There were a number of truly excellent films at this year's Fantastic Fest, and I'm only one little writer. We've already reviewed a number of excellent works from Austin already, but we don't have the time or space to give all of them the ample credit that they deserve. So we've brought to you a selection of capsule reviews of some of the titles we saw at the Fest this year- the good, the bad, and the anime -- all in 300-or-so words or less.
A Mediterranean stand-off thriller set in the aftermath of an armored car robbery and soaked in the best acid you’ve had since college, Let the Corpses Tan hums with a prog-rock propensity and fucks mightily. French directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani (The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears) have an impossibly strong command of their film’s rhythm and it’s style, evoking the best of Jodorowsky (sans the grossness) with a Lee Marvin harshness deep at its core. It’s perhaps the most cleverly-edited a-chronological thriller since Dunkirk (lol), with a great deal of the film’s delights coming from how the various perspectives buried within it come together. Bloody, weird, utterly captivating cinema on display here.
Let the Corpses Tan is perhaps one of the hardest films to write about at Fantastic Fest, given that so many of its pleasures come from the ephemera of the cinematic moment and how much of its insight comes straight from a deep dive into its imagery and themes, few of which I’ve truly been able to consider since I’ve seen it, but it’s one of the most intriguing and beautiful movies I’ve seen this past year. I’ll expand on these thoughts a little closer to its wide release, after (hopefully) seeing it for the second time. Just make sure to put this one on your radar, people.
Also, it has perhaps the most artful take on the content of the Pee Tape imaginable inside of it, so be warned.
