Fantastic Fest, 9/24.

"Wow," yelps Matt Dentler. "No one ever expected that tonight, audiences at Fantastic Fest would be treated to the first public screening of Mel Gibson's latest release, Apocalypto." Gibson was on hand for a post-screening Q&A as well (Blake's got an MP3 at Cinema Strikes Back), a departure from his approach to screenings earlier in the week in Oklahoma, according to reports in the AP that have him in a mask and wig so as not to be noticed by the public. But in Austin, Matt writes, "The 200+ audience members at tonight's screening seemed to shrug off any politics or scandal, in favor of simply experiencing Gibson's latest work.... [S]candal or no, Mel Gibson has delivered a highly entertaining and suspenseful action film. Properly positioned, it could be a big success."

Updated through 9/25.

Tim Basham's having a grand time: "You take the number one moviehouse in the country, throw in talent from SXSW programming and Ain't It Cool News [where you'll naturally find oodles of reviews of oodles of films] and let them hand pick films from around the world. How could that not be fantastic?" Quick takes on The Hamster Cage, Abominable, Tideland and Gamerz follow. Earlier: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

"I'm enjoying watching movies with people who know how to watch movies," writes Peter Martin at Twitch. His quick takes: Abominable, Unrest, Renaissance and Zhest. Also, The Living and the Dead and The Hamster Cage.

Meanwhile, Jette Kernion and Chris Holland are all over the festival at Slackerwood.

Wiley Wiggins is posting lots of pix and quick comments as well.

Updates: First impressions of Apocalypto from Peter Martin (Twitch), Scott Weinberg (Cinematical) and Harry Knowles and Darla Hood (AICN).

Update, 9/25: Blake Ethridge at Cinema Strikes Back: "It's Wages of Fear with the pulp adventure feel of the old serials and westerns. It's a lyrical powerhouse of epic proportions that harks back to the days when Hollywood made films on the scale of Ben-Hur. Decadent, rousing and rife with a macabre message of doom for civilizations that are ruled and controlled by fear."

Posted by dwhudson at September 24, 2006 5:28 AM