The short film festival HollyShorts took place in Hollywood August 11th to 20th, 2016. It showcased a ton–yes a ton–of short films from the US and around the world. Here are short reviews of some of these bite-sized films.
Tag Archives: Fantasy
Limbo (2016)
After breaking down on the side of the road and tossing his phone, a man finds a dying dog. Giving the dog some water grants him a wish. Director Will Blank co-wrote with Richard Kapones and they adapted the story from a comic strip by Marian Churchland to create a story that resonates on many levels. The story they build here seems simple at first, but as it advances and the lead thinks of what he wants to wish for, it makes the viewer think about what they would wish for and why. The film may be short but it doesn’t lose any of its story’s effectiveness.
Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2016) [Blu-ray/DVD/Digital]
“Raiders!” is easily one of the best films of 2016. It’s a compelling and incredibly emotional tale of how one movie influenced a trio of young boys, and how that piece of art not only paved the road for their future, but also save them in many ways. What becomes incredibly evident throughout the duration of “Raiders!” that makes what unfolds before our eyes a truly gut wrenching journey is that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were men influenced by movies. Thanks to their love for serials and Westerns, they were motivated to make “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as a means of confronting their love for classic serial adventurers. After seeing “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in theaters, young Eric Zala sought out to remake of “Raiders” but with teenagers in place of the adult actors.
Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1992) [Blu-Ray]
So Duane cracks after “Basket Case 2” which is kind of expected. Your mutated brother is finally getting laid by someone he connects with someone he was literally connected to, and the only girl you ever love dies after revealing she has a mutant living within her stomach—or something. The dam is bound to break. In either case, the gang is all back here and on full fledged crazy mode. Even Granny Ruth returns once more to lead the charge and fight for her mutant brothers and sisters to be accepted in to society. I mean… there are people with deformities that live perfectly normal lives, but okay. Everyone has to have a cause, I guess. Now that Belial has fallen in love with fellow mutant Eve, and has somewhat caused her to spring forth other deformed monsters, Duane is reserved as a sidekick of a sorts.
Fantasia International Film Festival 2016 Wrap-Up
This year’s edition of Fantasia was their 20th, having missed only three or four, I was eager to attend this anniversary year. As usual since moving from Montreal to Southern California, I was only able to attend for a short period, so I made sure to enjoy it as much as possible, making it a point to see films with a crowd and going to the official festival pub while attending the same week as the market and a few friends. I also made a point to see as many movies as possible, seeing a grand total of 28 films for which the reviews can be found at the below this piece (before the list of winners).
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete First Season [Blu-Ray/Digital]
DC and Warner beat Marvel to the punch by comprising a superhero team made up of some of the most popular bit players from the DC television-verse, ending in a pretty mixed result. Season one of “Legends of Tomorrow” is a scattered and pretty crazy series of episodes that finds a rag tag group of DC’s heroes and villains coming together to stop the evil Vandal Savage. Along with the confusing time paradoxes, the writers and producers seem to be scrambling to also keep up with their long list of team members, conflicts, sub-plots and the like resulting in only a mediocre start from out of the gate. What happens when people like The Flash and Arrow are busy with their own enemies?
Atmo HorrorX (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival]
This review must start with a warning: Even though this reviewer watched this movie attentively, getting any of it was very, very difficult; if not nary impossible, so external information sources had to be sought, mainly from IMDB and the Fantasia program book. That being said, let’s start with its official summary on IMDB: “Through a surreal chase of spying, Catafuse, a dubiously dressed creature, hunts humans with the help of Molosstrap. But in a world ruled by the pharma industry, reality becomes so complex, that the mastering of insanity might just be the only way out.”