Artwork by Chris Bilheimer
I had an absolute blast covering Fantastic Fest 2022. I’m writing this post-mortem to get the final stats on the record and to mention the standouts I saw that I haven’t proselytized yet.
By the numbers:
I saw 17 short films at the fest and 28 features, for a total of 45 titles over 7.5 days.
Here’s the breakdown by day:
Day 1: 2 features, 9 shorts
Day 2: 3 features, 1 short
Day 3: 3 features
Day 4: 4 features
Day 5: 4 features, 1 short
Day 6: 5 features, 1 short
Day 7: 3 features, 2 shorts
Day 8: 4 features, 3 shorts
Not included in those numbers are the two movies I screened twice.
After watching Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle on my laptop (see Day 1 coverage for my breakdown of that movie), I decided I wanted to experience it with a crowd. I was not disappointed. It was a raucous good time. The director, his two stars, and one other actor from the movie were present for the screening. That got a little awkward at times – since the audience was there to enjoy Birdemic 3 ironically – but everyone was in a party mood, so good vibes prevailed.
I was excited to share Give Me Pity! (see Day 2 coverage) with someone, and my host for the week – Hi, Melody! – obliged. So, technically, I saw 47 movies, but it felt wrong to include those rewatches in the official numbers.
Here are the titles I enjoyed the most during the fest that I didn’t mention in my previous writeups:
The Banshees of Inisherin: I’ll hopefully be writing a full review for this one later.
Lynch/Oz: Brilliant documentary exploring the importance of the Wizard of Oz in David Lynch’s work. I showed it to Rae last night, and it was every bit as interesting on the second screening. And Rae liked it!
Bones and All: Be warned, this one is not for the squeamish. Before it started, I thought I’d be cute and order a carnivore pizza to eat while I watched a movie about cannibals. When the programmer announced that she not only cried while seeing it the first time, but that it was also “the most disturbing film programmed at this year’s fest,” I quickly removed my order card from the rail, just in case. Turns out, that was a wise decision.
Vesper: This is a visually rich bit of sci-fi that could plausibly be imagined as an offshoot of the Hunger Games universe.
Smoking Causes Coughing: An absolutely bonkers movie from French absurdist filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. The story revolves around five superheroes who use the power of tobacco to fight crime. Their character names are: Benzene, Methanol, Nicotine, Mercury, and Ammonia.
Leonor Will Never Die: A meta exploration on the creative process and filmmaking from the Philippines that (oddly) shares a similarity with a John Candy movie from 1991 titled Delirious.
Mister Organ: A fascinating documentary centering on a destructive narcissist named…Mister Organ.
Triangle of Sadness: Another title which I hope to devote a longer form review to in the future.
I’ll be spoiled for any other film fest I attend in the future, because this iteration of Fantastic Fest was so well run. I did not have a single issue during my attendance, and I got into every screening I wanted. Once I reserved a seat for the subsequent day’s screenings, that information was linked to the QR code on my badge. All I had to do was get that QR code scanned by the volunteer working the screening room for each show, and I was good to go. It’s an elegant system; it made me marvel at how cumbersome the logistics of film festivals must have been in the days before the internet and networked electronic devices.
I do have one suggestion for the folks at Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse in general. Before every screening, each presenter made sure to ask for a round of applause for the waitstaff delivering our food and for the volunteers, to show our appreciation. The fest also decided this year – I’m guessing this has not historically been the case – to automatically add a 20% gratuity to all food checks. This was ostensibly to, again, show gratitude to the waitstaff, who worked their asses off, as well as to make things more convenient for us. (Although, there was a line on each bill to add an extra gratuity, which we were encouraged to do. That’s fine, but it negates the convenience argument, since you then had to look at the bill and write in an amount anyway.)
I fully supported the automatic gratuity, since I would have added a 20% tip no matter what, but I have a better idea for how Alamo Drafthouse can show appreciation to their employees. My idea is to pay these people a living wage, with a robust benefits package. That way, we could eliminate tipping altogether, or treat it like Europeans do, as an added bonus to a salary that doesn’t need to be supplemented so that people can pay their basic living expenses.
Oh, and Alamo Drafthouse could also let their employees unionize, so that they can collectively bargain. That might work a little better to show appreciation than a round of applause from the audience. (Isn’t it incredible, in a depressing kind of way, that corporations will pass on the cost of even a round of applause to their customers? Oh, late capitalism, have you no sense of decency?)
That one pro-labor recommendation aside, my experience at Fantastic Fest 2022 was, indeed, fantastic. I’m excited to return next year to do it all again.
(As a final note, the Fantastic Fest coverage interrupted my retrospective series on the original Star Wars trilogy. I’ll get back to that series later this week; I’ll publish my piece for Return of the Jedi on October 7, which will get me back to my regular schedule. Also, thanks again to Melody Smith for letting me crash on her couch during the fest. You saved me the small fortune of a week+ Airbnb rental or hotel stay!)