Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in naten's LiveJournal:

Thursday, September 25th, 2008
12:40 pm	Fantastic Fest: Day Seven Today was nothing but secret screenings, the first one being a very last minute addition (less than 24 hours notice). I was supposed to see S&M Hunter (ah, those crazy Japanese people), but I think the new secret screening messed with its schedule too. Appaloosa Thoroughly meh. Not good, not really bad. Definitely hurt by having two other westerns in the festival that were better. Some really bad acting, but mostly recovered by focusing on Viggo and Irons. Maybe if it's on cable. Role Models Holy hell I love David Wain and Paul Rudd. When the said the director from Wet Hot American Summer was in the theater, I nearly crapped myself. I really liked the movie. Pretty dumb plot, but incredibly funny. Wain and Rudd stuck around for 45 minutes of Q&A and they're genuinely hilarious. Some comedy directors actually turn out to be boring (ahem, Super Troopers guys), glad it's not the case for Wain and Rudd. (Comment on this)
12:16 pm	Fantastic Fest: Day Six So begins the first day of trying to swing work and movies. It didn't go so well. The Brothers Bloom This was the first secret screening, a wholly unexpected film. It's from the director of Brick, which I loved the crap out of, but aside from that it's completely different from everything else at this festival. He described it as a love note to con men film, and that's pretty accurate. I'm a big sucker for films like The Sting, so I'm an easy sell, but I still think it was really good. Do see if you get a chance. It'd be nice for him to make some money on this one. The Chaser I'm not sure why Korean film makers hate their audiences so much, but they sure love to punish. A fully exhausting movie, very good, and very depressing. So yeah, Korean. (Comment on this)
12:05 pm	Fantastic Fest: Day Five This was my last full day of movies, before returning to work. Definitely a little sad that the festival was drawing to a close, but excited for the few that remained. Being the mid point, this was the day of the award show. In classic Alamo style, the prize for each category was a belt buckle and a big beer stein with the award inscribed. They then filled the stein with High Life, the champagne of beers, and each winner had to chug it on stage. At the end, they did a "champagne" toast with the whole audience. Man From Hong Kong One of the themes for this year's festival is Ozsploitation. Tim promised that this movie had the most explosions he'd ever seen in a movie and, while I think he was exagerating, it was still a damn good time. The director has made a whole ton of action movies in his career, and more recently Leprechaun in Space, but this is one of his gems. The movie was great and the Q&A was really interesting. Those Aussie guys really don't have much of a filter on what they say. La Creme Incredibly low budget French film, shot entirely on a DV cam for less than $10k. It was pretty good, though a little slow in the middle. Mostly just neat to see someone using whatever they had to make their dream. Santos The dirtiest, strangest superhero movie I've ever seen. I loved the crap out of this movie and the director was awesome. Very abrassive, but very funny. Deadgirl There's a certain type of horror movie that really gets to me. The psychological kind where they let your imagination play. That's this movie. Really well done, really good script, and I'm stil not sleeping well because of it. Plus the two directors and writer met working at Troma, so what more can you say :-). (Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
10:48 am	Fantastic Fest: Day Four On the fourth day, I slept. A lot. The massive amount of beer I ingested trying to forget Seventh Moon certainly didn't help. South of Heaven I dug this one a lot. A crazy mix of Noir, Coen Brothers, and a staged musical...and it had Lazlo in it! It was on a really low budget, but they did a lot with what they had. Hopefully it finds some sort of distribution, but in the mean time, it's included in the set of movies they're streaming for free. The Burrowers It's tremors in the west in the 1800s...you know, Indians and horses and shit. Not good, not bad, very competently done. Meh. (Comment on this)
12:28 am	Fantastic Fest: Day Three At least I beat my cold. I Think We're Alone Now It's the story of two utterly strange people that have been stalking Tiffany for decades. Actually quite well done. I went from being afraid of these people to feeling sorry for them. My only complaint is I still have that damn song stuck in my head. Short Films of Nacho Vigalondo Holy hell this guy is awesome. I haven't seen Time Crimes yet (it won best film at last year's Fantastic Fest), but it's finally getting released this fall. I suggest hunting it down. This guy pretty much sweats and bleeds awesome. Check out one of the shorts that he got Oscar nominated for. Donkey Punch This movie was way better than I expected. Very much in the vein of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but much smarter. And dirtier. It just got an NC-17 rating, which the director is quite proud of, but they'll probably be cutting it down. And come on, it's called Donkey Punch! Seventh Moon Way shittier than I expected. I actually liked Blair Witch, but this was a total pile of shit. The only good thing about the show was the whole suckling pig they made just to serve along side it. Oh, and Amy Smart is also hot in person. Chocolate Damn awesome. Watching a sixteen year old girl beat the fuck out of anyone does not get old. Some very impressive stunt work, and the story wasn't half bad either. (Comment on this)
12:19 am	Fantastic Fest: Day Two Already tired, and this was only my first full day. Just Another Love Story Way to start my day off with a dark and depressing drama. I really liked this one a lot. It reminded me a lot of Chan-wook Park's work, particularly Oldboy. If you get a chance, definitely see. Tokyo! I was more than a little disappointed with this one. The Michel Gondry segment was weird and good, as usual, but the other two went past artsy into boring. The Good the Bad the Weird Fucking...amazing. JCVD I really really liked this one too. It's the bizarre mix of reality, fantasy, and angry editorial. Van Damme can actually act, holy shit! Tim League started off by asking us to spread the good word if we enjoyed it, in the hope that enough buzz builds to make it popular. I'm happy to oblige. Tokyo Gore Police This was a pretty big let down for me. It was beyond low budget, shot on what looked like SD TV cameras. The effects were all over the place, along with the plot. Then again, it had a guy with a penis canon and a chick with her lower half replaced with alligator jaws. I just wish I wasn't too tired to stick around for the Q&A with the director. (Comment on this)
12:10 am	Fantastic Fest: Day One So my initial plan to write my thoughts each day didn't go so well. Frankly, I'm amazed I made it home alive. But I feel like I should put something down before either apathy or memory loss set in. So here goes. Day one was a short one, just the opening movie and a few others. I ended up leaving the opener early, missing the Q&A with Kevin Smith and the Air Sex World Championships...probably should have stayed. Zack and Miri Make a Porno I liked it a lot. Granted, I'm a big Kevin Smith fan (I even liked Jersey Girl). The love story is pretty ham fisted, but the jokes are great. Jason Mewes is priceless in it, and there's one seen that will leave a mark. You'll know which one I mean when you see it. How To Get Rid of Others This was pretty good. Had a real good vibe of social commentary. At times I even started to fall for the premise. Only thing is they didn't really deliver on the gore. I was expecting something more like Battle Royale. I mean, if you put a picture of a woman on a scooter with a noose around her neck in the promo material, I expect sick things. Fanboys I could not get into this one. It could be that I can no longer imagine a time when I looked forward to a Star Wars movie. Or maybe the humor was too juvenile for me (it's got this kid that looks like Booger from Nerds that annoyed the fuck out of me). Bunch of good cameos, though. Seth Rogan and Kevin Smith twice in one night! (Comment on this)