R_F_Fineman wrote on Jan 31^st, 2013 at 3:28pm:


I don't see it as part of the Festival, just the Marathon as quoted from Facebook: "I don't see "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X" listed on the schedule. Is it no longer being screened?
Boston Sci-Fi Fest : Ghastly is part of The 'Thon which has a different schedule, that will be out shortly."

And, I to Deity of your choice that this is NOT like a Blamire film - please, no!!!!!!!!!

But, looking at the trailer - no such luck.......

From a pure hype standpoint, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW is a get.  It's probably the most controversial film to come out of Sundance this year, and might be headed for a prolonged legal dispute with Disney (almost all of it was filmed surreptitiously in Disney parks, and the subject matter is (ahem) naughty.)

It hasn't been officially tweeted/FBed/whatever by the Fest yet, but since the Somerville Theatre is closing at 6pm tomorrow, that means opening night is being rescheduled.  The Somerville Theatre's website says they plan to open at 1:15pm on Saturday, so I expect we'll be getting a Marathon warm-up as they try and cram Mars et Avril and The Final Shift in before 5pm.

Quick rundown of what played today (which had a roughly 50% match to what was on the schedule at various times!):

The Final Shift:  A local production, and it's nice to have those as part of the festival, but...  It's pretty awful.  It's an action movie where almost no blows ever seem to connect, the acting is muted even when a little panicky overacting would be warranted, and a big sci-fi story just becomes a standoff in a diner.  I don't recommend going to Saturday's screening, because the director will be there, and that's always awkward after a bad movie.

War of the Worlds: The Untold Story:  If you look on IMDB, there's a 2005 version of War of the Worlds by the same director and cast that runs three hours long.  It looks like this is that movie cut down to mostly the special effects sequences (run through a filter to look old-timey), augmented with stock footage and an interview with the main character as an old man.  It's not painful, and the tripod designs are nice, but it's dull, without much in the way of highs and lows for pacing.

Found in Time:  After the previous two, downright capable!  That's damning with faint praise, but this movie, while it has it's problems (slow to get going, a time-changing plot that never really explains itself), has genuinely good performances, a mythology that looks interesting in part because it's not explained in a way that brings the the movie to a crashing halt.  Worth a look.

Earthbound:  While it's got a very familiar plot in "eccentric guy claims to be alien living on earth but it's all in his head or is it?", the execution is pretty good, with Rafe Spall (son of Timothy) and Jenn Murray a lot of fun to watch together.

Mars et Avril:  Bonkers.  I kind of love its future Montreal which is just one crazy thing after another, and while the whole thing does kind of seem like a bunch of weird artists' ideas that have been somewhat haphazardly stitched into a plot, it gets away with it by looking good and never delivering something totally random but also tending to be surprising and fun to look at.


Hopefully, now that the storm is over, things will get somewhat on track.  Of the five movies screened on Sunday, only two were what the schedule said they would be, when the schedule said they would be run.  Several of us came for Mars et Avril at 3:15pm, only to have it not screen until the 9pm slot, and the only information we had on what would screen next was what Dave did for testing between movies.

That is no way to run a festival that you are charging money for and selling individual tickets for.  Running the review screener for Earthbound, complete with "property of XXXX" warnings in the middle of the screen, may have been the best option, but allowing things to get to that situation is just bad.

I swear, I sometimes think Garen & company are more concerned with what goofy graphic they'll put next to an announcement than doing the simple, necessary work of keeping their customers informed of what will (or won't) play in a timely fashion.

I missed all the Sunday movies.   

I got to the Somerville Theater around 1 PM after a long hunt for a parking space, but they had not heard from Garen and didn't know when the films would start...if at all on Sunday.  So I was forced to go to a friend's house to play boardgames all day. 

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 11^th, 2013 at 12:39am:

David the Projectionist wrote on Feb 11^th, 2013 at 7:57pm:


I'll pay you to "accidently" lose the proper code if FOLKLORE II ever shows up at the Marathon..........

 

Quote:


Monday's attendance was consistently around eighteen despite some really nasty weather. "Mars et Avril", "Found in Time", and "When Time Becomes a Woman" all had about the same number of attendees. A show of hands revealed that most were going to the Marathon. Those of you who went -remember to vote.

I strongly advise parking at one of the outer Red Line garages like Alewife to the West or Quincy Adams to the south. Parking in Davis Square just isn't going to happen!