10 on the 10th – August 2021

MMC! is in full Fantasia International Film Festival-mode, powering through titles to the exclusion of all else! (Sorry, pending Criterion Collection title.) There’s plenty of good stuff here for any film fan. Like subterranean industrial dystopias, body horror monsters, and Tool videos? Check out Junk Head! Prefer decrepit production design, quasi-Biblical allusions, and the uncanny dread of early David Lynch? Spend some time with Hotel Poseidon! Enjoy alternate histories, mockumentaries, and Santo films? Watch Opération Luchador! Have an affinity for coming-of-age stories, samurai movies, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time? See MMC!’s favourite of these last ten films I’ve watched: It’s a Summer Film!

1. Giving Birth to a Butterfly (Theodore Schaefer, 2021)
2. Wild Men (Thomas Daneskov, 2021)
3. Hotel Poseidon (Stef Lernous, 2021)
4. Return of the Bastard Swordsman (Tony Lu, 1984)
5. We’re All Going to World’s Fair (Jane Schoenbrun, 2021)
6. Bull (Paul Andrew Williams, 2021)
7. King Knight (Richard Bates, Jr., 2021)
8. It’s a Summer Film! (Soushi Matsumoto, 2020)
9. Junk Head (Takahide Hori, 2021)
10. Opération Luchador (Alain Vézina, 2021)

Let’s also give shout out to Fantasia’s Small Guage Trauma 2021 short film block which screens later today and Thursday! Boasting ten stand-out genre shorts from around the world, Small Guage Trauma is worth seeking out for those who want some blood spilled quickly. MMC! was particularly impressed with Jorge Sistos Moreno’s highly atmospheric and wonderfully vengeful The Darkness (2020) and Michiel Blanchart’s supernatural comedy-turned horror film-turned cathartic romance, You’re Dead Helen (2021). Fantasia’s various short film programs are the unsung gems of the Festival, so do yourself a favour and seek out these great offerings. FIFF’s programs in the My First Fantasia section are aimed for young and old alike and are even free to screen! So what’s your excuse now?!?

Trailer Tuesday – Fantasia 2021

The 2021 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is just around the corner and MMC! is happy to report that it will be covering this year’s FIFF once again! Fantasia’s full slate of films and special events are now lined up and its merch store is online and ready to take your money. MMC! will provide round-ups of the Festival like last year as well as find some worthy titles for potential spine-numbering, but ongoing coverage can be found at my Letterboxd list for the Fest. (I’ll try to set up a separate list for short films but there’s sooooo many short films being shown at Fantasia…)

In the meantime, let’s check out a few trailers from FIFF’s various programs that have piqued MMC!’s interest!

“The titan Takashi Miike takes us back to the magical world of the Yokai as a war threatens to destroy Tokyo. An irreverent fairytale!”

Fantasia’s “Cheval Noir” section is its flagship, juried competition and MMC! can’t help but be drawn to Takashi Miike’s The Great Yokai War – Guardians. The film returns Miike to the wacky world of his 2005 movie The Great Yokai War and features a pair of boys who discover they are the last descendants of a legendary fighter and the only hope to save some gentle demons and the city of Tokyo. And in an elegant bit of programming, Fantasia has slotted Miike’s latest to close the 2021 Festival, book-ending it against the director’s earlier film that opened the 2006 Festival.

Fantasia 2021 Announces Its Second Wave of Titles!

Aw yeah! The Fantasia International Film Festival has announced its second wave of titles and it’s full of intriguing movies. Fantasia’s emphasis on Japanese cinema really becomes clear with this latest batch of announcements and MMC! is particularly impressed with the array of animated titles in this year’s edition! Cryptozoo! Junk Head! Pompo: The Cinéphile! Poupelle of Chimney Town! Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko! The Spine of Night! And a documentary on the great Satoshi Kon — Satoshi Kon, The Illusionist!

Here is Fantasia‘s press release for its second slate of announcements!

Wednesday, June 23, 2021 // Montreal, QC​ — The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience.

Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries.

In celebration of Fantasia’s 25th anniversary, the international film festival will be hosting a special event screening of the eagerly awaited Warner Bros. Pictures superhero action adventure THE SUICIDE SQUAD. The in-person screening will be held on August 4 at Montreal’s historic Imperial Theater (birthplace of the fest) and tickets will be available to the public. The film releases in theaters on August 6.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD is written and directed by long-time Fantasia friend James Gunn, who first attended the fest in 1997 and whose previous comic book blockbuster GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY made its Canadian Premiere at Fantasia in 2014. Gunn’s no-holds-barred take on the DC team-up finds Super-Villains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of cons incarcerated at Belle Reve prison joining the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.

Fantasia 2021 Announces Its First Wave of Titles!

Last year, MMC! had an absolute blast with the Fantasia International Film Festival’s virtual edition and so it’s exciting to see the Fest return in 2021 with another online edition. FIFF’s first wave of title announcements arrived today and things look very promising with films teased across the Festival’s various sections. And with an added emphasis on Japanese cinema for this 25th edition of Fantasia (and adorable Lone Wolf and Cub-inspired art), August can’t come fast enough for MMC!

Here is Fantasia‘s press release for its initial slate of announcements!

Fly Me to the Saitama (Hideki Takeuchi, 2019) – Fantasia International Film Festival

SAITAMA IS WACK!

Municipal rivalries, bedroom community resentments, and capital city snobbery are made fantastically farcical in Hideki Takeuchi’s adaptation of Mineo Maya’s cult manga. In this alternate Japan, Tokyo is a luxurious metropolis surrounded by impoverished prefectures living in near feudal-era conditions. Momomi Dannoura (Fumi Nikaido), son of Tokyo’s governor and possessor of striking feminine beauty, rules a baroquely decorated academy and disdains the presence of any non-Tokyoites, particularly those from the Saitama prefecture. The arrival of the mysterious transfer student Rei Asami (GACKT) sparks an undeniable attraction in Momomi and starts a war of liberation between the disrespected prefectures and the opulent megacity. Can love and regional pride overcome big city corruption?

Fly Me to the Saitama is Japanese lunatic satire at its finest, balancing a storm of local inside jokes with universal tensions between slick urbanites and commuter belt wastelands. In between, the film stuffs wacky battles, gender-bending characters, outlandish wigs and costumes, and plenty of historical anachronisms all delivered with disarmingly earnest performances from a stellar cast. Book your ticket to this award-winning, box office smash and accept your Saitamafication!

Special Edition Contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Uncompressed Stereo PCM
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary with director Hideki Takeuchi, creator Mineo Maya, and crew
• Audio commentary by Japanese film scholar Mark Shilling
• Interviews with cast and crew
• Reverse Country Boasting Japan’s No. 1 Final Battle, a special promotional program for the film
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• Deleted scenes
• Trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork choices

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by manga and cosplay scholar Emerald L. King and a new printing of Mineo Maya’s original 188-page manga

You Cannot Kill David Arquette (David Darg and Price James, 2020) – Fantasia International Film Festival

FROM STUMBLING TO RUMBLING!

Branded as the most hated man in professional wrestling after winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 2000, actor David Arquette attempts a rocky return to the sport that stalled his promising Hollywood career. Despite having two stents in his heart, being under treatment for depression and anxiety, and exhibiting functioning alcoholism, the 47 year-old actor dangerously commits himself reclaiming his self-respect in the squared circle. Arquette’s journey takes him to the backyards of amateur wrestling in Virginia, the fast-paced style of Tijuana’s lucha libre shows, and near-fatal hardcore deathmatches. Along the way, he puts his health, his credibility, and his marriage on the line, but Arquette’s determination to earn a respected place in the world of pro-wrestling cannot be denied.

Part car-wreck, part inspirational Rocky-docky, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is a fascinating look into the closed world of pro-wrestling and a portrait of the physical toll and unbridled passion required to perform in its peculiar brand of theatre. Appearing alongside David Arquette are his wife/producer Christina McLarty Arquette, his siblings Patricia, Rosanna, and Richmond, his ex-wife Courtney Cox, and wrestling legends including Ric Flair and Diamond Dallas Page.

Special Edition Contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Uncompressed Stereo PCM
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Two feature-length audio commentaries, one with directors David Darg and Price James and one with David Arquette and Christina McLarty Arquette
• Full matches between David Arquette and Nick Gage, RJ City, Mr. Anderson, Jungle Boy, and others, with introductions and alternate commentaries by Arquette and City
• Outtakes and extended interviews
• This is the End, a new interview with wrestling historian Dave Meltzer on David Arquette’s reign as WCW Heavyweight Champion
• New video tribute to the song “You Cannot Kill David Arquette” by The Black Math Experiment
• Original theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork choices

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by wrestling critic Andy Murray