We say cinema is larger than life, that it is imbued with our fantasies, dreams, desires. Surreal, moody, edgy, this year’s Fantastic Fictions is bursting at the seams with urges and provocations. These films are deep dives into the psychologies—human and non-human—that encapsulate the zeitgeist of our era. And behind the whimsical stories, there are sighs of resignation and footprints of the Imp of the Perverse.
A parody western musical, a teenage girl’s damp daydream, a middle-age woman’s imaginative escape from the monotony of married life, a grand tour around the wasteland of computer graphics where memories are as malleable as distorted skin texture. No matter ifit’s two dogs’ existential awakening, a spider’s witness of an apocalypse, or two friends’ bougie self-care weekend trip to a sterling-haunted forest, reveries bleed into the screen and image becomes a delicate reality.
Nicky Ni
