Haven't been back here much since the Fantasia Festival in Montreal (this
post on my blog serves as sort of a master index of everything I saw), but did see a smattering of foreign/indie stuff that might be worth considering:
Ace Attorney: Takashi Miike's adaptation of the popular Nintendo DS game is one of the most entertaining movies ever made from a video game (and that's from a guy who likes the
Resident Evil series). It's probably too long, but it's just joyously absurd and funny even if you've never heard of Phoenix Wright before.
Alter Egos: An enjoyable superhero comedy that was picked up by Kevin Smith's label, which actually has enough plot to be interesting, rather than just jokes at the expense of comic book (movie) tropes.
Blood-C: The Last Dark: A vampires-in-the-future movie that's got some nice animated action, but which is pretty much impenetrable if you aren't familiar with the "Blood" multimedia franchise.
Carré Blanc: I wound up liking this French dystopian future picture, but even though it's pretty short, it requires a fair amount of patience.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below: The new animated film from Makoto Shinkai, who is absolutely fantastic (if you like sf that's both emotional and based on good science, you owe it to yourself to track down his 20-minute "Voices from a Different Star". Heck, "Voices" really should be put into the thon sometime). This one is probably more fantasy than sci-fi, but close enough to the line to be worth including because it's beautiful and exciting and presents some new cool thing every ten minutes.
Doomsday Book: A Korean anthology film that should be hitting DVD/BD in December, but might be worth a slot in the marathon - the middle segment is done by Kim Jee-Woon (who did
The Good, the Bad, the Weird and
I Saw the Devil and is directing Schwarzeneggar's big comeback film
The Last Stand), and the two on either side are highly entertaining end-of-the-world scenarios.
The Fourth Dimension: A decent anthology film, although the English-language section is pretty silly (though it's nice to see Val Kilmer not taking himself too seriously), but some more sfnal bits in the Russian and Polish thirds.
Grabbers: A fun & funny monster movie in the vein of
Tremors, with blood-sucking monsters from under the sea who can be poisoned with alcohol. Nice, likable cast, fun use of certain tropes at the end. I liked it a lot.
Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack: SF/horror anime. Has sharks climbing out of the ocean on mechanical spider legs, and then gets more f'ed up.
The Human Race: Should be considered for inclusion in the festival, especially since it wasn't completely finished when screened in Montreal. It's a solid low-budget sci-fi action flick, with a lead who can kick your butt despite only having the one leg.
Isn't Anyone Alive?: The apocalypse as dark, absurdist comedy. Kind of wears out its welcome about halfway through.
Robo-G: Japanese comedy whose SF elements are pretty light (old man pretends to be robot for wacky reasons). Charming, though.
Schoolgirl Apocalypse: Believe it or not, something very far from the exploitation/kitsch it sounds like. Kind of gets betrayed by its low budget, but I liked it a lot.
The Warped Forest: Anybody here seen
Funky Forest: The First Contact? This is the stuff from perhaps the most eccentric of that movie's three directors that was too weird for that film (but also much less random and scattershot, in its way).