Fantastic Fest

It's barely February, and Fantastic Fest 2010 already has news!  A few days ago, John Bullington let the cat out of the bag about a feast event -- or should I say the cow -- when he mentioned on Facebook he is going to be cooking a local, grass-fed, 600-pound cow for Fantastic Fest in September. 

Bullington, the executive chef at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, has been enticing palates at the Alamo for years, with movie feasts that sell out in hours. He also flexes his culinary skills a bit with special events at Fantastic Fest, particularly the annual filmmakers luncheon and dinner events like the Truffe truffle feast in 2009. A lot of planning goes into these events, and now he's got less than eight months to plan a carnivore's delight of a feast. 

In the picture on the left, Bullington, along with Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League, may very well be discussing another crazy plan for the festival. Be assured that when these two pair up and mix film and food, no holds are barred. 

Chef Bullington's plan for the 2010 fest is not just a roast beef. He intends to roast the cow whole, which will take 17 hours over a huge firepit, "Argentinian style." The cow has already been picked out, and when I spoke with John on Friday, he joked about getting pictures of the cow and putting it on t-shirts. 

Based on the already overwhelming response, pigs and lamb will probably added to the menu to make sure there will be plenty of meat to go around.If you remember the feast at the premiere of Seventh Moon at Fantastic Fest 2008, despite having two whole roasted pigs, that ran out quickly, so Fantastic Festers are definitely carnivorous. 

Could I possibly have picked two martial arts films further apart on the ratings scale than Wushu and Fireball? On one end of the spectrum is the first "family" martial-arts film I've ever seen that wasn't American in origin, and on the other end is pure martial-arts porn, in which whatever plot is present serves to string hard-core brutal action sequences together. Both films are now available on DVD from Lionsgate Films.

Jackie Chan Presents Wushu

As executive producer of Wushu, martial-arts legend Jackie Chan introduces a new generation of talented martial artists in such a way that this film will please fans young and old. Antony Szeto -- known for his animated fantasy film Dragonblade -- directed Wushu and also choreographed all the stunts.

Talented and seasoned actor Sammo Hung Kam-Bo (Kung Fu Hustle, The Medallion) supports the young cast as Li Hui, father to brothers Li Yi (Wenjie Wang) and Li Er (Fei Wang). Szeto discovered Wenjie Wang at Sonjiang Wushu College, which is where Wushu was later filmed.

I've been out of town for the past week, and the best way to catch up on Austin film news is to share it with everyone. Hopefully at least some of the following items are news to you, too.

• RIP to actress Brittany Murphy, who was not a Texan but played one on TV, very convincingly, for over a decade as the voice of Luanne Platter (a name I have always adored) on King of the Hill. Murphy also had a role in Robert Rodriguez's film Sin City. She died on Sunday; some news sources are reporting heart failure, others attributing her death to natural causes. She was 32.
• We've mentioned the search for the young female lead in the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit a couple of times. Looks like last month's Austin auditions didn't turn up that perfect actress, so Paramount is now holding an online casting call for teen girl hopefuls. The film will be shot at least partially in Central Texas in Spring 2010 -- Blanco County News reports the Old Blanco County Courthouse may be one location used next April or May. [via @tamarlovesu on Twitter]

On Tuesday night, Fantastic Fest held a special screening of Satoshi Miki's Adrift in Tokyo, a film the fest organizers tried to get for FF2008, and one that hasn't any U.S. distribution.  Thanks to a special arrangement, the film is getting a special engagement run at the Alamo Ritz, which kicked off with a free screening primarily for Fantastic Fest badge holders. 

On a purely technical level, Adrift in Tokyo doesn't really fit into the Fantastic Fest programming categories other than being, well, fantastic. Austin Film Festival goers who fell in love with another Japanese film, Happy Ending, are sure to love this quirky, surreal piece of cinema. The Keep Austin Weird crowd will want to make Tokyo a sister city as well after viewing the eccentric leads and the quirky random characters that wander in and out of the film.

At Fantastic Fest this year, I was pleased to see that one of the animated shorts was from a local filmmaker -- Lucas Martell's Pigeon: Impossible. I was even more pleased that it turned out to be one of the funniest shorts in the collection.

The film is about a secret agent with a briefcase and what happens during an encounter with, well, a pigeon. The street where the action takes place is supposed to be set in Washington, D.C., but I noticed some oddly familiar landmarks, like the Driskill and the Paramount. Look at the picture on the right to see what I mean.

Martell's short animated comedy also played Austin Film Festival this year. Pigeon: Impossible is now available online for everyone to enjoy. It's a little more than six minutes long, and just what you need to add some fun to your morning. Check it out after the jump or directly on YouTube.

How do you make a film about one of the most documented delinquent characters in the British penal system? Turn it into an interpretive theatrical extravaganza. And that's just what director Nicolas Winding Refn does in the Fantastic Fest hit Bronson. 

Charlie Bronson, who's earned the epithet of most violent/famous/expensive prisoner in the UK penal system, has more character than most 10 people put together. And he knows it.  Looking at a list of the man's escapades, with violence and ridiculous demands, it make sense to turn the story into an absurdist commentary on the cult of celebrity and the addiction to fame. 

I'm feeling lazy this week, and the idea of writing capsule reviews of every movie I saw at Fantastic Fest, plus descriptions of the events and parties, sounds overwhelming. Therefore, I've taken the slacker's way out, fittingly enough for Slackerwood, and am offering a photo representation of my Fantastic Fest experience. Later on, perhaps I'll have enough energy to tell you how much I liked Bronson and Private Eye, although I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to clarify my thoughts about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

What was I doing during Fantastic Fest, you may ask?

Pushing my way to the front of a crowd of Gentlemen Broncos:

It's over a week after Fantastic Fest, why are we still writing about it?  Because it was Fantastic Fest, and Chaos Reigns.

You may have heard that even Variety picked up on the Chaos Reigns meme.  Chaos did reign, from a sexy Swede turning grown women and a few men into quivering fans, to Zack Carlson's amazing save of a Yatterman screening by split-screen magic to show subtitles from a screener with the actual film. We had traditions continued, from David Strong nudity (you had to be there, but if you've been to a Fantastic Fest related event, this is not shocking) to the extreme, watching Tim League in a patriotic unitard battle Uwe Boll in the boxing ring (Boll politely didn't wipe the floor with League). 

I finally understood the draw to karaoke, watching Matt Dentler belt out "Paper Planes" and Nacho Vigalondo going all out on classics, with poses that would put Elvis to shame. Tiffany Sullivan, new mom and Fantastic Fest veteran, even got a "Chaos Reigns" onesie for her infant son, photos of which are now plastered all over the Internet.

My biggest regret was missing the Fantastic Fest Awards, and the amazing flip done by Mandrill star Marko Zaror. And missing Mandrill as well.   If you want to get a sense of the actual experience, it's been posted on YouTube. I highly recommend you go to the Fantastic Fest YouTube page to catch most of the Q&As, and some of the special events, like the Fantastic Feud fights, as well as a brilliant compilation of "Chaos Reigns" chants. I think between Nacho Vigalondo and Tim League, the Alamo Army is alive and well, and ready to do their bidding.

The out-of-town fans, actors, filmmakers and film critics have gone home, the parties are over and the post-fest colds are slowly fading after Fantastic Fest 2009. It seems like a good time to reflect over and share my personal festival experience this year, including some films you might want to check out.

Movie highlights:

Solomon Kane - The talented and charismatic British actor James Purefoy portrays the title fictional character created by pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard, best known for his Conan the Barbarian series. Sword and sorcery adventure takes a twist, set in the Puritan era in a grim time portrayed through rain and snow. Despite all the action that packs a wallop in this film, what is truly the core of Solomon Kane is the vision of one man's path to redemption, found in an unlikely manner. The supporting characters in the Crowthorn family were well-cast, with Pete Postlethwaite and Alice Krige as the protective parents and siblings Rachel and Patrick Hurd-Wood as two of the Crowthorn children. Max Von Sydow also makes an appearance.

Q & A highlight: I especially enjoyed writer/director Michael J. Bassett talking about the process of determining the effects of certain weapons, which I described in our latest podcast. It's a technique that will make me question every action film I see involving a weapon from now on.

We were recording the latest Slackerwood podcast yesterday (which will be available soon) and I realized that Slackerwood hadn't yet published the list of Fantastic Fest 2009 award winners.

Some of our favorite films took home the prized beer steins this year: A Town Called Panic, which Jenn and I loved (check out my Cinematical review), won the Audience Award. Debbie was pleased that The Revenant took home an award for Best Horror Director, and interviewed Kerry Prior, the winning filmmaker. We're planning a special "extra" mini-podcast with that interview, which we'll publish in the next week.

The "Fantastic Feature" award for best film went to the Chilean thriller Mandrill, which sold out every screening very quickly so I couldn't see it myself. Producer/actor Marko Zaror was so pleased he did a flip onstage. Human Centipede, much discussed for its bizarrely graphic scenes in which the title creature is created, won Best Horror Film. The British dark comedy Down Terrace won top honors in the Next Wave competition.

I've reprinted the full list of award winners after the jump, plus a link to the video of Shakey Face competitors.