Fantastic Fest Capsule Reviews - "The Coffee Table," "Door," and "Fck'n Nuts"
Here are capsule reviews of three films I screened at the 2023 edition of Fantastic Fest:
The Coffee Table - Maria (Estefanía de los Santos) and Jesús (David Pareja) are a not-entirely-happy married couple with a newborn. She’s confident and excited about parenthood, he openly admits to not being ready for children and not liking the name she picked out for their baby. Jesús insists on buying a gawdy coffee table for the living room, one where the glass is held up by two naked gold women. Purchasing that table sets off a chain of events that completely ruins their lives. This is a hard movie to review. It’s skillfully made and well-acted, and the theme about life’s potential for random cruelty is certainly provocative. Having said that, the primary event that The Coffee Table revolves around is something I personally cannot deal with. It’s played for tragedy, yet also for intermittent dark humor. Either way, it was too upsetting to allow me to enjoy the film. Other ways existed to address the subject matter without going to the distressing place we’re dragged to here.
Door - This sexually-charged 1988 Japanese thriller is something few Americans have been exposed to. Fantastic Fest aims to change that. Yasuko (Keiko Takahashi) is a housewife whose husband spends long days at work, leaving her to keep the house and care for their little boy. One day, a pesky salesman knocks on her door, trying to give her a pamphlet. She slams the door, smashing his hand in the process. The guy then proceeds to stalk her. His methods include lewd phone calls, painting crude graffiti outside her apartment, and breaking into the place in an effort to sexually assault her. Door is a bit slow in spots, and the specific motivation of the bad guy is a little on the hazy side. All that for an injured hand? Nevertheless, several awesomely crazy scenes can be found here, including a dizzying one-take chase through the apartment that’s completely filmed from overhead. The finale - involving a chainsaw, a fork, and a roller skate - is fun, too. Door may not be on the same level as the wild Japanese classic Hausu (House), but the movie undeniably has its moments.
Fck’n Nuts - This 12-minute short focuses on a young woman named Sandy (Maddie Nichols) whose boyfriend Dan (Vincent Stalba) shows up at her house to profess his love and hopefully meet her parents. She tries to prevent that, saying that they’re nuts and it would be embarrassing. Dan pressures her, so she relents. It turns out Sandy was understating the bizarre nature of what he would see inside the home. Two things set this short apart. One is the visual style, which effectively mixes bright candy colors with shadows and darkness. The other is a hilariously twisted payoff to the story, complete with A+ gross-out effects. Fck’n Nuts pleasingly lives up to its title.
