FANTASIA FESTIVAL 2015: TURBO KID BLASTS MONTREAL IN A GOOEY PILE OF MUSH… AND WE LOVE IT.

Tonight is the SOLD OUT Montreal premiere of the batshit insane Turbo Kid… and this gory ode to 80s apocalyptic cinema does not disappoint one bit.

• Director: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
• Screenplay: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
• Cast: Michael Ironside, Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Edwin Wright

The Quebec/New Zealand production was birthed in this very festival, via the Frontières International Co-Production Market, and it truly deserves all the hype it’s getting. It was a hit at SXSW, Sundance, and pretty much every global screening so far, and it will very soon hit you right in the friggin’ face.

Turbo Kid is the story about a kid, named, appropriately enough. The Kid (played by Munro Chambers), living and scavenging in the far-future, post-nuclear wasteland of 1997! Water is scarce and controlled by a gang of post-apocalyptic fiends, led by a megalomaniacal villain named ZEUS (played by the legendary MICHAEL IRONSIDE of SCANNERS!!!). The Kid soon befriends a quirky, adorable, and ass-kicking young lady named Apple (pitch-perfectly portrayed by Laurence Leboeuf) and they soon find themselves in a heap of trouble. Will the powerful TURBO GLOVE let the kid live out his comic book fantasies? Will Apple, The Kid, and an Arm-Wrestling Cowboy be able to defeat Zeus and restore order to this future wasteland? Will there be gratuitous gore and extreme scenes of pure 1980s WTF? I can definitely confirm that last part.

TURBO KID is so much damn fun. If MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was big budget post-apocalyptic films done right, then TURBO KID are the 80s straight-to-video post-apocalyptic rehashes done right.

This film just screams awesome. It’s like all my childhood action figures and videogames fell into a giant blender and were made into awesomesauce smoothies.

From the amazing seat pounding synthtastic score (by Le Matos), to the truckloads of splatter and gut-wrenching guts on display, to the insane video game aesthetics and epic world building, to the wonderful and gorgeous looking cinematography… everything about this film is a visual and audible treat.

Seriously. This film is already in my top 3 for Fantasia this year.  I haven’t even seen everything yet. I’m that confident it can’t be topped. Ask me again mid-August. Wait. Don’t. Just ask me now. This film is in my top 3. There.

Even on a cinematic level this film works. Yes, a lot of weird shit is going on. Yes, not a whole lot makes sense, and that’s part of the joy about it. You believe the characters know what’s going on. Everything is played for straight. The film has rules in this verse and they follow it. They could have nodded or winked at the audience to signify we’re all in on the same joke, but they took the smart route of treating this all very seriously… even if most of things you’re seeing before your eyes is the most unserious shit ever. THEY BELIEVED IN THEMSELVES AND NOW WE ARE REWARDED.

Despite all that there’s some really heartfelt and tragic moments… and this film can get bleak as all hell. You feel for these characters. You want them to kick ass. You want them to blast shit to smithereens. Then you want a big hug in beautiful primary colours. Then you want to hug the filmmakers for making cinematic excellence.

But let’s get back to what the gorehounds want… how’s the gore? It’s insane, dude. It’s insane. Heads, torsos, limbs,  and guts. You name it. At times it’s like Mortal Kombat meets BMX biking meets Captain Power and/or Tron with loads of Road Warrior thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and you get robots and lasers and stuff.

Yeah, dude. That’s like finding 20 bux in an old pair of jeans that you forgot about. Friggin’ bonus, man. Friggin’ bonus!

Back to that score… if you’re a fan of Daft Punk or Justice and the best of the 80s film scores (Carpenter! Moroder! Shout them out, kids!) you will absolutely love what LE MATOS has done. I want the Blu-Ray to have a score-only track so I can have the 89 minute long batshit insane music video I never knew I wanted. So many feels. So many feels.

This film will keep you wildly entertained until you want more. The twists and turns are fun and beautifully on point with this era. You can tell there was so much love for this film during production. And it’s infectious. The bang for your buck is explosive.

Is it any wonder this film came about from an ABCs of Death segment? Any wonder that Jason Eisener of HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN fame exec-produced it? That’s some awesome pedigree right there. And it shows. Why are you reading this and not watching that trailer again? Really? What’s going on?

Look, I can talk about this film all goddamn day, but I won’t. Just run to the screenings and hope they free up seats. Beg someone to sell you their ticket. Bribe them with money. Offer a first born. Blackmail them. Paint their house. Do whatever. Just see this movie. Or like wait until August 14th, like everyone else, and see it then when it gets it’s national release. And then pre-order the home version and watch it every goddamn day until they make a “Turbo Kid 2: Eyes. Throat. Balls. Boogaloo”.

Thank you, Fantasia. Thank you, Quebec. Thank You, Canada. Thank You, New Zealand. Thank you, François Simard, Anouk Whissell, & Yoann-Karl Whissell.
Merci.

Hopefully we’ll see you again real soon.

July 23rd 7pm and July 31st 11:55pm. Concordia Hall Theatre.

Both Screenings Are Sold Out!