12 June 15 - 21, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Title Review The 5 most interest- ing picks from the Oak Cliff Film Festival based solely on their titles. BY DANNY GALLAGHER F ilm festivals are finally getting back to full steam, and one that’s been ahead of that recuperating curve is the Oak Cliff Film Festi- val. The annual film gathering in the Texas Theatre runs from Wednesday, June 21, through Sunday, June 25. It brings a host of interesting and unique cinematic expe- riences, most of which you won’t get a chance to see anywhere else on a big screen — the way they were meant to be seen. The schedule for this year’s film smor- gasbord stands out because it’s got some in- teresting-sounding flicks, at least based on their titles. We’re not saying these will be good or bad based on the titles. That would be the cinematic equivalent of judging a book by its cover. We just had to pull out some of our favorites that show how film- makers are taking some interesting risks in a world where every other movie title is just the name of a comic book superhero, and even that genre is running out of names so fast that it has started naming films after vil- lains. Here are some of our flick picks for the films that look like the strangest/weirdest/ quirkiest/most interesting time you can have in the movie theater. Quantum Cowboys If there’s one genre that desperately needs an update, it’s the Western. Of course, that’s hard to do when the genre refers to a histori- cal period. Maybe that’s the inspiration for this metaphysical take on an iconic piece of Americana cinema. Filmmaker Geoff Marslett’s animated experiment explores the same story but through different media, from classic stop motion to that new-fangled CGI. The cen- tral story focuses on two 1870s drifters named Frank and Bruno trekking across the Wild West thanks to a time loop that shows some of the different timelines their lives take across the spectrum of dimen- sional space. Each different style of anima- tion is basically a different universe showing the possibilities life can take even if we can see only one of them. It sounds like Richard Linklater’s Waking Life meets The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on a Dis- ney animation studio budget. Aliens Abducted My Parents (and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out) Movies with long titles are such a rarity, but they can make a bold statement by taking a big risk. Take, for instance, the 1964 drive-in classic The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Pretty much everything you need to know about the movie is right there in the title. We’re not saying that director Jake Van Wagoner’s sci-fi family film starring Will Forte, Jacob Buster and Emmy Tremblay is destined to crack a star on the Internet Movie Database. If anything, it sounds like it will be quite the opposite. It sounds like it’s telling you everything but feels like it’s leav- ing out a lot. The film centers on a kid named Itsy who moves to a new city and has to make friends at a new school. She has dreams of becoming a journalist (No, Itsy! Turn back now!) and decides to do a story about a strange classmate named Calvin who believes aliens abducted his parents, and the creatures will return to reunite him with his family when a comet returns to our planet. Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue To be honest, we couldn’t find a lot about this short from filmmaker Sai Selvarajan outside of the Oak Cliff Film Festival’s page, and maybe that’s the best way to prepare for a short film like this. You’ve got only 20 min- utes or so. A run-on sentence about the plot could spoil the whole thing. This short explores how some “people find solace on a plank of wood and wheels” or a skateboard. If anything, it sounds like an interesting take on a skateboarding movie since such films usually focus on how “rad” or “shredding” or whatever slang that skateboarders used during that time period to describe what they do. Maybe Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue will help us see another side of the sport that’s contemplative and introspective, with a soundtrack that doesn’t have at least five Sum 41 songs. Satan Wants You Just in case you didn’t get the message, Sa- tanism is on the rise again. According to the flapping jaws of people like Sen. Ted Cruz and Candace Owens, the great Dark Lord is going on an Eagles-esque comeback tour ex- cept people actually want to hear the music Satan creates. So, there’s no mystery behind the nature of the documentary. Satan Wants You tries to unpack the overblown, overhyped and just plain over trend of the infamous Satanic Panic of the 1980s during which rumors spread that thousands of American teenag- ers were committing homicidal rituals and receiving messages in music, video games, comic books and whatever else the previous generation doesn’t understand about the one that came after them. Problemista You already had us at “starring Tilda Swin- ton,” but putting her in what sounds and looks like an absurdist comedy makes it all the more intriguing. The insane success of Daniel Kwan’s Os- car-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once seems to have shown the film indus- try that taking risks on unique stories is what brings people to the movies. Julio Torres wrote, stars and directed this com- edy about a toy designer who finds himself having to race to achieve his dream before his work visa expires. Then again, maybe the Problemista is about not letting your situation rule your identity? Either way, we’re glad A24 and the studio system is giv- ing this film a chance to be seen. Courtesy of A24 You should never judge a film by its title, but there are some real standouts in the lineup for this year’s Oak Cliff Film Festival, such as the comedy Problemista starring Tilda Swinton. ▼ Culture
