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Fantastic Fest 2023: JACKDAW is DRIVE Channeled Through Tony Scott
What do you get when you take Tony Scott’s early sensibility, a dash of Refn’s Drive, and a healthy portion of motocross for good measure? Well you got yourself a stew called Jackdaw.
Set in the aforementioned Scott’s home countryside of industrial Northern England, Jackdaw follows a former motocross champ resorting to a life of crime to support his younger brother. The job goes sideways and the audience is treated to an intense 90 minute thriller that weaves in and out of a beautifully lit rust belt, mostly on the back of a motorbike.
It’s set in a familial backdrop where our characters have to chase or run from their past, and our lead Jack Dawson is aptly played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Similarly to Gosling in Drive, he’s not doing a lot of emoting here, but keeping that stoicism engaging is a deceptively hard task. There’s a fine line between icy mystery and dull self seriousness, and Jackson-Cohen aligns himself on the right side.
The rest of the cast works well, but for the most part they’re not really why you’re here (though a surprising turn from a Game of Thrones veteran is very welcome). You also don’t really come to Jackdaw for an intricate plot: it’s pretty straightforward and while there’s fun double-crossing it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel.
You come to Jackdaw mainly for the aesthetic. The comparison to Tony Scott isn’t just visual, it’s also how the movie functions on feeling and immersion in a place. Top Gun’s plot isn’t what sells that movie, it’s the vibes – which are similarly applied here.
The movie starts stronger than it finishes and the whole thing coasts mostly on those aforementioned vibes, but they’re pretty great – so why not lean into it.
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LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR is a Fantastically Moving Modern Day Fairytale
Last week saw the Blu-ray release of Keiichi Hara’s feature length anime adaption Lonely Castle In The Mirror on Blu-ray thanks to the folks over at GKIDS. The film which started as a book and was adapted into a manga, and finally a film tells the fairytale adventure of 7 first year students who are summoned via a magical portal in their mirrors to a gorgeous castle in the middle of the ocean. Once there they meet a young girl in a wolf mask known as the Wolf Queen who informs her guests that from the hours of 9am to 5pm they are invited to the castle to socialize and to search for a magic key. That key will grant the finder one wish, but there are two catches. Once they make the wish their memories of the castle will be erased, and if they come to the castle outside of the designated time, they will be eaten by a wolf, along with all the other children who are forced to share the fate.
The gorgeously animated film primarily focuses on Kokoro, a painfully shy teen who when the film begins is afraid to go to school. We don’t know why, but it’s to the point her parents are exploring other schools and options. After being recruited, at first she is hesitant to visit the castle, but the more she visits and gets to know the other kids, the more she begins to realize that there’s something similar about the other children and her situation. While the thread of the narrative is this somewhat convoluted fairytale – something the characters go even as far to comment on. The emotional journey of these characters together as they are allowed to open up to one another and their struggles with being bullied at school is what makes the film as moving as it is. In their downtime looking for the key they create friendships that make the castle not only a refuge, but bridge to the children finding their way back to their respective lives.
Lonely Castle In The Mirror is a socially aware spectacle that attempts to tackle not only bullying and different kinds of abuse. But how living in a society where speaking out or sticking up for yourself is frowned upon, often traps the victims in these cycles and prevents them from getting help. The film manages to mull through these weighty themes thankfully in a way that’s not preachy or feels like an afterschool special, which is probably why the property is so popular. This is probably because Kokoro is portrayed as grounded and her emotional struggle in the film feels very genuine in how she reacts and and internalizes her struggle. Its how those around Kokoro react to her that also surprised me and really felt like the property was not trying to talk down to the film’s intended audience, allowing her to find her own way to happiness.
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FANTASTIC FEST 2023: KILLING ROMANCE is an Exquisitely Entertaining Candy Colored K-Dramedy
Killing Romance is Lee Won-suk’s candy colored K-drama musical that may go down as my favorite new film I saw at Fantastic Fest this year. Romance stars Lee Hanee as Hwa Yeo-rae, a woman who garnered a place in the pop culture zeitgeist for being able to chug a watermelon soft drink in record time. She quickly transitioned from spokeswoman to idol, and finally starred in a sci-fi epic. While that film made a ton of money, Yeo-rae was ridiculed and mocked due to her performance, which landed her in the arms of the vain and abusive developer Jonathan Na (Lee Sun-kyun) on the secluded fictional tropical island of Qualla . After 7 years of self imposed exile Yeo-rae returns to Seoul, where John irons out plans for an amusement park. She’s then recognized by her stoner neighbor Kim Beom-woo (Gong Myoung), who’s a hardcore Yeo-rae superfan and will do anything for her return, including killing her husband.
Before you start thinking this is just the Korean musical version of To Die For, things don’t quite go as planned for Yeo-rae, which is a testament to Sun-kyun, who here is such a great villain. The actor not only spends the film hamming it up whenever he can with arsenal fake styled mustaches, but also dropping his infectious catchphrase “It’s Goooood!” whenever he gets a chance. Beom-woo eventually has second thoughts about killing Yeo-rae’s husband and saves his life, which endears the awkward 20 something slacker to Jonathan, while Yeo-rae is left stuck with a man who aside from committing ACTUAL MURDER, makes her stand in a corner while he pelts her with tangerines when she displeases him. The film uses the absurdist musical comedy elements to offset these darker tones, while still not completely erasing how terrible Jonathan is.
The film itself at times feels like a feature length K-pop video, it’s shot in that super bright style and also characters here are larger than life and can break into song at any moment. There’s even a scene where the film goes into full on Karaoke mode for scene towards the end. Speaking of the music, it’s catchy as hell, and as I write this I hope to rid myself of Yeo-rae’s bad girl soft drink theme song, which has firmly embedded itself in my cranial cavity. The performances here are surprisingly nuanced and deliver some really engaging melodrama to really keep you vested in all of the characters. It’s a hard juggling act considering how truly garish Jonathan is at times. But for the most part you’re still able to enjoy yourself, which is the point even when the film dips into the truly absurd. My personal favorite of these outlandish flourishes being, a running gag where Beom-woo has been studying for his entrance exams for so long and failing, that he’s manifested the ability to talk to animals.
I don’t want to delve too far into the particulars of the film for fear of spoiling some of the more hilarious bits, of which there are quite a few. But Killing Romance is charming, hilarious and sometimes even surprisingly heartfelt, when it comes to Yeo-rae’s introspective moments when she’s reflecting back on her career. There’s some thematic ruminations on the shelf life of idols and female performers in generaI that I found rather moving mixed in the comedy and drama. Thankfully the film sidesteps the creepiness of that older woman grooming a younger man to kill her husband trope that I was basically expecting in the first act to find its own way into this weird and wonderful melodrama that I can’t recommend enough. I thoroughly enjoyed Killing Romance, I laughed, I got teary eyed and I had a lot of fun watching this cast of misfits trying to find happiness amongst some of the best cinematic ear worms I’ve been treated to all year.
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25 Years Later HALLOWEEN: H20 Hits 4K Limited Edition Steelbook
Curiously timed to the film’s 25th anniversary, Halloween: 20 Years Later (henceforth H20) makes the move to 4KUHD this spooky season. Coming on the heels of the recently wrapped David Gordon Green trilogy that put a bow on the saga of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, or as much of a bow as can be put on any long-running franchise. Knowing how that part of the story plays out makes revisiting H20 an interesting prospect.
Positioning itself as a direct sequel to Halloween ll, H20 picks up with Laurie Strode (Academy Award winner, but not for this film, Jamie Lee Curtis) having faked her death and relocated to California where she’s living under the name Keri Tate and leading a quiet life as headmistress of a private school where she can keep a close eye on her son John (Josh Hartnett). In short order the school is cleared out for the weekend, leaving Laurie with her boyfriend and colleague Will (Adam Arkin) behind for a romantic weekend together. Also looking for a little romance are John, his girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams), and their friends Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd) and Sarah (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). Also looking to take advantage of the quiet campus is Michael Myers (Chris Durand) and he’s not there for an amorous time.
As a post-Scream slasher, H20 walks a wobbly path. It’s fast-paced, with a handful of noteworthy kills and effective fake-outs. With Scream writer Kevin Williamson on board as a producer, his influence on H20 is undeniable (and there are a couple Scream references worked in for good measure). As a slasher, H20 hits the notes it needs to. Its highlights include a tense bit of business with a hand in a garbage disposal and Sarah’s unfortunate run in with Michael, which delivers the film’s gnarliest violence. As a Halloween movie, it works because of Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance. She gets to go deeper into the PTSD angle of Laurie’s character in Green’s trilogy, but this first at-bat with it is effective in its own right. In H20, Laurie sees Michael everywhere she goes and the threat of him haunts every aspect of her life. The way Laurie snaps at John when she catches him off-campus during lunch is an incisive bit of acting by Curtis, letting a lifetime’s worth of terror and anger seep out a very brief exchange. The handful of scenes where Laurie gets to confront her anxieties head on are the film’s strongest moments. With a sub-90 minute runtime, H20 doesn’t have much room for thematic depth, but Curtis makes the most of what she gets.
The overall result is a perfectly fine meat-and-potatoes slasher served with a heavy dose of meta commentary and humor. That aspect is what elevates it above the sluggish Halloween 4-6. H20 is not a laugh riot by any means, but its also not self-serious to the point of parody. Most of the humor comes via LL Cool J’s campus security guard Ronny. Ronny spends most of the movie in his little security post at the front gate and he spends all of his time on the phone with his wife. While keeping a bunch of rich white kids safe is his day job, Ronny dreams of writing romance novels. He’s constantly reading his work to his wife who is the kind of tough crowd every aspiring writer needs. When Ronny describes a woman as having “tumultuous, round, melon breasts,” that’s hilarious. And it’s funnier when his wife makes fun of him for it. Honestly, it’s a real disappointment that there isn’t a special feature with more of Ronny reading his work. Two quick scenes between Janet Leigh and daughter Jamie Lee Curtis prove surprisingly poignant and give the film something unique, even if it’s brief. Two generations of family coming together, two generations of horror icons sharing the screen (while packing in an impressive number of Psycho references into very little screen time).
H20 is one of my favorite entries in the series. It scratches a particular nostalgic itch by transporting me back to a time when I was excited by each new slasher that followed in the wake of Scream. I first saw Scream as a 12 year old with very lenient parents when it came to video store rentals. That was the first horror film I ever watched and it sent me down a path that would take me to movies from all over the world, and every kind of cinematic fright from the visceral to psychological to unnerving to disturbing to existential and everything in between. H20 arrived in that sweet spot where I was still susceptible to every trick it throws at an audience for a jump. More importantly, I wanted that feeling. I wanted to be scared out of my wits. At this point I can’t remember if H20 delivered what I was looking for when I watched it back in 1998. But I do have many fond memories of watching it while home sick throughout middle and high school, and those are the kind of memories more obvious nostalgia plays can’t match.
Starting with an ice skate to the face and finishing with a decapitation, Halloween: H20 remains a fun slasher and a slightly above average Halloween entry. The newly available 4K UHD comes with no special features, but does come in a slick looking Limited Editon Steelbook with a handsome transparent slipcover with printed accents, as well as a digital copy.
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SAW X Brings Back Everyone’s Favorite Puzzle King To Nightmare Inducing Results
Undoubtedly dead before the end credits rolled on Saw III almost two decades ago, John “Jigsaw” Kramer (Tobin Bell), has categorically refused to remain dead, reemerging across and between subsequent sequels via flashbacks and a near-infinite supply of puzzle traps and micro-cassettes prepared for his apprentices before his demise. Given his centrality to the once-maligned horror series, Kramer should have remained in a perpetual state of dying from an inoperable brain tumor, his death postponed by each subsequent entry until the series either exhausted itself (i.e., a fanbase approaching zero) or the eventual heat death of the universe (whichever comes first).
Luckily for Saw’s fanbase, the producers behind the series learned that particular lesson long ago, finding creative ways to keep Kramer around, initially via apprentices or acolytes who continued his mission to fix the world one torture trap at a time and when that inevitably failed, finally resurrecting him back from the dead for Saw X, a sequel in number only that chronologically unfolds in the malleable period between the original Saw (2004) and the first sequel, Saw II (2005).
The Jigsaw-centered Saw X opens with Kramer once again receiving the no-good, horrible, terrible news about his inoperable brain tumor. Refusing to simply accept his inevitable fate, a desperate Kramer learns about an experimental cancer treatment involving a radical combination of surgery and an untested drug cocktail in Mexico, clears out his bank account, and heads South of the North American Border. It’s the kind of decision anyone in similar circumstances might make, but maybe not a practiced serial killer with a deep-seated cynicism about the human race.
By this point, the audience on the other side of the screen certainly knows better, but it takes a newly vulnerable Kramer the better part of an hour to discover he’s been conned by Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund), an amoral sociopath with a medical degree, a Nordic accent, and a full-scale front operation even the twice-impeached former occupant of the White House would admire for Pederson dedication to separating terminal cancer patients from their bank accounts and life savings. Everyone from the taxi cab driver to the housekeeper, nurses, and other “doctors” on staff seem to be part of the grift, all but foretelling their doom once Kramer uncovers the fraudulent nature of Pederson’s treatments.
That particular development, in turn, brings back franchise favorites like Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), Billy the Puppet (scary once, non-scary now, but welcome either way), and a familiar pig mask into the fold. Amanda functions as a stand-in for Kramer, doing what he can’t do physically, finding and kidnapping the fraudsters behind the faux-clinic, and delivering them to a conveniently central location where Kramer, still dying from the aforementioned inoperable brain tumor, newly re-energized by his recent negative experiences, can test his latest traps and puzzles on a series of unwitting subjects with important life-or-death lessons to learn. Surviving means life, but usually life minus one or more important appendages or organs.
Those lessons, delivered with the usual fetishistic attention to realistic, gruesome detail, are, at least to a core group of Saw fans, the central reason for the series’s continuing existence. As a franchise, the Saw series has repeatedly challenged what can and shouldn’t be shown under the R-rating and Saw X is no different. Unquestionably filled with technical skill and nerve-shredding, stomach-turning, and bowel-loosening suspense, the set pieces in Saw X, individually and collectively, remain without equal among studio-made, English-language horror. Beginning with a typically cringe-inducing scenario involving suction tubes connected to a subject’s eyes and ending with a scenario involving a bizarrely accurate turn of phrase (i.e., “blood-boarding”), the set pieces qualify as a month’s worth of nightmare fuel.
Ultimately, reopening the series to in-universe stories featuring a not-quite-dead Jigsaw and Amanda, his favorite apprentice, counts as a brilliant, if obvious, move by the franchise’s producers. Theoretically, the series can continue to fill in the gaps between Saw and Saw II for the next 5-10 years or another 3-5 films in the series. Box-office returns, of course, will determine the future of the Saw series and whether Jigsaw and his obsession with Rube Goldberg-inspired death traps will return.
Saw X opens theatrically in North America on Friday, September 29th, via Lionsgate.
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Fantastic Fest 2023: Night Terrors Lead to a Domestic Disintegration in SLEEP
Jason Yu’s debut feature explores a terror and torment that comes during our most vulnerable time
Our time for rest is also the time at which we are at our most vulnerable. A sound slumber masking a possible approach of a threat. Sleep, the debut feature from writer/director Jason Yu, explores this concept with the added conceit that this threat that emerges at night, might come in an unexpected form. What if a partner lying next to you at night, suddenly became untrustworthy, and worse, a potential a danger to you.
The nightmare begins when the pregnant Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) is awoken in the middle of the night. Sitting at the end of the bed is her husband Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite). Unresponsive to her, she hears him muttering “Something’s inside,” before falling backwards into a blissful slumber. A bang follows, and unable to rouse her husband, Soo-jin goes to investigate their apartment and finds an open window blowing in the wind, as well as their startled Pomeranian Pepper. She also spies debris on the floor from what she comes to find was a sleepwalking adventure to the fridge by her husband, in search of a snack. The next night, Hyun-su unknowingly scratches his cheek until he draws blood, not a good look for an aspiring actor. The nights continue, with Soo-jin becoming increasingly unsettled at her husband’s actions, which come to a head when Hyun-su nearly sleepwalks out of the window of their fourth floor apartment. Admitting they need help, they consult a doctor and Hyun-su is diagnosed with an REM sleep disorder. Prescribed a medication, and a series of lifestyle changes, he tries to treat the condition, but to no avail, the situation doesn’t just persist, but gets worse. After the baby arrives, Soo-jin’s fears grow, and they are compounded by a horrifying incident one night. Desperate for a solution, she even begins to entertain the meddling of her mother and her mystic beliefs. They allow her to bring a shaman into her home to perform a cleansing ritual, during which they pinpoint the problem. An apparition, obsessed with Soo-jin has attached itself to Hyun-su and an exorcism is needed, one that requires identification of who this spirit is. Hyun-su remains skeptical, but Soo-jin begins to wonder, what if someone really is inside?
It’s a great premise, expertly leveraged for building unease within the home of this cute couple. Clearly in love, they they adorn their wall with a handmade sign of their motto “Together we can overcome anything”. Saccharine in sentiment, but endearingly executed. There is a playfulness between the pair that reinforces authenticity as much as the superb performances both leads turn in. Even the “baby-proofing” of the apartment is played for delightful comedy, giving the film the veneer of a playful sit-com at times. Their humor, and affection, is a ballast within the film to temper the growing tension of the situation. Even as things get more intense, it still peeks through in moments as they try to rally, and support each other in trying times.
While Hyun-su is the one with the condition, it becomes quickly apparent that it is Hyun-su that is suffering. A growing psychosis that results from her disturbed (and disturbing) sleep that fuels an obsessive, paranoid quality, as well as this domestic disintegration. After practical solutions fail, the shaman’s advice is to identify the spirit by name to allow it to be vanquished, which adds something of an investigative element to the film. What works in Sleep‘s favor is that it doesn’t show it’s hand until late on. Is this really a haunting, or does it stem from deeper anxiety. “Something’s inside” might certainly be referring to the baby, or internalized fears over becoming a father. That’s enough to disturb anyone’s regular sleep patterns. The domino effect of depriving a partner of sleep only exacerbates the situation. All is revealed in the final act, which is where the film does some focus. A leap in narrative, egregiously skipping an event that feels pretty integral to the arcs of these characters, is an odd choice. Similarly is a turn where previously unknown rules are introduced that setup the film’s resolution. The resolution isn’t necessarily at odds with what the film is originally setting out to do, but the execution certainly muddles things.
The film is superbly constructed, with visuals and sound design helping craft the perfect little pressure cooker of escalating dread within this apartment. The drama is superbly built, and through each night ramps things up with new, perturbing elements, while deftly balancing the tonal shifts and ongoing family drama. Despite the third act stumble, Sleep is an engaging and effective debut feature from Yu, showcasing skilled and playful film-making. The story engenders empathy and engagement for this couple on the cusp of parenthood, as they try to stay true to each other in the face of these night terrors. This complements a really great hook that is leveraged to maximum effect, by turning the safety and comfort of our own bedroom, and those we share it with, into something to be feared.
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Fantastic Fest 2023: YOUR LUCKY DAY Places Us in the Thick of a Harrowing Crime Thriller
Daniel Brown’s socially conscious single-location film is full of suspense and charm
From The Killing to A Simple Plan, some of the most memorable crime thrillers that dare you to put yourself in the shoes of the “bad guys” often cast a pall of delicious irony over their proceedings. In Daniel Brown’s Your Lucky Day, adapted from his 2010 short, convenience store owner Amir is persuaded to go along with a bloody and potentially lucrative caper based on the idea that fate “is written.” But while the four strangers mixed up in this plot may initially think fate is on their side–Brown’s breathlessly plotted thriller is more than eager to question just how much luck we have in store.
All of Miami awaits the results of the Megaball lottery drawing in the days before Christmas–but only Amir (Mousa Kraish), drug dealer Sterling (Angus Cloud), expecting couple Abraham (Elliot Knight) and Ana (Jessica Garza), and beat cop Cody (Sterling Beaumon) are around when a brash rich man discovers he’s won the $156 million jackpot in Amir’s tiny bodega. Before anyone can blink, Sterling takes matters into his own hands and begins a bloody standoff that leaves the lottery winner and Cody in a bloody heap–and the rest of the store patrons as Sterling’s hostages. However, Sterling is plain-spoken and pragmatic–offering the hostages their freedom and a cut of the lottery winnings if they can help him get away with the crime.
The conspiracy appears simple enough–with signposts existing all over the convenience store that not only are Sterling and company fated to get away scot-free, but that they’re meant to. Amidst the grimy, lived-in production design are ads and neon signs with telling messages–“Do it, big boy,” “You deserve it,” etc. that give illumination to the forces working for and against the characters that are impossible to see for themselves. The screenplay’s timing of certain events–notably the arrival of another group with their eyes set on claiming the winning ticket–harkens back to the crime capers mentioned above, as characters’ seemingly random, desperate actions feel like they were fated to happen just as they were meant to. The combination of design and writing evokes effective humor and drama in equal measure throughout Your Lucky Day–giving it a solid platform for the film’s remarkable ensemble.
Angus Cloud’s performance, tragically one of his final films before his death in July 2023, is a naturalistic and unassuming turn that quickly becomes one of Your Lucky Day’s best strengths. His violence is brutal yet wholly understandable; he’s able to win over his hostages to become his accomplices through empathy as much as pragmatism; and he’s endearingly clueless in how to actually dispose of his own carnage. Cloud is a natural everyman, and with each scene he’s in the weight of his loss looms all the greater.
Fellow performers Kraish and Knight also turn in confident, assured performances for as terrified as their characters may be, and a cadre of crooked cops led by Jason O’Mara are sufficiently terrifying while lending bitter credence to the film’s themes about current states of power and the inability to change things for the better. However, Jessica Garza wholly runs away with the film with a spellbinding performance that had Fantastic Fest audiences cheering as, like Sterling, she’s forced to take matters into her own hands if it means getting out of her situation alive.
Your Lucky Day has a fifth performance, however, that made the film quite memorable compared to others in its genre. In a key moment, Brown focuses on the pile of bodies the characters have accumulated–when a fly lands on the camera lens and walks across it, making the audience uncomfortably aware of their own presence and complicity in the film. Throughout, Brown and cinematographer Justin Denning are acutely aware of the audience’s role as a spectator in the film, heightening the feeling of being paralyzed by the whims of fate amidst the myriad tragically funny events of the film. It’s a decision that elevates and hits home the social issues raised in the film, including income inequality, qualified immunity for police, and financial and sexual predation of those who don’t happen to be born white, rich, and powerful, among many others. Brown, Henning, and his cast make us acutely aware of how much the characters can or can’t do with the hand they’re dealt, and includes us among those who are unable to do anything to help the characters. As the credits roll, Your Lucky Day energizes us to shake off what shackles we have and, like the ill-fated group of strangers trapped in this bodega, encourages us to change what we can for the better.
Your Lucky Day had its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023. It is slated for release on November 10, 2023 from Well Go USA.
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FANTASTIC FEST 2023: CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT – A RED Carpet Q&A with Malcolm McDowell and Producer Thomas Negovan
When it comes to most quote, unquote “bad” films, performances or the film itself are sometimes reappraised over time. Malcolm McDowell is experiencing what no actor before him has however in this scenario. Not only is a film he’s spent his whole career stating was terrible, Caligula, getting a vast re-edit utilizing only alternate takes, but McDowell’s rumored “lost” performance as the mad Roman emperor, which was left on the cutting room floor four decades ago is being reinstated. Notoriously the original director Tinto Brass was locked out of the edit after production and plot was discarded altogether for new hardcore footage that was shot to insert into the film to appease its producer Bob Guccione, owner of Penthouse. It speaks volumes that the icon is not only speaking out on behalf of the edit, (he was able to, because the film was an indie film completed 40 some years before the strike date) but also attempting to set some of the controversies around the film straight himself.
The new cut, dubbed Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, is the film filmgoers were promised and McDowell’s performance is indeed one of his best. (Read my Review here) I caught the film at its US Premiere in Austin, Texas at Fantastic Fest and I was lucky enough to not only chat with the star on the red carpet beforehand, but sat a row away from McDowell after the fact who sat through the entire film getting to see it again on the big screen for the first time. What was simply supposed to be a red carpet interview had Malcolm McDowell taking a much deserved victory lap with journalists and holding nothing back. There was an air of vindication from McDowell who was in top form, which probably has to do with in his own words when someone asked him later what he thought of the film – with a wry smile he said, “Well, Caligula is a proper film now.”
You stand on the verge of all of this, how does it feel to, to actually get to see what should have been a much better movie than it originally was?
Malcolm McDowell: It’s a little overwhelming. I really hated being connected with this film for so long, nearly half a century. And then random guy off the street, takes 90 hours of unlooked at negative, spends three years of his life putting it together, brilliantly, I might add; except for one or two spots. (Laughs)
I know the performance I gave, it was never seen. I know the performance Helen gave and it was never seen. I think she’s now in 45 minutes of the movie instead of 12 or whatever it was, because, you know, Guccione only put in all this porn. So of course most of the end scenes (from the film), I’d say the last 45 minutes or something like that, was never seen by me or the public. I’d even forgotten that I’d shot them, actually. When I first saw it, I went, “oh yeah, I wonder what happened to that”? So, I have a great debt to pay to this man (points at Thomas Negovan) who, I don’t think they paid him enough, to be honest.
The film is saved, I mean, how many actors can refind a performance after 47 years? That is the first time I would bet in movie history that’s ever happened.
So you’re a fan of this new cut?
Malcolm McDowell: Well, I watched it because I was called by someone I trust who said, “you better watch this!” I went “I really don’t want to”. He goes, “no, no, no, no, no, no! You don’t understand, this showed at Cannes and it was written about in the Guardian newspaper, very favorably, where they compare it to one of your best performances”. I went, that’s such nonsense, there they go again, idiot critics, you know, they don’t know.
They wouldn’t know an actor if they fell over him, but, that’s what actors think. Anyway.
So, I watched it on my iPad and I thought, oh God, here we go again. You know? And the first half is roughly the same. I mean, it’s basically the same story. And, then I really started to see that they changed the music. I think the music is so much better. It’s fantastic. And also the look, even on an iPad! I thought it was very dark when I first saw it. But, they lightened it up, it really looked sparkling, and you really saw Danilo Donati’s sets, you know, which are quite extraordinary.
Was there a particular moment rewatching the film when you realized this is a completely different film?
Malcolm McDowell: I think when I said (gets in character of Caligula, pose and all), “take my horse to his own room!” I mean, who would say a line like that? (laughs) Being in bed with your horse! There were a few things that made me laugh out loud.
But, I can’t explain, what a sort of burden this thing was. I remember at the time, I managed to see the movie, and all the porn that was put in it at the expense of course, of other scenes. So it made no sense at all. But Guccione could care less about that, you know, it was a real terrible betrayal of certainly the actors. I’m sure that Gore Vidal felt the same way, but he kind of deserves what he got because, you know, he wouldn’t do any rewrites. He was calling me drunk three, four in the morning, you know, and I’m like, “hey, I’ve gotta be up in two hours to do this crap that you wrote!”
He just was lazy about doing any rewrites. And so, of course, in the end, we had to survive. But, you know, it was impossible to survive the owner of the stuff inserting hardcore pornography and that you couldn’t get around, you know?
Thomas Negovan: I don’t wanna interrupt, but something that I think a lot of people don’t know is we had a year’s worth of scripts (for his project). There’s the Gore Vidal script, and then there’s the script when Tinto and Malcolm got involved, that you start to see a lot of things flipping and changing.
Malcolm McDowell: One of the insults Tinto threw at Gore was if he doesn’t shut up, I’ll publish your script!
Thomas Negovan: Something that a lot of people don’t know is that Malcolm and a writer named Ted Whitehead contributed immensely to the narrative.
Malcolm McDowell: He was a friend of mine who was a playwright in London, and I talked him into getting on a plane. Wasn’t that hard to come to Rome for a month, you know, stay at my villa, you know, and they’re gonna pay you. So it was great because he’d done this amazing play called Alpha, Beta with with Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts.
The other interesting thing is, and I’ll say this with Tom here because it’s forgotten, is that Tinto Brass, who sadly is not well, he’s 90 years old. It’s a testament also to him because he was under so much pressure from Guccione and the money people, and he refused to cave in. He did the film that we always thought we were making, and he wouldn’t take Guccione’s suggestions, which were terrible anyway. And he was, by the way, I’ve never known a man so loathed as Guccione, even by his own children. And of course, he died in a trailer park, right? (Looks to Tom)
Thomas Negovan: Yes.
Malcolm McDowell: It’s called Karma. Karma. It’s a bitch. Right?
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Fantastic Fest 2023: Gareth Edwards’ Vision For THE CREATOR is Stunning
(L-R): John David Washington as Joshua and Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie in 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. The Creator is exactly the kind of sci-fi epic I needed right now.
Written and directed by Gareth Edwards, who made a great little indie film called Monsters (2010) and then was seemingly plucked from the herd of insanely talented indie filmmakers to mega stardom as he directed both Godzilla and Rogue One, The Creator is nonetheless a bit of a redemption arc tale for Edwards. While I personally love Rogue One and consider it one of my favorite Star Wars projects of the Disney era, it’s fairly well documented that the film was taken away from Edwards at a certain point and largely completed by Tony Gilroy, who went on to make the excellent Andor. Edwards has been relatively quiet since Rogue One in 2016. And if The Creator is the result of Edwards’ challenging personal and creative journey over the last several years, then I’m grateful to him for assembling this gorgeous and heartfelt sci-fi epic that feels like it’s uniquely Edwards’ own vision.
We talk a lot about the dearth of original vision these days, about how studios are only interested in IP, and how studios themselves are only divisions of larger mega-corporations without a core vision for filmmaking. And yet, along comes The Creator. Edwards was seemingly able to convince studios he could pull out his old tricks from his Monsters days and craft a stunning visual feast of a film for a fraction of what other productions of this scale would cost. I look forward to digging deep into “making of” and behind the scenes realities on The Creator someday, but for now it’s safe to say that Edwards did indeed craft a visually stunning, massively scaled film that he himself wrote and directed from no existing intellectual property. I hope this is something all cinephiles can root for and find excitement in, even if their reactions to the film itself may vary.
I’m not going to tell you The Creator is a perfect film. But I flat out loved this story of a totally unique family of the future who are swept up in a global war to stamp out artificial intelligence. Just because it isn’t based off an IP doesn’t mean that The Creator wasn’t influenced by dozens of earlier sci-fi visions. The film definitely gives off shades of Children Of Men as a lone hero (John David Washington’s Joshua) must traverse a cataclysmic future warzone with a young woman (Madeline Yuna Voyles’ Alphie) who may contain the key to our salvation. Edwards also harkens to the visuals of someone like Neill Blomkamp with gorgeously realized robots and ships and weaponry and vehicles that feel wholly photorealistic and tactile. Joshua is truly catapulted through this new world the audience is being introduced to, and if there’s any complaint with the script it’s that it does take a while for us to understand who Joshua is, what he’s mixed up in, and what is going on in this future war. It turns out Joshua begins the tale as an embedded undercover agent on the hunt to find and eradicate The Creator, the leader of the AI resistance. We learn that in this future reality mankind invented AI but AI detonated a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles decades earlier and in the film’s present day America is hunting down the last remnants of Artificial Intelligence, even if it means fighting that war on foreign soil in New Asia.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. Joshua’s journey is a complex one, himself a firsthand survivor of the LA nuclear blast that killed his family and took two of his own limbs, he’s nevertheless madly in love with Maya (Gemma Chan) when we first meet him, and expecting a child… even though he’s deep undercover. I won’t spoil a ton of the plot here, but Joshua’s motivations and convictions become challenged as he dives ever deeper into America’s war on AI and comes to know and understand Alphie (an AI child) on a personal level. What resonated with me quite powerfully in The Creator is that our characters are all swept up in a massive war that is bigger than any of them, but Edwards finds the space for each of them to build and develop personal relationships. And it’s within the human (and not-so-human) connections that our characters make that they find their convictions and paths forward. The Creator does what all great sci-fi does and convicts our assumptions about the world we live in. Filmed in Thailand (gorgeously so), the future-Asia setting evokes the repeated mistakes of Vietnam fairly obviously. But it also calls into question America’s deep resolve to retaliate against those who attack us at the expense of all else. The Creator doesn’t have an enormous amount to say about Artificial Intelligence and post-apocalypse that hasn’t already been explored before, but it does meet us at a new time when AI is having a deeper impact on our current society than ever before, and suggests we simply have to carve out a path forward that includes the integration, rather than destruction, of the technology.
Madeline Voyles as Alphie in 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. Because this is a massive sci-fi film, there needs to be spectacle. And I believe that the greatest strengths of The Creator lie in its ability to deliver relentlessly gorgeous and captivating imagery and scale all while further drawing us into an investment in the characters. I care pretty deeply about Joshua, Alphie, and Maya by the climactic final set piece. And as the music swells and the drama climaxes, I was brought to tears by Edwards’ screenplay that took its time but ultimately got me to believe in our characters. That said… damn is the spectacle incredible. Humankind has developed a massive weapon against the AI, a Death Star-like roaming destructor called NOMAD. NOMAD offers some incredible sci-fi visuals as it shoots blue scanning beams down over entire villages and rains nukes from the sky on hives of surviving AI. Edwards’ ability to shoot massive swaths of the film on location and then build a future sci-fi world AROUND the natural beauty of our world results in breathtaking visuals. But also the sheer design on display is monumental. The design of the AI people is stunning and always fully convincing. The tech, weapons, ships, and tools of war all sing and sell this unique world at a level of detail that would make James Cameron proud. (I’m particularly charmed by a robotic bomb design featured prominently in one set piece that reminded me of the berserker Orc who blows up the wall in LOTR’s Battle Of Helm’s Deep). It’s this visual depth that does make me want to argue for Edwards as a great visionary filmmaker, even if many will find fault in the execution of the story.
The Creator brings us filmmaker-driven original sci-fi on a grand scale. It calls into question our penchant for war and revenge, and posits some new ways forward as we integrate AI into our lives. It features an emotional core set against a grand visual splendor. It’s a personal vision greenlit by a major studio, and it’s exactly the breath of fresh air we need right now as cinema itself faces an uncertain future.
And I’m Out.
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Fantastic Fest 2023: RIVER is a Hilarious and Heartfelt Trip Through a Time-Loop
The team behind BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES deliver a followup with even more creativity, charm, and heart
Back in 2021, Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes delighted festival crowds. Simple in premise, it featured a medley of people within a tea shop, who found that their TV was showing images two minutes into their future. Well, Yamagucuchi and most of the team from Beyond are back with another temporal treat that leverages a (slightly) bigger budget into a film with more creativity, more scope, and if you can believe it, even more heart.
Set at an Inn in the remote village of Kibune, this is an idyllic setting, surrounded by tree-covered hills, with a river running through it. We meet Mikoto (a truly delightful turn from Riko Fujitani), who after receiving her work tasks for the morning, she steps outside, takes in the clear water flowing by, then heads back inside to begin. She wanders upstairs, makes small-talk with her boss as they clean up a room together, and suddenly, she’s back stood by the river. An initial sense of déjà vu is soon replaced by a communal acknowledgement that that are in a time loop, one that resets every two minutes, no matter what they do, planting each of them back in the same spot when it began. The staff start to get organized, working together to unravel the mystery behind this unusual event, picking up new information and setting in motion plans with each cycle. After they make sure all the guests are taken care of of course.
The film exudes warmth and wit, much of it coming from the the quirks of the characters, and the slow erosion of politeness as it all gets too much even for the staff of the inn. A melt-down over an ability to get a bottle of sake above a lukewarm temperature perfectly encapsulating this. Some guests are surprised, some in disbelief, some revel in the freedom these temporal shenanigans afford them. These time-loop trials take on the feeling of separate vignettes, some seem like side quests, fun tangents, all before the central mystery is solved. Others offer quieter moments to take a mental break from the situation or process emotion, while some take on more urgency as they get closer to figuring things out. Energy and pace comes with these loops opening up new areas of the village, or dropping in new characters to further help, or complicate the situation. Its just delightfully structured and beautifully wrought film-making.
As Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes was very much about learning to live in the moment, River takes on an almost fabelistic tone in it’s messaging, one of acceptance and looking to the future. Time is like a river, flowing forward, and so must we. All of these people are at this place with their own emotional weight and worries. From old friends reunited, to a a writer being pressured by his agent to meet a deadline, and even the emergence of longstanding conflict between the kitchen staff. But the focus is on Mikoto, who mourns the impending departure of Taku (Yuki Torigoe) as he is looking to leave behind Kibune and move to France to train as a chef. As the loops progress, together they come to deal with them, as both the cast and Yamaguchi unfurl their stories with authenticity, and an over-the-top energy that fittingly tilts toward the farcical. From one art form to another, one comparison to River would be The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask. Not just in terms of the temporal loop structure, or the innate charms of the people and place depicted. But, in terms of an adventure where a window of time is used to learn, reflect, and inform choices to direct future events to unfold for the better.
Makoto Ueda’s script is deep, considered, and flows beautifully. Each loop is packed with originality, charm, and hilarity. As tightly scripted as it is, the production itself is meticulously planned, but unfolds in a admirably fluid manner. Camerawork is immersive, following these people through the nooks and crannies of this little inn and surrounding village, revealing shortcuts and spots for new (mis)adventures. Every space is used to enrich the story and the adventure, all beautifully lit by cinematographer Kazunari Kawagoe. Loops are long takes, one rolling right into the next, but the edits that tie them together are pitch perfect, leveraged for maximum dramatic and comedic effect. Koji Takimoto’s playful score reinforces moments of frenetic behavior and eases us into the more contemplative lulls. River is the sum of many miraculous parts, and they all coalesce into something truly special.
River is more than just a measure of craft, it is affirming fare that reminds us how we may need to make peace with our present, but we can still take charge of our future. It enthralls and beguiles in equal measure, and it might be low budget but it’s undeniably high concept. A small movie with big ideas, and an exceptionally huge amount of heart. River is a film that you’d happily let run on forever.
