I wasn’t sure about posting Fantastic Fest updates, but yesterday was a lot of fun.

Strings was quite beautiful and intellectually intriguing. The marionettes weren’t just characters in the story but their existence revolved around actually being aware of their “marionette”[-]ness. It’s hard to describe without giving too much away, but a good example is that the gate to the city was just a bar that was raised, thus preventing the strings from crossing the threshold. The story was epic in that 90 minutes covered several confrontations and characters and revelations. It was quite an experience, but definitly an experimental one that I would only reccomend to the type of person that is willing to read mature graphic novels without flinching. (Pssst- this may be a good film for stoners.)

From the director of Ju On/The Grudge (both the American and Japanese versions), Marebito follows the new Japanese classic horror resurgence and takes it too far. Along the lines of Audition or Old Boy this film is not for the weak of spirit or easily disturbed. Like most of these films, it starts slow and takes it’s time to develop and then goes really wrong, really fast.

G.O.R.A. will probably never make it to an American release. It’s a big budget Turkish sci-fi comedy. If you’ve seen (clips of or the entire) Turkish Star Wars or Turkish Wizard of Oz, you’re in for a shock. This movie is better than Spaceballs despite all the subtitles and features Turkey’s version of Sacha Baron Cohen. It looks as good as Star Wars and delivers constant laughs.

The best feature of the night, and the lynch pin premiere for the festival, was an early cut of Zathura. Hiding even my own skeptism for what is being advertised as Jumanji In Space, I coerced my friend to go see it. It was awesome — funny, suspenseful and not nearly as cheesy as the credits would lead you te believe. Jon Favreau was there for a Q&A and he said he wanted to make a kids movie that wasn’t a “parent punisher”. He did more than that he made a good movie that kids will like, too. On the down side, when he showed up he was wearing a short-sleeve plaid shirt, blue jeans with one cuff roll and black canvas tennis shoes…just like me. I was so embarrased that I almost went home to change.

!/backporchbeer/archives/2k5/jonah_bobo2.jpg!
—Turn 1: Just before metors destroy the living room.—