Fantasia: bastards, tigers & Nightwish

The Tiger Mask 

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The Resurrection of a Bastard

Ronnie is not your typical gangster; he’s dumpy, overweight and wears Coke-bottle glasses. But he’s an enforcer (and a particularly psychotic one at that) until the day he’s shot in the neck at a rave. He survives, but soon has a new outlook on life: he’s no longer content to beat single moms to death in front of their children, but instead helps people out and appears to have mild psychic abilities. All this might make him a better person, but it doesn’t erase the bad things he’s done.

I walked in expecting an umpteenth Tarantino clone, and while there are familiar elements (a mob boss named James Joyce who tells pointless stories on what seems to be a deserted television soundstage), Resurrection of a Bastard is more of a character sketch that takes off thanks to the great central performance of Yorick van Wageningen as the titular bastard. The storytelling is disjointed (the tale of a young African immigrant is paralleled semi-effectively) but van Wageningen (who you may remember as Lisbeth’s abusive guardian in the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) is a powerful lead that carries the movie through its shortcomings. (AR)

The Resurrection of a Bastard plays today, Saturday, Aug. 3, 4:30 p.m.

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You’re Next

You’re Next takes place at the Davison country home, where the family celebrates their parents’ anniversary. Unbeknownst to the wealthy clan, vicious home invaders are in their neighbourhood. As they sit down to dinner, their dysfunctional relationships emerge and all hell breaks loose.

Indie-horror director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (the team who brought you A Horrible Way to Die, V/H/S, and V/H/S/2) have made their most accomplished film to date. It’s a genuinely frightening film, despite employing the familiar trope of black-clad, animal-masked invaders hunting homeowners. This is also in spite of the fact that the well-cast extended family consists of quite dislikable characters. The violence is brilliantly staged and the build-up of tension and suspense is overwhelming. The survivalist skills of one character make for some refreshing twists on an increasingly tired genre. You may never see a meat tenderizer the same way again — a must to see, especially with a Fantasia audience. (KF & MC)

You’re Next plays today, Saturday, Aug. 3, 9:15 p.m.

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Imaginaerum

I’m not a fan of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, but I can appreciate Stobe Harju’s Imaginaerum. The film was made along with the band’s seventh studio album of the same name, and it follows many of the ideas presented in the music. So naturally, it feels more like a super-long music video vs. an actual film.

It tells the story of a dying composer who is trying patch things up with his daughter as he slips in and out of consciousness, dreaming of himself as a young boy being led through his own mind by a frightening snowman.

The visuals are interesting but I don’t think I got as much out of it as a fan of the band would. It’s not really the type of thing that just anyone could watch and enjoy. Although it is an ambitious idea to turn an album into a film — anyone unfamiliar with that link would likely feel a bit confused. (KMH)

Imaginaerum plays Sunday, Aug. 4

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The Tiger Mask

Like everyone, I want to say that I’m “a child at heart” and believe it, but movies like The Tiger Mask really make this hard.

A live-action adaptation of a long-running manga and anime series, it occupies the same cinematic space as empty plastic young-adult adaptations as The Hunger Games or The Mortal Instruments: polite, plastic action movies that come with a pre-packaged audience and seemingly no desire to engage beyond those already sold on the premise. The story of men trained from a young age to participate in wrestling matches augmented by masks with special powers, The Tiger Mask seemingly attempts to ride the current wave of superhero movies but feels more like a superhero movie from the ’90s, when they were viewed as embarrassing, low-brow cash grabs. It’s silly, uninvolving and formulaic cinema for 12-year-olds, a group that I do not count myself a part of. Your mileage may vary. (AR)

The Tiger Mask plays Sunday, Aug. 4

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Plus One

A comet falls next to a ridiculous teen-movie house party, creating electrical surges that soon result in the creation of a perfect double for everyone attending the party. Who are these doubles? Are they clones or reflections? What happens when the drunk, out-of-control frat bro population notice they have a perfect double at the same party?

I have to hand it to director Dennis Iliadis (best known for the perfectly acceptable remake of Last House on the Left); it may not be a purely original concept, but I’ve never seen anything quite like Plus One. More thriller than slasher movie, it works with a brand new set of parameters that avoids falling into familiar tropes. Unfortunately, the concept is so new and untested that a great majority of the film is spent struggling with establishing the premise through characters belaboring what we already know. It’s a willfully ridiculous movie that seems afraid it will be picked apart endlessly, so it spends most of the movie trying to cover its ass. The result is interesting but underwhelming — who knows, maybe a remake will fix it. (AR)

Plus One plays Tuesday, Aug. 6 ■

The Fantasia film festival runs until Aug. 7. For the film schedule and locations, head to their website.

By Alex Rose, Katie Ferrar, Mark Carpenter and Kayla Marie Hillier