Fantasia International Film Festival — A–Z of films

All very big and spectacular and in your face.

Whilst the film may appear chaotic, there’s real artistry behind the scenes, and not just when it comes to special effects.

Smarter than most films of its ilk and refreshingly free of misplaced sentiment.

This is a delight. From me it drew outpourings of laughter as sharp and as bright as the splashes of blood from a punctured neck.

What really holds it all together is Hawco’s down to earth performance as a detective striving to retain his focus on the practical side of the job.

There’s a self-consciousness about the film which sometimes allows style to overwhelm substance.

Both leads are excellent.

Much tighter and less purely whimsical than it looks on the surface.

Shot in lush black and white with a depth and tonality which makes every frame look worthy of becoming an art print.

The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future emerges as part of a growing body of work which is striving to address desperation with imagination, to find new ways to be.

Sam Rudykoff's film adds to a canon of telephone terrors.

There are a lot of cute ideas here which don’t all successfully come to fruition but which entertain nonetheless.

The colour saturation in these images is simply delicious. Gorgeous costume work by Guido Bongiorno makes the most of it, and Rome itself seems to have set out to please.

Brady knows the landscape well and makes effective use of it.

Comedy and horror are well balanced in a film which demonstrates a sharp understanding of social media but is also ready to deliver on the more explicitly gruesome side of the bargain

What the movie does best is gore and ickiness.

Cerezo and Gómez remind us that we are living through some of the strangest days our world has known right now.

Where the film shines is in the incidental details, the small observations and asides which contribute to setting the tone.

Michael J Bishop and Mukhtar Kaissi’s charismatic model work adds oodles of expression.

A visually masterful film that very much retains its power today, The Fall Of The House Of Usher introduced many of the tropes of the horror genre.

Cheerful, bullet-strewn entertainment.

The overall impression one gets is that this is a production which has been lavished with care.

Where it could easily have been gimmicky or relied on comedy, instead it achieves something magical and illuminating.

As critiques of the wealth gap are concerned, it’s not very deep, but it’s buoyed up by some strong supporting performances and Hunt’s skill at capturing the action in the ring.

An homage to truly bad film-making - but it sails perilously close to self-parody

It is breathtakingly beautiful – hard to look away from, in fact.

It’s a wonderful experiment, and often very funny, but it is also, perhaps intentionally, exhausting.

What is billed as Lovecraftian horror certainly fits into that mould on one level, but it is perhaps more like what one might have expected had old HP taken to writing sitcoms.

Storywise, there’s not a great deal here which hasn’t been done before, but it will be new to the young audience it’s really aimed at, and it’s beautifully told.

The spirit of the thing is fun and frightening in equal measures.

For the average viewer there are some awkward lags when nothing much is happening, but in the thick of the action, it’s exciting to watch.

Skilfully crafted, The Harbinger is a rightly distressing, melancholy take on the events of the recent past and the troubles we still live with today.

The most important message the film has is follow your heart, no matter how weird other people think you are for doing so.

To the girls, it’s all fun and games even after somebody loses an eye.

Wonderfully uncomfortable.

The struggle which follows is, in places, difficult to watch, especially for viewers who have been affected by such issues in their own lives, so Heimann sensibly leavens it with humour.

What makes all this work is the very straightforward and matter-of-fact way in which Dupieux approaches the story.

It is cleverly animated, intelligent and full of passion. Unfortunately, its mingling of the repetitive musical style of Noh with modern metal riffs, whilst it seems to please some viewers, will leave others wanting to scream for all the wrong reasons.

The treatment of the subject matter is deeply irresponsible.

It is in large part Jang Hyuk's acting which makes this film work.

Fans of fantastic stories – especially those of the gruesome variety – are in for a treat.

The film is often more interesting as a study of privileged people’s beliefs than as a portrait of Charles himself.

There are no weak links in the cast, all of whose members work well together, and Frye makes us feel for Lily even when she shows surprisingly limited concern for herself.

The star himself commands an uncharacteristic stillness, dialling down his famous charisma, surrendering himself to the material.

It’s a film shot mostly in shadow, in the long-neglected house or in the narrow confines of locker rooms and toilet blocks at the factory.

A richly entertaining piece of work from a master of the trade.

Against this troubling backdrop, the killer seems less a disruptive influence and more an expression of widespread despair.

Despite the film’s exuberant silliness, Takashi is always meticulous about his craft.

Van den Brink makes the bog omnipresent in the film with a colour palate heavy on browns and greys, whilst cinematographer Emo Weenhoff makes the most of the humidity still residing in the chill air.

Arashi is a model with Middle Eastern roots, making her screen début, which is difficult to belief given the quality of her performance in this complex, multifaceted role.

Oh is a naturally gifted lead.

There’s a real sense of fury behind this film.

Poonpiriya shakes the past and the present gently together, sometimes with a dash of nostalgia and, at others, with a splash of regret.

Though there is a melancholy aspect to it, Orchestrator Of Storms explores who Rollin was as a person with warmth and wit, and shares his enthusiasm for, as it is phrased here, ‘beauty in the grotesque and the morose and the opulent.’

This focus on small events across a short span of time brings a pleasing specificity to what is also a story about the end of an era and the sociological changes which allowed Japan to move into the modern age.

Though initially frustrating, it coalesces into a rich satirical comedy with a side helping of carefully restrained romance – and possibly the end of civilisation as we know it.

It’s small, sweet and not exactly filling, but it will definitely leave you with a craving for more.

Galán is extraordinary as the traumatised girl in a performance which requires a considerable amount of courage.

There are layers and layers of humour here, sometimes rooted in queer and theatrical traditions but mostly accessible regardless.

A good choice for viewers between the ages of about five and eight, this is a film which delivers on action and attitude without ever losing its innately gentle quality.

Deep and fast and shocking is the film.

There are some stunningly choreographed hand to hand combat sequences.

Anita Abinezhad's central performance is compelling, bold and bargaining.

A slow burn of a film which disturbs and unsettles, recalling insomniac night and too-bright mornings, a familiar world where everything seems slightly askew.

Dunham is constantly looking for laughs and does deliver quite a few, but you never fully believe these people are living in the real world.

if you have ever enjoyed a kaiju film, you will love this.

A fascinating watch.

Barlow and Senes let the situation simmer, with plenty going on to keep viewers entertained.

Films like this come along once in a generation.

From silver-painted cardboard alien spacesuits to the vague puffs of smoke which stand in for a death ray, there’s a good deal in this film that will endear it to genre fans with a fondness for the era.

Tafdrup chooses to follow the more familiar route, carrying events to a natural extreme, but in a way this lets the Danish couple off the hook.

Alongside the thrilling driving sequences, there are some great fight scenes of the variety which shun polish and show us characters who really look like they’re suffering.

Beautifully animated with some stunning watercolour backdrops, this gentle, magical story takes on issues which many young people struggle with, and neither patronises nor preaches in the process.

Pleasingly disconcerting.

A story which is, ultimately, about learning to think differently, to change the way that we direct our attention and resources in order to open up the possibility of renewal.

The trouble is that all of this has been done on a very low budget and the special effects which director Satoshi Miki has been able to muster don’t match up to his ambitions.

An enchanting story with a very dark subtext.

Park’s outstanding skill lies in his ability to deliver this such that it ticks the supernatural boxes – impossible speed, agility and strength – yet still feels visceral.