Darla Hood From Fantastic Fest 2006: TIDELAND And GAMERZ!!

Merrick here...
Darla Hood wrote in from the fabulously frenetic Fantastic Fest 2006 with a look at TIDELAND, and GAMERZ...

Darla Hood here and exhausted from only the second day of Fantastic Fest. The thing is that I couldn't have chosen two films that could have been more opposed on the emotional spectrum. And even though it was exhausting, I adored both of these films forextremely different reasons and emotions. The first film I saw today was Terry Gilliam's TIDELAND. I really dothink that it's best to go into this film knowing as little as possible about it. I know that sounds like a cop out, but it's not. I went in with absolutely no prior knowledge of it. I even watched BARON MUNCHAUSEN this morning to "get ready" for a fun Terry Gilliam film. I mean, I knew that the story had a little girl in it, so I assumed that it would be a great kid story like TIME BANDITS and MUNCHAUSEN. I was kinda wrong about that. I'll just say this, the main character, Jeliza-Rose, is an extremely resourceful little girl who has seen far too much for her age. It was completely gutting to me to watch this poor child go through all that she goes through. However, she wanders through these experiences as if barely touched by them. Afterwards, I wondered if this was realistic at all...the way she lives. I decided that everything flowed so well in this film that her life is set-up perfectly from the beginning in order to believe her story. This is quite impressive, considering her age and experiences. The writing on this picture is so well done that even while I was cringing at times (a lot of times), a line of dialogue would zip by that was so surprising and smart I would find myself laughing. When I say that I was cringing, it was solely due to the painful experiences that this girl goes through. My issue is that when I get into a film, I really let myself feel what the character could feel. And even though she never feels bad about the cards she's dealt, I couldn't help but feel the reality of the situation. And man, was it painful. The acting is fabulous throughout. It took me a few moment to even realize that Jennifer Tilly plays Jeliza-Rose's mother. She is brilliant in her brief part in the film. And I would say that Jodelle Ferland was an amazing find for Jeliza-Rose, but this little girl already has a long resume behind her for her age. She is fantastic in this film. I could actually go down the cast list and praise each member separately for their work in this film. Wonderful stuff here. By the end of TIDELAND, I felt as if I had been on such an intense emotional roller coaster that I was truly in a daze. I could have stared straight ahead and wept for a good thirty minutes. Seriously. This film is intense. And with that, I should say that it's also not for everyone. But if you get into the story and don't mind difficult emotions, you'll love this film. As I said earlier, the next film I saw was at such an extreme end of the emotional scale than the previous. I was actually going to see ISOLATION, but the schedule changed. And now I'm glad that it did because I needed the light, fun comedy that is GAMERZ. There have been plenty of descriptions of the film from other reviews here, so I'll just cut to the basics. This film is fun, fun, fun. And it's completely accessible to everyone, even non-gamers. Even though I do thoroughly enjoy horror movies (a girl? no way!), playing video games (what?), and reading comics (gasp!), I have never played a role-playing game in my life. I do know some background of these games due to friends' knowledge, but I don't think you need to know a bit about it to really enjoy this film. Some people might have a problem understanding the Scottish accents, however the acting is good enough that you can get the gist of those scenes without a problem. The cast is actually a perfect fit for each of the characters and are each basically unknowns in Scotland. I'm impressed that the producers were able to find such ideal people from unknown young actors AND be able to get the film made AND to be able to make such a perfect gaming film with them. It's wonderful. Hopefully GAMERZ will get some sort of distribution. It's a good ol' feel good movie on a topic that doesn't get used enough in films. Keep your eyes open for this one, just in case it does come around. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the write-up, Darla. Appreciated. More to come as Fantastic Fest continues!