Sci-Fi Fest hits the ground running

The fifth annual festival launches, and we've got reviews of some of the titles.

Apr 27 2006

I attended the opening night of the Sci-Fi film Festival last night, and a fine bash it was too. It runs until Sunday (30 April) in which time all manner of science fiction flavoured shenanigans will be taking place, from awards to previews to all-night screenings.

Unfortunately, due to a mix-up with screener discs, I haven't seen any of the titles playing yet, but our man in the field David Jenkins has, and here's what he thought…

'Puzzlehead'
A cautionary tale in the Phillip K. Dick mould which tackles creationism in a dystopian New York suburb. Walter (Stephen Galaida) is the Dr Frankenstein who builds a robot in own his image in order to protect the purity of humanity. Shot with a precision and verve that far exceeds its humble indie roots, Galadia is superb as both the meek, perpetually cardigan'd Walter and his abstruse android companion, Puzzlehead. As an ideas film, there's plenty here to wrestle with, but ultimately 'Puzzlehead' is scuppered by its own relentless inertia. Recommended.


'CSA: Confederate States of America'
Bit of an odd one this. Taking ironic racism to as yet unplumbed depths, CSA is a mock historical documentary which has been made in the fictional context of the South having won the American Civil War. Spot-on parodies intersperse the (sometimes dull) chunks of straight revisionist history, examples of which include a spoof '50s paranoia film called 'I Married an Abolitionist' in which a doting housewife is taken aback upon discovering her husband's secret copy of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Fans of Chris Morris's brand of close-to-the-bone political satire should find much to laugh at, but CSA could have done with being a lot less clever-clever.

'Survive Style 5+'
Over-stylised day-glo fluff with a few interesting ideas, but nothing that should trouble a mainstream audience. Similar to the variable output of Takashi Miike, director Gen Sekiguchi throws everything he's got into the pot and achieves a staggering amount of zaniness for his money. The film falters after about an hour as the elongated sketch show format quickly loses steam and the inclusion of Vinnie Jones as a fish-out-of-water contract killer (again?) certainly does nothing to dull the notion of him having the on-screen charisma of a power sander.

For more information, and to book tickets, head to the official site here.

 

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