The world’s largest genre film festival, Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is one of the most exciting, not to mention lengthy (it typically runs two, sometimes nearly three weeks), fests in the calendar year. It’s one of my favorites, despite (or perhaps because) of the relative obscurity of its catalog: Here is where you get to delve into some truly weird shit, from sci-fi anime to borderline adult films to action-comedies, thrillers, horror of all stripes from around the world.
Most interestingly, the fest will have one of its most high-profile opening night entries in its history: Ari Aster’s divisive pandemic-era polemic “Eddington,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as a small-town sheriff and mayoral candidate feuding over a small Texas town in the summer of 2020. (Curiously, the other opening night film? Chris Miller’s animated “Smurfs” musical, set to a new crop of songs from Rihanna. Fantasia is nothing without its counterprogramming.)
The fest will also be honoring a few Canadian luminaries this year: The Canadian Trailblazer awards will go to filmmaker George Mihalka (“My Bloody Valentine,” “Hostile Takeover”) and”I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing” director Sheila McCarthy. The Cheval Noir Career Achievement Awards are going to animation pioneer Genndy Tartakovsky (whose new film, “Fixed,” will close out the fest) and composer Danny Elfman (who will be in attendance at a screening of Henry Selick’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas“). Troma pioneer Lloyd Kaufman will snag an Indie Maverick Award, just in time for the World Premiere of the new Troma documentary “Occupy Cannes.”
In addition to the many premieres amid the festivals’ hundred-plus titles, some of the most exciting retro screenings include John Woo’s 1990 masterwork “Bullet in the Head,” the 1974 Lithuanian folkloric rock opera “The Devil’s Bride!”, ’70s giallo “House with the Laughing Windows,” James Brolin-starring ’80s crime flick “Night of the Juggler,” and more.
This year’s 29th edition runs July 17th through August 3rd, and we’ll be boots on the ground for much of it, giving you dispatches both in-person and remotely on some of our top picks from the fest’s robust roster of titles. But in anticipation of that journey, here’s a snapshot of some of the films we’re most excited about.
All You Need Is Kill
Those of us who champion Tom Cruise and Doug Liman’s criminally underrated 2014 sci-fi thriller “Edge of Tomorrow” know that its source material, the Hiroshi Sakurazaka manga “All You Need Is Kill,” has the far superior title. Luckily, director Kenichiro Akimoto and animation studio STUDIO4°C have re-adapted the manga as an anime, this time with a twist—charting the time-looped alien invasion story through the perspective of the manga’s secondary protagonist, Rita. It’s got an eye-popping visual style all its own from the glimpses we’ve seen, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in motion.
Anything That Moves
“All Jacked Up and Full of Worms” was a sexy, gruesome delight in Fantasia 2022; now, director Alex Phillips is back with a steamy, funny spin on the erotic thriller, “Anything That Moves.” Shot in gorgeously grimy 16mm, the film follows sex worker and bike courier Liam as he goes about his day, delivering DoorDash and a quick lay on the side. But his randy routine gets disrupted by the presence of a serial killer whose dangers loom over the city of Chicago. We’ll also see roles from porn legends Ginger Lynn Allen and Nina Hartley, to add a tinge of authenticity to the horny antics on display.
Blazing Fists
It wouldn’t be a Fantasia without some output from the notoriously prolific Takashi Miike, who has a whopping three entries playing at the festival this year. But while legal thriller “Sham” and trippy J-horror anime series “Nyaight of the Living Cat” also pique our interest, my eye is on coming-of-age drama “Blazing Fists,” which follows two young hoodlums who befriend each other in prison and (after an inspiring speech by real MMA superstar Mikuru Asakura), decide to better their lot by fighting in a martial arts tournament. Big live-action anime vibes abound in this thing, according to some reports, and I’m always a sucker for that.
Every Heavy Thing
Oklahoma-based auteur Mickey Reece has long been a figure of fascination for me; his Lynchian ode to pop-country, “Country Gold,” was one of my most underappreciated favorites of that year. Now he’s back at Fantasia with “Every Heavy Thing,” which follows an office worker (Joe Fadem) who witnesses a murder and becomes embroiled in a strange conspiracy involving a number of disappearances. But knowing Reece, that simple plot synopsis belies a heaping helping of trippy lo-fi aesthetics, meditations on the fragmented nature of the American psyche, and a darkly witty script. Co-stars “The People’s Joker“‘s Vera Drew, Barbara Crampton, and John Ennis.
Fixed
Channelling Tex Avery by way of “Big Mouth,” animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Fixed” will close out the fest with the tale of a soon-to-be-neutered pitbull named Bull (Adam Devine) who, upon learning his impending fate, runs away from home before he’s set to get snipped. Thus begins what promises to be a literal balls-out adventure as Bull does his level best to keep his family jewels – at least long enough to make it with the sexy poodle next door (Kathryn Hahn). We don’t get enough raunchy animated comedies (that aren’t, like, “Foodtopia”), much less 2D animated films of any stripe; I’m eager to see what Genndy’s got in store for us.
I Am Frankelda
Guillermo del Toro proteges Rodolfo and Arturo Ruiz come to the fest with Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature, “I Am Frankelda,” an extension of the Cartoon Network/HBO Max miniseries about phantom author Frankelda and her enchanted book Herneval. The character designs look phenomenal (shades of del Toro’s own “Pinocchio”), and the festival description promises a “world of weirdness and wonder.” Either way, stop-motion animation is a treasure to behold on the big screen, and I can’t wait to see how this craftsmanship plays out. (The puppets themselves will be on display at an exhibition early in the fest, as well.)
I Live Here Now
Julie Pacino channels David Lynch, Dario Argento, and the Coens in her first feature, “I Live Here Now,” a pulsing psychodrama (shot in 16mm) about a young woman (Lucy Fry) trapped in a motel room and left to face her demons. Past and present, reality and dreams all converge in what looks to be a nightmarish gumbo of generational trauma and the steady pressure of capitalism. Madeline Brewer co-stars, and it looks to be the feel-bad movie of the summer (if Pacino pulls off her brief).
Lucid
Speaking of young women going on trippy tales, Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall’s 2022 Fantasia short gets expanded into the darkly psychedelic “Lucid.” The film follows Mia Sunshine Jones (Caitlin Acken Taylor), an art student with a mean streak who’s feeling the pressure of her demanding art professor on her next big project. Her solution? Like many an artist before her, she’ll take drugs for inspiration. However, the drug of choice, an elixir named Lucid, may tap into something darker than she’s expecting. Full of punk-art aesthetics and ’90s grunge vibes, as well as live on-set music, “Lucid” feels like it’ll be quite the crazy experiment.
Terrestrial
From the director (curiously enough) of “Hot Tub Time Machine” comes Steve Pink’s “Terrestrial,” a dark sci-fi comedy about a young writer (“Sorry to Bother You”‘s Jermaine Fowler) who experiences a sudden windfall and invites his three best college friends to his new mansion to help him write his first book. As he mines his life for inspiration, the cracks in his self-mythology begin to form, and the friends soon discover they’re in for more than they initially bargained for.
The Undertone
Podcasting meets folk horror in sci-fi author Ian Tuason’s debut feature, which follows Evy (“The Handmaid’s Tale”‘s Nina Kiri) as she investigates a series of disturbing audio files featuring a mysterious man and his wife, linking the story to Evy’s dying mother. I’m a big fan of the way smart horror can use audio media to sell scares (“Archive 81“), so I’m curious how Tuason’s blend of modern technology and psychological religious torment has in store for us.