This Week in Screenings (Fantastic Fest Edition)

Our resident tastemaker, James McDonald, takes a quick detour from his usual roundup of the best screenings to catch in Austin every week to offer a roundup of some of the best and most interesting screenings you can catch at Fantastic Fest 2023.

Thursday 9/21

Opening night movie will be the Macon Blair’s remake of The Toxic Avenger.

Macon Bair previously directed I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore that had a very dark comedic tone that I’m a sucker for. Very excited to see what they do with this.

Friday 9/22

Shorts with Legs, Fantastic Shorts, Short Fuse, and Drawn and Quartered are the shorts programs this year. Every year these are the best collection of shorts you’ll see and inevitably you will be wanting to show your friends your favorite ones, maybe even years down the road.

So Unreal is the first documentary by Amanda Kramer the director of Please Baby Please, Give Me Pity!, and Ladyworld.

Narrated by Debbie Harry, this doc is about the horrors of technology as described in movies.

Saturday 9/23

Cobweb is a new Korean movie starring Song Kang-ho (Parasite and honestly pretty much every movie) and directed by Kim Jee-woon (I Saw The Devil and A Tale of Two Sisters).

Set in the 1970s, it’s one of those movies about making movies.

Also on day 3 is Conann, the new movie by Bertrand Mandico, director of The Wild Boys and After Blue. Looks like a post-apocalyptic dreamscape. I expect a wild ride.

Sunday 9/24

We’ve all probably heard about Kim’s Video by now. Premiering at Sundance it’s a documentary about a video store and what happened to the collection after it closed. As a fan of video rental stores this is indeed a must-see.

If you’ve seen The Cat with Hands you may be interested in seeing Stopmotion. Also created by Robert Morgan it’s most likely going to feature some unsettling stop motion images.

Monday 9/25

Baby Assassins was my favorite movie from the streaming @home section of Fantastic Fest 2021. This year we are treated to Baby Assassins 2 Babies which is my favorite movie title of the fest. In the first movie we meet two high school girls who are also assassins, and I think sociopaths, who do not get along after they are made to share an apartment. As the movie goes, they become friends bonding over killing Yakuza. I’m sure Baby Assassins 2 Babies will be more of the same.

Kill Dolly Kill looks like it’s going to be Drag Queens doing a Troma-style horror movie. Starring Lloyd Kaufaman giving this even more cred. Appears to be a follow up to Dolly Deadly.

Tuesday 9/26

At the Highball there is a non-ticketed event, Queer Film Theory 101.

A comedy lecture series focused on hidden queer narratives in movies.

This looks like a good time. The only thing I like more than watching movies is people talking about movies.

It appears this may also repeat at Barrel O Fun 10/19 at 7:30 p.m.

If the internet is to be believed.

AGFA is presenting The Nest and Messiah of Evil

The Nest is cockroaches with a taste for blood and Messiah of Evil was made by a couple of film students who wanted to make an art movie, but got funding for a horror movie so they made a work of art horror movie. Also this is where one of the Alamo please don’t talk bumpers is from.

Wednesday 9/27

Another non-ticketed event in the Highball, The Diesel System. A marathon screening 9 of Vin Diesel's short films.

As for a ticketed event there is a surrealist comedy The Fantastic Golem Affairs. This is a must see if you like Quentin Dupieux movies but wish they were more Spanish, or you like Jim Hosking movies but wish they were less greasy.

Thursday 9/28

Last chance to see the Ultimate cut of Caligula with more footage of Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren. Shock your friends and family by recounting your experience watching this notorious movie.

The closing movie will be Totally Killer, a time traveling horror comedy slasher.