Film Blog Group Hug: Fantastic Fest
Filed under: Film Blog Group Hug, Fantastic Fest
The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:- If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
- Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
- Peter Martin at Twitch reviews the workprint version of Apocalypto, including plot spoilers. He's also posted capsule reviews from Friday, Sunday, and Monday's films.
- At News of the Dead, Wiley Wiggins has been posting photos, MP3s of festival Q&As, and his impressions of various films. He perfectly summarized my feelings about The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes.
- Austinist has some capsule reviews from the first four days. The site also posted an interview with Lucky McKee, who will be available at Fantastic Fest screenings for The Woods (which he directed) and Roman (in which he stars).









