FF09

By Kevin Kelly

Cory McAbee is not your average indie filmmaker. He's more of a self-taught Renaissance man who paints, writes, composes music, and also directs mind-bending films. At Sundance earlier this year, I had a slot to fill in my schedule and I thought Stingray Sam sounded interesting. Science fiction meets the Western? Sign me up.

What I didn't know was that I would be treated to a bizarre musical that was sliced up into a serialized format, complete with dance numbers, elaborate 60-second long handshakes between partners, and social commentary on everything from the U.S. prison system to tobacco companies. It's great stuff, and the songs will stick with you long after the movie ends.

Cory is no stranger to film festivals, having been at Sundance with three different films. I spoke with Cory at Fantastic Fest, where he was screening Stingray Sam. Check out the full interview after the break.

A crop of new images from James Cameron's Avatar have arrived online, some of which give us better looks at the Na'vi, while others reveal that, yes, there will in fact be actual human beings in this movie too. In addition to the images, some more footage was screened in Austin as part of this year's Fantastic Fest, and Cinematical's William Goss has the low-down on what all was shown. Here's a snippet:

Miscellaneous notes:

-James Cameron wrote Avatar before Titanic, and the whole production has been an estimated fifteen years in the making. The decision to shoot it in 3-D came in 1999.

-Cameron wants to write a novel based in the same world as Avatar, likely to come out after the film does.

-What's the budget? "Yes," replied Landau.

-The film will be shown in 2.35:1 on 2-D screens to seem more epic, in 1.85:1 on 3-D screens to seem more immersive, and 1.43:1 on IMAX screens.

-That font is not technically Papyrus.

Check out the rest of his report over on Cinematical, and the rest of the new images in the gallery below.

This review originally appeared on Cinematical

Why review a Japanese-language film without sensational violence, naked ninjas, or giant robots? Because when it's a movie as smartly comic, raggedly rocking, warmly appealing, and richly rewarding as Yoshihiro Nakamura's Fish Story, you want the whole world to know. Or, at least, people who don't happen to be in Austin right now.

Not that Fish Story is the best movie ever made, but it certainly deserves to be seen by a wider audience than will have a chance to see it at special events like Fantastic Fest. And distributors tend to shy away from films that don't have easily marketable elements, like those mentioned in the opening line. In several important ways, this is a rather modest little flick, and I don't want to hype it out of proportion to its relative merits. But I must say: Fish Story engages, delights, and surprises as it criss-crosses wildly through the decades, and I think it's the kind of movie that a broad variety of people would enjoy, if only they had a chance to sample its many pleasures.

Rather than a fish, or fishes, the linchpin of the narrative is a song entitled "Fish Story," recorded by an obscure Japanese punk band in 1975 (one year before the Sex Pistols were formed). Unappreciated in their own time, the band's song takes on a life of its own over the years, still entrancing listeners in a record store in 2012. A comet is about to strike the earth, and mankind only has five hours left to live. With the rest of the populace departed to supposedly safer high ground, three men come together, listening to the record and fantasizing that, somehow, the song will be able to save the world.

Premiering right now (as in literally right now) at Fantastic Fest in Austin is this trippy Russian anime flick called First Squad that has something to do with the Russian army, Nazis, zombies, a prince of darkness, a female medium and all kinds of other weird anime coolness. Our friends over at Twitch bring us this somewhat convoluted synopsis (which you'll want to read considering the entire trailer is in Russian). Looks cool enough though. First Squad opens in Russian theaters on October 15th.

It is 1942. The Red Army is putting up a violent and effective resistance against the German invaders. 14 year-old Nadya is a medium. In a deadly air raid the girl is shell-shocked. Recovering from her concussion, Nadya discovers her new gift - the ability to foresee the "Moments of Truth" - the most critical moments of future combat encounters, in which one person's actions will decide the outcome one way or the other.

Nadya's ability is indispensable for the classified 6th Division of the Russian Military Intelligence, which is waging a secret war against the "Ahnenerbe" - an occult order within the SS. The Ahnenerbe summons from the realm of the dead the powerful prince of darkness, Baron von Wolff. With him on their side they hope to change the course of history and achieve world domination. To oppose the Baron Nadya decides to enlist the support of her old friends from the beyond - the Pioneers of the First Squad.

Watch the trailer after the jump.