5 Films to Check Out at The Phoenix Film Festival

 IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!!! THE PHOENIX FILM FESTIVAL MARCH 31-APRIL 10, 2022

 

It’s my favorite of time of the year again. The Phoenix Film Festival alongside the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival opens up in just a few days!!! I’ve been excited for this for a long time.

I’ve put together this quick post, highlighting some of the coming features that I’m most excited about this year. These are just a small handful of the films that I’ll end up seeing in the very near future. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention how exciting it is to have the Party Pavilion back this year. I like to wander about the tent and browse all of the Silent Auction items. Kid’s Day and Film Prom are back this year. And don’t forget to check out some of the Filmmaker Panels.

For me, The Phoenix Film Festival is certainly not only about the films. There are a handful of amazing people in the community that I only see once or twice a year. I always overschedule myself for the films because I know that inevitably, I’ll miss a screening or two because I’d rather catch up with someone over a taco at Cien Agaves, or an Americano and dessert from Café Pino. I’ve only grown to cherish these interactions more and more as the years go by so if you see me walking around, come say hi. I’ve been missing you.

The festival takes place March 31^st – April 10^th, 2022 at the Harkins Ciné Capri.

 

THE GRAND BOLERO

Directed by Gabriele Fabbro

Screening Times: Friday, April 1^st @ 12:05 PM, Saturday, April 2^nd @ 9:30 AM, Sunday, April 3^rd @ 4:50 PM, Tuesday, April 5^th @ 12:15 PM

An Italian ‘romantic thriller’ that takes place during the Covid-19 lockdown about a pipe organ restorer. The trailer shows a beautiful marriage of sight and sound that I’m very excited to experience on a big screen. Winner of Best Feature at the Apra International Film Festival as well as the Open Jury Award at the Linea d’Ombra Festival. I’ve got a good feeling about this one.   

 

DOWN WITH THE KING

Directed by Diego Ongaro

Screening Time: Friday, April 1^st @ 7:10 PM, Friday, April 8^th @ 11:45 AM

I think I first starting listening to Freddie Gibbs’ music when he recorded Piñata with Madlib. He has a unique sound that oozes talent. I was quite surprised to see that he stars in a film at the festival. Everything I’ve heard excites me about his performance. Winner of the Audience Award at the American Film Festival and the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival.

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT

Directed by Tom Gormican

Screening Times: Saturday, April 9^th @ 7:30 PM

I don’t really see why I should articulate why I’m excited for this film. I am not a closeted Nic Cage fan… And I’m certainly not one that appreciates his work on an ironic level. No, I am an out, loud and proud admirer of his career and have been for many years. This feels less like a film and more like an invitation to a new Cage fan club meeting. And I’m pretty OK with that.

 

LET ME BE ME

Directed by Kyle Westphal

Screening Times: Saturday, April 2^nd @ 4:40 PM, Tuesday, April 5^th @ 9:50 PM

I always find great docs at the festival. This looks like the most interesting one on this year’s slate. It looks to be a feel good story about the successes of some form of radical autism therapy. I’m down for that, all day.

WE BURN LIKE THIS

Directed by Alana Waksman

Screening Times: Friday, April 8^th @ 4:30 PM, Saturday, April 9^th @ 2:10, Sunday, April 10^th @ 12:00 PM

I’ve been impressed with the work of Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs since her performance in the criminally underrated RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS. Her star is on the rise now thanks to FX’s “Reservation Dogs” series and I’m excited to see it continue. Plus, the subject matter her feels rather poignant. This film won the Jury Prize at the Buffalo International Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature as well as the Ruth Landfield Award at the Fargo Film Festival and Alana Waksman took home the Best Emerging Film Maker Award at the Woods Hole Film Festival.

5 Films to Check Out at International Horror/Sci-Fi Film Festival

2022 International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival

5 Films to Watch

By: Theresa Dillon

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! 

That’s right – it’s International Horror/Sci-Fi film Festival time!

The line-up of films from showcase features to competition features and shorts are incredibly diverse and unique. I can already tell it’s going to be hard to choose a favorite film this year.

If you’re not sure where to start when buying your tickets, here’s the 5 films I’m most excited for.

1. PIGGY

Written/directed by Carlota Pereda

I watched this gem during Sundance and absolutely loved it! 

Quick Synopsis:

In a rural Spanish town, Sara hides away in her parent’s butcher shop as her excess weight makes her the target of incessant bullying. Then on one hot summer day, Sara flees a clique of capricious girls who torment her at the town pool, only to stumble upon them being brutally kidnapped by a stranger, who drives off with them in his van. When the police begin asking questions, Sara keeps quiet.  

I believe this film should be required viewing for all teenage girls and recommend a mother/daughter movie night.

2. GATLOPP

Directed by Alberto Belli

Written by Jim Mahoney

Horror/comedy, in my opinion, is one of the hardest mixed genres to get right. But this one was very well written, acted and just a lot of fun all around when I viewed it.

Quick Synopsis:

A group of friends reunite for an evening after one of their own has a gnarly divorce. As it's been almost a decade since they were all together, waxing nostalgic, they decide to play a drinking game. But this is no ordinary game; if they don't bond together to confront their past, they'll be forced to play the game for eternity.

If you’re a horror fan looking for a fun date night movie for your non-horror fan significant other, this is a great pick that you’ll both enjoy. 

3. LUX AETERNA

Written/Directed by Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé returns with another mind-bending experience about witches? Count me in!

Quick Synopsis:

Two actresses, Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg, are on a film set telling stories about witches - but that's not all. Lux Æterna is also an essay on cinema, the love of film, and on-set hysterics.

Noé always makes my drop so I’m looking forward to another intense trip with him.

4. BASHIRA

Written/Directed by Fong Nickson

If you haven’t noticed yet, I have a soft spot for foreign horror as I personally feel they produce some of the most dynamic, beautiful stories. The poster alone sends chills down my spine

Quick Synopsis:

An electronic musician and a troubled fan are plunged into a hallucinogenic nightmare where they must confront an ancient Japanese entity - capable of bending space and time and wreaking havoc and death - in order to save their souls.

BASHIRA is one of three horror competition features at ISHFF. Why not do a triple feature day (hint – April 8) and share your rating of this year’s features!

5. MOON HEART

Written/Directed by Aldo Salvini

I’m not quite sure what to make of this interesting Peruvian, sci-fi feature but I’m intrigued. 

Quick Synopsis:

M is an old woman who lives adrift. She spends her days dreaming about her past, until one day she finds something very similar to her: an ant. And what does a person do when they find an ant? You crush it with your finger, you blow it away. Instead, M decides to share her world with it. A world made of nostalgic memories and a dark presence that haunts her, until the day a "mechanical angel" arrives to help her. 

This could be end up being a great commentary piece on abandonment and aging.

Festival Information

International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival 

Phoenix Film Festival

Harkins Scottsdale 101 Theaters

March 31 - April 10

Tickets: PhoenixFilmFestival.com

X Review

X

Dir: Ti West

Starring: Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, and Kid Cudi

1h 45m

A group of independent filmmakers set out to rural Texas to make their adult cinematic dreams come true. Full frame stars and strips designed font, presenting the year 1979, welcomes viewers to director Ti West's throwback genre homage titled "X." 

The opening moments shot through barn doors and into the bloody aftermath of a murder scene feel tailored for a 1970s Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven production with its grainy film look highlighted with yellow and brown hues. Director Ti West, returning to the genre for the first time in over a decade, takes an old-school slasher movie approach with "X," blending the renegade spirit of the early independent horror filmmakers and the dawn of mass-produced pornography for a satisfyingly violent and humorous romp.  

Maxine (Mia Goth) is an exotic dancer at the Bayou Burlesque, a railroad adjacent dive on the wrong side of town, but her ambitions are for stardom on the silver screen. Wayne (Martin Henderson), the proprietor of the strip club, has the perfect script for his muse called "The Farmer's Daughter." Wayne enlists a blond bombshell named Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and her ex-military boyfriend Jackson (Kid Cudi) to star in the film. RJ (Owen Campbell), the director who insists that it is possible to make "a good dirty movie," and Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), the quiet but observant girlfriend who holds the boom pole for sound, join in the filmmaking fun. The group jumps in Wayne's blue van and heads to an outskirts farmhouse owned by a frail older man named Howard (Stephen Ure) and his wife Pearl (Mia Goth in old-age makeup), who envies the sexual acts and youthful freedom of the filmmakers. 

Ti West positions adult pornography movies and slasher horror films in the same avenue of examination regarding the gratuitous nature of writhing bodies in states of pleasure with sex and pain with violence. West pokes fun and plays ingeniously with genre archetypes throughout the film. The pacing of anticipation with horror show techniques, a skinny-dipping scene shot from a birds-eye view with a stalking alligator is tense and elegantly composed. The careful structuring of sex scenarios shot with a 16mm camera rarely looks at the raw act of body parts in motion and instead focuses on the emotion of expressions. Both of these scenes display that West completely understands genre filmmaking and utilizes them for greater gazes beyond gratuitous violence and sex. 

Once the film transitions into a slasher movie, with creative kills and a wealth of special makeup effects, the subplot concerning Pearl's envy of Maxine's beauty and the longing for sexual satisfaction meet their culmination underdeveloped. Still, West's journey through these subject matters of aging, lust, and infatuation are interestingly ventured when combined with the genre characteristics of a horror narrative. 

Mia Goth, who is excellent in the lead role, plays an unorthodox final girl who uses drugs, proudly owns her sexual freedom, and cares mostly about her singular well-being. Brittany Snow plays her seductive character with confidence, while Kid Cudi, with a 70's mustache, is cool, calm, and collected. 

"X" is a throwback midnight movie romp with a late 70s aesthetic that feels like it was shot from the same lens as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Ti West makes horror fans remember the days when genre films could be exploitative, evocative, and entertaining at the same time. 

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

The Batman Review

The Batman

Dir: Matt Reeves

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, and Paul Dano 

2h 55m

The opening scene of director Matt Reeves’ new incarnation of the Batman is the best introduction to the character delivered to film. In the black of night, with the fog-covered beam of the Bat-signal barely illuminating the skies of Gotham City, Bruce Wayne narrates the entire lore of the Dark Knight while bad guys cower at sounds echoing from the shadows. “I am vengeance” is the final phrase before the reveal from the darkness. 

Reeves, who co-wrote the script with Peter Craig, separates the superhero from the 60s television show playfulness and the 80s/90s playboy-by-day, caped-crusader-by-night designs. They move further away from Christopher Nolan’s serious trilogy and craft an even darker, more tormented, and traumatized version of Bruce Wayne in “The Batman.” The most noticeable emotion felt throughout Reeves’ film is dread. The darkness is consuming; much of the film feels shot with minimal light sources. The overwhelming tone feels like a mix of the horrific elements of David Fincher’s “Se7en” with the procedural aspects of “Zodiac.” 

Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) arrives at a crime scene, led by his ally in the Gotham City Police Department, James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). It’s a gruesome murder of a political figure, orchestrated by a serial killer dubbed The Riddler (Paul Dano) who leaves ciphers and codes addressed to The Batman. Gotham City is corrupt, drugs are rampant, and criminal organizations with deep ties to everything in the city protect old secrets and introduce new mayhem. With the help of Alfred (Andy Serkis), Batman begins solving the devious riddles left for him, uncovering truths that challenge Gotham City’s legacy and Batman’s true identity. 

What Matt Reeves has done with “The Batman” is fascinating in a world dominated by the Marvel machine of superhero films. Those bright, heroic, and hopeful films have come to define cinematic representations of extraordinary people fighting the manifestations of evil from Earth and other galaxies. However, while “The Batman” composes an environment that feels otherworldly, not with fancy technology but more the essence of a society reorganized by the worst people after the first society failed, the quality of this film is grounded with gritty realism. Bad guys are pummeled with fists and heels; no special weapons are needed. And if Batman needs any wonderful toys, they often feel like homemade garage experiments. The Batmobile looks like a 1969 Dodge Charger with a jet engine attached to the back. When Batman must evade a group of bad guys, he jumps from a building in a contemporary wingsuit. 

 At a staggering 175-minutes, much of “The Batman” is a neo-noir crime drama mixed with serial killer horror movie vibes, sprinkled with an occasional action scene that doesn’t boast extravagance but is framed more for character emotions. When a group of officers secures a crime scene, with a medical examiner detailing the cause of death for an unlucky soul, you’d think an inquisitive gumshoe with a fedora, trench coat, and a lit cigarette will enter the moment to describe motive and the assailant. Nope, it’s Batman in a full heavy armor suit doing the detective work. It’s jarring at first, but it works because of Reeves’ steadfast direction. What also helps the detective story is the demented masked villain, a riddle-obsessed killer who uses codes and puzzles to lead Batman to the next victim. 

Robert Pattison is the most haunted, most traumatized, Batman of all the Batman’s. His eyes echo an incomplete life, unleashing moments of rage that are destructive with a vengeance. The central idea of Bruce Wayne’s life, where the isolated and lonely hero tightropes the thin boundaries of vigilante justice, pushes “The Batman” into bolder choices for the characters. It composes a villain that must be worse than the nightmares that haunt the memories of Bruce’s life. The narrative never delves below the surface often, it avoids telling the familiar back story at all costs, but Pattison conveys all the emotions exceptionally well in the quiet moments. Assisting in performance is the wonderfully manic Paul Dano as The Riddler. Colin Ferrall is nearly unrecognizable as The Penguin; he composes the only character of any fun in the film. Zoë Kravitz is somewhat lost in this long narrative but is charming and confident as Catwoman whenever on screen. 

“The Batman” is a bold concept, a push in an interesting, if not thoroughly developed, direction for the often familiar franchise vigilante. Robert Pattison proves completely capable of shouldering the weight and expectations of the Dark Knight. 

Monte’s Rating

4.00 out of 5.00