By far, the most encouraging trend of the year was the success of fan-driven film events.
My favorite viewing experiences of the year came during Fantastic Fest in Austin, which was started by a small group of friends who felt that the type of films they loved were not getting the exposure they deserved. Twitch has published accounts of fan-driven festivals in New York (the great, trailblazing Subway Cinema), Dallas (AFFD), Toronto (After Dark and many others), Montreal (Fantasia), San Diego (Asian), San Francisco (so many, Michael!), Europe and Asia and on and on. We love this stuff! The desire to share things that excite, outrage, disgust, depress, or enlighten -- and the willingness of hard-core fans to reach into their own pockets to make it happen -- lies at the heart of the success of these events.
There's nothing inherently evil with communities that start film festivals to boost civic pride, but the emphasis on big stars, big sponsors, and big parties misses the point. If an event lacks "film love," to pick a broad term, it will never ooze its way into anyone's blood. And then what's the difference between a film festival and a fashion show?
Onward.
* Fantastic Fest / Nikkatsu Action Retrospective *
By broadening its programming reach, the third edition of Fantastic Fest threatened to make all my genre dreams come true. Beyond the remarkably high percentage of quality films in the program, Tim League and company have created a welcoming, friendly vibe, where filmmakers and fans mingle freely, and where the programmers actually sit down to watch movies with everybody else. No greater testimony can be given than this: within hours (well, maybe a day) of going on sale, all VIP passes for 2008 sold out -- before the 2007 festival was over! Don't worry: more tickets and different types of passes will still be available, but ... dang!
The three-title Nikkatsu Action Retrospective unveiled generally unseen and unheralded films (A Colt is My Passport, The Warped Ones, Velvet Hustler) that were revelatory: fresh, sharp, surprising. And, again, this was not an intellectual enterprise or one born out of a desire to maximize profits. The folks behind the retrospective just think these movies deserve to be seen by more people. The films themselves prompt the question: What more buried treasures await discovery?
* Five Favorite Viewing Experiences *
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Timecrimes
3. Inside
4. Flash Point
5. Zodiac
A beautiful woman convinced me to sneak into the world premiere of There Will Be Blood on Fantastic Fest's closing night. Thank you, my unknown benefactor. Even though my expectations were low and my far right front row seat was less than ideal, I was quickly drawn into the unsparing world of Daniel Plainview, and it held me mesmerized throughout. As the lights came up, my neck ached faintly; the people around me looked shell-shocked, like survivors of a wreck on the highway. Did we really see what we thought we just saw? Was that incredible, or what? Not everyone gushed, but many of us struggled to express our belief that we'd seen something truly great. And to those early nay-sayers who hadn't seen the film yet felt qualified to question the authenticity of our reaction, I'm tempted to say something profane, but this is better: Sometimes the fanboys are right.
One of the things I appreciate about Twitch is that founder/editor/Lord and Master Todd Brown never discourages contrary opinions. So if I didn't like Timecrimes, on which Todd has a credit, I would tell you. But in the darkened auditorium, I started smiling at the way writer/director/actor Nacho Vigalando upended my expectations and confounded my predictions for how the story would turn out. Let's hope this is just the first of many more surprises from Mr. Nacho. (Y, mi amigo, perdoname por mis errores con la machina de grabatorio y con tu nombre ... y por mi espanol que es muy mal.)
Surrounded by grizzled veterans of the horror film scene who barely flinched at the unholy graphic terrors unleashed on screen, I am not ashamed to say that the midnight screening of Inside made me flinch -- also jump, squirm, cry, shudder, scream like a girl and hide my eyes like a little boy. (C'mon: we're talking about slashing knives, gaping holes, and huge pools of blood!) Three months later, just typing these words has induced post-traumatic stress syndrome. I think I'm going to be sick ...
On the other hand, Flash Point incited waves of joy. Initially, it was a consolation prize -- my row was filled with people who couldn't get into the secret screening of Southland Tales across the hall -- but it looks and feels like a throwback to the glory days of Hong Kong action, with a surprisingly good performance by Donnie Yen. The second half of the film jettisons the plot to concentrate on the action, a very good decision in my book. The crowd got into the fight scenes to the point that it felt like the auditorium was physically shaking with every punch. Simply thrilling.
Finally, a non-Fantastic Fest screening: I took in Zodiac at a typical shopping mall multiplex, but a newer one with very good sound and audio. The Saturday afternoon showtime, a few weeks after the film opened, meant a sparse turnout, but my surroundings faded into the background as the film became increasingly gripping. And it's not because the story itself is suspenseful; somehow David Fincher invites you in and it's easy to feel like you're merging with his world. Very odd, yet one of the few times when I didn't want the film to end. I wanted to live with these characters and follow their every move.
* Five Favorite Docs *
1. The King of Kong
2. Spine Tinger! The William Castle Story
3. Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures
4. Your Mommy Kills Animals
5. New Year Baby
It seems like we never give enough time or space to documentaries -- and I'll uphold that tattered tradition by summarizing: all great films on great subjects made by people with vision.
* Five Favorite DVDs *
1. Ace in the Hole
2. Blade Runner: The Final Cut
3. Bug / Hot Fuzz
4. Horrors of Malformed Men
5. Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition
I think we've written about all of these -- I'm already two weeks behind in posting this article, I'm sorry for not including the links -- but these were the ones I was most happy to have plunked down my own money for, and plan to watch multiple times.
* Addendum - What I Saw on the Big Screen *
January (3): Pan's Labyrinth, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Children of Men
February (3): Blood and Chocolate, The Messengers, Hannibal Rising
March (5): Black Snake Moan, 300, The Abandoned, Dead Silence, Zodiac
AFI Dallas (18): Trade, Berkeley, Snuffed, The Go-Getter, Cake: A Wedding Comedy, Beings, The Good Life, Severance, The King of Kong, A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar..., Exiled, Fido, Black Irish, The Favor, Netherbeast Incorporated, New Year Baby, Running on Empty
April (2): Le Petit Lieutenant, Becket
May (1): Spider-Man 3
July (5): Dynamite Warrior, Broken English, Ocean's Thirteen, Ratatouile, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
August (2): Death Sentence, The Simpsons Movie
AFFD (6): Finishing the Game, The Heavenly Kings, The Victim, Dorm, Five Centimenters Per Second, Tazza: The High Rollers
September (3): The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Dragon Wars; Resident Evil: Extinction
Fantastic Fest (27): Hell's Fever, Timecrimes, The Ferryman, Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures, Five Across the Eyes, Flight of the Living Dead, Maiko Haaaan!!!, Princess, Flash Point, Offscreen, Postal, Uncle's Paradise, Wolfhound, Son of Rambow, Crazy Thunder Road, Aachi and Ssipak, The Rug Cop, A Colt is My Passport, Spiral, The Warped Ones, Inside, Wrong Turn 2, The Beautiful Beast, Invisible Target, Velvet Hustler, Alone, There Will Be Blood
October (4): The Heartbreak Kid, The Bourne Ultimatum, 30 Days of Night, Gone Baby Gone
November (0): !
December (4): The Mist, Hitman, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, American Gangster
