Fantasia International Film Festival — A–Z of films

The effect is sometimes comical, but true intimacy often looks absurd from the outside.

There’s incredible world-building here.

We get demonstrations of skill, from the weaving of a bracelet to the use of herbs to treat a wound, and these elements reinforce the idea that this is a real society which has developed organically over time.

For fans of martial arts cinema, this is a must see.

Whilst the film could certainly do with tightening up the pace or exploring its themes more deeply, it works well as a character study.

Segarra takes a mature approach throughout, and her preference for realism over easy wit or stylishness still leaves room for humour – even in the darkest of places.

Underlying the human and not-quite-human drama here are sharp observations about the way capitalism feeds and in the process exaggerates human desires, about various ways in which workers are exploited, and about the challenges, for any individual, of trying to self-define outside of that system.

Fisher and Wood achieve a great rapport, and there’s some entertaining supporting work even though much of our time is spent in the middle of nowhere.

Mackay succeeds where [others] have failed partly because there is a deep vein of sincerity beneath the playful surface of her work.

Although most viewers will find themselves flagging before the end, there is a lot to enjoy here.

Perhaps the most impressive version to date.

Cube is a superb example of innovative filmmaking on a low budget.

It’s Schafer’s performance that anchors it.

Darkest Miriam makes use of absurdist humour to explore the sense of unreality that…bereavement can create.

A grim picture of a nocturnal city where everything feels temporary.

It’s what one might expect if somebody poured the early 1970s into a blender and then threw the resulting mixture at a screen.

Puenzo’s film is intense in its passions but subtle in its observations.

Escape Attempt has the style and quality one might expect of a blockbuster.

Packs in plenty of mischief and mayhem.

The film provides a journey through US gun culture as experienced not by politicians or lobbyists but by ordinary people.

While Ann can handle a knife, there’s a sense that her look might just as easily strike others dead.

Too silly to be upsetting, too well crafted to be dismissed, Hell Hole strikes just the right balance and does a great job of sustaining it throughout.

Maguire and co-writer/director Kyle Garrett Greenberg keep it simple and it’s more effective as a result.

Where serial killers have elsewhere tended to be treated as powerful individuals, even as heroic in their ability to throw off conditioning, here Mark emerges as a symptom of a more deeply troubled society.

House of Sayuri plays like a peculiar rather than fully accomplished movie

Condensed and symbolic in its approach, sometimes to the point where it becomes surreal, Hunting Daze uses a small story to address big subjects.

A wistful hippy daydream which goes on to become very dark indeed, Llansó’s fable unfolds gracefully thanks to his command of the different genres that make up its constituent parts.

The composite structure of the film means that there’s plenty of plot to hold the action sequences together.

Full of invention and not so tight on construction.

The film does an impressive job of bringing us close to its young female protagonists, and never more so than when showing us their appreciation of the absurd.

If you just want to see giant mechs fighting each other, the film delivers well enough.

Handsomely framed and possessed of a strong sense of style, Mash Ville is superficially beguiling.

There’s a sweet, melancholy flavour to Clapin’s work.

Combining clever ideas with a deep current of emotional honesty, this is an unusual and powerful film.

It is a rare thing to come across a tale as carefully constructed as this one.

Nothing here is quite what it seems, and Powers delights in upsetting expectations.

Kornfeld has a strong sense for the rhythms of this kind of comedy, and deploys them to great effect.

A small film capable of generating some big laughs.

Ezban does not let us look away.

Whilst we’re still reeling, trying to figure out the rules, Araki introduces an unexpected human element.

There is blistering anger in its melange of baubles and feathers and tulle.

Two things elevate it. One is Yasuda’s commitment to looking in depth at the culture of the Edo period, rather than just cribbing from past jidaigeki and trying to distract us with swordplay. The other is seasoned jidaigeki actor Yamaguchi’s wonderfully sensitive and sincere performance.

This may present itself as a B-movie but it’s very well crafted, at every level from the dramatic to the cinematographic.

It’s well handled throughout and effectively shows off Pierro’s talent for creating tension.

Stuckmann and co-writer Sam Liz keep it all under tight control, even when the imagery suggests chaos or excess.

Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have delivered some effective horror thrillers in the past, but this is by far their most accomplished film to date.

Starchenko is extraordinary in her ability to develop an emotionally complex character despite the state of shock that covers everything.

Against gorgeously designed and illuminated desert landscapes, director Nick Johnson’s quirky characters stand out, bold and three dimensional.

An unusually confident first film, stylishly shot in black and white, The Tenants may explore some familiar ideas but it is very much its own thing.

Lowe’s approach is an exhiliarating, if sometimes a bit scrappy, mix of high and low brow.

Although its characters are middle aged, their childish games in the first half signal a kind of coming of age; and yet unlike most films on that theme, which end when childhood is left behind, it keeps us there to explore what it means to be an adult.