International Film Festival preview
Self-confessed genre nerd Dominic Corry casts a fanboy's eye over this year's Telecom International Film Festivals programme and outlines the films he's particularly excited about.
I love the Film Festival.
While this year's line-up isn't quite as headline-grabbing as last year's, I still feel overwhelmed by the multitude of exciting films before me. It's like one big Sophie's Choice having to decide between the numerous gems playing at the same time.
What follows is a quick rundown of some of the titles that particularly have my blood pumping.
The absolute best thing to result from the mini zombie film renaissance helped by last year's Festival hit Sean of the Dead is the fact that George A. Romero, the grandmaster of the zombie genre, has finally been able to mount his long awaited fourth Dead film.
Land of the Dead comes about two decades after Romero's Day of the Dead, the final part of what was a trilogy, and is now an, um, quaternity. For Romero, it should be a long overdue return to form after making a parade of stinkers in the last few years. I can't bleedin' wait. Number one pick of the festival for me.
Land of the Dead is part of the That's Incredible section of the Festival, which is programmed by Ant Timpson, who used to bring us the Incredible and Incredibly Strange Film Festivals. Now in it's second year, That's Incredible once again presents a groin-grabbingly good line-up of varied genre flicks.
Also of note from this section is the French thriller Haute Tension (High Tension) from rising filmmaker Alexandre Aja, who is currently filming a remake of 1977's The Hills Have Eyes. It will be nice to see what Aja's made of before seeing his take on the Wes Craven's backwoods brutality classic.
Kung Fu Hustle is the latest gonzo comedy/action hybrid from actor/writer/director Stephen Chow, the maker of Shaolin Soccer. I've been fortunate enough to see Kung Fu Hustle, and Chow has outdone himself again. It's very freakin' cool.
Fans of cult British TV show The League of Gentlemen should be pleased with The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, which presents a decidedly meta take on adapting a TV show for the big screen. Reaction has been generally positive in Britain, where it has already been released.
The lover of schadenfreude in me can't wait to see how once-hot filmmaker Troy Duffy let his ego derail a briefly promising career after Miramax head honcho Harvey Weinstein declared him the next big thing. The documentary Overnight details how after his script for The Boondock Saints had him hailed as the next Tarantino and attracted the attention of Brad Pitt, Duffy turned into a paranoid would-be-auteur with outlandish demands. Yummy.
After helping to bring documentaries into the mainstream with last year's hits Super Size Me, The Corporation and of course Fahrenheit 9/11, the Festival once again provides a wide range of interesting takes on real life.
Double Dare, which screened at the programme launch, is a winning portrayal to two stuntwomen - American legend Jeannie Epper, who famously doubled for Lynda Carter in the Wonder Woman series; and Kiwi Zoe Bell, who got her start on Xena and went on to double for Um Thurman in Kill Bill.
The doco shows Bell trying to make it in Hollywood under the tutelage of Epper and provides insight into the unique challenges faced by female stuntwomen in a male dominated industry. It is much fun seeing the spirited and very Kiwi Bell attack the sometimes unforgiving American film industry head on.
Hipsters will no doubt flock to DIG!, the buzz-generating documentary that follows two bands - The Dandy Warhols and The Brain Jonestown Massacre - as they start off as friendly strugglers and eventually take two very divergent paths on the road to rock infamy.
And no self-respecting hitchhiker on the alt-country bandwagon will miss Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues.
Other documentaries of note include Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which promises to explain clearly and concisely the whole Enron debacle; and Rize, photographer David LaChapelle's chronicling of the Krumping dance phenomenon.
As with recent festivals , there is a fine selection of anime titles on show, but this year happens to include several highly anticipated new titles, as opposed to the more retrospective selections of previous years.
The legendary Hayao Miyasaki's (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) new one Howl's Moving Castle looks like another ready-made classic; Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy promises amazing visuals with its Victorian setting; anime fans have been desperately awaiting the arrival of Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence and the latest incarnation of Appleseed promises much splendour as well.
Two festivals ago, writer/director David Gordon Green's film All The Real Girls absolutely blew me away, so I'm anxious to check his latest effort, the southern gothic thriller Undertow, starring Josh Lucas (Hulk) and Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell.
The well-reviewed romantic comedy Me, You and Everyone We Know stars one of my favourite character actors - John Hawkes (Deadwood, The Perfect Storm, Identity), reason enough to see any film.
The always politically conscious Costa-Gravas (Missing, Z) takes on corporate culture in the delicious-sounding black comedy The Ax; a heavy cast (Don Cheadle; Terrence Howard; Matt Dillon; Brendon Fraser) tackles the subject of racism in America in the heady sleeper hit drama Crash and Nicole Kidman takes a bath with her ten-year-old husband in Birth.
Finally, this year's collection of Kiwi short films Homegrown - Works on Film, is particularly newsworthy this year. Among the selections are Tama Tu, Taiki Waititi's follow up to the Oscar-nominated Two Cars, One Night; Helena Brooks' Cannes-accepted Nothing Special and NYU film school graduate Reina Webster's The Little Things.
I have only but scratched the surface of what's on this year - make sure you shoot on over to the Official Website and peruse the selection for yourself.
Dominic Corry
