Augustus Gloop @ Fantastic Fest: SANTOS, FEAR(S) OF THE DARK, NACHO VIGALONDO, SAUNA, And CHOCOLATE!!

Merrick here...
Augustus Gloop sent in another batch of reviews from Fantastic Fest. You can his write-up of previous films HERE.

Fear(s) of the Dark ------------------- Fear(s) of the Dark is a show for the film festival crowd. It's experimental, arty, and as one person described it, 'very French'. Four animated horror stories are tied together albeit very loosely by a murderous traveller and his pack of ravenous dogs. This is in my opinion not a good film to be subtitled. It reminds me of Persepolis in that regard, as the effort of reading the subtitles really distracts from watching the animation, which is different in each of the four segments. It is almost entirely in black and white, with one segment having several shades of blue and grey. I especially enjoyed the visual style of the last piece, which was sort of a haunted house tale and which had the least dialogue. The music was most enjoyable, the animation, while good, was not groundbreaking, and the stories were disjoint and hard to follow. This one failed to touch a nerve, good or bad. Short Films of Nacho Vigalondo ------------------------------ I wish I could be the first one to say Nacho Vigalondo is a filmmaking genius. Fortunately for the world that has already been recognized, and we're going to be seeing more and more of this guy. I was excited for the chance to see what else he can do and reassure myself that Timecrimes was not just a one-hit wonder. This collection of shorts included among others, a zero-budget Philip K Dick-inspired short that manages to be better than some of the Hollywood features bearing that venerable name. Two of his other zero-budget shorts were especially notable. In the first, he instructs on an important rule of independent filmmaking with a 'batball' and a cow. In the second, he demonstrates clever use of this rule as a couple argues over the use (or re-use) of videotapes to record an alien invasion. The last selection we were treated to should very well have played Fantastic Fest as a short on its own, '7:35 in the Morning' is a fabulous musical starring Nacho himself in an explosive love story. The entire program was entertaining, and full of the phenomenon that is Nacho. I highly recommend you take advantage of the chance to see Nacho Vigalondo now, before he's too big for this festival and too busy directing Tom Cruise. Santos ------ I just couldn't wait to see this one. As a festival, sometimes Fantastic Fest can be heavy on the horror, so a light-hearted superhero movie is a rare gem. In fact, I'm not entirely certain Santos isn't the first superhero movie we've seen at the festival. I am completely sure however that Nicolas Lopez has invented a brand-new superhero that is funny and engaging, not an easy task. With Santos, the comic book world is approached from the POV of a comic writer who is unwittingly the actual hero of his comic and writing about what he already knows, subconsciously. 'Santos' breaks a lot of rules of American cinema, in terms of dialogue and effects, but it really works. It's hard to say if this is meant to be a serious super-hero film or a spoof of one, as the line is a little blurred here. Either way, Santos is loads of fun, and I had a great time. (And I'm in no way influenced by the free beer the guys gave away to the audience, since i didn't have any) Stick around during the credits for some reimagined versions of notable comic book covers and movie posters. Can't wait for the sequel! Sauna ----- After a bitter post-medieval war between Russia and Finland in the 1500's, a group of men from both nations set out to mark and map the new border. In the middle of an enormous swamp, they encounter a village next to a mysterious flooded sauna of unknown origin that forces people to confront their inner demons. This is a beautiful film that was a little difficult to follow. People tend to disappear without explanation, and much is left to inference. If you really think about it, you can reconstruct what's going on, much like a painting that must be interpreted. Moody and intriguing, Sauna is a good ghost story and a psychological thriller. Chocolate --------- Kick-ass. Kick-face. Kick-knees. This movie kicks everything. Did you like Ong Bak? That was just the intro course on Muay Thai action. It would be amazing to watch a seasoned actor like Jackie Chan doing this stuff, let alone a 12 year-old girl. If this kind of movie is like kung fu porn, in that the story is incidental, just there to get you to into the fights and tie one fight to the next, then Chocolate is like one of the 4-hour marathon tapes. There's 10 minutes of story here about a man and a woman in love, who are separated by the local gang boss for reasons I couldn't quite figure out, but not before she gets pregnant with his child. We see the doctors tell her the child is different from other kids, and a few short shots of her growing up next to a Muay Thai school which she watches and starts to imitate. This montage seems to imply that her training took years as she was growing up, but later we see her watch and learn new fighting styles in moments, not unlike the muscle mimic character in Heroes. As the sequence ends, we see her with her cousin as she now works as a street performer catching high-speed balls that people throw at her from any location. They are doing this to bring in extra money to buy medicine for her mother who appears to have cancer. When her mother is unable to collect on some money that is owed to her, the little girl springs into action, beating the shit out of everyone in the place to get the money back. From this point on, the fights are practically non-stop until the epic 4-story street fight that completes the film. Watching this, you know it's not real fighting, you think there must be safety nets or air bags or wires, but then during the closing credits they show outtakes of people taking 10-foot falls and doctors checking out the actors for concussions. It's a wonder any of them survived making the film.