The lines are longer, the shows are selling out and the Philadelphia Film Festival, now in its 13th year, is more fun than it's ever been. Showcasing 250 features and short films -- more than the much higher-profile (and more expensive) Sundance Film Festival -- the annual event has finally begun to draw in true movie buffs who purchase All-Access Badges and plan entire days of movies, movies, movies. Running through this weekend and wrapping up on Wednesday, the event is surely one of the most exciting things this city has to offer.
This year's festival sensation is Super Size Me, a documentary by a guy who decided to eat a diet of McDonald's and nothing but McDonald's three times a day for 30 days. With its star and director Morgan Spurlock in attendance, the film has been the recipient of two complete sell-outs and thunderous applause; it is sure to be featured in one of the To Be Announced "Festival Favorites" slots on Wednesday. Though its premise is unquestionably a crock -- he consumed 5000 calories a day and saw his weight and cholesterol skyrocket? You don't say! -- Spurlock himself is so disarmingly charismatic and well-intentioned that it is difficult to dislike the film.
Saturday night saw the presentation of the festival's annual Phantasmagoria award to Tobe Hooper, the director of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, and dozens of other popular gorefests. Enthusiastically greeted by an audience made up in large part of horror fanatics, Hooper answered questions for nearly a half hour following the screening of his new slasher flick, The Toolbox Murders. The highlight of that film was a man being killed by a pair of garden shears to the spine.
Though the festival is half over, there are still plenty of fine films left on the schedule. I'm Not Scared, a wonderful thriller from Italy that holds the distinction of being the only film to ever cause me to spill a bag of popcorn on my neighbor, screens on Saturday. Later that night, you can see Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, an old NC-17-rated Russ Meyer parody co-written by none other than Roger Ebert. A Tale of Two Sisters, showing on Friday and Saturday, is a creepy, atmospheric Korean horror film that will make you jump even if you never have any idea what the hell is going on.
Go on. Get out there. I hear there's nudity.
