What is Fantastic Fest?

It’s an eight-day genre film festival that takes place primarily at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX in late September every year.

It’s a movie-geek fantasy camp.  As a kid, I used to watch R-rated movies in secret and dream. Fantastic Fest is that dream.

It’s a celebration of horror, martial arts, fantasy, science fiction, animation, action, and other genres.

It’s a film festival without pretense. There’ s no such thing as “so bad it’s good.” You never have to use the phrase “for what it is.” No one cares if others don’t consider these “serious” films.

It’s all of the pleasure with none of the guilt.

It’s seeing and experiencing new, fun, exciting, weird, revolting, amazing, frightening, and yes–fantastic things with a friendly group of like-minded movie gluttons addicted to awesome and jonesing for the next face-melting fix.

It’s a collection of exactly the type of movies you wish you could send back through time to your younger self and share with friends. Fantastic Fest recaptures that sense of discovery and fun and camaraderie that some people abandon forever after high school.

And its only downside is having to wait 357 days until the next one.This is my third year attending Fantastic Fest, but the first that I am covering here at Scene Stealers.

There are a few heavy hitters this year that everyone is going to see including Survival of the Dead, Gentleman Broncos, Rec 2, District B13 Ultimatum, Ninja Assassin, and Daybreakers.

Aside from those, here are 10 lesser-known movies I am very much looking forward to:

Under the Mountain - A New Zealand adventure thriller with a Goonies vibe that isn’t afraid to go to dark places.
Fish Story - A time spanning film about a Japanese proto-punk band and their song that changed the world.
The Legend is Alive - A Vietnamese movie that will prove once and for all that Forrest Gump needed more kung fu in it.
Breathless - There’s something about Korea’s special breed of dysfunction I love above all others.
Crazy Racer - A Chinese film that somehow features a disgraced cycling champion trapped in an “inextricable web of lies, deception, murder, and crime.”
Down Terrace - It’s British, darkly comedic, and it looks to be that type of warped I can’t get enough of.
K-20: The Fiend With 20 Faces - “A big budget, high energy, steampunk oriented take on the American masked-crimefighter genre.” Also from Japan.
Fireball - A Thai Combat basketball film. Basketball… to the death. My head explodes at the premise alone.
Mandrill - The one-two punch of Mirageman and Kiltro slayed me in 2007, so I can’t wait to see what these Chileans do with an “action thriller.”
Terribly Happy - A Danish film about a bizarre small town. It sounds right up my alley.

If you can’t make it to Austin but want to go ahead and play along at home, you can read more about the films showing this year and view trailers for all of them at the official site here.

If you want to study up on the festival’s legacy, several past Fantastic Fest highlights are currently available to stream instantly via Netflix.

Here are some that I feel are particularly noteworthy.

The Celebrated - these films were some of the most highly regarded:
Let the Right One In
Timecrimes
JCVD
The Host
Pan’s Labyrinth
Apocalypto
The Orphanage
Severance
Hatchet

The Underdogs: Under-appreciated, under-attended, or misunderstood:
Just Another Love Story
Spiral
Weirdsville
Chocolate
Persepolis
The Backwoods
Finishing the Game

The Infamous - People are still talking about some of these:
Big Man Japan
Tokyo Gore Police
Sex and Death 101
The Woods
Night of the Living Dorks

Extra Credit - Not technically Fantastic Fest alumni:
District B13
The Signal

I am chinesedentist on Twitter if you want to follow my much less verbose and up-to-the-minute ramblings and quick impressions.

Otherwise, I hope you stay tuned here at Scene Stealers for my daily dispatches from Fantastic Fest 2009! Day 1 brings Gentleman Broncos, Solomon Kane, more!

Tags: 2009, action, alamo drafthouse, austin, Awesome, fantasic fest, fantastic, fantasy, film festival, genre, horror, martial arts, science fiction, strange, weird

On the first day of SXSW 2009 at the Lake Creek Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX, Eric Melin interviews Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger from The Whitest Kids U’ Know on a live sketch comedy tour to promote the Fox Searchlight comedy “Miss March.” Is there a Whitest Kids U’ Know movie on the horizon? Will IFC renew the absurdist comedy troupe for a fourth season? Trevor and Zach answer these questions and talk about writing and directing “Miss March,” getting bottles thrown at them on The Whitest Kids U’ Know tour, and how cool it is that kids have to sneak into theaters to see their rated-R teen sex comedy.

Tags: 2009, alamo drafthouse, interview, miss march, SXSW, Trevor Moore, video, Whitest Kids U' Know, Zach Cregger

This is the first in a series of reports from the SXSW Film/Interactive Festival, which is still taking place in Austin, TX. Scene-Stealers hosted the Bacon-Flavored Interactive Afterparty, the Harpoon Happy Hour, and the free SenoReality screening, all of which were held at the coolest bar in town, Red 7. while we were down there. Dustin (our executive producer) and I attended several screenings and did lots of cool interviews with the directors and stars as we could. Enjoy!

Friday, March 13

Dustin and I arrived in town at 11am, and immediately went to work getting the PA and equipment together for our band, Bacon Shoe. These guys not only performed at the party Sunday night, but they flew into town Saturday morning (leaving at 6am after John played a show the night before in a different band–superstars!) to get some buzz going early by peforming what they call “street attacks.” More on that later. We got our rental car, checked into the hotel, and went straight to find a powered mixer for them to use in the SUV.

Then it was time to stand in line for an hour or so to get badges, schwag bags, and our first beer. It was in the line for the schwag that I recognized famed producer Jeff Dowd, the Coen brothers’ inspration for The Dude.I didn’t get a pic of him, but the line is in the shitty cell phone photo below.

We borrowed some PA speakers from Chris, my old friend from the Ultimate Fakebook days, who is the singer for an awesome Austin band called Schatzi on the way to the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek location.

There we watched a live performance of the sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids U’ Know, who had been on the road for two months. The tour ended that night, coinciding with the release of “Miss March,” a comedy that was written by, directed by, and starred troupe members Zach Gregger and Trevor Moore. Online videos are a big part of why the Kids have been successful. They’ve been able to grow a loyal fanbase with online vids and through their own show, which started on Fuse, and is now a staple of IFC, the Independent Film Channel.

What really impressed me with the live material, mostly culled from the series,was how really absurd the humor was. The sketches didn’t serve as a setup for a couple one-liners. They were more conceptual than that and were extremely well thought out and plotted, even when they used potty humor, which was a lot. (Who cares as long as its done in a clever way?) These guys aren’t just dicking around onstage and improvising either. The absurdity was always taken to its most extreme level, sometimes breaking the fourth wall and getting the audience involved. It was obvious that each member had their own stamp they put on the material, probably because main authorship also comes with the added bonus of being able to play the lead part.

“Miss March” screened the night before we left town and I was busy getting ready and packing, so I missed it. Since Fox Searchlight came to them with the idea for the movie, I’m wondering if it was as clever as some of the sketches. From the looks of the trailer, I’ll bet not. It looks like they were working within a pretty familiar formula (teenage sex road comedy), but maybe they were able to do something interesting with it. Has anyone seen it? I know that they are hoping to use this as a springboard to a Whitest Kids movie eventually, so this is not the last we’ll be hearing from them in the world of film anyway.

We’ll have a video of my interview with Zach and Trevor up as soon as we can. For now, check out one of the sketches they performed at the show (only suitable for work if you have headphones!):

Next SXSW 2009 entry>>

Tags: 2009, alamo drafthouse, live, miss march, SXSW, sxsw film, sxsw interactive, The Whitest Kids U' Know, Trevor Moore, Zach Gregger

I’ve only been away from Austin, TX now for 24 hours, and I’ve got a huge hangover—not from drinking (although I did my fare share), but because the work at my job that didn’t get done while I was gone is piling up around me and threatening to bury me. There’s something liberating about listening to engaging panel discussions about the state of the interactive world and seeing as many free movies as you like as you rub shoulders with cool celebs like Jeffrey Tambor (”Arrested Development”), Doug Benson (”Super High Me”), and Morgan Spurlock (”30 Days,” “Super Size Me”). The extent of my interaction with each? I’ll let you guess who was who.

1. “Hey, I really enjoyed your acting workshop. That was great.”
2. (pointing) “Heyyyyyy, Doug Benson!”
3. “Hey.”

My South by Southwest escapade may be over, but if the film portion of the festival is any indication, 2008 might shape up to be a pretty great year in film. Of course, for anyone who lives in Austin, every year is a good year because these lucky cinemaniacs live in the home of the world-renowned Alamo Drafthouse chain of theaters. People outside of Austin are finally starting to see what a cool deal they have as the forward-thinking Drafthouses have been popping up in San Antonio, Houston, and Katy, TX.

The geniuses at the Alamo have concocted the perfect mix of arthouse fare, mainstream flicks, and cult movies to spotlight while their variously pierced, T-shirt clad waiters and waitresses bring you a full menu of drinks and dinner. The kicker? You can eat on the bar ledge right in front of you and you never have to get up for another beer (provided you order a bucket of Lone Star, which I recommend highly).

After getting the pleasantries of hotel/badge check-in and bar-hopping out of the way, my friend Craig and I headed straight to the South Lamar Drafthouse showing “Back to the Future” at midnight. I ran into my old pal George, who filled me in that the Master Pancake Theatre (formerly Mr. Sinus Theater) boys would be poking fun Mystery Science Theater-style of one of the 1980s defining works of art. Years ago, when touring with Ultimate Fakebook, I had seen Mr. Sinus tear down the holy scrolls of “Footloose” and “The Lost Boys” and I will never be able to look at those movies the same again.

Friday night was no different. The timing these guys have is impeccable—they just sit there in the front row, drinking beer and heckling. It’s a beautiful thing; especially the late show when the kid gloves are off, content-wise. I’ve often wondered if it would be possible for them to take their act on the road. Maybe if the Alamo chain ever spreads up to Kansas, we might get lucky some day.

For the next four days, I crammed as many movies I had and hadn’t heard of into as much time as I could, and I didn’t see a single bad film. Ironically, my first official film of the festival was my favorite—a tiny-budgeted indie documentary called “Second Skin.”

I knew very little about the world of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Gaming), except that I was scared. Would it be a movie about nerdy little freaks that hole up in their rooms for days on end with nothing but pizza, Doritos, and the blue light of a computer screen to keep them alive? The surprising answer is no. Brothers Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza (director) and Victor Piñeiro Escoriaza (writer/co-producer) covered the wide spectrum of this addictive and increasingly common form of entertainment by expertly juggling multiple storylines (each with a surprisingly involving story arc). One couple falls in love after their attractively endowed avatars do a bizarre flirty dance together, one gamer loses everything and heads to role-playing rehab (who knew there was such a place?), and a group of gaming buddies who call their living room the Fortress of Dorkitude begin to disintegrate as some members gradually grow up and have children.

As if it weren’t enough to follow the film’s three fascinating main timelines, the Escoriaza brothers briefly explore other fringes of the online gaming world such as “gold farmers” who sell virtual swords and virtual armor to online players for real cash. Their attention to storytelling really shows through in their organization, because when one person’s big reveal comes late into the film, it completely changes the story’s context. “Second Skin” was made with a lot of care towards building character and has the same affection for those characters as “The King of Kong” last year. This movie deserves to be picked up, and fast. Marketed with the right savvy, it could have a huge potential audience. After all, the videogame industry makes way more then the movie industry.

Coming Next: Draco & the Malfoys and the good Dr. Gonzo.

Tags: 2008, alamo drafthouse, austin, film festival, interactive, jeffrey tambor, master pancake, movie, music, second skin, south by southwest, SXSW