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Fantasia Reviews: Europe & US

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Thursday, 23 July 2009 00:00

Rounding out our Fantasia Reviews, we look at films from Europe and the United States, proving that cinematic oddities aren’t just limited to Canada and the Far East (not that we ever really thought they were).

Les Lascars

Born out of the Parisian ghetto is Les Lascars, a French animated program that’s been running in that country for eight seasons, now making the transition to the big screen and premiering for the first time anywhere at Fantasia. In case you’ve never heard of them, Les Lascars follows the adventures of José Frelate and Tony Merguez, two streetwise, small time hustlers just trying to get by as down-and-out in Paris’ underbelly. Part outrageous slapstick comedy and part scathing social commentary, Les Lascars has been a hit in France since it debuted on Canal Plus in 1998. Knowledge of the past series is not required to enjoy the film, but the audience at Fantasia was clearly made up of quite a few fans given the reception.

Les Lascars is an outrageous and zippy comedy that plays against the traditional gangsta stereotypes if only because it’s France where hip-hop culture, if you’ll forgive the expression, seems more quaint. And more than the traditional stereotypes, José and Tony are good combination of lofty though laid back ambition with typical “Everyday I’m Hustlin’,” anything for “da Benjamins” aplomb. Well known French actor Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s 12, Derailed) does the voice of Tony with an Eddie Haskell like kiss-up back peddle that’d be funny even if you didn’t understand the language and had no subtitles. Co-screenwriter and Les Lascars co-creator IZM, meanwhile, gives José an exasperated gravitas playing well as straight man off Cassel.

Overall, the film works on a couple of levels. For a North American audience, there’s the culture clash. Our own ghetto culture in the form of gangsta rap and its trappings is almost clichéd now, but seeing how that’s culture’s assimilated and reinterpreted by another makes you look at it in a new and different, and humorous way. It’s on par with Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks as a social satire, but its political leanings and statements are non-existent. The two also share a sense of character driven comedy where you’re laughing at the seeming implausible predicaments the characters find themselves in, which easily transcend the language barrier. The cool combination of 2-D and 3-D animation, plus the wicked French hip-hop soundtrack accentuate what’s already a very winning, animated comedy.

Blood River

Easily Blood River is my least favourite of the Fantasia offerings I devoured, but in a way I still appreciated it on a technical level. The story follows a young couple (Tess Panzer and Ian Duncan) driving cross state – and cross desert – to visit her parents. When they have car trouble in the middle of nowhere, they hike to a nearby ghost town thinking that it’ll be their salvation. When another, seemingly, stranded motorist (Andrew Howard) walks into town, the couple think that they might have a way out. For the stranger though, getting out of the town, Blood River, is the last thing on his mind.

Like a combination of The Hitcher and a Survivor­esque reality show, the couple find themselves at the whim of the stranger as he confronts the husband, Clark, about some non-specific sins in regards to his wife Summer’s first child Ben. Producing more questions than answers, director Andrew Morgan leads you to believe that the stranger is some kind of Rutger Hauer moulded psycho, only to turn things around by implying that he’s really some kind of angel of death or spirit of vengeance or something. Now mystery is fine, but Blood River seems to go out of its way to be confusing. And Howard kind of got on my nerves with his corn-pone fed dialogue and southern drawl, not really creating a character but a caricature.

On the bright side though, I thought that the film’s technical specs were excellent. The desert cinematography is incredible and so good that you can practically feel the temperature increase in the theatre. The film also wasn’t dull to sit through, it certainly kept my attention but as the story jug deeper and deeper, though I couldn’t but get the feeling like the script was covering for the fact that it didn’t know where it was going. I think if the performances had been sharper, had Howard been less southern fried and Duncan dialled back the yuppie scum routine that made you want to see him dead from the word go, then Blood River could have been better.

Playing Columbine

Danny Ledonne set off a firestorm when he used internet freeware to create a downloadable video game with the incendiary title “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” It might have gotten some media interest as I recall. Anyway, the firestorm it ignited, and the renewal of debate over the effects of video game violence on society, are two of several issues explored in Playing Columbine, a documentary made by Ledonne about his video game’s journey from thoughtful discussion piece shared between friends to full-blown contributor to a world gone mad with gun violence.

It’s hard to believe that it’s now been more than 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold calmly walked into their high school and shot 13 of their fellow students and teachers before taking their own lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. It was one of a wave of school shootings in the US during the same time period, a trend that was explained away as the workings of disturbed youth obsessed with the music of Marilyn Manson and first-person shooters like Doom. Several years later, Ledonne used meticulous research and basic programming skills to craft what many consider one of the first artful video games; a video game designed to provoke discussion and question whether mainstream media perceptions of video game violence caused real-life violence bore any merit.

In an unfortunate Montreal connection, “Super Columbine” was widely reported as a game frequently played by Kimveer Gill, who shot 19 students and killing one at Dawson College nearly four years ago. Ledonne doesn’t shy away from the question of whether he became an unintended contributor to the violence he was trying to critique. Giving weight to both sides of the does it or doesn’t it debate about the influences of video game violence, Ledonne creates a provocative and passionate discussion on all sides. Melissa Fuller, a witness and near victim of the Dawson College shooting, was part of the film (and part of the following Q&A) discussing her immediate revulsion about “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” and how talking face to face with Ledonne helped get her a handle on her own feelings and position on the existence of the game.

Although it could easily seem as though Ledonne is creating a film essay as justification after the fact in regards to the work he created. It’s better to think of it more as a supplement to his earlier attempt at creating a dialogue. Still, the film isn’t merely about “that Columbine game” and instead looks at the larger possibility that video games can be used as an art form with a message as much as films, books, and even graphic novels can. The idea may seem ludicrous but with more people working on this fringe area of game design, video games as art may be an area we’ll be hearing more about. If Ledonne’s done anything with Playing Columbine, it’s giving us too much to think about.