Fantasia Film Festival reviews: A Disturbance in the Force, Booger, Hippo, The Becomers

The Fantasia Film Festival continues till Aug. 9, bringing genre cinema to Montreal theatres at Concordia University’s downtown campus.

A Disturbance in the Force

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a notorious cult film that even most casual fans have heard about. The new documentary A Disturbance In The Force seeks to unpack the story behind the special, explain some of its notoriety and discuss its eventual “disappearance.” In doing so, it illustrates a simple fact of contemporary culture: nothing Star Wars-related can ever truly vanish, no matter what George Lucas thinks. 

The doc hosts an impressive array of commentators, drawn from the makers of the special, cast members and contemporaries, people at ’70s Lucasfilm, current Lucasfilm employees and the ranks of celebrity fans (including “Weird” Al Yankovic). It outlines the genesis of the show from Lucas’s intent for it to be a means of keeping the characters in the fans’ minds while The Empire Strikes Back was being made, something that was deemed integral, to him handing off control of the TV variety show to a band of showbiz professionals, who turned it into a hallmark of bad ’70s television. While it was only loved by certain children at the time, it has become a pop culture curiosity, with references to it abounding in other television shows. 

One interesting aspect of the doc is its exploration of the marketing around A New Hope; Lucas was determined for it to be a success and was seemingly willing to do anything (including ceding creative control) to have that happen. This fostered attempts to pioneer a form of audience engagement that saw the creation of a culture of fandom, which began with Mark Hamill being sent to Comicon in San Diego months before the movie’s premiere and reached new peaks of vulgarity with the Donny Osmond Star Wars sketch. As such, the doc is particularly strong on building context. It illustrates how the Star Wars phenomenon pointed the way for the future of film and entertainment marketing, while still existing in a world where old-time showbiz mandated specific ways of reaching the broadest audience possible — hence the variety show, which remained the default for television in the late ’70s. This leads to a terrific exploration of the horrors of 70’s TV, with choice clips from the likes of Wayne Newton at Sea World and the aforementioned Osmond episode, among others. These indicate that SWHS was far from the worst exemplar of the form, as much as those involved want to forget about it, deny its existence or write it off as a contractual obligation. 

Once the doc gets past Lucas’s plans for revealing more of the SW universe in the special, including the detailed portrait of wookie life & Life Day, and moves into the nuts and bolts of making the special, it begins to falter. It becomes bogged down with its succession of talking heads and seems too conventional, especially given the incongruous weirdness of the show — some even call it “avant-garde”. It also tries to take on a more than it can chew with the volume of issues it seeks to address. Meanwhile, the clips remain tantalizing and sometimes side-splittingly funny in all the wrong ways (like the clip with Chewie’s grandfather and the virtual reality fantasy machine). Those who have not had the pleasure/misfortune of seeing the SWHS will find themselves wishing the filmmakers had let the clips run a little more, in all their terrible strangeness. 

As stretched-out as Disturbance can feel in the back half, it ends as a moving meditation on the merits of owning and learning from your failures. It also points to a problem with the recent deluge of Disney Star Wars content: the notion that fans will forget about the characters seems to have persisted with the more recent trilogies, and they repeated the same errors of overproducing diluted content (albeit of a far higher quality than SWHS). 

Regardless,  A Disturbance in the Force is a must-see for any Star Wars fan. Those familiar with the SWHS will relish the details about the cult “masterpiece,” while those unfamiliar will find themselves seeking it out for further viewing. It will also illuminate many less-known aspects of SW lore, including the origins and popularity of Life Day and the first onscreen appearance of Boba Fett. (Katie Ferrar and Mark Carpenter)

Booger

Booger is a moving dark comedy about friendship and grief presented through a body horror lens, which is a real treat for a genre fan. Anna’s BFF and roommate Izzy’s been killed in a bike accident, and their black cat named Booger runs off after chomping down on Anna’s hand. The double loss proves too much for Anna, and she isolates herself from daily responsibilities like maintaining her apartment, relationship and employment. Meanwhile, an almost Seth Brundle (The Fly)-style transformation into a human with catlike qualities and abilities follows. This is where a decent amount of body horror comes in — from a festering wound, to retching up hairballs to following a cat’s diet. Those unaccustomed to this type of fare may find themselves retching along with Anna, while more hardened fans will be entertained to the point of chuckling. 

Fundamentally, the film is about the grieving process and how it can produce a dreamlike, delusional state of self-preservation, manifesting in self-destructive ways; Anna’s transformation is a trauma response. Booger features some great supporting performances from Marcia DeBonis and Heather Matarazzo and a fearless turn by Grace Glowicki as Anna. It also has a litter box scene worthy of right-wing propaganda. The film is well written, directed, shot and edited. This makes it a strong debut feature for writer/director Mary Dauterman, and we look forward to seeing what she does next (MC & KF).

Hippo

Hippo‘s narrative contains taboos that should have mainstream viewers cringing in their seats and heading for the exits out of disgust, but it’s delivered with such matter-of-fact apathy that they may find themselves lulled into complacent laughter.

Shot in stark black & white, Mark H. Rappaport’s Hippo shares some of the same sensiblities and tight, precise framing of early Jarmusch (with Lilla Kizlinger’s Buttercup as a morose Hungarian to rival Eszter Balint in Stranger Than Paradise) mixed with something of the transgressiveness of peak-era Solondz — though the shock factor is muted by comparison. Hippo‘s inappropriate subject matter is made surprisingly palatable by its deadpan humour and sober delivery, facilitated by strong performances and a measured voiceover by Eric Roberts (whose wife, Eliza Roberts, plays the mother). Indeed, your most visceral reaction might arise from Hippo’s cocktail of Mountain Dew and milk. Rappaport’s stoic approach to the tangled dysfunctionalities of the family makes for numbing, affectless, but quite entertaining viewing.

Hippo and his adopted sister Buttercup continue to mourn the absence of their father five years on. It’s 1999, and they are living an isolated life that has sheltered them to a fault. Hippo lives in a reality of his own making, cocooned in a world of video games and maternal care. He has grandiose fantasies of being a god-king who protects his kin from external threats. Meanwhile, twice orphaned, Buttercup longs for a child, ideally with him. Her desire for motherhood stems from a lack of enduring familial connection, and her search for a sperm donor leads her to a Craigslist ad. At her mother’s insistence, her “gentleman caller” arrives for a dinner date at home with family, and things come to the proverbial head. What follows should be more disturbing than it is. 

Rappaport is working in familiar arthouse territory in many respects. His closed-off, incestuous family unit is reminiscent, as well, of the hermetic world in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth. Rappaport manages to synthesize these elements into a strangely entertaining brew. The shock of the forbidden is replaced by a jaundiced comic sense. Nothing matters, and everything is potentially hilarious. Much of the humour comes down to the terrific cast, particularly Jesse Pimentel as Buttercup’s sleazy date, and especially Kimball Farley as the eponymous character. His portrayal of Hippo, and his tenuous grip on reality, is quite remarkable and is reminiscent of Edward Scissorhands-era Johnny Depp. Hippo is entertainment for discerning viewers not easily rattled, though there may be fewer of those than there used to be. (KF & MC)

The Becomers

The Becomers is an oddball sci-fi comedy about two alien lovers who have escaped their dying planet to start anew on Earth. The catch is that they must first murder their human hosts to use their bodies as vessels, but even then, the transfer is fraught with problems. 

While the aliens move haplessly from body to body, narration read with appropriate blankness by Sparks’ Russell Mael explains their love story, the destruction of their planet and their species’ plan for survival. Meanwhile, the film gets a lot of comic mileage out of scenes where the visitors learn about human culture and society, through trial and error and by watching TV. The isolation of the pandemic also seemingly allows them to fly under the radar.

After a half-disturbing, half-slapstick intro establishing the aliens’ presence, they find each other and try to settle in as a human couple. Unfortunately, the pandemic pastimes of their hosts catch up with them, and they find themselves in a perilous situation, which is a hilarious political comedy of errors for the viewer. They also realize that they need to start assimilating to survive in their new home. Their efforts to do so are both moving and side-splitting, as the movie shifts gears to present them in a more sympathetic light. 

Writer-director Zach Clark (Little Sister) has to navigate some uncomfortable tonal shifts in The Becomers, but the film becomes more assured as it progresses and is unexpectedly poignant by the last act. Overall, it plays like a deadpan-comic variant of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers plotline from the point of view of the pod people, with some of the melancholy of The Man Who Fell to Earth. Key to the movie’s success are the performances by its lesser-known cast, who play out the often-absurd situations with the utmost sincerity and conviction. Particularly affecting is Molly Plunk as Carol, one of the aliens’ vessels, who sustains a tearful, obliging manner through the craziest plot twists. 

The Becomers is a wonderfully awkward post-pandemic sci-fi/horror comedy that deserves a look.

For the complete Fantasia 2023 program, please visit the festival’s website.

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