Fantastic Fest Report:  Getting Mighty Crowded; Style Over Substance?

Renaissance: Both Kurt and Opus reviewed the film when it played at the Toronto festival, and I don’t disagree with their reviews.  The film is gorgeous and the script is lacking. 

I’ll add that several sequences may make it worth seeing even with that large reservation staring you in the face.  Notably, two lengthy chase scenes are marvelously set up and play out in a very satisfactory way.  And I loved the transparent multiple layers of this future city.  But yes, to my mind this is definitely a case of style over substance.

In his introduction, festival director Tim League admitted he hadn’t seen the film yet, but the “look” of the film in trailers and clips was so dazzling that they had to book it.  When I caught up with him afterwards, he said he really liked it, that he thought it was nowhere near as disastrous as many reviewers had painted it.  So, your mileage may vary.  The adventurous may check it out again at Fantastic Fest on Thursday, September 28 at 9:00 p.m.  Miramax is also opening it in limited engagements in the U.S.

Fantastic Fest info page

Zhest: Twitch’s Todd wrote the Fantasia program note, which is partially quoted in the Fantastic Fest program book. (Todd also wrote about the film here and here).

This is definitely a mind-bender, and a handful of scenes readily burn themselves into your brain, yet those are wrapped up in the telling of a story that I found overly-complicated and bogged down in extraneous details that don’t really add anything but running time. 

Basically it’s one very life-changing day in the life of a female investigative reporter.  She ends up trapped in a surreal mine field that just gets worse and worse. 

As I watched it, I felt that the whole thing was fairly incomprehensible, yet hours later the few blasted brilliant scenes are what keep flashing back to me.  If you’re ready to toss narrative cohesion on the junk heap and embrace existential hell, Zhest may be just what you’re looking for.  It screens at Fantastic Fest again on Sunday, September 24, at 3:45 p.m.

By the way, the film’s English title has been identified previously as Junk, though on the lovely 35 mm print we saw it was Hardcore.

Official Web Site
Fantastic Fest info page