Fantasia 2018: Cold Skin

by Jason Adams

The only child in me always dreams about and delights in films about people who've run away from the world of man to make a go of it by their lonesomes. They're duking it out with their own personal demons in the wilderness, of whatever sort, mano a mano. There's no greater fantasy of this sort than the Lighthouse Keeper. They wear thick-knit sweaters and write in their diaries and stare sadly into the distance at hella stormy seas - it's my fetish writ ten-fold. The old-timier the better - give me strange instruments and dials, knickers and elaborate mustaches, tweed piled to heaven, please and thank you.

Nobody tossed these fantasies into the abyss better than HP Lovecraft and Cold Skin, the new Lovecrafitan tale of terror from Frontier(s) and Hitman director Xavier Gens (it's actually based on a 2002 book by Albert Sanchez Pinol), is made of that same slippery stuff...

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Fantasia 2018: Blue My Mind

by Jason Adams

There's a whole lot going on in Mia's life. She's moved to a new town, which means a new school and trying to make new friends. She's just had her first period, and that's got her on edge. Oh and her toes have suddenly grown webbed together, and she's got these strange appetites making themselves known. 

Blue My Mind is just the latest in a long line of girls coming of age through sloppy and terrifying means - the lure of exploring budding female sexuality through the prism of the monstrous has always been with us, from Medusa's slithering wig to Simone Simon's poolside purr. What feels different now, with movies like this (written and directed by Lisa Brühlmann) or with Julia Ducournau's Raw last year, is that it's finally women who are making these movies...

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Fantasia, Straight Ahead

by Jason Adams

Tomorrow marks the opening of the 22nd annual Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, which runs all the way to August 2nd - the fest focuses in on genre films from around the world, with titles ranging from Indonesian Cowboy Epics to Christmas Zombie Musicals to Nicolas Cage. It's got everything a growing nerd might want... and then some things you might not think you want but you'll try them anyway and oh look you've got a new kink now, thanks Fantasia.

I'll be covering the fest both here at TFE and over at MNPP (we covered the fest there last year) over the next couple of weeks. There are some big titles screening like Mandy, the by-all-accounts insane bloodbath starring the aforementioned Cage alongside Andrea Riseborough of all people, and Under the Silver Lake, It Follows' director David Robert Mitchell's (recently delayed) flick with Andrew Garfield.

After the jump six smaller yet delicious-looking highlights from the fest's epic programming slate that we're hoping to get our beady little eyes on...

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Blueprints: "Hereditary"

This week, Jorge dives into how the setting and character introductions made this one of the most unsettling movies in years.

Horror films are far scarier when they are grounded by real fears. Sure, a ghost flying towards you or the sight of a little girl head’s spinning are objectively terrifying. But when a character's terror reflects the way we have felt at dire points, the horror movie seeps into our own lives, suddenly tangible. 

Hereditary is as much of a family melodrama as it is a horror film. Its scariness doesn’t rely on a supernatural force (although there is one), or on gory and violent imagery (though there’s definitely some of that). The horror taps into the dynamics and secrets of family life. It takes regular fraught human emotions and raises them to unbearable levels...

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Links: Johnny Depp, Carmen Jones, Kathy Griffin, Julia Roberts, and More...

• Coming Soon Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter to star in Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It's set to be a live action / animated hybrid. Not sure if that means the stars are just mo-capped or what.
• i09 "even the Defenders action figures hate Iron Fist" LOLOL
• Variety first look at Julia Roberts in the Amazon series Homecoming. Apparently she still wants that Emmy. (Bonus points: Sissy Spacek is playing her mother and her dream man from My Best Friends Wedding Dermot Mulroney also co-stars)
• Awards Daily predictions for what will show at Telluride 

• Vulture lists the 55 essential Queer horror films. I've only seen 20 of them. How about you?
• Playbill lists 14 stage favorites you can catch at the movies this summer
• E!News Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have a new son
• Towleroad Broadway actors redo "We are the World"... I wish I liked this more but it's too light on starpower (only a few legends in comparison to comparative within-their-field legends in the 80s single)  and weirdly makes that American Idol guy Constantine the focus)
• /Film a look back at Lagaan (2001), India's last Oscar nominee
• The Playlist Toni Collette, Kaitlyn Dever, and Merrit Wever (that's quite a trio!) will star in Unbelievable a film adapted from the Pulitzer winning article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape"
• Boy Culture reviews Kathy Griffin's comeback performance at Radio City Music Hall
• THR Jared Leto is going to play Morbius, the Living Vampire in one of those Sony attempts at making a Spider-verse of villain movies
• /Film Netflix ordered a martial arts series Wu Assassins to star Iko Uwais
• Playbill Carmen Jones with Anika Noni Rose taking over Dorothy Dandridge's famous role has been extended through August.
• ...we had our friend Erica review it right here. (I wish it were on Broadway so Anika could win a second Tony!) 

Johnny Depp painting by Matt Mahurin

This Past Week's Must Read (If You Missed It)
Meant to share this a whole week ago but if you haven't yet read Stephen Rodrick's totally absorbing, fascinating, and non-spiteful but damning profile of Johnny Depp, "The Trouble With Johnny Depp" you must. I've been thinking about it all week and mourning the Johnny that once was, from the Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Donnie Brasco, pre-Jack Sparrow days.