Fantastic Fest wrap up
Fantastic Fest 2011 wrap-up: The joy of discovery
In my Fantastic Fest 2011 preview piece, I discussed the sheer pleasure of, despite all attempted research and preparation for a festival, walking into a film with little or no expectations and coming out surprised at how much you enjoyed it. In it, I conjured a few guesses after perusing this year's lineup, naming Bullhead, El Narco, and Two Eyes Staring as top picks for potential new discoveries.
Bullheadis a Belgian noir set against the backdrop of the illegal hormone trade following the character Jacky (Belgian superstar Matthias Schoenaerts) who, at a very young age, lost his testicles after being beaten up by a bully. This began a lifelong addiction to steroids and male hormones. In the film, Jacky is dragged into a shady deal involving black market injections for cattle that sets into motion a series of events that threatens to uncover dark secrets, reunite estranged friends, and end in tragedy. It was certainly a breakout hit of the fest with some attendees going to multiple screenings of the film.
Similarly, El Narco (aka El Infierno) garnered near-universal praise. It's an epic, expertly crafted Mexican crime saga about a man's rise in a criminal organization onto which he stumbled when looking for the persons responsible for his brother's death. While not quite as popular as Bullhead or El Narco, Two Eyes Staring turned out to be a creepy (if a bit a bit messy in the third act) twist on the standard ghost story.
Those films were treats (two of them being absolutely stellar even) but they weren't true discoveries—each had a certain amount of buzz and lived up to pre-determined expectations. It wasn't until I stumbled into a Spanish thriller called Sleep Tight completely unprepared for what I would be experiencing that I knew I had found one. Despite being directed by Jaume Balagueró, one-half of the [REC] and [REC]2 team (partner Paco Plaza is working solo on the third film in that series), I wasn't aware of the wicked fun that was in store. In fact, I hadn't even bothered to read the synopsis of the film, it just fell randomly into an open slot in my schedule.
In the film, César is a doorman in a building of luxury apartments. By day, he's friends with the residents of the building, greeting and chatting with them as they go about their business and helping out in above-and-beyond ways by doing things like feeding their dogs and fumigating their apartments when necessary. By night, however, he abuses his access and power in order to get closer to a beautiful woman named Clara. His reasons for doing so, though, are not quite what one would expect. Sleep Tight is told from a refreshingly unique perspective and combines dark wit with stressful tension to create a film that left more than one person I overheard calling it a real surprise.
Year after year, the same faces populate the halls of the Drafthouse on South Lamar during the eight days of Fantastic Fest. It's a community of genre-film obsessed fans coming together to enjoy new movies for them to love. Even without the inevitable surprises, the consistent quality of the fest's programming would be enough to satisfy the expectations of attendees. The films like Fish Story and Timecrimes of years past and this year's Sleep Tight are an added bonus to everyone, celluloid treats of the highest caliber few could have predicted. It's when one stumbles into these films and comes out shocked, amazed, and head-over-heels for a film for which they had no preconceived notions that he or she truly feels the joy of discovery.
