Best Of 2012: Megashaun

These days it’s not uncommon to hear the reply “busy” when asking someone you’ve not seen for a while, “how are you?” Having attended numerous events throughout the year, I’ve come to realize just how universal and vague a reply this is, and have therefore stopped using it. While it is nice to relax every now and then, being occupied with work and various other projects keeps the mind healthy and the creativity flowing. Best of all it completely destroys boredom—and looking back at 2012 I can honestly say this has been the most exciting year I’ve experienced.

Given my “day job” as a host and reporter for EP Daily, I’m in a position to experience more than most people, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities this job has afforded me. These include meeting and interviewing people behind some of my favorite games, TV shows, and movies. Some of my interview highlights this year include Mark Ruffalo and Cobie Smulders for The Avengers, Brad Bird for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the incomparable Radioman, and super stylish game designer Suda51. I have a personal rule to not “fan out” over people I meet but I disregarded this entirely while interviewing Suda51 and even went so far as to ask for a photo (which turned out amazing as you can see).

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Assemblog: October 19, 2012

Beyond The Black Rainbow

New this week on Popshifter: The full schedule for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2012 is out; I profile one of my top five picks for the festival, American Mary; and Elizabeth weighs in on The Rumble 2012 in her new installment of “TV Is Dead, Long Live TV.”

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Fantastic Fest 2012: The Reviews and Awards Are In

By Less Lee Moore

Another Fantastic Fest has come and gone. Congratulations to the people behind all the films that won awards, especially Here Comes The Devil which won Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress in the Horror Feature category. A well deserved round of applause! (You can read my Here Comes The Devil review on the TIFF Vanguard blog here.)

For a complete list of all the award winners, check the Fantastic Fest website.

I’ve also picked my favorite reviews of each film that I’ve previously mentioned on Popshifter, along with a couple of movies that weren’t on my radar but which I now want to see, based on the reviews coming out of the Fest.

No doubt you’ll be hearing more about these movies on Popshifter in the coming months. Enjoy!

American Mary (Fear.net)
Horror Feature Best Actress Special Mention: Katherine Isabel

The American Scream (Indiewire and Theater Thoughts, because I couldn’t choose a fave.)
Best Documentary: Director Michael Stephenson

Antiviral (Complex)

Combat Girls (Twitch’s review was so wonderful it made me add this to my “must see” list.)
AMD “Next Wave” Spotlight Competition Winner for Best Actress: Alina Levshin

The Conspiracy (Very Aware)

Frankenweenie (Bloody Disgusting)

Holy Motors (Screen Crush)

Looper (Geek Nation)

Sinister (Bloody Disgusting)

Taped (Film School Rejects)

Tower Block (Fear.net)

Vanishing Waves (I am not posting any reviews here because the few I started to read were spoiler-heavy. Here’s the trailer again to refresh your memory, though.)
Fantastic Features Best Picture, Best Director: Director Kristina Buozyte
Fantastic Features Best Screenplay: Bruno Samper, Kristina Buozyte
Fantastic Features Best Actress: Jurga Jutaite

Wake In Fright (Another outstanding review from Twitch on this rarely seen Australian film from 1971 put this on my radar. Drafthouse Films picked up the film and it will play in New York on October 5 at The Film Forum and again in L.A. on October 19 at The Nuart. A national release will follow with VOD and home video releases in early 2013.)

The Art Of Frankenweenie: From FanExpo to Fantastic Fest

By Less Lee Moore

At this year’s FanExpo Canada, I was fortunate enough to take a trip through the mind of Tim Burton. No, I wasn’t shrunk down like Fantastic Voyage or anything. The kind folks at FanExpo worked with Disney and Mr. Burton to present an exhibit of the artwork for the movie. Since Frankenweenie will premiere at Austin’s Fantastic Fest tonight (and will open in wide release October 5), I thought it was a good time to share these terrific photos with you.

First some history: Frankenweenie was a 29-minute short Burton made in 1984. The story is about a kid named Victor Frankenstein who decides to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life after poor Sparky is hit and killed by a car.

Like the original, the full-length Frankenweenie is in black and white, but the new version is much longer and will also be released in 3D.

These photos do not do the exhibit justice. The detail was amazing and I literally wanted to play with everything there, even the fake Tim Burton desk.

Take a look at these images and don’t forget to check out the movie in October!

FanExpo Canada 2012: In Pictures

By Less Lee Moore

We came, we saw, we Fan Expo’d.

Click on each thumbnail for a larger image and a description!. We’ll have more coverage of some of these happenings in the upcoming weeks.