TOUCH ME (U.S., 2025)
From the official Fantasia press synopsis: From the director of Hypochondriac comes a singular work that breakdances seamlessly from tentacle sex and practical exploding heads to beautifully touching monologues and heartbreaking reflections on trauma and toxic relationships. Two codependent best friends become addicted to the heroin-like touch of an alien narcissist who may or may not be trying to take over the world.
It couldn’t have been anything resembling easy to juggle the extremes of heavy emotional drama and bizarre, often dark comedy — not to mention all the oddness between those elements — that genre mashup Touch Me boasts, but writer/director Addison Heimann proves more than up to the task. It’s true storytelling and directing wizardry, and then there is the incredible visual magic at work.
The film starts off with a terrific display of acting by Olivia Taylor Dudley as Joey, who is meeting with her therapist Kelly (Ashley Lauren Nedd). Joey lays out her story in a long monologue about her emotional and physical relationship with an extraterrestrial entity named Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci) who says he wants to save the world. (Joey has obviously never seen the “To Serve Man” episode of The Twilight Zone.) We are then introduced to her depressed gay roommate Craig (Jordan Gavaris). The pair accept an invitation from Brian to stay at his giant house, where they go through different therapies with the charismatic alien, aided by his assistant Laura (Marlene Forte). Jealousy, betrayal, and other duplicitous behavior ensues, as it will when interspecies tentacle sex and addiction to Brian’s drug-like touch come into play.
The performances are all fantastic, as each member of the cast gets to stretch between serious scenes such as revelations of childhood abuse to surreal silliness. Heimann is adept at exploring trauma through impactful horror and science fiction themes, and his pacing is pretty much perfect for this feature. Touch Me is a hypnotic, intriguing slice of genre entertainment that goes way, way out there.
BUFFET INFINITY (Canada, 2025)
From the official Fantasia press synopsis: Picking from hundreds of hours of original, low-budget TV ads, [First-time feature director and award-winning comedian Simon] Glassman tells the sinister tale of two restaurants battling it out in the town of Westridge County. Insurance ads, used car rivals, and plugs for a local religious scholar and recording artist, Langdon P. Hershey, all converge to tell the story of an expanding sinkhole, a cult, and an ever-growing restaurant that becomes unsettlingly sentient.
Codirector/cowriter Simon Glassman and his cowriters Allison Bench and Elisia Snyder have clever ideas and plenty of comedy in Buffet Infinity, but the conceit of low-budget local commercials telling the story of an otherworldly takeover seems better suited to a shorter length film than this feature. The 100 minutes running time asks quite a bit of viewers. Patience is required in the beginning as the ads seem like nothing more than comical takes on late-night commercials, but the mystery builds nicely once hints at odd occurrences begin to unfold. Buffet Infinity felt strongest to me from that point for a while, but later on, the proceedings were running thin.
Sometimes what is excellent sketch comedy just doesn’t work stretched out to the length of a feature film. There’s plenty of originality and uniqueness on display, though, along with obvious talent on both sides of the camera, so giving the film a shot is well worth it. Devotees of the type of oddball, hit-and-miss humor seen in Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! will certainly want to seek out Buffet Infinity.
Touch Me and Buffet Infinity screen as part of Fantasia 2025, which takes place from July 16–August 3 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
