2025. Another year, another Fantasia International Film Festival experience. Fantasia is a massive festival centering on international genre cinema. I love covering this Montreal fest. It’s selections are always diverse and offbeat, turning me on to pockets of the genre film space that I was not privy to. So let’s just get down to it. Five films in this year’s program (probably) worth adding to the watchlist. Let’s go.
This year’s Fantasia Festival runs from July 16 to August 3.
Every Heavy Thing (Mickey Reece)
I have seen three Mickey Reece films courtesy of Fantasia Fest, and they were all intriguing formal experiments. His work feels like the natural progression of the mumblecore/mumblegore genre (i.e., it’s lo-fi and low-key, but moves past the self-seriousness and intentional lack of effort that caused mumblecore to taper off in the first place). His films aren’t always for me, but I’ve appreciated the swings of Agnes and Country Gold. Every Heavy Thing, his third film in four years, adds a great cast that includes James Urbaniak (The Venture Bros.), Vera Drew (The People’s Joker), John Ennis (Mr. Show), and Barbara Crampton (so many things).
Queens of the Dead (Tina Romero)
You had me at Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) and Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow). But I suppose the directorial debut from Tina Romero, daughter of horror legend George A. Romero, that is itself a raucous zombie comedy (zom-com?) will also do. Queens of the Dead recently got acquired by IFC Films and Shudder, so look for it to get a limited theatrical run followed by a streaming release in the coming months.
Good Boy (Ben Leonberg)
A decade ago, I reviewed a movie called White God. I remember thinking at the time that the performance from the dog in that film was the best animal acting I’d ever seen. I’ve since been graced with the majesty that is Skippy the dog (as Asta, the Pooch) in The Thin Man. From what I’ve seen buzzing around online, Good Boy may be presenting a worthy challenger to the dog-acting throne. A ghost story told from the perspective of a family dog named Indy, Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy is on my radar.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani)
As far as my cynical self can be excited about new releases these days, I have relatively high expectations for the latest from Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Their work has only gotten better with each new film, and I was enamored by the pulp-meets-arthouse of Let the Corpses Tan. Reflection in a Dead Diamond looks like espionage by way of gialli, and hopefully dosed with some of the psychedelic surrealism of Cattet and Forzani’s previous efforts.
I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn (Kenichi Ugana)
I know very little about I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, but I’m a sucker for long titles and self-reflexive films about the artistic process. And that poster! Steven Lee’s write-up on the film claims that if you’re a genre fan, then “you have probably heard the name Kenichi Ugana.” I claim to be the former, and I’ve never heard of the latter. So I’m sticking this film here to incentivize myself to remedy the oversight (and maybe convince others to do the same).
As always, thanks for reading!
—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)
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