It’s time once again for one of our favorite events of the year, Fantasia Fest, also known as the world’s largest genre film festival. Running from Wednesday, July 16 through Sunday, August 3, the schedule is, as always, bursting at the seams with all manner of horror, action, sci-fi, and other assorted cinematic goodness.
Not everything that looks perfect truly is. That’s the underlying conceit of Daniela Forever, the latest genre-bender from Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal, Timecrimes). Quirky and off-kilter, which is particularly on-brand for the Spanish writer/director, this romance smudges the lines between drama and sci-fi, blending earnest yearning and self-delusion into a careful-what-you-wish-for smoothie of memory, flawed recollections and conceptions of people, and the chaotic nature of dream logic.
It makes too much sense to cast Ciryl Gane in an action movie. On one hand, he’s a professional MMA fighter, a heavyweight no less. At six-foot-five, he’s a 250 pound wall of muscly giant, with a unique blend of physicality and martial arts acumen to more than sell an on-screen fight. On the other hand, however, he also has an adorable baby face, complete with a goofy smile that often makes it difficult to take him seriously as a badass. It's hard to say this massive, scary dude is cute, but…he kind of is. Fortunately French director Antoine Blossier knows how to make good use of both of these facets in his new movie, K.O.
