The Berlin Bride (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Michael Bartlett
	Actors: Taylor Baldschun, Michael Bartlett, Brynmor Jones
	Country: USA, D
	Genre: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2020, FANTASPOA2020, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Two oddball Berliners discover the abandoned appendages of a mannequin. Separately, and with grotesque consequence, they come to terms with their disjointed mate.
Review: From the synopsis and the poster of the movie, I was expecting more of a Giallo (or something like Anguish) and didn't get much of it apart from the strange mannequin fetishism and the setting in the 80's. Those are also the two best things in this movie. I am in particular amazed at how the director could recreate the Berlin of 1986 in its exterior scenes, in spite of a probable low budget. It is also remarkable to see this kind of production in Europe and I can only encourage it. Finally another characteristic of the movie is that it is almost without dialogs, apart from a few lines in German or English, which makes it easy to watch for anybody even without sub-titles. The rest of the movie feels sometimes like a psychedelic trip, as we see the mannequin taking a more and more important part in the life of our two protagonists, both weird in their own way. A movie unfortunately not as rich and memorable as I thought it would be.
Rating: 5 /10

Fried Barry (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Ryan Kruger
	Actors: Gary Green, Brett Williams, Joey Cramer
	Country: ZA
	Genre: Horror, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 29.07.2020, FANTASPOA2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: Barry (Green) is a low-life heroin-addicted father of one. After a party evening he is abducted by aliens and then takes a backseat as an alien visitor assumes control of his body and takes it for a joyride through Cape Town.
Review: Again, after Precarious, I am thankful for a Film Festival (the Brazilian FANTASPOA) to show me this kind of movie which I would otherwise see nowhere else. South African productions are also pretty rare, but we all remember the great District 9. Fried Barry looks cheap in comparison, but they are not made to be compared. It is thrilling and hilarious to see Barry go from one incredible adventure to the next, all of them filled with drugs, sex and violence in the suburbs of Cape Town. It keeps on getting crazier until a relative pause and then the final chapter. The actor playing Barry is great at transmitting the feeling of a guy already lost in the first place but in addition controlled by an alien. The whole movie reminds me of the craziness in The Greasy Strangler but less disgusting. I also love the cinematography, mostly at night and in streets or clubs illuminated by bright colorful neon lights. This sets a nice atmosphere. Extravagant until the end. Recommended if you need some craziness in you life, at least for one hour and forty minutes.
Rating: 6 /10

Precarious (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Wes Terray
	Actors: Juliana Frick, Dashiell Hillman, Andrey Pfening
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 29.07.2020, FANTASPOA2020, 14"computer screen.
Synopsis: After being shot with arrows by a mysterious woman, Henry (Pfening) is held by the Police at the Doctor's office from where he then escapes.
Review: I had a good feeling when deciding to watch this movie and was not disappointed. The opening credits put you right in the mood for it: slowly moving camera over pieces of props with the crew's names on it, and the title made out of folded pages of a book, as shown on the photo below this post. Who nowadays makes the effort to design such a sequence? In Precarious, it was the director Wes Terry and his Art director Louise Franco who both did a fantastic job at giving the movie this special 60's atmosphere, sometimes reminding of an episode of The Twilight Zone. I found an interview on Filmink where the director tells you what you need to know about the genesis of the project, and how he could make it happen with just a fixed idea and a reduced crew, albeit it took him seven years to do so. Other members of the crew making the movie what it is are the motivated actors and the composer Ben Eshbach who wrote the melodies which carry the audience along the adventure. You have to love the attention to details in the movie and the perfect framing. Hard to believe the sets were all built in the director's apartment! There are a few moments throughout the movie that give it away however, and hint that it was produced with limited means: the acting at some moments, the cheapness of some set pieces, the lighting and the sound recording. But this is easily forgiven for a first full-length feature, and in comparison with the richness of other aspects. I love that the movie takes its time to reveal the characters and what this is all about, this practice has become far too rare in modern cinema where you are usually thrown into the action by fear that you wold zap to another channel, because who watches full movies in a (home-)cinema nowadays? The way the mystery slowly unravels reminded me of movies by David Lynch, also maybe partly because of the resemblance between the main actor Andrey Pfening and Lynch's favorite Kyle MacLachlan (in Blue Velvet for example). A nice discovery which makes me ever more happy to follow movie Festivals.
Rating: 7 /10

A Brief History of Time Travel (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Gisella Bustillos
	Actors: Ted Chiang, Satyanarayana Dasa, Erik D. Demaine
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 26.07.2020, FANTASPOA2020, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: A journey through the evolution of time travel; from it origins, it's evolution and influence in science fiction, to the exciting possibilities in the future.
Review: This short 65-min Documentary is quite nice to give an overview of Time Travel in History. It does not spend too much time on movie examples like I thought it would have, but rather covers the origins of Time Travel in myths and literature, looks at the spiritual aspects like meditation, Buddhism, shamanism, and even tackles the real science of the thing. No wonder the title is directly inspired by Stephen Hawking's popular-science book on cosmology A Brief History of Time. Again, we get some movie connections via ComiCon attendees and mention to the most famous Time Travel movies like Back to the Future, but that's not the core of the Documentary. I found that it nicely covered all the subject I was curious about when I started watching. Thanks for the programming of the FANTASPOA Festival, as many others taking place online this year, for advertising this kind of Documentary to the public.
Rating: 6 /10