Tollywood

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Snapshot of Beyond Fest 2022 – Los Angeles’s Most Popular Film Festival

If you’re looking for a film festival that’s just as likely to screen a cult horror film as a classic John Woo action alongside a bunch of film premiere’s from Hollywood and abroad, you should check out Beyond Fest. It claims to be the highest attended genre film festival in the U.S. – which we can definitely believe as both premieres we saw were sold out. Plus, the slate catered brilliantly to the genre community in Los Angeles with screenings from a diverse range of films that spanned from Tollywood and Indian Cinema legend S.S. Rajamouli to premieres of the latest Park Chan-wook and Hollywood horror films.

Beyond Fest Premieres

We only saw two film premieres at the 2022 edition of the festival. Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s long anticipated return following his amazingly weird fantasy-romance-thriller Border, as well as Park Chan-wook’s latest (no introduction needed) Decision to Leave.

As expected, Holy Spider was a very well made true crime thriller set in the holy city of Mashhad. It follows the killer violently taking out his victims simultaneously as a rogue journalist reporting the story. The violence is a little exploitative, and the killer’s perspective in these moments comes across a bit distasteful situated within the current popularity of the true crime genre in which serial killers have been turned into celebrities. The focus on his perspective also diminishes the impact of the anti-patriarchal quest of the female journalist, which generates the film’s political message. The violence is more shocking than the anti-patriarchal society, and the film leans into this by showing both sides. Following the originality of Border, it was also surprising to find a very ‘by the book’ true crime thriller. Apart from one speaking corpse, there was nothing to identify this film as something from the same director. It’s a well-made film, but not as original or biting (politically) as desired.

Our film viewing history also affected expectations for Decision to Leave. Having only seen Oldboy and Handmaiden, we expected Park Chan-wook’s latest to be defined by some weird sexual scenes too. Instead, Decision to Leave proved to be one of the best modern noirs we’ve seen, complete with a very normal romance, at least in comparison to the films mentioned above. It follows a bored in marriage detective that falls in love with the suspect of a murder case. The brilliance in the film comes from the little things, such as the humorous clues of a brewing romance (including expensive sushi), and a hilarious way to take part in a knife fight. Park Chan-wook also uniquely meshes two shots into one to more efficiently convey the detective process. One example of this is when he merges the detective on stakeout with shots of the suspect by placing the detective ‘in’ her apartment talking through the detective process with the suspect. Another is when Chan-wook edits the detective into the reconstruction of the murder. These innovative scenes along with the injections of humor make Decision to Leave immensely engaging to watch.

Tollywood Takeover – S.S. Rajamouli Tribute

Following the success of the Netflix release of RRR, S.S. Rajamouli’s latest was re-released in a broader range of cinemas nationwide (notably those that don’t regularly show new Indian releases, outside of areas targeting large Indian communities). Without the Netflix buzz, we may not have received a Rajamouli tribute at Beyond Fest as not many people turned out to watch it in the U.S. in its initial release. We wrote about Rajamouli’s films deserving to be seen on the big screen a few months ago, so we were thrilled to see that 7 of his films were programmed across Los Angeles as part of Beyond Fest- most hosted at The Aero. As expected, it was a great experience, with audiences cheering throughout the film for all the iconic moments, and even getting up to dance for the big musical numbers. Whilst it probably doesn’t compare to screenings in India, it was amazing to watch immensely fun films with an audience that was equally up for it. Despite the premieres from Park Chan-wook and Ali Abbasi, these Rajamouli screenings were the highlight of our Beyond Fest 2022 experience.

Refer back to the Beyond Fest website for updates on future editions of the festival.

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Waltair Veerayya – Telugu Cinema Tackling the Unserious with Confidence

By Sebastian Torrelio

Waltair Veeraayya

It is perhaps not the most original sentiment in the world to declare a Telugu blockbuster interesting for subverting its tone, audience & subject, yet Waltair Veerayya, the newest from Bobby Kolli, has a blast doing so in spades. Waltair (Chiranjeevi) is a smuggler, often apparently a fisherman, hired by state police to extradite Solomon Caesar (Bobby Simha), a drug kingpin wanted for the murder of a slew of local authorities. Waltair hunts Solomon using his veritible tricks of the trade library – including such tactics as, disguising oneself in the villain’s hotel, wearing extremely noticeable attire, and bumbling around an airport with the crew.

The trailer for Waltair Veerayya, which gives some semblance of how this concept is supposed to come across, is a never-ending barrage of action shots in various settings with our lead placed squarely in the middle, as if kicking his enemies off the barriers of the screen for nearly three hours. What the trailer doesn’t reveal is how disorienting Kolli keeps his layered gang novela: the initial sequence of Solomon’s entrance promises a brutal story of “the beast hunter” meeting his prey. What follows could not be more mistakable for a common Telugu comedy, our lead a scruffy, drunken weirdo making every inconceivably silly intention a happy accident for the trueness of law enforcement.

At its best, Chiranjeevi—an actor no stranger to notoriously strange cinematic environments, but digging himself well into a charismatically aged humor here—leads an ensemble that comes across as tried and practiced with the sort of genre-mixed kerfuffle Kolli wants to embrace. The baffling whiplash from playing pants-down-level punchlines smoothly into serious, spotlight-coordinated corruption busting should be a lot more strained than this, and Waltair Veerayya‘s first half might as well feel part miracle for not allowing the actors to fall into tonal abyss.

Post-intermission leaves a lot to be desired, a commonplace travel back in time to the roots of Waltair’s true enemy, and true origins, that rides action de résistance far more than the wholesomely juggled first half. Where boring plot characters are interjected for sustenance, an entirely jarring final minutes at least makes up for what Kolli seems to be going for – memorable accountability, in spite of wanting so earnestly to play out the class clown role for himself.

Seen at Cinemark 18 & XD, Los Angeles