Editorials
The Genre Films We Saw at the 48th Annual Boston Science Fiction Film Festival [Event Report]
The longest running genre fest in the US, the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival (Boston SciFi for short) returned for its 48th annual event in Somerville, MA last week.
I was only able to attend one of the five days, but I managed to squeeze in four features plus two panels. Here’s what I saw at this year’s Boston Science Fiction Film Festival.
The Warm Season
Boston SciFi hosted the world premiere of The Warm Season, a character-driven sci-fi drama with shades of Starman. As a young girl, Clive (Carie Kawa) encountered Mann (Michael Esparza), an alien in human disguise, who gave her a glowing rock before being captured by government agents. 25 years later in 1992, an escaped Mann returns to Clive’s failing motel to retrieve the “fail-safe” in order to return to his planet. Between the weather patterns and the government closing in, they only have three days to get him home.
The Warm Season succeeds because writer Adam Seidel and director Janet Grillo craft an intriguing concept with authentic characters in a world that feels lived in. While Mann serves as a more than adequate MacGuffin, at the story’s heart is Clive’s journey toward self-actualization.
Kawa and Esparza are equally affecting counterparts, with the former’s raw performance balanced by the latter’s candor. Esparza speaks in a stilted speech pattern with the occasional ’90s slang phrase thrown in. The supporting performances are also strong, with Gregory Jbara (Blue Bloods) frequently stealing scenes as a gregarious rogue agent aiding Mann’s escape.
The Bystanders
High concept on a low budget, The Bystanders is an British sci-fi comedy that channels the scrappy energy of a young, Spaced-era Edgar Wright with the ambition of Doctor Who. Like guardian angels of sorts, bystanders are former humans turned invisible immortals that watch over their human subjects. Their objective is to clandestinely steer their subjects’ lives for the better, but as the movie shows, their meddling can have dire consequences.
Frank (comedian Seann Walsh) has been duly appointed to recruit former child prodigy Peter (Scott Haran) as the latest bystander. While the rookie Peter ambitiously lobbies to be named Bystander of the Year, Frank does not take his position seriously. Their relationship becomes increasingly strained when they decide to switch subjects – Peter is first assigned to lowly record label intern Sarah (Georgia Mabel Clarke), while Frank is frustrated by slacker Luke (Andi Jashy) – and again when an unexpected romance blossoms between the subjects.
The Bystanders is a bit rough around the edges, but writer-director Gabriel Foster Prior admirably pushes beyond budgetary limitations to create an original feature debut. Further illustrating the divide between dimensions, the picture alternates between black and white from the human point of view and color from a bystander’s POV. The humor ranges from quirky to dry while commenting on the mundanities of life, bureaucracy, and fate vs. free will.
The Antares Paradox
Like The Guilty meets The Vast of Night, The Antares Paradox (known in its native Spanish as La paradoja de Antares) is a contained sci-fi drama thriller from Spain. It’s frustratingly close to being truly remarkable, only to be hobbled by a limp finale. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see why it’s been a favorite on the festival circuit, earning a world premiere at Fantastic Fest and a European premiere at Sitges.
As a SETI scientist searching for alien life, Alexandra (Andrea Trepat) has been ridiculed by everyone from strangers on the internet to colleagues and even family. With her program on the verge of being shut down, a super storm rolling in, and her father dying in the hospital, Alexandra may have finally found proof of extraterrestrial intelligence. Racing against a ticking clock, she has to risk it all in order to verify the signal via strict protocol.
Despite being confined entirely in an observatory’s research lab, writer-director-cinematographer Luis Tinoco (his feature debut after two decades in visual effects) never allows for a dull moment. The tight script continually finds new ways to raise the stakes and ratchet tension, while the high production values and clever camerawork keep the visuals interesting. Trepat is the only actor on screen, save for video calls, and she gives a phenomenal performance that oozes vulnerability and determination. While it loses steam in the melodramatic third act, Tinoco and Trepat are both talents to watch in the future.
Single8
A Japanese cousin to The Fabelmans, Single8 is a love letter to the impact of cinema and the wonder of filmmaking. Brazenly starting with a parody of Star Wars‘ iconic opening crawl, writer-director Kazuya Konaka (Ultraman: The Next) delivers a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale based on his own early cinematic explorations. Set in 1978, it’s nostalgic yet timeless.
Inspired by Star Wars, high school senior Hiroshi (Yu Uemura) picks up a Single-8 camera in the hopes of making his own sci-fi epic. With the help of his friends and classmates – including casting his crush (Akari Takaishi) as the heroine – Hiroshi conceives the earnest Time Reverse for their school-wide festival. Along the way he learns about the trials and tribulations not only of filmmaking but of growing up.
Clocking in just shy of two hours, Single8 is a tad overlong. The pacing is obstructed by showing the students’ film in full at the finale; it would have been better served in intermittent glimpses throughout the movie to leave the audience wanting more, which Be Kind Rewind did so effectively. That said, its heart is ample enough to overlook the shortcomings, making this the highlight of the festival for me. As an added bit of fun, the end credits feature clips from Konaka’s own early productions that inspired the film, a la The Goldbergs.
Duwayne Dunham Panel
A panel with editor/filmmaker Duwayne Dunham was billed as a “master class,” and it was just that; inspiring insight from an accomplished industry veteran who has collaborated with some of the biggest names in cinema. He’s best known for editing the likes of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks, in addition to directing such projects as Homeward Bound, Little Giants, Halloweentown, and episodes of Twin Peaks and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Having worked in features, episodic TV, and TV movies — not to mention having both edited and directed for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and David Lynch — Dunham shared his perspectives on storytelling regardless of medium or genre. I could have listened to his stories from the trenches — like being the first person to screen test the original Boba Fett armor, transitioning from editing the Twin Peaks pilot to directing the first episode, and helping Spielberg turn a 30-second McDonald’s ad into Little Giants — all day.
Dunham recounted the advice bestowed upon him by his successful mentors before his first directing gig. Lucas told him to never work with someone who just won an Academy Award and to throw out the script when you edit. Francis Ford Coppola pragmatically advised him to wear comfortable shoes. Lynch wryly said, “When the car comes to pick you up in the morning, get in. When it gets to set, get out.”
Dunham emphasized never underestimating the power of the editing room, as that is where the story is fully realized. Editing, he said, comes naturally to him. “Directing is hard work. Writing is even harder. That’s why I try to avoid it,” he noted with a chuckle. His latest effort, a drama that he wrote, directed, and edited titled The Happy Worker, is currently stuck in distribution limbo with hopes of being released later this year.
The Fabricators Panel
The Fabricators was a two-part panel with prop masters/fabricators who have worked on many of the most successful and beloved properties of the last 25 years: Tamara Carlson Woodard (The Mandalorian, Avengers: Endgame), Jason Kaufman (Starship Troopers, Star Trek), Brad Elliott (Avatar: The Way of Water, Obi-Wan), and Giang Pham (Venom, Jurassic World).
Unlike most panels, in which a subject is interviewed by a host they don’t know, Pham served as the moderator. Not only was she intimately familiar with the other panelists’ work, all of their paths have crossed on various projects, so there was a palpable camaraderie on stage. They broke down the props department’s symbiotic relationship with visual effects, stunts, wardrobe, and cast to ensure the best possible results for a film.
Star Wars was a frequent point of conversation, as all four panelists have experience working in a galaxy far, far away. They addressed what Pham referred to as the “fanboy factor,” in which fans want something new but don’t want anything to change. As such, they are tasked with respecting the legacy canon while pushing forward with their artistry.
Boston SciFi also featured screenings of Doctor Who Am I, UFO Club, Beyond Tomorrow, It’s Quieter in the Twilight, Breaking Infinity, The Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes, The Mind Thief, Everyone Will Burn, and Isaac Asimov: A Message to the Future; several short film blocks; a panel with animation editors Joe Elwood and Nate Cormier; Asimov’s Robots, an experimental Clue-like mystery game; and The Time Traveler’s Ball celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who.
The festival came to a close with its legendary 24-hour sci-fi marathon. This year included celluloid screenings of Back to the Future Part II (on 70mm), Alien, Escape from Planet of the Apes, Stargate, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, UFOria, and Future Kill, plus digital showings of the original Godzilla, Total Recall, Bill & Ted Face the Music, After Yang, and more.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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