Category Archives: Film

Fantasia Film Festival 2012 Wrap-Up

Fantasia Film Festival: Week One Recap

I can’t believe the Fantasia Film Festival has only been on for 1 week, because I feel like I’ve been running the festival gauntlet for at least 3. But, I have had a lot of fun and met a lot of very cool people. Here’s a rundown of the movies and the people I’ve been seeing.

Day 1 – Thursday, July 19
Only made it out to one movie, For Love’s Sake, Miike Takashi’s newest effort. It is also a musical. Click on the name of the film to be taken to my Film Threat review to see what I thought. I ran away before anyone could invite me to the after party.

Day 2 – Friday, July 20
Still only made it out to one film, Mads Brüger’s jaw-dropping The Ambassador and accidentally ran into Film Threat editor Mark Bell in the line-up. I didn’t even know he was going to be at the festival, so we had a pretty good laugh. Stayed out a little later than I expected drinking with Mark and filmmaker Matt Garrett and basically hobnobbing like a superstar. Got snagged on my way out by Derek and Kevin from DEDfest, who I’d never met, but totally bonded with right away. And, because they made me stay late, I also managed to introduce myself to Tony Todd and James Duval, both of whom are total sweeties.

Day 3 – Saturday, July 21
Somehow managed to weasel my way into the Sushi Girl world premiere, which was huge. Most probably due to the involvement and in-room presence of a certain MARK HAMILL. While the film ended up not really being my cup of tea, I did love the performances, particularly Mark Hamill, who hits it out of the park, not to mention the always solid Tony Todd. The cast and crew were also very gracious in letting us hang out and party like rock stars with them well into the wee hours of the night.

Day 4 – Sunday, July 22
Tried to get into My Amityville Horror, but it was also sold out in the smaller theater and we didn’t show up early enough in the pass holder line. Opted to hang out with Matt at the Irish Embassy and schmooze like a rock star. The booze diet is starting to get to me.

Day 5 – Monday, July 23
Saw Memory of the Dead, which everyone HATED, except me, but that’s probably because I turned off my brain and stopped caring that nothing made sense. Met up with Jeremy Knox and his wife at the bar and watched Mark and Jeremy attempt the George Thorogood triple shot: one burbon, one scotch and one beer. Mark seemed to fare better than Jeremy at that one. Took off in time to get the last Metro, but the boys kept partying until the sun came up.

Day 6 – Tuesday, July 24
I got called downtown on an emergency in the middle of the afternoon, and since I was planning on seeing a film at 5:35pm I decided to bring my laptop with me and try to get some work done instead of running back and forth on the Metro. Famous last words as they say.

Ran into Derek outside of the Irish Embassy and got talked into a midday drink. I opted for soda, but then Peter, Steven and from Toronto After Dark showed up and gave us a coupon for food. Then the owner showed up with free drinks, whiskey for the boys, and a kalua & irish cream shot for the lady (me, apparently), but I managed to get a whiskey too! Apparently the owner had been told there was a guy who’d been coming in who looked just like him, who happened to be Derek. Hey, if that warrants free drinks I’m all for it.

After drinks I got into the line for Hemorrhage and got to meet even more new people. I’ll be reviewing the film a little later this week, so stay tuned for that. Again, I think I liked it a lot better than some of the people I spoke to afterwards. Ran into Mark in the pass-holder line for Alter Egos, but things looked even more desperate than they did for Sushi Girl, and since it was Mark’s last night in town we decided to hit the Irish Embassy and hang out instead. I was an extra good girl this night, partly because I’d started drinking so early, but also because I was starting to really miss Rick.

Day 7 – Wednesday, July 25
Opted to take the day off since burning at both ends was starting to catch up with me. This was evidenced by the fact that the first thing I did when Rick asked how my day was I burst into tears for no reason. Will take one more day to catch up with writing, sleep and vitamins and then back at it for Friday!

Review: Indie Game The Movie

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As Rick and I are still very much in penny pinching mode, it’s rare that we splash out on an evening movie screening, but when we found out a friend had two extra tickets to a one night screening of Indie Game The Movie, we knew we had to scour the couch for change to make it work. The film was actually being screened as part of the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, but as part of a special pilot program they were premiering it across the country on the same night by streaming the Toronto presentation live via satellite into dozens of theatres all over Canada, including downtown Montreal. And other than a couple minor glitches midway through the film, I’d say the experiment was a success.
The film itself primarily follows two indie game developers, Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen of Team Meat, the sick geniuses behind Super Meat Boy and Phil Fish of Polytron, creator of the recent indie hit Fez. Jonathon Blow, the creator of Braid, the game most often cited as “Exhibit A” in the video games as art argument, also makes frequent appearances to discuss his own success and the challenges and joys of the indie development world in general.

Unlike 2008′s Playing Columbine, which tackled the issue of video games as art head on, Indie Game elegantly skirts the issue by focusing on the idea of individual creativity and expression (arguably key components in any work of art) and how they are better served in the indie development world. The film also drives home the stakes at play with a successful launch day often being the difference between living in your mom’s basement and buying your own house.
The meat of the film centers around Team Meat preparing to launch their game on Xbox Live Arcade and Phil Fish bringing his first playable demo of Fez to Pax East, despite the game having been in development for over 4 years. The tension for both teams is palpable throughout the film and Fish’s nervous pacing and stressed out ranting while waiting to see if his ex-partner will bring an injunction against him at Pax nearly gave me a sympathy ulcer. The film is gorgeously shot in HD and fits in nicely with the grand tradition of great Canadian documentary making.

What really makes the film work, though, are the subjects themselves. All three individuals are presented as passionate creative types with uncompromising visions that took risks and sacrificed (usually personal relationships) in order to pursue that vision and, God willing, reap the benefits. There are a lot of nerd tears, and Team Meat in particular comes across as so likeable that you do cheer a little inside when you see their incredibly hard work pay off.

Part of me wishes the filmmakers had followed at least one unsuccessful game, in order to better contrast with Super Meat Boy’s astounding success, but being that the film was completed a year ago, there’s no way they could have known that Fez would end up being the critical and financial success it has become. As it is, the film ends with Fez’s fate up in the air with Fish promising to release it in 2011, but now that the film and the game have both been released, the idea of Fez being a potential “failure” seems rather disingenuous. Also, both games happened to have been released through Xbox Live Arcade, as opposed to Steam or Playstation Store, so a little variety in that respect also could have rounded out the film a little better.

At the end of the day, though, Indie Game The Movie is really more about people than it is about video games or the video game industry, which makes it gripping viewing for gamers and non-gamers alike.

How Did This Get Made?

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I love listening to podcast at home. And since I spend most of my time at home, I spend most of my time listening to podcasts. Generally I prefer educational podcasts, with an except made for anything the Spill team puts together, but when I found this amazing film podcast I was instantly hooked.

Those who know me well know that I love bad movies. We’re talking really bad. Like so bad they’re good. In fact, after years as a film critic I think I’ve actually gotten to the point where I prefer terrible movies to good ones. There’s just something about that perfect storm of awfulness that makes something so bad it’s good that’s almost a little magical.

And that’s what I love about How Did This Get Made. It isn’t like MST3K where a bunch of anonymous dudes just rag on a bad film, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael, genuinely love talking about terrible movies. They relish it and they give credit where credit is due. They also make the distinction between bad bad (The Backup Plan), so bad it’s good (The Room) and badly good (Punisher: War Zone), which sometimes isn’t clear to everyone.

It also helps that it’s funny as hell.

Mario Bros. The Indie Film

Gamerwife

Video Games, Design, Life