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jinianIn short: Really poorly organized (again), and the movies in the second session were much better than the dreadful junk in the first.
Before we even got to go in, we had to stand in a line for will-call tickets, which was the slowest line ever for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, people walked up to the box office, bought tickets without planning in advance, and got into the ticket holders' line. Annoying as hell. I waited in the ticket holders' line while Wim waited for the tickets, but (1) not everyone has a handy partner to split up with, and (2) it didn't even bloody help, because the will-call line was so incredibly slow that he didn't get tickets until the entire line had already gone in. (We did wind up with decent seats, but it was pure luck. I was about ready to rip them out and throw them around by the time we arrived at them.)
Fantastic Fortune, dir. Mike Fisher (USA)
Computer animation; an asteroid miner meets tiny space organisms. Dreadfully bad space physics and a plot that didn't follow.
Spaceball, dir. Robyn Ewing (USA)
...
This was a bad music video made by someone who had just discovered that if you put a mirror in the middle of the shot you can make weird-looking partial reflections of things. The SFnal element consisted entirely of a guy (or was it two guys?!) dressed in tinfoil.
The Realm, dir. Josiah Pitchforth (USA)
In the first sentence of the voiceover, there was bad grammar. I tried to give it a chance anyway, but the attempted-noir virtual reality plot was entirely obscured by the way postprocessing rendered the VR users' dialogue incomprehensible.
The Inedible Bulk, dir. Mad Martian (USA)
Live action. The director gets points of some kind for coming to the screening dressed entirely in green with a fluffy green wig on, presumably to call to mind the unwillingly hybridized hero of this film: Broccoli Man. This was kinda crummy but in a charming way that paid homage to older SF.
Atomic Banana, dir. Erik Kling (USA)
Another The Fly takeoff, this one a clash between a lecherous scientist and his Mojo Jojo equivalent. Scientist wants Hello Nurse, chimp wants a giant banana -- and surprisingly, the result is not a giant banana babe. The computer animation was well done, and there were even better sketches in the credits. I liked this one very well.
Machinations, dir. William R. Coughlan (USA)
Live action. This one got a great many points for having someone wave an oil can around when the android political candidate was malfunctioning, but the protagonist's part of the plot was very weak.
The Un-Gone, dir. Simon Bovey (UK)
Live action. Someone threw a lot of money at this one, and it looks great. Now they just need to think about the plot -- oh, and realize that "what happens when matter transport goes wrong" has been done once or twice in the genre before.
Fuck You, Pay Me, dir. Christopher Derrick (USA)
Another higher-budget live-action film, this one is quite stylish and depressing, only lame in a couple of places, and benefits immensely by using chiefly black and Asian actors to represent the inhabitants of future L.A. The only white guys were the bums by the barrel-fire. Now they just need to add a non-whore woman.
Life Signs, dir. Tim Sumner (Australia)
Ugly computer-animated music video in which unicycle robots pass cunning street signs which hint subtly at the incidents of their lives.
Singularity, dir. Marcos Soriano (USA)
Live-action exploration of the classic SF trope of the first self-aware AI, here created by accident from a web-spider search (?!) by a disabled black war veteran. Unfortunately we waited and waited for it to go anywhere interesting and it didn't. More thought, more genre familiarity, please, guys.
(Session break. They didn't kick us out of the theater between sessions this year, but keeping or improving your seats may be the only reason to come for the first session.)
The Tragical Historie of Guidolon the Giant Space Chicken, dir. Frank Wu (USA)
This computer-animated romp started out way too Woody-Allen for me, but it got really silly really fast, and there was a smokin' hot triceratops chick. It was pretty great. The director was smart enough to put CDs of the movie out in the lobby, too, so I have one to keep.
13 Ways to Die at Home, dir. Lee Lanier (USA)
Crazed mash-up of antique films with inserted perils. Mad and fun.
Project K.A.T., dir. Eric Pham (USA)
This Asian chick is a scary gynoid assassin! She thinks about Korean New Year and her parents, so it's actually a deep psychological thriller. ("Ka" "artificial" "thermoid" -- lamest name for a cyborg EVAR.)
Transgressions, dir. Valerie Weiss (USA)
High-budget live action. In the evil, hyper-restrictive future, everyone drives hybrid cars! Actually, this was well-extrapolated Draconian America with an actual plot twist. Horribly funny, and nicely done.
Agnieszka, dir. Martin Gauvreau (UK)
Live-action, silent ("A Symphony of You Without Dialogue", I think was the subtitle). An awfully long, tense wait for the plot to move, but I busied myself admiring the protagonist's girlfriend, who was entirely gorgeous. Creepy, cool, and weird; still wants more editing in the buildup and the breaking loose.
Maklar, Anyone?, dir. Phil Guzzo (USA)
Nicely shot live-action goofiness that manages to be both SFnal (time-traveling agent on a mission) and fannish (her mission is to join a Star Quest fan club). One of the best shorts in the festival.
TV Man, dir. Samuel Jørgenson (USA)
Nonsensical yet creepy atmospheric piece with alienation blamed on too much TV.
Mizar, dir. Yuting Hsueh (Taiwan/USA)
Ways Not To Die: On a mission to Saturn in a giant phallic spaceship. Alone. Except for your ex-boyfriend. (Actually I quite liked this, it's just eminently mockable.)
Haunted Planet, dir. Danielle Stallings (USA)
A woman who sees ghosts all the time finds that one of her friends is convinced he's dreaming the world in which that's true. She obsesses quite creepily, trying to find his real body and wake or kill him, and the ghosts are pretty disturbing. The dialogue was dreadful, though. Apparently based on a Salmonson story, "Atrocities", which I haven't read.
Face Machine, dir. Justin Simms (Canada)
The Ministry makes everyone wear masks because the atmosphere's unbreathable, arranges marriages, and god knows what-all. Dim protagonist guy has an illicit romance and a face fetish. It all ends in tears -- MINE -- when we find that under his mask he's been shaving. How's that work? Poorly considered overall, and heavy-handed like whoa. Really not a good choice for the last one!
Before we even got to go in, we had to stand in a line for will-call tickets, which was the slowest line ever for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, people walked up to the box office, bought tickets without planning in advance, and got into the ticket holders' line. Annoying as hell. I waited in the ticket holders' line while Wim waited for the tickets, but (1) not everyone has a handy partner to split up with, and (2) it didn't even bloody help, because the will-call line was so incredibly slow that he didn't get tickets until the entire line had already gone in. (We did wind up with decent seats, but it was pure luck. I was about ready to rip them out and throw them around by the time we arrived at them.)
Fantastic Fortune, dir. Mike Fisher (USA)
Computer animation; an asteroid miner meets tiny space organisms. Dreadfully bad space physics and a plot that didn't follow.
Spaceball, dir. Robyn Ewing (USA)
...
This was a bad music video made by someone who had just discovered that if you put a mirror in the middle of the shot you can make weird-looking partial reflections of things. The SFnal element consisted entirely of a guy (or was it two guys?!) dressed in tinfoil.
The Realm, dir. Josiah Pitchforth (USA)
In the first sentence of the voiceover, there was bad grammar. I tried to give it a chance anyway, but the attempted-noir virtual reality plot was entirely obscured by the way postprocessing rendered the VR users' dialogue incomprehensible.
The Inedible Bulk, dir. Mad Martian (USA)
Live action. The director gets points of some kind for coming to the screening dressed entirely in green with a fluffy green wig on, presumably to call to mind the unwillingly hybridized hero of this film: Broccoli Man. This was kinda crummy but in a charming way that paid homage to older SF.
Atomic Banana, dir. Erik Kling (USA)
Another The Fly takeoff, this one a clash between a lecherous scientist and his Mojo Jojo equivalent. Scientist wants Hello Nurse, chimp wants a giant banana -- and surprisingly, the result is not a giant banana babe. The computer animation was well done, and there were even better sketches in the credits. I liked this one very well.
Machinations, dir. William R. Coughlan (USA)
Live action. This one got a great many points for having someone wave an oil can around when the android political candidate was malfunctioning, but the protagonist's part of the plot was very weak.
The Un-Gone, dir. Simon Bovey (UK)
Live action. Someone threw a lot of money at this one, and it looks great. Now they just need to think about the plot -- oh, and realize that "what happens when matter transport goes wrong" has been done once or twice in the genre before.
Fuck You, Pay Me, dir. Christopher Derrick (USA)
Another higher-budget live-action film, this one is quite stylish and depressing, only lame in a couple of places, and benefits immensely by using chiefly black and Asian actors to represent the inhabitants of future L.A. The only white guys were the bums by the barrel-fire. Now they just need to add a non-whore woman.
Life Signs, dir. Tim Sumner (Australia)
Ugly computer-animated music video in which unicycle robots pass cunning street signs which hint subtly at the incidents of their lives.
Singularity, dir. Marcos Soriano (USA)
Live-action exploration of the classic SF trope of the first self-aware AI, here created by accident from a web-spider search (?!) by a disabled black war veteran. Unfortunately we waited and waited for it to go anywhere interesting and it didn't. More thought, more genre familiarity, please, guys.
(Session break. They didn't kick us out of the theater between sessions this year, but keeping or improving your seats may be the only reason to come for the first session.)
The Tragical Historie of Guidolon the Giant Space Chicken, dir. Frank Wu (USA)
This computer-animated romp started out way too Woody-Allen for me, but it got really silly really fast, and there was a smokin' hot triceratops chick. It was pretty great. The director was smart enough to put CDs of the movie out in the lobby, too, so I have one to keep.
13 Ways to Die at Home, dir. Lee Lanier (USA)
Crazed mash-up of antique films with inserted perils. Mad and fun.
Project K.A.T., dir. Eric Pham (USA)
This Asian chick is a scary gynoid assassin! She thinks about Korean New Year and her parents, so it's actually a deep psychological thriller. ("Ka" "artificial" "thermoid" -- lamest name for a cyborg EVAR.)
Transgressions, dir. Valerie Weiss (USA)
High-budget live action. In the evil, hyper-restrictive future, everyone drives hybrid cars! Actually, this was well-extrapolated Draconian America with an actual plot twist. Horribly funny, and nicely done.
Agnieszka, dir. Martin Gauvreau (UK)
Live-action, silent ("A Symphony of You Without Dialogue", I think was the subtitle). An awfully long, tense wait for the plot to move, but I busied myself admiring the protagonist's girlfriend, who was entirely gorgeous. Creepy, cool, and weird; still wants more editing in the buildup and the breaking loose.
Maklar, Anyone?, dir. Phil Guzzo (USA)
Nicely shot live-action goofiness that manages to be both SFnal (time-traveling agent on a mission) and fannish (her mission is to join a Star Quest fan club). One of the best shorts in the festival.
TV Man, dir. Samuel Jørgenson (USA)
Nonsensical yet creepy atmospheric piece with alienation blamed on too much TV.
Mizar, dir. Yuting Hsueh (Taiwan/USA)
Ways Not To Die: On a mission to Saturn in a giant phallic spaceship. Alone. Except for your ex-boyfriend. (Actually I quite liked this, it's just eminently mockable.)
Haunted Planet, dir. Danielle Stallings (USA)
A woman who sees ghosts all the time finds that one of her friends is convinced he's dreaming the world in which that's true. She obsesses quite creepily, trying to find his real body and wake or kill him, and the ghosts are pretty disturbing. The dialogue was dreadful, though. Apparently based on a Salmonson story, "Atrocities", which I haven't read.
Face Machine, dir. Justin Simms (Canada)
The Ministry makes everyone wear masks because the atmosphere's unbreathable, arranges marriages, and god knows what-all. Dim protagonist guy has an illicit romance and a face fetish. It all ends in tears -- MINE -- when we find that under his mask he's been shaving. How's that work? Poorly considered overall, and heavy-handed like whoa. Really not a good choice for the last one!
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under his mask he's been shaving
Date: 2007-02-07 06:41 am (UTC)Pretty much with you on alla that.
Re: under his mask he's been shaving
Date: 2007-02-07 04:22 pm (UTC)