“Twisted Tales” easily brought the rowdiest crowd ready for creative oddities and was a whole lotta fun.
Louise Alston’s “Help” took the program title to heart as it threw in twists to keep things lively. Folks in darkened parking garages are not to be trusted. Alston manages to sneak in a humorous exchange that sounds mildly rehearsed, which tweaks the dark plot even more.
Edoardo Lugari’s “Eternal Skin” asks whether our souls ever really leave our bodies...or at least our body parts. It’s been done before (e.g. Return to Me), but still manages to build curiosity.
Bob Ray’s “Ape Sh!t Wa-Hoo” was a crude crowd splitter, but fans in favor were loudest. As lewd as it wanted to be, the animated gross-out fest of a convenience store robbing monkey who ensures that the poo he flings is fresh was a favorite for those who like to go off the deep end (and they’ll be happy to hear Ray’s attempting to parlay it into episodes). The rest of us can walk on by with a few chuckles.
Ray found inspiration in the Austin art scene and “amoral a-holes who cracked me up.” He made the film in his spare time to alleviate looming insanity.
Hitoshi Takekiyo’s “After School Midnight” was a goofball hit. The expertly drawn movements were impressive, and the humor was consistent. An exposed-body mannequin comes to life to rid his cavities of bugs and finds himself performing acrobatics in order to retrieve the body parts he accidentally flings about the room. Creative use of slo-mo and canned laughter ensure this is animation like no other.
Brian Crano’s “Rubberheart” brought the films back to live action, though not all of the characters were breathing. An overly affectionate girl meets a shy, lonely boy and his three, er, roommates. Appropriately back-to-back with a film about a mannequin, this flick casts three full-sized sex dolls. It’s a rubber fetish of a whole new variety.
The film was written by its female lead, Rebecca Hall (The Prestige), who was apparently told by Crano to write something in 20 minutes and shoot it back to him via e-mail. Yup, that would explain it.
Crano grabs inspiration from Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven) and David O. Russell (Three Kings) if they had a child reared by Bertolucci (Last Tango in Paris). His next film is “Bag of Hammers,” about people who steal cars from funerals.
Jim Goodall’s World Premiere of “The Interior Monologue of Gill the Goldfish” (read my review) tackled the impressive feat of combining animation with live action. The foul-mouthed goldfish admits defeat and attempts to swim off to the fishbowl in the sky, where certainly there must be a few hot fins waiting for him.
Though initially claiming to have lived a past life as a goldfish, Goodall reveals that his artistic influences emerged from a background in visual arts, including painting and sculpting.
Bill Plympton (who had conducted an animation workshop a few hours earlier) directed “Shuteye Hotel,” a flick about a killer room. Whereas the previous film is clean and bright, this one is scratchy and full of shadows. Both capably executed.
Based on actual events of a sort, Plympton was also inspired by "The Adams Family" and their ability to alter everyday items into killing machines. It took him 4 months to create, including 1 month to draw. He used CGI for the first time, which he claims he will never use again as it was expensive and cumbersome.
Like the first film in the program, you don’t see Yoon Yong-a’s “Tool” coming. Though it begins innocently enough, it soon received universal gasps of horror during a particularly painful-looking and bloody scene. The film is unsuspectingly dark, though always with a bizarre little wink in its eye.
The final flick was Paco Cabezas’ gangster soap, “Neon Flesh” (“Carne de neón”). A slick story of the screwed and the screwees, the short falls in the vein of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.