We admit it, we’re gluttons for guts, gore, and genre. An antidote to the flattened, self-serious, and artistically anonymous titles that occupy coveted festival slots the world o’er and the year ’round, delivering arthouse and slow cinema affectation without the decency to even keep viewers awake, genre films, at their best, inject energy and invention into an increasingly homogenous cinema landscape. While studios conveyer-belt superhero spectacle in our local multiplexes and demand we take our medicine, the Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates the ingenuity and passion and gnarliness that production companies are all but allergic to these days. The lineup is vast and the slate diverse, so quite obviously not everything hits. But unlike so many mid-sized prestige festivals that risk little in their adherence to a certain prudishness of taste and unadventurously decorous selection criteria, Fantasia offers genuine surprises each edition, platforming the little guy and uncovering underrated gems others are afraid to touch. Fantasia 2023 is in full swing and, Satan willing, viewers should be treated to more of the same. If the films we’ve already caught at prior fests (↓) are any indication, this year’s winners should win big. At the very least, be kind to yourselves and catch Piaffe. Then circle back to us — we’ve got brand new Fantasia content coming next week.
Credit: Fantasia International Film Festival
