We sadly couldn’t get ourselves all the way over to Austin to be at Fantastic Fest in person, meaning we missed out on the live showings of both Lamb and The Innocents which are high up on our watchlist and should be on yours! However, we list three movies we did catch and which should definitely be on your radar – thank you to Fantastic Fest for getting these movies out there!
Canon Arm and the Arcade Quest
Denmark | Director: Mads Hedegaard
We loved this documentary so much we wrote a whole piece complete with an interview with director Mads Hedegaard. You can read all about that HERE. This documentary follows Kim (pictured below) as he attempts to break a world record for playing non-stop on an arcade game for 100 hours.
Supporting Kim are a group of fellow arcade game-loving friends, each with their unique skills, and together they form a plan to help Kim complete this quest. The documentary is heart-warming, funny, comedic at times, and beautifully shot. Get this on your list immediately!
The Marko Effect
Denmark | Director: Martin Zandvliet
First thing’s first; Martin Zandvliet’s previous directorial work was the award-nominated Land of Mine which is an incredible piece of work and we strongly recommended.
With The Marko Effect, we are deep into Nordic Noir territory which is nothing really new for us. There is a detective with a few personal issues to resolve, his loyal sidekick, shady businessman, and a couple of strands of storylines to weave together, all amongst the dreary grey backdrop of Copenhagen, although we don’t see too much of it.
Ulrich Thomsen is a fine actor who has done an enormous amount of work in his career, he is perfect for the role and keeps your time invested despite the pace being slightly slow – albeit building towards a violent finale.
The Trip
Norway | Director: Tommy Wirvola
Noomi Rapace has been a busy lady. Whilst most focus will be on Lamb, in which she plays a leading role, she has also managed to slip out another movie with Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola.
She stars alongside Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie and together they play a couple who head off for a break in a cabin in the woods. Unlike Dead Snow there are no zombie Nazis here, but do be prepared to expect all-out violent carnage as the pair seem to have alternative motives, which in turn get knocked on their head with the arrival of some further guests.
That is much as we are prepared to tell you and the little you know the better, so steer clear of the trailer and dive straight into this.
You’ll be happy to know that The Trip is coming to Netflix and will be available from the 17th of October! It is an absolute hoot but I will warn you now it is ultra-violent and definitely NOT for the faint-hearted!
Other Nordic movies that were present were the excellent Iceland movie Cop Secret (look out for our interview with one of the stars next month as it arrives at BFI London International Film Festival, and Sweden’s Knocking, which we caught at Inside Out festival earlier the year.
Feature by Alex Minnis
Find out what other movies featured at Fantastic Fest by visiting their main page HERE
