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Fantasia International Film Festival · 2024

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024

Features

Programme

93 films · 47 reviews

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100 Yards (Men Qian Bao Di)

Two bitter rivals duel for stewardship of a wushu academy.

(Country: China; Year: 2023; Director: Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng; Writer: Xu Haofeng; Stars: Xu Changchu, Jacky Heung, Bea Hayden Kuo, Kevin Lee)

4pm

A suspense thriller depicting a peaceful couple's daily life slowly turning into a nightmare due to a neighbour who visits every day at 4pm.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Jay Song; Writer: Kim Hae-gon; Stars: Oh Dal-su, Jang Young-nam, Kim Hong-pa, Min Do-hee)

Ababouiné

A rowdy group of kids goes to war against the Catholic Church in Quebec.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: André Forcier; Writer: Jean Boileau, André Forcier, Laurie Perron, Renaud Pinet Forcier, François Pinet-Forcier; Stars: Rémy Girard, Éric Bruneau, Mylène Mackay, Pierre-Luc Brillant)

Adrianne & The Castle

Review preview for Adrianne & The Castle

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

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A musical documentary about grief and the creative power of love, told through the astonishing story of Alan and Adrianne St-George and their hand-built castle in rural Illinois.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Shannon Walsh; Writer: Shannon Walsh, Laurel Sprengelmyer; Stars: Alan St-George, Adrianne St-George)

Full review

The A-Frame

A quantum physicist's groundbreaking machine inadvertently opens a portal to a subatomic universe while attempting to prove its efficacy. During his experiments on rats, he stumbles upon a radical cancer treatment that could revolutionise modern medicine.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Calvin Lee Reeder; Writer: Calvin Lee Reeder; Stars: Johnny Whitworth, Dana Namerode, Nik Dodani, Laketa Caston)

Animalia Paradoxa

Review preview for Animalia Paradoxa

There’s incredible world-building here.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A strange creature, Animalia, roams an abandoned building. Dressed in rags and gas mask she moves like an alien dancer, crawling and stretching across concrete, plastic waste. She collects and fills empty bottles for a modest bath.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2024; Director: Niles Atallah; Writer: Niles Atallah; Stars: Andrea Gomez, Daniela Ossa, Javiera Reyes, Hormazábal Rocío, Blanca Schlager, Ignacio Silva)

Full review

Avenging Eagle (Leng Xue Shi San Ying)

A man on the run from his former gang agrees to help a stranger who seems to struggle to take life seriously but is searching for a master swordsman by whose hand he wishes to die.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 1978; Director: Sun Chung; Writer: Hung Chin, Kuang Ni; Stars: Sheng Fu, Lung Ti, Feng Ku, Lung Chan, Kuo Hua Chang, Szu Hsiao)

Azrael

Review preview for Azrael

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.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Many years following the apocalypse, a devout cult of mute zealots hunts down a young woman who has escaped her imprisonment.

(Country: Estonia, US; Year: 2024; Director: EL Katz; Writer: Simon Barrett; Stars: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett)

Full review

Baby Assassins: Nice Days (Baby Walkure: Naisu Deizu)

Review preview for Baby Assassins: Nice Days

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
On a working holiday in Miyazaki, the teenage killers find themselves up against a deadly freelancer.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Sakamoto Yugo; Writer: Sakamoto Yugo; Stars: Takaishi Akari, Izawa Saori, Maeda Atsuko, Ikematsu Sôsuke, Otani Mondo, Kaibashira)

Full review

The Beast Within

Review preview for The Beast Within

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

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A ten-year-old girl she starts to question her atypical life in her family's fortified compound in rural England, and he father's strange behaviour.

(Year: 2024; Director: Alexander J Farrel; Writer: Greer Ellison, Alexander J Farrell; Stars: Kit Harington, Caoilinn Springall, Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo)

Full review See: Alexander J Farrell and Greer Ellison on the layers of meaning in The Beast Within

Black Eyed Susan

Review preview for Black Eyed Susan

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Desperate for work, Derek accepts a job at a shady tech start-up, working intimately with Susan, a bleeding-edge BDSM sex doll meant to receive and appreciate sexual punishment as an integral part of her evolving AI.

(Year: 2024; Director: Scooter McCrae; Writer: Scooter McCrae; Stars: Damian Maffei, Yvonne Emilie Thälker, Marc Romeo, Scott Fowler, Kate Kiddo)

Full review See: Interview with Scooter McCrae, Damian Maffei and Yvonne Emilie Thälker about Black Eyed Susan

Bookworm

Review preview for Bookworm

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
11 year old Mildred's world is turned upside-down when her estranged father, the washed-up magician Strawn Wise comes to look after her and agrees to take her camping to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.

(Country: New Zealand/Aotearoa; Year: 2024; Director: Ant Timpson; Writer: Toby Harvard, Ant Timpson; Stars: Elijah Wood, Michael Smiley, Nell Fisher, Morgana O'Reilly, Vanessa Stacey)

Full review See: Interview with Ant Timpson about Bookworm, cinema and the future of storytelling

Brave Citizen (Yonggamhan Simin)

A former female boxing champion now works as a substitute high school teacher, but after witnessing intolerable violence, she decides to take justice on her own fists.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Park Jin-pyo; Writer: Ji Na Yeo; Stars: Shin Hye-sun, Lee Tae Gyun, Cha Woo-min, Lee Chan-hyeong, Cha Chyeong-hwa)

Brush Of The God (Kami No Fude)

A boy comes across a rabbit, guardian of a magical brush to prevent the Yamata no Orochi from re-emerging in the modern world.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Keizô Murase; Writer: Keizô Murase, Takeshi Nakazawa; Stars: Takumi Saitô, Shinji Higuchi, Yumiko Shaku, Shirô Sano, Rio Suzuki, Takeru Narahara)

Carnage For Christmas

Review preview for Carnage For Christmas

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

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown for the first time since running away and transitioning, the local urban legend, The Toymaker, is the least of her worries. But then the vengeful ghost of the historical murderer seemingly rises again.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2024; Director: Alice Maio Mackay; Writer: Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson; Stars: Chris Asimos, Dominique Booth, Betsey Brown, Lewi Dawson, Olivia Beeble)

Full review

Chainsaws Were Singing

Review preview for Chainsaws Were Singing

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

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Adventures await when new lovers are separated by a chainsaw killer in this absurdist musical.

(Country: Estonia; Year: 2024; Director: Sander Maran; Writer: Sander Maran, Karl Ilves; Stars: Karl Ilves, Laura Niils, Martin Ruus, Janno Puusepp, Rita Rätsepp, Ra Ragnar Novod)

Full review See: Interview with Sander Maran and Peeter Maran about Chainsaws Were Singing

The Chapel (La Ermita)

A girl petitions a cynical and fake medium to help her, in the hopes that contacting the spirit of a child who has spent centuries trapped inside a chapel may let her remain close to her dying mother after she passes - but what the medium fails to anticipate is that her new student has genuine talent.

(Year: 2023; Director: Carlota Pereda; Stars: Maia Zaitegi, Belen Rueda)

A Chinese Ghost Story II (Sien Lui Yau Wan II: Yan Gaan Dou)

Rival kung fu enemies converge to fight monsters and a giant centipede.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 1990; Director: Ching Siu-tung; Writer: Keito Kan, Lam Kee-to, Lau Tai-mok; Stars: Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang, Michelle Reis, Jacky Cheung)

The Code

Surveillance technologies reveal a singularly alien view of contemporary American life.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Eugene Kotlyarenko; Stars: Peter Vack, Dasha Nekrasova)

Confession

After an accident on a mountain prompts a dying confession, unexpected survival leaves two men having to deal with a truth never intended to be shared in life.

(Year: 2024; Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita; Stars: Yang Ik-joon, Toma Ikuta)

The Count Of Monte-Cristo (Le Comte De Monte-Cristo)

Review preview for The Count Of Monte-Cristo

Perhaps the most impressive version to date.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Aa adaptation of the Dumas classic in which a man betrayed and left to rot in prison escapes, acquires a fortune and sets out in pursuit of justice - or revenge.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte; Writer: Matthieu Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas; Stars: Pierre Niney, Pierfrancesco Favino, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte, Julien De Saint Jean, Oscar Lesage, Vassili Schneider, Bastien Bouillon, Patrick Mille, Matthew T Reynolds, Abde Maziane, Bruno Raffaelli, Françoise Gazio, Olivier Le Montagner)

Full review

Cube

Review preview for Cube

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A group of strangers wake up trapped in a strange cubic room - and that's the least of their problems.

(Country: Canada; Year: 1997; Director: Vincenzo Natali; Writer: André Bijelic, Vincenzo Natali; Stars: Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, Maurice Dean Wint) , Trailer

Full review See: Interview with Vincenzo Natali about Cube

Cuckoo

Review preview for Cuckoo

It’s Schafer’s performance that anchors it.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
On a trip to the German Alps with her father and stepmother, Gretchen discovers that the resort town where they’re staying hides sinister secrets, as she’s plagued by strange noises and frightening visions of a woman pursuing her.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Tilman Singer; Writer: Tilman Singer; Stars: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csókás, Jan Bluthardt)

Full review

Cockfighter

A man who wants to be cockfighter of the year.

(Country: US; Year: 1974; Director: Monte Hellman; Writer: Charles Willeford, Charles Willeford; Stars: Warren Oates, Richard B. Shull, Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley Jr., Laurie Bird, Troy Donahue, Warren Finnerty, Robert Earl Jones, Patricia Pearcy, Millie Perkins, Steve Railsback)

Darkest Miriam

Review preview for Darkest Miriam

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

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The fog of grief shrouding Miriam, a branch librarian, begins to lift when she starts a love affair with cab driver Janko. But what’s the deal with the vaguely threatening letters she keeps finding?

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Naomi Jaye; Writer: Martha Baillie, Maureen Dorey, Naomi Jaye; Stars: Britt Lower, Tom Mercier, Sook-Yin Lee, Jean Yoon, Jaimara Beals, Clyde Whitham, Susannah Hoffmann, Scott McCulloch, Igor Shamuilov, Joshua Odjick, Sarah Li Wen Du, Anita Yung, Peter Millard, Danté Prince, Scott Ryan Yamamura)

Full review

Dark Match

A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn, too late, that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Lowell Dean; Writer: Lowell Dean; Stars: Steven Ogg, Sara Canning, Michael Eklund, Chris Jericho, Jonathan Cherry, Ayisha Issa)

Dead Dead Full Dead

Junior police officers Balraam and Zubeida make a cute couple, but not the most diligent detectives. Called to a luxury apartment tower to investigate a reported murder, the seemingly straightforward case quickly becomes a conundrum. When the victim herself returns from the afterlife, matters become even more muddled, and soon enough the question isn’t who killed her, but who didn’t.

(Country: India; Year: 2024; Director: Pratul Gaikwad)

The Dead Thing

Review preview for The Dead Thing

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young woman lost in a series of meaningless connections falls in love with a charismatic and sensitive man, who hides a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession.

(Year: 2024; Director: Elric Kane; Writer: Elric Kane, Webb Wilcoxen; Stars: Ben Smith-Petersen, Blu Hunt, Katherine Hughes, John Karna, Brennan Mejia, Emily Joy Lemus)

Full review See: Interview with Star Rosencrans about The Dead Thing and A Desert , Interview with Elric Kane about The Dead Thing

Deaner '89

Dean Murdoch, a party animal, travels back in time to 1989.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Sam McGlynn; Writer: Paul Spence; Stars: Will Sasso, Kevin McDonald, Mary Walsh, Julian Black Antelope, Star Slade, Maddy Foley)

Devil Times Five (People Toys, The Horrible House On The Hill)

Review preview for Devil Times Five

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

Jennie Kermode · 1.5 out of 5
After five insane children are involved in a minibus crash, they start killing people at a lodge who insulted them or were rude to them.

(Country: US; Year: 1974; Director: Sean MacGregor, David Sheldon; Writer: John Durren, Dylan Jones, Sandra Lee Blowitz; Stars: Sorrell Booke, Gene Evans, Taylor Lacher, Shelley Morrison, Joan McCall, Carolyn Stellar, John Durren)

Full review

Don't Call It Mystery (Misuteri To Iu Nakare)

Kuno Totono, a curly-haired college student, visits Hiroshima and becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding the inheritance of the Kariatsumari family's assets, using his intelligence and loquaciousness to unravel the case.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hiroaki Matsuyama; Writer: Tomoko Aizawa, Yumi Tamura; Stars: Yasunori Danta, Riku Hagiwara, Nanoka Hara, Sairi Itô)

Electrophilia (Los Impactados)

Review preview for Electrophilia

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

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A woman who survives a lightning strike finds herself drawn into an underground society of fellow survivors intent on engaging with strange and erotic new experiences.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Lucía Puenzo; Writer: Lucía Puenzo, Lorena Ventimiglia; Stars: Mariana Di Girólamo, Germán Palacios, Guillermo Pfening)

Full review

FAQ

Dong-chun picks up a barrel of rice wine. When she realises that the fermentation bubbles tried to say something, she uses Morse code and Farsi language to find out the message that reveals the truth of the world.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Kim Da-min; Writer: Kim Da-min; Stars: Kim Hee-won, Park Hyo-ju, Park Na-eun)

Fly Me To The Saitama: From Biwa Lake With Love

Another adventure in a fantastical imaginary Japan.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Hideki Takeuchi; Stars: Gackt, Fumi Nikaido)

Frankie Freako!

Review preview for Frankie Freako!

Packs in plenty of mischief and mayhem.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
In an attempt to impress his wife and boss, a nerdy man is lured by a 1-900 TV ad to party with a strange little creature called Frankie Freako. All hell breaks loose when Frankie and his two friends wreak interdimensional havoc in his life.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Steven Kostanski; Writer: Steven Kostanski; Stars: Adam Brooks, Conor Sweeney, Kristy Wordsworth)

Full review See: Interview with Steven Kostanski about Frankie Freako

From My Cold Dead Hands

Review preview for From My Cold Dead Hands

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

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Guns, explosions, musical numbers, zombies, tanks and Youtube. Thousands of hours of YouTube videos turned into a bizarre cocktail to show us the most extreme, wild and crazy gun-loving Americans. But what if they are just ordinary Americans?

(Country: Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Javier Horcajada Fontecha; Writer: Javier Horcajada Fontecha)

Full review

The G

Review preview for The G

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

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
After a corrupt legal guardian ruins her life, a gran sets out for revenge.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Karl R Hearne; Writer: Karl R Hearne; Stars: Dale Dickey, Romane Denis, Roc Lafortune, Bruce Ramsay, Jonathan Koensgen)

Full review See: Karl R Hearne on the inspiration for The G, those who target the old and the portrayal of female sexuality as a radical act , Putting The G in Vengeance - Dale Dickey on her role as a gran bent on revenge

Ghost Cat Anzu (Bakeneko Anzu-Chan)

When a youngster is left at her grandad's house in the countryside, the old man asks his ghost cat to look after her.

(Country: Japan, France; Year: 2024; Director: Yôko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita; Writer: Takashi Imashiro; Stars: Mirai Moriyama, Noa Gotô)

Haze

A young man returns home after rehab and uncovers the secrets of his town's abandoned psychiatric centre.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Matthew Fifer; Writer: Matthew Fifer; Stars: Cole Doman, Brian J Smith, David Pittu, Kirby Denny, Annie Golden)

Heavens: The Boy And His Robot

The journey of a struggling young pilot, Kai, and his fighter mecha, Little Dragon, set against a backdrop of epic galactic warfare.

(Country: Singapore; Year: 2023; Director: Rich Ho; Writer: Rich Ho; Stars: Jonathan See, Kenny Woo Kah Weng, Tan Hsien Jin, Rich Ho, Desmond Yeo, See Jason, Gavin Leong)

Hell Hole

Review preview for Hell Hole

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
In the Adams Family's celebration of the classic creature-feature, an American-led fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness find themselves at odds with government assigned environmental advisors. When they get approval to drill, the workers uncover the unimaginable: a dormant parasitic monster entombed deep in the frozen rock. Now awakened, it tears through the mining facility in search of the perfect host.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: John Adams; Writer: Toby Poser; Stars: John Adams, Lulu Adams, Toby Poser)

Full review See: Interview with Toby Poser and John Adams about Hell Hole

Hollywood 90028

Review preview for Hollywood 90028

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.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A young photographer, travels to Hollywood hoping to make it as a cameraman in the movie business. Unfortunately, the only jobs he can find are shooting porn loops for a sleazy producer. Depressed and increasingly delusional, he begins to take out his frustrations on women he meets - by strangling them.

(Country: US; Year: 1973; Director: Christina Hornisher; Writer: Christina Hornisher; Stars: Christopher Augustine, Jeannette Dilger, Dick Glass, Gayle Davis, Ralph Campbell, Kia Cameron)

Full review

House Of Sayuri

Review preview for House Of Sayuri

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

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3 out of 5
A vengeful ghost decimates a family until a counterattack from a bold grandmother brings a startling new dynamic into the house.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Koji Shiraishi; Writer: Koji Shiraishi, Mari Asato; Stars: Ryoka Minamide, Toshie Negishi, Hana Kondo, Haruka Kubo, Zen Kajihara, Fusako Urube, Kokoro Morite, Ray Inomata, Kitaro)

Full review

Hunting Daze

Review preview for Hunting Daze

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

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A young, tempestuous woman, is taken in by a group of hunters in a remote cabin. In the midst of this tough, yet endearing, male microsociety, she feels like she finally belongs. A mysterious stranger’s arrival disrupts her newfound haven.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Annick Blanc; Writer: Annick Blanc; Stars: Nahéma Ricci, Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Marc Beaupré, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, Noubi Ndiaye, Mack, Maya)

Full review See: Interview with Annick Blanc about Hunting Daze (Jour De Chasse)

Infinite Summer

Review preview for Infinite Summer

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.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Three young women's week at the beach turns into a transhumanist mystery romp in one Estonian summer.

(Country: Estonia; Year: 2024; Director: Miguel Llansó; Writer: Miguel Llansó; Stars: Hannah Gross, Ciaron Davies, Katariina Unt, Ciaron Davies)

Full review See: Interview with Miguel Llansó about Infinite Summer

In Our Blood

A filmmaker teams up with a cinematographer to shoot an intimate documentary about reuniting with her mother after a decade apart. When her mother suddenly goes missing, they must piece together increasingly disturbing clues, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Pedro Kos; Writer: Steven Klein, Aaron Kogan, Clay Tweel; Stars: EJ Bonilla, Alanna Ubach, Brittany O'Grady, Bianca Comparato, Krisha Fairchild, Oscar Avilo)

Kidnapping Inc.

Tasked with what appears to be a simple abduction for hire, two hapless kidnappers find out that it’s anything but and end up in the middle of a political conspiracy.

(Country: France, Canada, Haiti; Year: 2024; Director: Bruno Mourral; Writer: Jasmuel Andri, Bruno Mourral, Gilbert Mirambeau Jr.; Stars: Bruno Mourral, Anabel Lopez, Gessica Geneus, Jasmuel Andri, Edmond Erthon, Ludner Louis, Nadine Stephenson, Jimmy Jean-Baptiste, Ricardo Andres Florez Valderrama, Ashley Laraque, Clara-Luce Lafond, Guillaume Leuillet, Rolando Etienne, Marcus Boereau, Manfred Marcelin)

The Killers

Four films about hitmen.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun, Lee Myung-Se)

Killer Constable (Wan Ren Zan)

Righteous constable Leng Tian-Ying has a fearsome reputation of killing criminals without remorse. But after being assigned to track a gang that robbed the imperial treasury, he comes to find that his reputation is being used against him.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 1980; Director: Kuei Chih-hung; Writer: On Szeto; Stars: Kuan Tai Chen, Feng Ku, Jason Piao Pai, Yu Tsui-ling)

Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp

Review preview for Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp

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

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
After helping a vampire, Araragi becomes one of them. To become human again, he must recover the vampire's limbs, which have been stolen by hunters.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Tatsuya Oishi; Writer: Nisio Isin, Tatsuya Oishi; Stars: Kamiya Hiroshi, Sakamoto Maaya, Horie Yui, Irinu Miyo, Ebara Masashi, Sakurai Takahiro, Ôtsuka Hôchû)

Full review

Kryptic

Review preview for Kryptic

Full of invention and not so tight on construction.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A psychothriller about a woman’s search for a missing monster hunter and her growing realisation that she is inescapably linked to the creature being pursued.

(Country: Canada, UK; Year: 2024; Director: Kourtney Roy; Writer: Paul Bromley; Stars: Chloe Pirrie, Jeff Gladstone, Jason Deline, Ali Rusu-Tahir, Christina Meredith Lewall, Patti Allen, Pam Kearns, Jennifer Copping)

Full review See: Interview with Kourtney Roy and Chloe Pirrie about Kryptic

A Legend (Chuan Shuo)

An archeologist noticed that the texture of the relics discovered during the excavation of a glacier closely resembled a jade pendant seen in one of his dreams. He and his team then embark on an expedition into the depths of the glacier.

(Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 2024; Director: Stanley Tong; Writer: Stanley Tong; Stars: Jackie Chan, Gülnezer Bextiyar, Yixing Zhang, Aarif Lee, Cheng Li, Shawn Dou)

La Loi Du Cochon

Faced with an ultimatum from the bank, which is about to seize the pig farm she inherited from her father, a compulsive gambler tries to make a quick buck by selling a crop of cannabis that two city criminals are growing on her land.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2001; Director: Erik Canuel; Writer: Joanne Arseneau; Stars: Isabel Richer, Sylvain Marcel, Catherine Trudeau, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Stéphane Demers, Marie Brassard, Zhenhu Han)

Love And Pop

Review preview for Love And Pop

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.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A high school girl engages in compensated dating in order to buy an expensive ring before the day ends.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1998; Director: Hideaki Anno; Writer: Hideaki Anno, Akio Satsukawa, Ryû Murakami; Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Megumi Hayashibara, Akira Ishida, Naomi Kawase, Kariri)

Full review

Mantra Warrior: The Legend Of The Eight Moons

Review preview for Mantra Warrior: The Legend Of The Eight Moons

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

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A story inspired by the original Ramayana, retold in a futuristic universe, involving brave warriors who possess ancient powers from another dimension.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2023; Director: Veerapatra Jinanavin, Manassavin Malevong; Writer: Sornperes Subsermsri; Stars: Ranee Campen, Tachaya Prathumwan, Sorrawid Tongtheng, Pattaeshin Sasipattanatada, Tanakrit Jenkrongtham)

Full review

Mash Ville (Mashville)

Review preview for Mash Ville

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

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
Someone has died after drinking the bootleg liquor brewed by Se-jong and his two younger brothers. While on a mission to retrieve their deadly booze before another person perishes from it, they come across two homicidal cultists who are terrorising the villagers.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Hwang Wook; Writer: Dong-min Lim, Hwang Wook; Stars: Jong-hwan Park, Sin-Hwan Jeon)

Full review

Meanwhile On Earth (Pendant Ce Temps Sur Terre)

Review preview for Meanwhile On Earth

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

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Siblings Elsa and Franck were very close. Since Franck disappeared during a space mission three years ago, Elsa has struggled to move on with her life. Until one day she is contacted by an unidentified life form.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Jérémy Clapin; Writer: Jérémy Clapin; Stars: Megan Northam, Dimitri Doré, Sébastien Pouderoux, Catherine Salée, Sam Louwyck, Roman Williams, Sofia Lesaffre, Nicolas Avinée, Yoann Thibaut Mathias, Arcadi Radeff, Sabine Timoteo, Marie Bray, Christian Bouillette)

Full review

Me And My Victim

A messy, docufiction take on a sometimes sexual, sometimes romantic friendship.

(Year: 2024; Director: Maurane Pedlow, Billy Pedlow; Stars: Maurane Pedlow, Billy Pedlow)

The Missing (Iti Mapukpukaw)

Review preview for The Missing

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
When an alien comes back to take him, a mouthless young man's life twists and turns as his memories untangle.

(Country: Philippines, Thailand; Year: 2023; Director: Carl Joseph Papa; Writer: Carl Joseph Papa; Stars: Carlo Aquino, Gio Gahol, Dolly De Leon)

Full review

Mononoke The Movie: The Phantom In The Rain

A mysterious Medicine Seller is caught up in palace intrigue in Edo-era Japan.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Kenji Nakamura)

Not Friends (Phuean (Mai) Sanit)

What are the most important things in your teenage life? ...For them, they're 'friends' and 'films'.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2023; Director: Atta Hemwadee; Writer: Atta Hemwadee; Stars: Anthony Buisseret, Pisitpol Ekaphongpisit, Thitiya Jirapornsilp, Tanakorn Tiyanont)

Oddity

Review preview for Oddity

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

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A blind medium uncovers the truth behind her sister's death with the help of a frightening wooden mannequin.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2024; Director: Damian Mc Carthy; Writer: Damian Mc Carthy; Stars: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Tadhg Murphy, Caroline Menton, Steve Wall, Jonathan French, Joe Rooney)

Full review

The Old Man And The Demon Sword (O Velho E A Espada)

Review preview for The Old Man And The Demon Sword

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

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
In the remote Portuguese mountain village of Pé da Serra, a monk arrives wielding a demonic sword. Before long, the mystical weapon ends up in the hands of the town drunk. Now, the drunkard and the sword will have to learn to fight an encroaching evil together.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2024; Director: Fábio Powers; Writer: Fábio Powers; Stars: António da Luz)

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Out Of The Shadow

A girl learns to defend herself using martial arts.

(Year: 2024; Director: Ricky Ko)

The Paragon

Review preview for The Paragon

A small film capable of generating some big laughs.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The crippled and angry victim of a hit and run, who takes a course on how to be psychic so he can find the car that hit him and take revenge on the driver. But when his teacher draws him into her search for a mysterious crystal known as the paragon, he finds himself trapped in a parallel universe and on the run from her evil brother and his band of enslaved psychics.

(Country: New Zealand/Aotearoa; Year: 2023; Director: Michael Duignan; Writer: Michael Duignan; Stars: Benedict Wall, Florence Noble, Jessica Grace Smith, Jonny Brugh, Shadon Meredith, Michelle Ang)

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Parvulos

Review preview for Parvulos

Ezban does not let us look away.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three young brothers living in a cabin in the middle of the woods hide a dark, disturbing secret in their basement.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2024; Director: Isaac Ezban; Writer: Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes, Isaac Ezban; Stars: Noé Hernández, Carla Adell, Juan Carlos Remolina, Mateo Ortega Casillas, Horacio F Lazo)

Full review See: Interview with Isaac Ezban about Parvulos

Penalty Loop

Review preview for Penalty Loop

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A man carefully plans and carries out the murder of the man whom he blames for his girlfriend's death, only to wake up with a confirmed sense of déjà-vu and his target alive and well, repeating the same routine as the day before.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Shinji Araki; Writer: Shinji Araki; Stars: Ryûya Wakaba, Yûsuke Iseya)

Full review See: Interview with Araki Shinji about Penalty Loop

Rats!

A teenager is arrested for spraying graffiti, while chaos swirls around him.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Carl Fry, Maxwell Nalevansky; Writer: Carl Fry, Maxwell Nalevansky; Stars: Danielle Evon Ploeger, Luke Wilcox, Darius Autry, Khali Sykes, Ariel Ash)

Rita

Review preview for Rita

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

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Rita, a 13 year old girl, runs away from her abusive father to the big city. She finds solace until she's placed in a safe house run by the State. Rita and her cellmates plots an escape that ends in a shocking act of violence.

(Country: Guatemala; Year: 2024; Director: Jayro Bustamante; Writer: Jayro Bustamante; Stars: Giuliana Santa Cruz, Ángela Quevedo, Alejandra Vásquez, Isabel Aldana)

Full review See: Interview with Jayro Bustamante about Rita

The Roundup: Punishment (Beom-Joe-do-si 4)

“Monster Cop” Ma Seok-do is investigating an illegal online gambling organisation.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2024; Director: Heo Myeong Haeng; Stars: Ma Dong-seok, Kim Mu-yeol, Lee Joo-bin, Lee Dong-hwi, Park Ji-hwan, Kim Min-jae, Lee Beom-su, Lee Ji-hoon)

The Rubber Gun

Steve is the witty and energetic leader/guru of a quasi-family of artists-turned-drug addicts living together in a commune in Montreal. Bozo is a shy and naive McGill University sociology student who infiltrates the group, his motive being that he's writing his thesis on drug culture and is fascinated by Steve and his family.

(Country: Canada; Year: 1977; Director: Allan Moyle; Writer: Stephen Lack, John Laing, Allan Moyle; Stars: Joe Mattia, Armand Monroe, Allan Moyle, Bill Booth, Curzon Olstrom)

A Samurai In Time

Review preview for A Samurai In Time

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A samurai who gets hit by lightning wakes up to find himself on a film set in the present day and starts to work as an extra on samurai films.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Jun'ichi Yasuda; Writer: Jun'ichi Yasuda; Stars: Norimasa Fuke, Yoshiharu Fukuda, Hajime Inoue, Ichiko Kurenai, Rantaro Mine)

Full review See: Interview with Yasuda Jun’ichi about A Samurai In Time

Scared Shitless

Review preview for Scared Shitless

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A father and son plumbing duo face a gruesome challenge: rid a building of a toilet-dwelling creature before it unleashes itself to the rest of the world.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Vivieno Caldinelli; Writer: Brandon Cohen; Stars: Steven Ogg, Daniel Doheny, Chalsea Clark, Mark McKinney, Julian Richings)

Full review

Self Driver

Review preview for Self Driver

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

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Facing mounting expenses and the unrelenting pressure of modern living, a down-on-his-luck cab driver is lured onto a mysterious new app that promises fast, easy money.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Michael Pierro; Writer: Michael Pierro; Stars: Nathanael Chadwick, Reece Presley, Lauren Welchner, Harold Tausch, Christian Aldo)

Full review

Shelby Oaks

Review preview for Shelby Oaks

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

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A woman's desperate search for her long-lost sister falls into obsession upon realising that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Chris Stuckmann; Writer: Sam Liz, Chris Stuckmann; Stars: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn, Michael Beach, Keith David, Brendan Sexton III)

Full review

The Silent Planet

Follows two inmates in the near future who are sentenced to a lifetime of hard labour on a distant planet. As things unravel, they become increasingly paranoid and start to lose a sense of who they are and their past lives.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Jeffrey St Jules; Writer: Jeffrey St Jules; Stars: Elias Koteas, Briana Middleton, Bridget Wareham, Justin Nurse)

The Soul Eater (Le Mangeur D'Âmes)

Review preview for The Soul Eater

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.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
When violent and gruesome deaths start plaguing a small mountain village, an old legend about a malevolent creature resurfaces.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury; Writer: Annelyse Batrel, Alexis Laipsker, Ludovic Lefebvre; Stars: Virginie Ledoyen, Paul Hamy, Sandrine Bonnaire, Francis Renaud, Malik Zidi, Cameron Bain)

Full review See: Interview with Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo about The Soul Eater

Steppenwolf

Review preview for Steppenwolf

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Tamara searches for her missing son in a violent town. She hires a morally questionable ex-detective to find him. His methods are cruel but she is determined to find her son whatever the cost.

(Country: Kazakhstan; Year: 2024; Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov; Writer: Adilkhan Yerzhanov; Stars: Anna Starchenko, Azamat Nigmanov, Yerkin Gubashev, Nurbek Mukushev)

Full review

Sunburnt Unicorn

Review preview for Sunburnt Unicorn

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Lost in an endless desert, an injured teenager adopts the identity of a mythical unicorn to survive surreal encounters and rescue his abducted father.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Nick Johnson; Writer: Nick Johnson; Stars: Kathleen Barr, Brian Drummond, Diana Kaarina, Laara Sadiq, Tabitha St Germain)

Full review See: Interview with Nick Johnson about Sunburnt Unicorn

Swimming In A Sand Pool

Under the relentless heat of a scorching July sun, four teenage girls find themselves with an unusual task: sweeping the sand-covered bottom of a swimming pool.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita; Writer: Nakata Yumeka)

Tatsumi

Tatsumi, who lives in the underworld, gets involved in a war between the yakuza family he belongs to and his murdered ex-girlfriend's younger sister.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hiroshi Shôji; Writer: Hiroshi Shôji; Stars: Yûya Endô, Kokoro Morita, Gorô Satô, Takenori Gotô, Tomoyuki Kuramoto)

Teasing Master Takagi-san (Eiga Karakai Jôzu No Takagi-san)

Takagi, now grown up, revisits her middle school as a trainer. She encounters Nishikata, her former classmate she used to tease, now a PE teacher there. Their playful dynamic resumes, leading to more interactions between the two.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Rikiya Imaizumi; Writer: Jun Hagimori, Rikiya Imaizumi, Tomoki Kanazawa; Stars: Mei Nagano, Fumiya Takahashi, Yôsuke Eguchi, Jin Suzuki)

The Tenants (Seibja)

Review preview for The Tenants

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.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
In a dystopian South Korean city, a soon-to-be-evicted tenant decides to complicate the process by renting his toilet out to an eccentric couple, but their strange behaviours soon become unbearable.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Yoon Eun-kyung; Writer: Yoon Eun-kyung; Stars: Heo Dong-won, Kim Dea-geon, Park So-hyun)

Full review

This Man

An inexplicable wave of tragic deaths plunges two investigators into a mystery as a far-fetched urban legend seems to come true. A mother is plagued by terrifying dreams, seeing her friends and colleagues disappear one after the other, and her family witnesses the horror unfold.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Tomojirô Amano; Writer: Tomojirô Amano)

Tiki Tiki

A film about animated monkeys making a feature film in which monkey children are kidnapped by a space pirate.

(Country: Canada; Year: 1971; Director: Gerald Potterton; Writer: Donald Brittain, Jerome Chodorov, Gerald Potterton; Stars: Barry Baldaro, Gayle Claitman, Patrick Conlon, Peter Cullen)

Timestalker

Review preview for Timestalker

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

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A woman continuously seeks out the presumed love of her life across time, in one incarnation after another.

(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Alice Lowe; Writer: Alice Lowe; Stars: Alice Lowe, Jacob Anderson, Aneurin Barnard, Nick Frost, Kate Dickie, Tanya Reynolds, Boyd Clack)

Full review

Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In

Manga adaptation.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 2024; Director: Soi Cheang; Writer: Au Kin-Yee, Chan Tai-Lee, Li Jun, Shum Kwan-Sin, Yi Yu; Stars: Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Louis Koo, Philip Ng, Richie Jen, Raymond Lam, Fish Liew, Pak Hon Chu, Tak-Bun Wong, Cecilia Choi, Tony Tsz-Tung Wu, Chun-Him Lau, Man Kit Cheung)

The Umbrella Fairy

All things possess spirits capable of transforming into fairies, which carry the owners’ desires. One single piece of jade is used to create both an umbrella and a sword, but from the very beginning, the fairies Qingdai and Wanggui are destined for different missions.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2024; Director: Shen Jie)

Voivod: We Are Connected

The story of a groundbreaking 40+ year career in metal.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Felipe Belalcazar; Writer: Felipe Belalcazar; Stars: Tobias Forge, Jason Newsted, George Stroumboulopoulos, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Claude Grégoire, Ivan Doroschuk)

Vulcanizadora

Review preview for Vulcanizadora

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Two friends embark on a disturbing mission in the Michigan woods. When their plan unravels, one must face the surreal and unsettling consequences back home.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Joel Potrykus; Writer: Joel Potrykus; Stars: Joel Potrykus, Joshua Burge, Sherryl Despres, Bill Vincent, Michael Saunders, Melissa Blanchard, Solo Potrykus, G. Foster II, Scott Ayotte, Dennis Grantz, Jaz Edwards)

Full review See: Interview with Joel Potrykus about Vulcanizadora

Wake Up

Incensed by the environmental destruction wrought by a fictitious minimalist Swedish furniture store, the band of six sneaks into the big-box store after hours to wreak havoc of their own, gleefully destroying displays and smearing animal blood on bathroom fixtures, but an angry night watchman is ready to bring them to justice.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell, François Simard)

Witchboard

When a young couple discover an ancient Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, as they prepare to open a bistro in New Orleans' French Quarter, an ancient spirit seizes the chance to live again.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Chuck Russell; Writer: Chuck Russell, Kevin Tenney; Stars: Madison Iseman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Charlie Tahan, Antonia Desplat, Mel Jarnson, Aaron Dominguez, Renee Herbert)

Yin Yang Master Zero

A wily apprentice sorcerer and his dim but good-hearted best friend confront dark forces in Heian-era Japan.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2024; Director: Shimako Sato; Stars: Kento Yamazaki, Shota Sometani)