More spectral than haunting and featuring the most melancholy, lush score of any film at Fantastic Fest this year, Adam and Skye Mann’s A Guide to Becoming an Elm Tree caught me off guard. There are no great scares…. no bloodletting…. and it quietly mimics the aura of Irish folklore and mysticism that its characters frequently discuss. It also helps that it’s filmed in black and white. Bottom line- I didn’t know what to expect going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by its mysterious pacing and attention to the vagaries of grief.
Featuring only three people (ok, and the voice of a fourth), the film follows lonely Padraig (James Healy-Meaney) as he solicits the help of a local carpenter (Gerry wade) to assist him in a woodworking project. Through conversation and muted understanding, the two men form a bond as the real motives for Padraig’s woodworking piece come into view, which is a coffin for his recently deceased wife. Add to the fact that the film takes place amongst hundred-year-old trees and a landscape weathered with the fairy tales of thousands of years, and A Guide To Becoming an Elm Tree veers into mania, obsession, and sadness with the ease of a whispered bedtime story. I look forward to whatever project the filmmakers tackle next.
____________________________________________________________________________
Continuing on with a very low-key last day to the festival, Nadav Aronowicz’s The Altman Method presents an intense moral quandary. Blending together the political animosity of Israeli-Palestinian relations and the slow erosion of trust between a man and wife like a tense thriller paperback, the film opens as Uri (Niro Barak) and wife Noa (Maayan Weinstock) are packing up their failed martial arts studio business. Noa has more faith in their future than Uri does, especially with a child on the way.
Then, Uri is involved in an incident in his building with a Palestinian cleaning woman and newfound fame tumbles their way, making him a social media star, ensuring a profitable return to his business.
For me, the trajectory of the story seemed clear early on, but writer-director Aronowicz is less interested in the mechanics of the plot and more on the internalized boiling point demonstrated by the characters. As the distrustful wife, Weinstock gives a heady performance, oscillating between homebound bliss and mounting suspicion. I doubt there was a more tense scene in any festival film this year than her confrontation with a man at a car wash….. all words, gestures, and searching glances that felt more violent and scary than anything else.
Taking as its jumping off point the tensions between two states of people living a conjoined existence that’s ripe for violence at any moment, The Altman Method shows just how insidiously those pretenses can mount into something as simple as an evil marketing device.
_____________________________________________________________________________
As usual, iImanaged to miss a majority the recognized films, but here are the results of the 2023 Fantastic Fest awards:
Main Competition:
Picture: Property (Daniel Bedaire)
Director: StopMotion (Robert Morgan)
Next Wave Features
Picture: Sri Asih (Upi Avianto)
Director: The Uncle (David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić)
Horror Features:
Picture and Director: Infested (Sébastien Vaniček)
FANTASTIC SHORTS
Picture: Sweet Juices (Will Suen and Sejon Im)
Honorable Mention: Fostering, (Andrei Kashpersky)
AUDIENCE AWARD
I’ll Crush Ya’ll (Kike Narcea)
Dallas Film Now. 