert’s own mental state, and how this new-found power over people first leads to his corruption and then presumption as to how he can better mankind. A provocative, novel and enjoyable addition to the Fest.
Also, anyone who saw it… what was with all the eggs?
MAN OF TAI CHI:
After two provocative movies I was ready for a little silliness and to cut loose, and Man of Tai Chi really delivered. I had a blast watching this directorial debut from Keanu Reeves, who also stars in the film. I plan on writing up a more extensive review on this film and why I think it is spiritually linked to the Star Wars films so check back on Cinapse in a few days for that. Suffice to say, if you like a somewhat over the top martial arts film, a scenery chewing bad guy, and a smattering of cheese, you’ll love it.
DOUG BENSON MOVIE INTERRUPTION: THE RUNDOWN
For those unfamiliar, Doug Benson is a stand-up comedian, also starring in the documentary Super High Me and hosting the podcast Doug Loves Movies. He is somewhat of a fixture at Fantastic Fest, and this year hosted one of his ‘movie interruptions’ — think Mystery Science Theater style critiques as the film is in progress. We started with Doug cracking jokes about how sorry he was we’d all ended up with our second choice in this timeslot, (Metallica Through the Never was playing at the same time with Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo in attendance). Well Doug, I actually had this as my first pick and was looking forward to some hilarity!
In this ‘Interruption’ they tackled the 2003 film The Rundown, an action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Seann William Scott (Stiffler from the American Pie series) and Christopher Walken (Pulp Fiction, The Deer Hunter, and SNL‘s The Cowbell sketch), about a bounty hunter charged with finding and bringing back his employer’s son who is down in Brazil hunting treasure. Ridiculous, yes — so prime for an interruption.
Joining Doug was Sir Pat of Healy, a man who I declare to be one of the new Princes of Fantastic Fest with his brilliant film Cheap Thrills, not to mention his appearance here and the closing night party (and generally being an approachable, fun fellow as all Fest attendees will attest). We also had Marko Zaror (Machete Kills, Mandrill) who was The Rock’s stunt double in the film, cue many ‘that’s me, that’s me, that’s not me’ comments during the fight sequences. A great way to end the night and proof to myself that there is no such thing as too many Christopher Walken impressions.
* Photo credit: Jack Plunkett
If you’re unfamiliar with Doug’s work, they ran a few of his 5-second movies before The Rundown started, there is a narrative theme tieing them all together if you can spot it.