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THE CREATOR Props Up Hyper-Optimism with Gorgeous Visuals: But Does It Succeed?

Film, Fantastic FestGareth Edwards’ New SF Flick May Leave a Bad Taste in the Mouth of Those Worried about AIImages Courtesy Disney+

Less than a day ago, META debuted its chat AI, bringing AI to social media in an entirely new way. The database “books3” used to train AI recently had its list of books revealed, leading to loaded discussions online about AI and plagiarism. US funding for AI hit 3.3 billion in 2022 alone. These are just a few of the news items surrounding the controversial topic of AI — the center theme in Gareth Edwards’ (Rogue One) new film.

It took Edwards seven years to make his first original film after the sleeper hit of Rogue One, which I don’t think anyone expected to become the beloved classic it has. So, it’s no surprise that the film’s take on AI is going to be different, considering how much the landscape has changed.

The Creator is told in chapters and follows the story of Joshua (John David Washington), who is undercover in a war of humans vs. AI, searching for the Creator, the supposed architect of AI. While on a mission, his wife (Gemma Chan) disappears. Years later, Joshua is conscripted to find a secret weapon the Creator built that has the power to change the future. The weapon turns out to be a child (Madelein Yuna Voyles).

Most of the film takes place in the future Southeast Asia, which is a satisfying change of scenery when most sci-fi films take place in the US or UK. The setting lends itself to metaphor, giving the conflict of the film the opportunity to be compared to the Vietnam War. And like most Vietnam War films, the US soldiers are decidedly horrific in their actions.

There’s no doubt that the film is a visual delight to watch. Production designer James Clyne (Avatar, Solo, Star Trek 2009) does a fantastic job dreaming up a believable cinematic universe that feels real. It’s part Blade Runner, part Apocalypse Now.

The Creator was filmed in the same way as Gareth Edwards’ first film, Monsters, reverse-engineered by shooting scenes without a set and letting production design work happen after the shooting was done. The film was shot using a Sony FX3 camera, which runs for just under $4k.

On a storytelling level, the film doesn’t cover much new ground in terms of sci-fi tropes. The father and daughter escape plot works well to build emotional resonance. Gemma Chan makes a lovely love interest but is criminally underutilized (more on that later). Americans are bad. War is bad. Survival is violence.

What surprises is the story’s optimism about AI, skating over any potential problems therein by envisioning AI who are cuddly teddy bears who just want to protect humans, be Buddhist monks, and live in peace. Humanity (well, the non-US Part) even rallies around the AI in the end.

This “AI is all-good” approach lands awkwardly in today’s landscape. The film casts all of the AI as Asian characters, which will probably induce not a small amount of discomfort in viewers. In an interview with HeyUGuys on YouTube, Gareth Edwards talks about this choice:

“Originally, AI was used as a metaphor in science fiction for people who were different. It was more like a fairy tale. But then, when you research AI there are fascinating philosophical questions that come up that really start to worry you about them being real and turning them off and what if they don’t do what you want. The movie became more about that. Now watching it…I was like, Oh my god, this is really on the money with what’s happening right now in terms of this fear of AI, and is it bad, and should we get rid of it. I’m actually quite optimistic. I think we’re going to have some bumps in the road but I think AI is going to be an incredible tool.” (Gareth Edwards Interview, HeyUGuys)

This isn’t to say the film’s positive message is bad — it just comes across unclear — and that may be simply due to the current landscape surrounding AI. It was difficult to discern how to feel about the AI in the film. Without a K-2SO style robot for audiences to latch onto and love, the message gets muddled.

One last irk is that the film’s emotional journey centers heavily on the death of Joshua’s wife. Her death serves as a catalyst for the character, and it’s a shame we don’t get to see her have more agency. Most of the women in the film die, are villains, or are emotional pawns for the main male character.

The Creator is a delight to watch, but for me, it didn’t live up to Rogue One. And I’m fine with that because I want more movies like this. Give me more sci-fi — of all kinds — with unique, diverse settings, and phenomenal visual design.

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

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Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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THE CREATOR Props Up Hyper-Optimism with Gorgeous Visuals: But Does It Succeed? was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

South Korean Film SLEEP Weaves Sleep Disorders, Magic, & Marriage in Heartfelt Love Story

Film, Fantastic FestDebut from Jason Yu Explores Horrors of Sleepwalking

As someone with sleep paralysis, I’m fascinated (and justifiably creeped) by horror about sleepwalking. What most films don’t capture is how easily lulled those around you are by the phenomenon. Most of the time, it barely impacts them. But for the few who have a terrifying story of sleepwalking gone wrong, it can haunt your life forever.

Jason Yu, South Korean director of Sleep— wanted to explore just that. “Everyone has a morbid tale of a sleepwalker,” he told audiences at Fantastic Fest this week. “This was me wanting to make a fun genre film.” And as a feature debut, the horror/love story does just that.

What makes Sleep so convincing is the two leads — Jung Yu-mi as Soo-jin
Lee Sun-kyun as Hyeon-soo — who portray a couple dealing with the husband’s sleep disorder but refuse to give up. When Hyeon-soo starts to have more and more dangerous sleep behavior, the couple has to decide how to deal with it.

Hung on the wall of the couple’s apartment is a sign that translates essentially to “everything together.” And that’s essentially marriage. There comes a point in every marriage where you can choose to stay or choose to go. Successful marriages stick it out, no matter how horrific things get — for better or worse. Soo-jin is, as some women may feel, a wife living with two men.

When the couple’s baby is born, things reach a new height of urgency. The intimacy between the two actors entrances on screen. While movies about marriage can feel dull, Sleep manages to make every scene — no matter how sweet and silly— fascinating to watch. Director Jason Yu commented that the two actors were his first choices, “like winning the lotto twice.” As Yu notes, “the easiest acting is conflict but pretending you’ve loved each other for years and years as a married couple is harder.” This chemistry is no doubt helped by the fact that the two have been in four movies together so far.

The addition of South Korean myths and spirit magic give the film a necessary mystery and speculative element. It’s horror elements — from loud jump scares at precise moments to having its lead actor eat raw meat (something that Yu was afraid to do because of how respected Lee Sun-kyun is) are just the right amount of unsettling.

My favorite part of the film was that it got sleep disorders right. So many of the scenes in the movie draw on real-life problems sleepwalkers face. Sleepwalking can be very scary in real-life, and it can also be hilarious. Sleep does a fantastic job of melding those two truths.

Sleep is a satisfying watch, blending South Korean speculative elements with the universal fear of sleepwalking. And the best part is, the ending is spot-on. As Jason Yu says, he believes in “the power of love to save the day.” It’s nice to see a film choose a positive message, while still giving some delightful scares.

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Coming soon from Interstellar Flight Press!

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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South Korean Film SLEEP Weaves Sleep Disorders, Magic, & Marriage in Heartfelt Love Story was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SALTBURN Drips Sexuality and Intrigue

Film, Fantastic FestBarry Keoghan, Rosamund Pike Devastate in this Dark Masterpiece of DesireImages Courtesy Amazon Studios

Premiering as one of the secret screenings at Fantastic Fest, Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennel, a former actress who draws on her private school upbringing in England in this salacious miasma of a film.

Set at Oxford, Saltburn sets up Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) as the mousy, shy schoolboy who becomes entranced by the wealthy and charismatic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). With obvious nods to The Talented Mr. Ripley, Saltburn dives into a far more convincing portrayal of unrequired queer love — or does it?

There’s so much to enjoy about this luscious film that I hesitate to even write about it. Director Emerald Fennel draws on queer iconography by harkening back to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the most intimate, disturbing scenes that had audiences salivating.

There are some real gasp-out-loud moments here. Twists and turns lie at every corner as Oliver Quick navigates and destroys the world of the hyper-elite British upperclass. His acting here is some of the best I’ve seen all year. He gives a no-holds-barred, wildly convincing, deeply unhinged character empathy and charm in the best ways, leaving the viewer rooting for “Ollie” to the very bitter end.

Jacob Elordi is sweaty and swoonworthy as the object of desire — a manic pixie dreamboy. Rosamund Pike is a treasure and should be protected at all costs — give her this kind of role for the rest of her life, please. Archie Uchena Madekwe is lovable and hateable all at once. And Alison Oliver is convincingly imperfect in all the best ways.

The film is drenched in the female gaze — which may be its undoing, given the subject manner and set-up. We’re supposed to believe Oliver is really and truly in love.

As I overheard a few women bemoaning leaving the theater, the only real imperfection in the film is its failure to give its queer anti-hero the kind of confirmation of his sexuality that would cement the film as a queer cult classic. In this respect, the film plays it far too close to the vest in its reminiscence of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Instead, it’s just too milquetoast, despite being hailed as “hedonistic” and “trippy”.

Absolutely worth a watch, though — maybe two, or three. Saltburn will have a limited release November 7, so stay tuned.

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Our next submission call opens 11/1

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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SALTBURN Drips Sexuality and Intrigue was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Anne Hathaway Shines in EILEEN: A Story of Unrequited Love

Film, Fantastic FestStuck in Massachusetts in the 1960sImages Courtesy NEON

“I looked like a girl you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography, perhaps wearing a net over my light brown hair. You might take me for a nursing student or a typist, note the nervous hands, a foot tapping, bitten lip. I looked like nothing special. It’s easy for me to imaging this girl, young and mousy version of me, carrying an enormous leather purse or eating from a small package of peanuts, rolling each one between her gloved fingers, sucking in her cheeks, staring anxiously out the window.”

So opens EILEEN, the book by bestselling author Otessa Moshfegh. The film, which follows the book closely and was screenwritten by Moshfegh, follows the story of Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie, who most recently stole audience’s hearts in Last Night in Soho), a lonely secretary with a paranoid, alcoholic father and a dead mother. Eileen works at a boy’s prison and is chiefly ignored and underappreciated by everyone in her life, so she falls into grim, even deadly, fantasies.

I’m a sucker for “mousey girls who defy expectations,” and Eileen sits squarely in that category. There are layers of invisibility in identity. Eileen is invisible as a woman — specifically, an unattractive, plain woman without any confidence. So when she meets Rebecca, a blonde bombshell of a woman (in the book, she’s redheaded) who also is in a role of importance uncommon for the time as the prison’s psychologist — can anyone blame Eileen for falling in love?

Thomasin McKenzie is winningly naive as Eileen, making her darkest moments seem kind of sweet and funny. Anne Hathaway does an excellent job of being the seductive, enchanting older woman who leads Eileen into a dark situation, only to become another person who underestimates her.

The film captures the interiority of the book without spending too much time on inner monologues. As Eileen’s fantasies of murder and suicide become darker and darker, her relationship with Rebecca deepens. What the film manages so well is the audience’s expectations — we know before Eileen does that Rebecca will never fulfill her innermost desires.

Curiously, the movie verges into far more interesting territory than the book by coding Eileen as queer. In the book, Eileen says of her sexuality: “Let me be clear about this: I was not a lesbian. But I was attracted to Rebecca, and I admired her. You could call it a crush.” By making Eileen’s sexuality coded queer and placing her as the unrequited lover, Eileen’s motivations are far more intriguing. It’s one thing to be a mousy girl in the 1960s with no personality; it’s another to be queer and hide that personality for safety’s sake.

Underutilized in the film is Eileen’s eating disorder, which adds a layer of psychological intensity to her character. In the book, her character binges and purges. In the film, she merely has a sweet tooth.

Being a mess is kind of a shield for Eileen. As Moshfegh said about the character in an interview with the Guardian, “Eileen is a character that makes people uncomfortable. She is not going to, you know, cheer you up. But might it not be liberating to hear the thoughts of someone who is completely ignored by society?”

Eileen is worth a watch for its dry humor and unflinching portrayal of female sexuality in the 1960s.

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Anne Hathaway Shines in EILEEN: A Story of Unrequited Love was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

STRANGE DARLING Flips Script on Serial Killer Movies

Film, Fantastic FestJT Mollner’s Second Feature Film Explores the Gender Dynamics of MurderStrange Darling, Image Courtesy JT Mollner

The description for the Strange Darling screening at Fantastic Fest was just one line: “One day in the twisted love life of a serial killer.” So, of course, I had to see it.

What followed is a twisty, turny take on the cat-and-mouse thriller trope that is lusciously shot and seductive to the end. In one of the best performances I’ve seen since Pearl, Willa Fitzgerald plays a woman who meets a nice guy (Kyle Gallner) at a bar, and the two head to a hotel. But that’s about as far as I can get in the plot without completely spoiling the fun of watching this unexpected exploration into gender, murder, and power.

Women live on a constant edge, always aware of violence creeping in from all sides. Women’s desire is carefully managed by society. In most cases, the power play sex can be usually ends in violence against women. But women are rarely killers. That distinction lies with men, who, as of 1990 made up 85% of the serial killers in the US (Hunting Humans: An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers). Yet whatever the gender, serial killers still fascinate us.

Horror that sharply manages the viewer’s expectations has always been some of my favorite films. Mollner does a fantastic job of holding the viewer out on a plank, asking them to look down, and then kicking them overboard. The film is structured in six parts, but those parts do not necessarily come in order, creating a non-linear story that reveals its secrets in satisfying pieces.

Shot on 35mm film, Strange Darling shines in its cinematography, feeling somehow like a 70s slasher mixed with a contemporary arthouse flick vibe worthy of a studio like A24. The film utilizes slow zooms that are reminiscent of Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), but they don’t feel overwrought because the focus is female rage, a topic rarely explored in horror in nuanced ways. As Mollner called it, the “candy-coated” Anamorphic format (a term for shooting widescreen on 35mm film) results in some stunning sequences.

The film also shines in its soundtrack. The original music was created by indie rock artist Z Berg specifically for the film. Since most of the songs are unfamiliar to the viewer, they give the film an atmosphere that pales in comparison to most contemporary horror.

Both Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner provide truly outstanding performances, and the two have a chemistry that pulls the story along to where as a viewer, you can’t wait for them to collide again and again as they bounce back and forth between kills.

Willa Fitzgerald is endlessly watchable. In some portions of the film, she is almost unrecognizable to other scenes, her face shifting to shift the viewer’s expectations. The end scene is particularly moving, a long shot akin to the ending of Pearl. If this is the new trope for female leads in horror movies, I’m down.

This is one you’ll want to go in without knowing much about and stick along for the bumpy, blood-filled ride. Someone get this film to the big screens, ASAP!

Image Courtesy Chris Bilheimer

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Queer disability fantasy poetry from Ennis Rook Bashe

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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STRANGE DARLING Flips Script on Serial Killer Movies was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dark Poetry Abounds in WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS

Film, Fantastic FestSet at a Carnival in the Great Depression, the Latest from the Adams Family Is a Rotten RiotImages courtesy Yellow Veil Pictures

If you’re not familiar with the Adams Family, they are made up of mother and father John Adams and Toby Poser, and their two daughters, Lulu and Zelda Adams — and they make horror movies. Together, the family not only acts in but writes, directs, produces, and sound designs movies. The films are self-funded, allowing the family team to make all the most important, integral decisions in making a film.

Coming off the success of Hellbender (2022), their latest is Where the Devil Roams — a movie about a family of carnies on a murder rampage through the Catskills, NY, during the 1930s depression.

The film opens as a vaudeville performer recites a deliciously dark poem that ends, “blood will thicken, the devil’s pulse begins to quicken, while the body rots to dust and bones, there’s a tear in the heart where the devil roams.” This is just the first of beautiful word play in a film that utilizes dark poetry as its beating, bloody heart.

https://medium.com/media/cc482dfc6cefa656d9db6e01934c9df2/href

Eve (Zelda Adams) is traveling with her parents (John Adams and Toby Poser) to various carnivals when she becomes entranced with a man who seems to have the magical ability to reattach his fingers after cutting them off for the benefit of awed audiences.

Meanwhile, her mother and father are a disturbing duo that wreaks havoc wherever they go. When their killing spree inevitably goes terribly wrong, Eve has to pick up the pieces (literally) and spell them back together.

The spell? A dark poem.

Dark poetry has a long history in horror — dating back to Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. But this is the first time I’ve seen it explored in a horror film, and as a dark poet, I was delighted. It captures effectively all of the thrall of dark poetry — which can dive into the most horrific of themes and often contains old-fashioned rhyme schemes.

Another poem referenced in the movie is Psalm 88, considered one of the darkest passages in the Bible:

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

The poems in this movie weave through and with the storyline, driving the characters to more and more terrible decisions. Added to this experience is the fact that the Adams write and sing their own music.

The Adams were influenced by classic horror like Frankenstein and Nosferatu. The film’s cinematography is dark, moody, and grainy in the best of ways. It utilizes part black and white and part color scenes, which, as Zelda Adams said in the Q&A at Fantastic Fest, “shows the characters and their story are rotting.”

The film was shot on location at their home and family friends’ homes in the Catskills. They shot mostly in winter and in snow, and the film took about a year to make. I was surprised to learn that Zelda was a senior at the time, about to head off to college. “The film is also kind of about not wanting to let go of my parents”, she said, which must be difficult in such a close-knit family.

Where the Devil Roams is intricate, weaving multiple themes and references throughout its narrative until everything comes together in the end. Artsy but gory, elevated but terrifying, the film is difficult not to fall in love with. Perfect for the fan of dark poetry!

Where the Devil Roams releases in November and has been picked up by Tubi for streaming.

Image Credit Chris Bilheimer

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Dark Poetry inspired by mythology from Maxwell I. Gold

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Dark Poetry Abounds in WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Toxic Avenger Reboots “Toxic” Hero

Film, Fantastic FestThe Toxic Avenger Premieres at Fantastic Fest Starring Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, and Elijah WoodImages Courtesy

The word “toxic” has two connotations. One is in terms of toxic waste — an all-too-familiar reality of today’s world struggling with climate change. The other is the idea of something that is psychologically “toxic” — a toxic relationship, a toxic workplace, a toxic culture.

The 2023 reboot of The Toxic Avenger, directed by Macon Blair, explores the line between these two definitions. The cult classic gets new life in a bonkers, gonzo slayfest of a good time.

The original Toxic Avenger came out in 1984 from Troma Entertainment. Troma was well known for making “exploitation films” that aimed to disrupt the sensibilities of any average filmgoer (or New York Times Reviewer) by catering to the prurient curiosity and gore obsession of teenagers. At the time, films were often sold to home video sellers before even making it to the big screen, building on the large group of people who loved to buy or rent weird videos at their local video store. They were also regularly syndicated for TV.

“Sex, comedy, and an acceptable level of violence” was the goal. The original film cost less than $1.5 million to make. As one article of the time put it, the film relied “heavily on raunchy language, gory details, and a bit of soft porn.” (“Savage Movies Don’t Bloody Investors in Troma’s Schlock” by Patrick Reilly, Crains New York Business, 1986).

Troma’s Toxic Avenger was a surprise hit. It even spawned a musical score: The Toxic Avenger: New Jersey’s first superhero. After that, Troma began making films with bigger names. The original film addressed fears of suburbia: Petty criminals preying on little old ladies and kids, making its criminals easy targets.

The 2023 reboot stars Emmy Award winner Peter Dinklage as Winston Gooze, a step-dad struggling to make ends meet and connect with his son after his wife’s death. He has to face off against a cast of goons led by Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) as the head of an evil corporation polluting suburbia.

Dinklage is buried in head-to-toe makeup and costumery that is satisfyingly realistic and clearly draws on Troma’s history of real-life, practical effects. The SFX here seem to be primarily in the slashing of brains with a magical, sludge-infused mop. It’s giving Goonies, and I’m here for it.

A surprising entry is Elijah Wood’s role as the mistreated brother of the big bad corporation exec, Fritz Garbinger. With makeup and mannerisms that are obvious nods to Tim Burton’s Penguin, Wood plays the role charmingly sweet under the uncanny surface.

The film has a high kill count and is a cheerful gore-fest with a heartfelt ending and a tutu-wearing, mop-wielding hero. It’s kitschy, silly fun, and a blast to watch. What isn’t to love?

For me, the film missed an obvious opportunity to tie the Toxic Avenger’s early climate change message (something people were only just understanding the devastation of in the 80s) to today’s audiences. Taylour Paige is a powerhouse as The Toxic Avenger’s co-lead, bringing much-needed variety to an otherwise heavily white cast. But the satire of the film struggles, peppering what should be a critique of the right with anti-woke culture jokes that aren’t as funny as we’re convinced they should be. After all, it isn’t woke culture that’s killing the planet.

The Toxic Avenger struggles in its jokes — some of which are delightfully perfect, while others rely on tired take-downs. At one point, Toxie turns to his black female sidekick and raises his fist in the black power sign, which she shakes her head at, and Toxie replaces it with a rock-on sign. In another, a clearly right-wing news pundit is told off after making the last of several boring jokes about the left. The film should be making fun of the movement that for years successfully convinced most of the world that climate change wasn’t real. It’s that connection that I was wishing for in the film.

Peter Dinklage has a unique ability to bring another layer of complexity to his roles. In the original Toxic Avenger, there’s a scene where an Asian laundress is killed. The punchline goes, “No ticky, no washy.” Of course, the actress, Norma Pratt, wasn’t Asian. But she was a little person. While B movies often pushed against norms in delightful ways, they also were well-known for perpetuating harmful stereotypes. That history is complex. (If you want a deep dive into little people in Troma films, I hesitantly point you to Lloyd Kaufman’s 2010 article on the topic). Dinklage’s role here is reclaiming that space, which he repeatedly does in his films, most recently the surprise romantic musical Cyrano (2021).

Avenging the toxicity that kills the planet? Maybe. Avenging toxic culture? I’m not entirely sure. Either way, it’s a gory, face-shredding crusade of fun.

Artwork by Chris Bilheimer

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Coming soon: Hard science fiction stories from the Nebula Award wining author William Ledbetter

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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The Toxic Avenger Reboots “Toxic” Hero was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Fantastic Femmes at Fantastic Fest

FILM, FANTASTIC FESTThe Best Scifi, Fantasy, and Horror Movies Featuring Women’s Stories

Interstellar Flight Magazine is back at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas this week bringing you coverage of the best films hitting the screens soon. Chock full of world premieres, celebrity appearances, five short film blocks, live podcast recordings, horror drag shows, secret screenings, and over 90 feature films, this year’s lineup is looking lit.

This year, I’m highlighting the films from the festival featuring leading ladies and women’s stories. Of course, the fest is also showing some pretty badass movies with male leads, including Peter Dinklage (my GoT crush) in The Toxic Avenger reboot, a mini film festival all about Vin Diesel, a dude-heavy Pet Sematary: Bloodlines prequel with an unexpected cameo by David Duchovny, Scott Bakula in Divinity, Mike Flanagan’s new Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher, John David Washington in The Creator from Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One — to name a few.

The Most Exciting Films Screening at Fantastic Fest Featuring Women in Leading Roleshttps://medium.com/media/475d70d37fbaa303bebca96fcda80090/hrefTotally Killer (Prime Video & Blumhouse) ft. Kiernan Shipka

17-year-old Jamie has that Gen Alpha energy as she puts down her mom, the survivor of a shocking murder thirty-five years ago. Played by Kiernan Shipka of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, Jamie is set up to be a witty, sarcastic final girl as she has to face a masked murderer. The film’s pitch spins the genre by time-traveling Jamie back to 1987, where she ends up in a Back-to-the-Future-with-Serial-Killers plot to team up with her teen mom and take down the killer.

Image Courtesy NEONEILEEN (NEON) ft. Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie

Coming in December from arthouse NEON, Eileen is based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh. The book was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize and won the Pen/Hemingway Award. Set in 1964 in Massachusetts, the film follows a young prison secretary named Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), who is trapped in a drab life until bombshell Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) sweeps into her life.

NEON purchased the film for a rumored $15 million (Variety). If it’s anything like the book, which NPR called “Dark, Damaged Fun,” the film should be a worthwhile watch.

https://medium.com/media/3af7652875056372514f680045bb112c/hrefUFO Sweden (Crazy Pictures) ft. Inez Dahl Torhaug

Americans love to be charmed by Swedish accents, and this heartfelt and funny movie about little green men is no exception. Although it features a whacky ensemble cast, the heart of the film is teen Denise (Inez Dahl Torhaug), who seeks out the help of a local ufology society UFO Sweden for help after her father’s car reappears mysteriously years after going missing.

I’m a big sucker for small-budget sci-fi films that still manage to include awesome VFX, so this one looks to be a delight.

https://medium.com/media/4333fcaf8b2559caf328c52f02e613df/hrefKilling Romance (Warner Bros. Korea) ft. Lee Ha-Nee

Failed actress Hwang Yeo-rae (Lee Ha-Nee) falls for the perfect man — rich, charming, and secretly a monster. Johnathan’s a bizarre wealthy terror that can “only be escaped by death.” Absurd, K-pop sweet, and hilarious, Killing Romance looks like a hoot.

https://medium.com/media/0ec647af65f38243b9305b3e1e770319/hrefThe People’s Joker (Haunted Gay Ride Productions) ft. Vera Drew

Okay, imagine a gender-remixed megacut of every Joker movie ever made, smashed up and pieced together as camp horror, and you’ve got Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker. This pop culture mashup looks delightfully sardonic, but there’s a deeper message here of what it means to be trans in today’s nerdscape. The quasi-fandom story of the Joker operates as a conceit under which topics like transitioning, dysphoria, and depression can be explored safely — and with more than a few laughs.

This one is part of Fantastic Fest’s “Burnt Ends” selections, films that “celebrate micro-budget oddities from outlier filmmakers who provoke and defy conventions of aesthetics and taste.” Yum.

https://medium.com/media/aa4eef9b9a1191988ca0650123afc513/hrefProperty (Dark Star Pictures) ft. Malu Galli

When Tereza (Malu Galli) and her husband escape a hostage situation, they retreat to the family’s country estate in their new armored car, unaware that a worker’s revolt is taking place. They get caught in the crossfire and Tereza escapes to the techy car, only to discover it can only be operated by her husband, who is being held hostage. In what promises to be a claustrophobic nightmare, this film is Christine meets Panic Room with a twist of class politics.

https://medium.com/media/c77f2ea6e6e6ecc3f5cb5eb36c250d8c/hrefAnimalia (Totem) ft. Oumaima Barid

Noé Bach provides a beautiful, haunting cinematography for this film about pregnancy and the uncanny. Itto (Oumaima Barid) is pregnant and married to a wealthy businessman but finds herself stuck when a strange storm takes over Morocco. The setting looks to be a huge part of the movie’s tone and vibe, as stray dogs appear to play a metaphorical role in Itto’s struggle to find her way home and herself. Directed by French-Moroccan Sofia Alaoui.

https://medium.com/media/6dc3f136e6222f3972733be7f7ce954b/hrefRestore Point (Robert Hloz) ft. Andrea Mohylová

I’m always excited to see sci-fi films set and produced in non-US countries because they always have a fresh take on the genre. Restore Point promises to be that and more from the Czech Republic. The film follows the common trope of people being “rebooted” to their last save point after death. Police officer Em Trochinowska (Andrea Mohylová) investigates the murder at the Restoration Institute in what looks like a very shiny, very pretty scifi thriller.

SUITABLE FLESH (Shudder) ft. Heather Graham

Premiering in October and acquired for streaming by Shudder, Suitable Flesh stars one of my favorite 90s starlets, Heather Graham in an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s novella “The Thing on the Doorstep” (1933), set in the notorious Arkham Sanitarium. The film gender-swaps the Lovecraft story, placing Graham in the center role of psychologist. Eldritch horrors abound in this erotic horror thriller.

In My Mother’s Skin (Amazon Studies/Epicmedia) ft. Felicity Kyle Napuli

This gory Filipino fairy tale follows the WWII-era story of a family living under Japanese occupation. Tala (Felicity Kyle Napuli) has to care for her family when her father leaves. Tala finds a mysterious place in the woods and seeks help from a fairy played by Beauty Gonzalez, but like all fay bargains, it quickly goes sideways.

Who doesn’t love a slow burn with flesh-eating monsters?

The Sacrifice Game, Image Courtesy IFC FilmsThe Sacrifice Game (Shudder, Red Sea Media) ft. Madison Baines, Georgia Acken, and Chloë Levine

Reminiscent of Black Christmas (1974), this spoofy feminist coming-of-age holiday tale from director Jenn Wexler follows Samantha (Madison Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken) as students stuck at their boarding school over Christmas with their chaperone Rose (Chloë Levine). The teens quickly get caught up in surviving a demonic cult home invasion.

I’m still reeling from the delight of last year’s Violent Night, so here’s hoping this is another bloody Christmas pin on my map of holiday-themed horror.

STOPMOTION (Robert Morgan) ft. Aisling Franciosi

Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) is a stop-motion animator who learned from her overbearing mother, who forces Ella to do her work now that she is ill. When her mother dies, Ella starts a macabre new puppet film. But she struggles to hold onto what’s real in a world of deliciously dark stop-motion creations.

Stop-motion is one of my favorite forms of filmmaking, and Robert Morgan’s (known for the creepy cult favorite short “The Cat with Hands”) stop-motion animations are evocative, pensive, and satisfyingly shuddersome.

Fantastic Fest Poster Art Courtesy Chris Bilheimer

This article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!

Coming soon from Interstellar Flight Press!

Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Fantastic Femmes at Fantastic Fest was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Book Launch for THE LONG FALL UP by William Ledbetter

NewsletterJoin Us November 6, 2023 via Zoom to Celebrate the Publication of THE LONG FALL UP, a Collection of Award Winning Short Stories

“William Ledbetter’s stories exists at the crossroads between hard and soft: they’re full of hard space, hard choices, and hard lives, but also the soft hearts of the people who work there, make them, and live them. Bill can do more in two pages than some authors do in twenty; he’ll make you love a sweater, fear for a ship, and more. So whatever your preference, hard or soft: if Bill Ledbetter has written a story, you want to read it. Simple as that.” — Trevor Quachri, Editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine

Save the date! We’re hosting an online book launch for THE LONG FALL UP by William Ledbetter. Chock full of heartfelt stories, you won’t want to miss this reading and chance to chat with the author!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Date:
November 6, 2023
6 :00pm CST
Online via Zoom

The Long Fall Up
by William Ledbetter

From bestselling Nebula-Award winning William Ledbetter comes a groundbreaking collection of science fiction short stories that will bend your heart like a black hole. From AI to robot medics to life on Mars, Ledbetter takes real tech, blends it with hard science fact, and invents futures full of fantastic fiction. Includes 17 previously published stories and one original story.

About the Author

William Ledbetter is a Nebula Award winning author with two novels and more than seventy speculative fiction short stories and non-fiction articles published in five languages, in markets such as Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog, Escape Pod and the SFWA blog. He’s been a space and technology geek since childhood and spent most of his non-writing career in the aerospace and defense industry. He is a member of SFWA, the National Space Society of North Texas, and a Launch Pad Astronomy workshop graduate. He lives near Dallas with his wife, a needy dog and three spoiled cats.

“In one thousand words, William Ledbetter managed to completely captivate me with his story, ‘What I Am.’ Science fiction tales of this length rarely work for me. It’s so hard to compress solid science, plotting, and characterization into so few words. In this case, however, I was completely captivated by Oscar and his companion. The science fiction element was perfect. At the same time, Bill created a compelling situation and made me desperately care about his characters. These essential qualities are to be found in his longer works as well.” — Sheila Williams, Editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction

PRE-ORDER THE BOOK!

Registration is required for this event. Visit the Eventbrite listing to sign up!

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Book Launch for THE LONG FALL UP by William Ledbetter was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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