wrap-up Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We wanted our SXSW '09 coverage to be pretty much wrapped up by this point, but then we figured ... what's the rush? At this point we'd be covering mostly the smaller films anyway, none of which have been seen outside the festival circuit, and it'd be stupid to pack our Cine spotlight into storage without shining it a few more times for the indie guys.

So yes, Drag Me to Hell was damn fun; Observe and Report was shockingly funny and unexpectedly ... dark; and everyone pretty much loved I Love You, Man. (Oh man, and don't even get me started on the Bruno footage!) Thanks to SXSW for programming some fun, flashy studio fare -- but now we're gonna tone the budgets down just a little. Not that it matters really. A movie is a movie is a movie, right? And I'd rather pick through any of the following flicks than deal with 80% of Hollywood's summertime output. (Ummm, fine. Let's say 70%.)

My first "little" favorite is a dry indie comedy called The Overbrook Brothers, which seems a lot like every "dry indie festival comedy" I've ever come across ... for the first few minutes. But once the tone is laid down and the two leads settle into an effectively fractious chemistry, it becomes a very funny road trip with a few moments of real insight and strange warmth. It's about two brothers (Nathan Harlan and Mark Reeb) who discover that they're adopted, and so they (along with one long-suffering girlfriend, excellently played by Laurel Whitsett) hit the road to an Austin adoption agency. Much banter, backbiting, and bickering ensues, but director John Bryant keeps a solid balance between absurd behavior and sincere heart.

(Click on the image above to head straight to Cinematical's Fantastic Fest 2007 photo gallery)

I just spent the last seven days at the 3rd annual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas ... and I think I need to start seeing a therapist. There's just no freakin' way that a person should be able to call this "work." But let's be honest: I'm lucky enough to attend festivals like Sundance, Toronto and SXSW -- and I do work my ass off during those weeks. But the Alamo Drafthouse's Fantastic Fest is more of a ... working vacation. Yeah, that's it.

How to explain the ceaseless deluge of movie-geek fun that was had at this year's event ... I have no idea. I suppose we could start with the people:

Fantastic Fest is the pulsating brainchild of Alamo Capo Tim League and his crack(-smoking) staff of hardcore movie geeks. Were it not for the passion, the knowledge, and the non-stop nerdiness of Zach Carlson, Lars Nilssen, Keir-La Janisse, Henri Mazza and the wonderful Karrie League, Fantastic Fest would be more like Mildly Diverting Fest. (And that's just not worth a trip across the country.) The Alamofos also have a stellar programming crew that includes the likes of Harry Knowles, Matt Dentler, Blake Ethridge, Todd Brown, and a small handful of people I'm forgetting right now but will definitely add in later once the emails start rolling in. But the bottom line is this: Call it a genre fest or call it a "geek mecca," but I can assure you that Fantastic Fest is programmed by grade-A, die-hard, 6-movie-a-day maniacs. Everything else is just gravy.