Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest Review: The Antares Paradox
Is there anybody out there? It’s a question which has tasked human minds for millennia. While we have looked to the stars for thousands of years, the need for something or someone to believe in has resulted in a procession of old and new gods. However, it goes without saying that there is extra-terrestrial life …
Fantastic Fest Review: Unidentified Objects
There’s something inherently American about a road movie. It probably has something to do with the distance between cities and a national obsession with the automobile. The same can be said for the ‘buddy movie’. Throwing two disparate souls together within the parameters of a joint quest. Trapped within a hulk of metal with only …
Fantastic Fest Review: A Life on the Farm
There was a time, not too long ago, when farming was seen as a vocation where good honest toil, a bit of luck, and fair weather would set a man up for life. It’s a backbreaking job, with long hours and no days off, but there’s something inherently satisfying about growing something with your own …
Fantastic Fest Review: Country Gold
The country music scene is, in a way, a microcosm of the wider industry, but is so distinct it’s basically a separate entity. While it originated in the 1920s from the music of working-class America, today it’s a huge multi-billion-dollar money-making machine. Now in its sixth generation, while the landscape has changed in many ways …
Fantastic Fest Review: Mister Organ
As the saying goes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. This is what happens in the best documentaries. Those films which start out as one thing and suddenly morph into an entirely different animal. Which defy expectations. These are the rare gems which take an audience on a journey. In 2016, Tickled did precisely that. …
Fantastic Fest Review: Everyone Will Burn
Children are scary. Small versions of adult people who seem to have total confidence in their approach of constantly asking questions. They seem to know too much. They probably do. The concept of an ‘evil’ child has been used well in genre cinema. Whether that’s Damien in The Omen, the twins in The Shining or …
Fantastic Fest Review: Missing
Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Some people disappear into their own heads, withdrawing from life and shutting everyone out. Others look for ways to deaden the pain, whether that’s through alcohol, drug abuse or something else. The loss of a loved one can drive a wedge between a family, which makes sitting …