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Quint sees midnight horror comedy OTIS and Harry Potter fandom doc WE ARE WIZARDS at SXSW '08!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my first report from SXSW ’08. I have a look at a midnight horror comedy called OTIS and a documentary on the fandom surrounding HARRY POTTER called WE ARE WIZARDS. Let’s do dis.
OTIS
The cast list attracted me to this movie. You have people like Daniel Stern, Illeana Douglas and Kevin Pollak, all great under-used character actors. The set up was pretty good, too. You have a kind of black comedy take on LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT… whitebread, do-gooder parents who take some sweet revenge on a local serial killer after their daughter is abducted.
The movie tries really hard to be funny and sometimes it succeeds. It’s definitely not a failure of a film. I wasn’t counting the minutes until it was over or anything, but it’s not an easy recommend.
Ashley Johnson plays the young lead. She’s all growed up and pretty smokin’ hot, to be a complete pig about it. Her character is smart, kind… just kind of an overall ideal girl. So, of course, she catches the eye of Otis, the fat and somewhat retarded serial killing pizza delivery man-child.
He’s obsessed with his older brother (played by Pollak) to the point that he’s driven to recreate his teen years with these different girls he kidnaps... essentially he role-plays with these girls and when they don’t cooperate he gets violent.
The movie opens with one of these girls fighting back and not getting very far. It’s kind of a SAW-ish opening.
As much as I love movies that switch genres on you, I had a problem staying with this one. I don’t have a problem jumping from horror to comedy, but it’s a delicate balancing act. You do it well and you have an amalgam with its own identity like SHAUN OF THE DEAD or EVIL DEAD 2. There are actually precious few horror comedies that work and a shit-ton that are made, especially on the independent level.
The reason this one didn’t really work for me was that it kept jumping back and forth from scene to scene… there didn’t seem to be a constant. There are characters like the parents (Douglas and Stern) that play most of the movie as honestly and as real as they can, then there are characters more cartoony than Roger Rabbit, like the gum-chewing clueless FBI agent trying to track down the kidnapper. They try to co-exist, but it wound up just being distracting when they crossed scenes.
The acting throughout is pretty good, but Kevin Pollak probably turned in the best performance. He always played it for the drama and not the comedy and that really worked for his pissed off older brother character.
The filmmaking is passable, but everything is lit too brightly, it felt too clean to sell any of the horror or atmosphere. The production design is pretty good. The dungeon where Otis keeps his girls is pretty gnarly and has a good hand-made creepiness about it, but it felt very video overall.
In fact, the movie is coming out this summer direct to DVD, but I get the impression from the Q&A afterwards that they’re hoping to get a limited theatrical release beforehand if reaction is good at the festival. The movie screams direct to DVD for me, but in the upper tier of DTV. I think it’d do well with a limited theatrical release, but I don’t know if it’d ever work broadly.
So, in case it’s not abundantly clear, I’m mixed on this one. Here's the trailer if you want to see what it looks like!
WE ARE WIZARDS
I am a HARRY POTTER fan, so of course I was interested in this premise.
With this film we kind of cherry pick the fandom surrounding the craze of Potter. There’s a strong focus on the Wizard Rock phenomenon, but we also follow fan-sites, the Christian reaction to the books and the negative hold the extremists believe it has on our youth.
If there was a main line through this doc it’d be with the Wizard Rock band Harry and the Potters, a band composed of two young brothers who put on the glasses, wear red and gold Gryffendor ties and sing original songs pertaining to the famous book series, usually from the perspective of Harry Potter.
The younger brother, Joe DeGeorge, is pretty damn hilarious. He’s the right blend of nerdy and funny, popping out one-liners (“Science is the new magic!”) while talking to the documentarian… very much playing for the camera, but in a very relaxed and conversational way that I’d expect really represents who he is.
In case you think the side of lightness and good gets all the camera time we also get to meet another group called Draco and the Malfoys who perform songs from the Draco Malfoy perspective, including one called My Dad Is Rich (followed by the lyrics “And Your Dad Is Dead”).
Also featured is the pretty damn funny Brad Neely who is now becoming pretty well known for his cartoon work with Super Deluxe. I first was exposed to Neely’s work with his awesome George Washington cartoon… check it out below if you haven’t seen it:
Neely actually got his start recording his own almost audio book-like running commentary for the first Harry Potter film, which was his in to this doc.
At first I thought he was going to be annoying, to tell you the truth. He was narrating some of his running commentary in a jumping, spastic high-pitched voice and I thought that was all to the guy, not even realizing it was the same dude that did the George Washington toon. But as the doc goes on he really brings a great edge to it, dropping F-bombs left and right and bringing a much different kind of humor to the story.
My main criticism of the film is that it is so broad that you don’t really get any in-depth story to follow or any real new information about the status of fandom. There were better documentaries glimpsed in this one. There’s a British Christian woman who speaks out about the evils of the book and how it’s a gateway to witchcraft, which is devil worship, etc. It’s an old argument about the Potter books, but I’d love to have seen more time dedicated to that woman and some counter-arguments against that train of thought.
As it stands it’s a really cute documentary, but one that I think might have too limited an audience. It might be an interesting peek inside the Potter fandom for those on the outside, but I don’t think there are too many on the outside that gives a shit what’s going on on the inside, if that makes any sense.
Alright, first two movies reviewed. More to come!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Christian fundamentalists can go to Hell.
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Mar 08, 2008 11:49:26 PM CST
I don’t think there are too many on the outside that gives a shi
by jacklint
Not only does it make perfect sense, it pretty much sums up a lot of nich/nerd interests. The only scenario where somebody on the 'outside' would want to watch a documentary about nerds is to laugh at their expense, or for a freak-show type of kick. Which is fine, I loved Trekkies and Darkon for that very reason. King of Kong is maybe the only one that rises above that level as a genuinely good movie.
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I'm such a Harry Potter Dork I've read the fake 7th book a dozen times. Granted, its way better than the real 7th book but still, i't fake and i've read it a dozen times...
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concerning Harry Potter fans... who are adults. Fuck it. You all need to grow the fuck up and try some Carson McCullers, for example, or... pretty much any author whose literature is not obsessed about by pre-teens. Are you all boy band fans also?
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I grew up Catholic and I still don't understand christian hatred and propaganda of the Harry Potter books. I understand the arguement agaisnt sorcery in general, but the vitriol I hear is so aweful. I would have thought at this point, the good vs evil aspect of the story, not succombing to the temptations of evil, and innocent virtue would have helped catholics and christians in generall, teach their children that while the story is fictionalized, the morale is the same: Stay honest, stay innocent, be a champions for the less fortunate, and fight evil.... Am I wrong or am I just too drunk?
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You're pretty narrow minded... If you think all adult Harry Potter fans are nothing more than voyers yerning to explore the pre-teen world again, you're simplifying it too much. When you read the books, you're not only exploring a world where and innocent kid tries to overcome great evil, you're also exploring a world where a kid is trying to find out who he is in this world. The maturation process of teenagers is fascinating because every step is new, every step is a journey, right or wrong and that is displayed very elloquently in the books. Read them again, you'll see.
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I've only heard about the Christian-Right-Wing-Hatred about Harry Potter on the news. I've never actually met anyone who believes Harry=Satan, or known anyone who has known someone like that. I'm assuming it's kinda like the never-ending story about those assholes who claim every American death is the result of our nations policy of not persecuting homosexuality; so they picket soldiers funerals.
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I'll cede the point. I've tried to read the Harry Potter books, but could never make if more than 20 pages into 'em. However, if you want engaging, page-turner, fantasy/fiction... try George R. R. Martin. But, I wasn't accusing you of being a pedophile... I was accusing you of being a Buster Bluth.
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Agreed...heck, I'm a pastor in a very evangelical denomination, and I have yet to run into one person who considers Harry Potter a tool of Satan. However, I have run into tons of other folks like me who love the books and make the midnight book releases and movie premieres. Sounds like a cheap ploy to make controversy to sell tickets.
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That is too cute for words.
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or Ron and The Weasleys,or Mad Eye and The Moodies...or my favs Sirius and the Blacks...THOSE DAMN RACISTS.
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Voldy and the Morts.
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..It's "Avada Kedavra" not "Avada Kadavra".
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Those are some pretty nasty claims to pop out without backing them up, mister.
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Whaaaaaaaaaa? How the fuck does that happen? Is there a single instance that can be pointed out for argument's sake? And Jeff, you're an ass.
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can we not call it "the christian reaction," please? that just reinforces the extremists' mistaken idea that they speak for all of us.
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And Isn't afraid to show it. Weak, little, lame, troll boy that he is.
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There are a half dozen of them for Trekkies, several for Star Wars fans, I think there's one out there for Whedonites, a bajillion for anime fans and Wizard of Oz fans, and now there's one about Harry Potter fans.
Movies about groups of people who like particular movies are not movies. They're wank-fests.
This sort of self-congratulatory handjob filmmaking needs to stop.
I'm a fan of J.K. Rowling's work, but movies about the freakos who dress up like wizards and use the word "muggle" in every day conversation are NOT beneficial to her work, and frankly, ALL cosplayers and obsessive fans of ALL art need to CALM THE FUCK DOWN and stop being such complete and utter tools.
Cosplay must die. People who run around dressed as Snape are just as whacked as people who dress in fursuits and yiff each other. -
It's a series of still badly-done drawings with a silly-ass song played behind it. I can get the same effect with MS Paint and the slideshow feature on my iPod.
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...Sounds like a really broke ass poor mans Trekkies.
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Why so many articles about so many boring movies
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Pardon my "a".
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