FANTASIA 2012—THE SECOND WAVE

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The 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia)—running July 19 through August 7, 2012—follows up their first wave of program announcements with a second wave of additional titles guaranteed to ratchet up the excitement. Capsules courtesy of Fantasia.

Ace Attorney / Gyakuten saiban (Japan) Dir: Takashi Miike—Who else but Takashi Miike could deliver a video game adaptation set in court where attorneys would match in surrealistic juridical duels? This visual fest tainted with black humor got its share of attention at this year's Rotterdam Film Festival and will surely be one of the highlights of Fantasia 2012! Official website [Japanese]. IMDb. Wikipedia. Canadian Premiere.

At Variety, Jay Weissberg claims Miike's cult following might save this "dull production" wherein "Miike himself seems barely able to muster much enthusiasm for the assignment, which is criminally long and generally lacking in his playful visual hyperbole." As if to test Weissberg's prediction, at Twitch Ard Vijn monitors the film's reception at its world premiere in Rotterdam and notes, "The first press screening earlier in the week left many reviewers dissatisfied, some angry even, and there were people saying the film was disastrously crap. Yet at the paying public's World Premiere, the atmosphere was very different. The crowd ate it up, gamers and non-gamers alike." Vijn concludes that Ace Attorney is "definitely a love-it or hate-it affair" and sides with those who found the film "a quirky yet dangerous barrel of fun." He takes time to interview Miike.

Afro Tanaka / Afuro Tanaka (Japan) Dir: Daigo Matsui—When Tanaka traded in his messy hair for a glorious Afro, he finally got respect. The problem is, this is the only good decision he's made in his entire life. Director Daigo Matsui presents one of the funniest and most strangely endearing characters you will see this year, joyfully interpreted by star Shôta Matsuda (Hard Romanticker). IMDb. North American Premiere.

At The Japan Times, Mark Schilling praises Afro Tanaka as a "laugh-till-you-hurt comedy based on Masaharu Noritsuke's award-winning gag manga" and adds, "Though plentifully seeded with gags from the source manga, the film is less a succession of black-out skits than a comic character study that achieves a sort of completeness. By the end we have not plumbed Tanaka's depths—he has none—but we know him and his milieu...."

The Ambassador (Denmark) Dir: Mads Brügger—Mads Brügger (Red Chapel) is on a mission. Armed with a forged Liberian diplomatic passport, the infamous prankster journalist ventures deep into the underbelly of African politics in search of diamonds, wealth and power—and exposes an industry where diplomatic titles across the continent are for sale. Far more disturbing in its realism than any Sacha Baron Cohen creation, The Ambassador redefines extreme documentary filmmaking, and gives a whole new meaning to diplomatic immunity. IMDb. Quebec Premiere.

At The Substream, Kurt Halfyard clocks in at one minute in his favorable critique of the film. At Eye For Film, Amber Wilkinson describes the film as "subversive and incendiary." At Slant, Chris Cabin finds The Ambassador "more of a lopsided, if irrefutably involving, act of gonzo reportage, part absurdist how-to guide on becoming a diamond smuggler, part outsider tour of a truly lawless land infested with poverty and incessant corruption."

Black's Game / Svartur á leik (Iceland) Dir: Óskar Thór Axelsson—The Icelandic gangster / drug scene of the late 1990s explodes vividly into life in this throttling directorial debut from cinematographer Axelsson, exec produced by none other than Nicolas Winding Refn, its frame lines singed with a dizzying assortment of colorful characters and explosive bursts of violence, its snowy landscape charged with blood, testosterone, sex and cocaine. Official Selection: Rotterdam International Film Festival 2012, Hong Kong International Film Festival 2012. IMDb. North American Premiere.

At Variety, Leslie Felperin notes Black's Game is "strongest on the procedural challenges of importing drugs into such an isolated country, and the dialogue has snap, but it all feels a little too secondhand", notably "a little too indebted to a slew of like-minded gangster movies, from GoodFellas to exec producer Nicolas Winding Refn's own original Pusher pic." At The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney's bottom line is that "there's more adrenaline than originality and more imitation than inspiration in this violent crime thriller from Iceland." As if understanding that genre films derive their energy from thievery, none of the trade complaints hinder Ard Vijn's enjoyment of Black's familiar tropes in his Twitch review. He finds the film "a snake on speed" and interviews Axelsson.