This is an Irish American co-production about a group of American teens going to Ireland to partake in some of the local shrooms or mushies (magic mushrooms). Local head Jake (Jack Huston – of that Huston family) takes the five American teens for a camping trip in a forest so they can better experience the effects of the drugs. Tara (Lindsey Haun) has a crush on Jake whom she’d met previously. The other four members of the party are in relationships. After gathering the shrooms, and being warned by Jake not to pick a particularly toxic variety, Tara eats one, causing her to have premonitions. That evening they sit around the fire as Jake recounts a local legend of evil forces, by morning the legend has become a reality and the body count starts.
There is lots of screaming and running through the forest pursued by shadowy entities, all accompanied by shakey camerawork and appropriate mood music. The only real deviation from formulaic teen slasher movies is it is set during the day. Although it is competently acted, shot and directed there are no real scares or moments of terror. Most of the time you don’t even care if the characters survive or not. Although there is a surprise twist at the end it was one where you just go, “OK”. Interestingly, it is about third or fourth film I’ve seen with emasculation. There seems to be a pattern emerging…
Shrooms is showing at Cameo 1 on Thursday 23 at midnight and Saturday 25 at 22:15
From horror, straight into anime with Tekkonkinkreet. I’m really fussy about the anime I watch mostly because I get sent a lot of it to review and in general it is either puerile or self-indulgent. What I do like about them is they are one of the last bastions of 2D line animation filled with artistic vision and Tekkonkinkreet is certainly a prime example of this. The story, based on a manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, is of two orphaned brothers trying to defend their city from developers and gangsters, who want to turn into a giant theme park. Being an anime it is full of extreme emotions and exaggerated action but the story is absorbing but it does become secondary to the visuals, which are some of the most stunning of any in recent years. Eschewing the traditional look of the genre everything, particularly the characters, are highly stylised. Every shot is filled with incredible detail and colour. It is a pity this is a subtitled version because you spend too much time looking at the bottom of the screen rather than stunning artwork. If I wanted to read I would buy the manga.
Even if you aren’t a fan of anime go and see this film for its sheer artistry.
Tekkonkinkreet is showing at Cameo 1 on Friday 24 at 21:30 and Saturday 25 at 15:30.
Make Your Mark In Film is part of the Mark Your Mark initiative to encourage entrepreneurship amongst the young and supported by various government and private industry organisations. The Make Your Mark in Film campaign was launched at last year’s EIFF. In the ensuing year a competition for a script was run, won by Judy Upton’s My Imprisoned Heart. After that ten teams nationwide had to pitch their proposals for how they would produce one of the ten episodes of the screenplay. Each of the winning teams was given three days to shoot their episode in their own location for which they were supplied three lead actors and two props. Everything else was up to them.
The final movie had its first public screening today, giving the teams a chance to see on a big screen what the others had done and how the story played out. Remembering that these were nearly all first time filmmakers each episode looked surprisingly good, even when the DV footage was blown up on the big screen at the Cameo. After the screening it was time to party, thanks to the sponsors at Cobra Beer.
Find out more at www.makeyourmarkinfilm.org or visit www.lovefilm.com to see all the episodes.
Apart from emasculation there are two other recurring themes I’ve noticed in the films I’ve seen so far, romance and stoners, which in the case of Knocked Up featured all three, even if the emasculation was only metaphorical.
Weirdsville falls well and truly into the stoner group as two hopeless junkies (are there any other kind?) get themselves involved in a hilarious and highly improbable comedy of errors, involving drug dealers, wannabe Satanists, dwarf mediaeval role players and millionaire hippies. To explain it anymore than that would spoil the surprises. This is probably one of the funniest films at the festival, apart from Knocked Up, which is more mainstream. Weirdsville has the look and feel of a cult film and will no doubt garner that status. Reminiscent of 80s films such as those of John Hughes or John Landis’s Into the Night. In fact, director Alan Moyle already has cult films Pump up the Volume and Empire Records to his credit.
With only a few days to go I would highly recommend seeing this is you want a good (if slightly bizarre) laugh.
Weirdsville is showing at Cameo 1 on Friday 24 at 23:50, Saturday 25 at 18:00 and Sunday 26 at 12:30 as part of Best of the Fest.
One of the highly anticipated events of the Festival is the surprise movie. This is an unannounced film known only to a small handful of the Festival elite. It is a film that won’t always appeal to every taste and has to have a rating of below 18; last half the audience walked out within the first ten minutes. Trying to guess what it is is a popular point of discussion, and knowing the age restriction discounted any possibility of it being Planet Terror, to complement Death Proof. This year’s film, The Kingdom, didn’t get the same reaction as last year’s Keane, although some people did leave, but it was a gripping action thriller and the first public screening in the world.
When the compound of US oil workers in Saudi is attacked by terrorists, four FBI agents (Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) and talk their way into going to help with the investigations despite diplomatic pressure for them not to do so. Although the film doesn’t delve very deeply into the politics of the area in the way Syriana, The Seige or The Three Kings did, in certainly turns on the bloody action in the final act, which always makes for good entertainment.
The Kingdom will be on general release in October.
