The 2024 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is still going and ComicBook has some fresh reviews out of the festival’s genre and international film premieres. Up first is the dark thriller The G, followed by the surprising documentary, From My Cold Dead Hands, both of which take a stark look at America in surprising ways.
The G
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To describe Karl R. Hearne’s revenge thriller using those words is almost a disservice to the craft put into its foundation. The G has a strange title, a unique plot, and an unconventional protagonist in Dale Dickey. Best known for her roles as a character actor (with notable appearances in Breaking Bad & Fallout), Dickey anchors the film and haunts every frame with a grounded and gravelly performance. Taking on the role of the titular grandparent (identified by just one letter), Dickey’s character arc is closer to John Wick than something more homely and kind. This paves the way for a film mired in the grime of late-stage capitalism and the exploitation found in places no one cares to look.
Hearne directs from his own script, whose hook is like something you’ve never seen before but which you can immediately buy into by the simplicity with which the story is told. There’s a delicate layering on display, as well, as The G only reveals as much to the viewer as you should know at any given time, it’s always playing coy in a way that keeps your attention, and it’s near-masterful storytelling. Flanking Dickey in the film’s cast is Romane Denis, playing her granddaughter Emma, who becomes the surrogate for the audience in a way that is a delicate balancing act. Act too naive about the world and you might lose us, know too much about what’s clearly going on and the whole picture isn’t clear, but Denis makes it work and bounces off of Dickey’s surly style with ease.
The G takes its time to develop and this leads to a slower pace that rewards your patience, sticking the landing in a way that is both poignant and satisfying. Marking Hearne’s second feature film, it’s the kind of movie that feels like a calling card, something that in a just world would mark a fresh perspective’s ascension to big projects. If there’s one thing at the heart of The G, though, it’s knowing that the world isn’t fair and you have to make your own way.
Rating: 4 out of 5
From My Cold Dead Hands
From My Cold Dead Hands is maybe the most unique documentary you’ll see on a subject, as its footage isn’t talking heads or harrowing footage with narration, but rather quite the opposite. Everything you see from the film was pulled from YouTube and edited together. The framing device is a recurring video where two men break down a list about the best reasons to own a gun, with footage sprinkled in between that exists under that specific framing, but also at times in direct contrast to their point. All of the videos that encompass the doc are made up of pro-gun channels and accounts, so the juxtaposition of footage against whatever point has been made isn’t coming from voices that are on different sides. Instead, what happens is the footage ends up taking on incredibly creepy undertones; EG: “Firearms provide a way for families to bond with their children,” which is followed by bizarre videos of kids doing a walk-through tour of a gun store and another of a young girl disassembling and assembling weapons while blindfolded. Even the sparse moments of sensibility are put up next to people who are cooking bacon on a gun barrel or even shooting themselves in the leg by accident at a target range.
On the whole, From My Cold Dead Hands is not only an illustrative collection about insane personalities on one side of a specific political issue, but also a fascinating look at what people think will make them famous. The most egregious of these is a woman dressed as Cinderella singing a propaganda parody of “Part of Your World” (a song sung by The Little Mermaid‘s Ariel?) about how eager she is to expand her gun collection and to stick it to alleged anti-gun politicians. The entire film may be about the kooky world of gun nuts in America, but it’s also a chilling expose into how some are eager for an easy route to fame by any means necessary.
Rating: 4 out of 5
