Fantasy A Gets a Mattress

Screening after: Booked a Room

Programmers notes: It’s not every day a festival programmer gets to offer audiences something that feels like a truly different notion of what a movie can be. On a surface level, this is a madcap comedy about one man whose desire for rap fame—and a new mattress—takes him on as many side-quests as Harold and Kumar’s late-night munchies. But on a deeper level, this is a film that leans into neurodivergent perception, and gives us permission to have a ton of fun with it. Starring real-life autistic rapper Fantasy A, and set in overlapping subcultures on the fringes of Seattle’s art scene, Fantasy A’s imaginative scenarios and eccentric characters feel just a little outside the comfort zone of your average comedy, and the timing and delivery of its punchlines proudly march to the beat of a different drummer. These are good things, and you’ll get in step with them. Because more than anything else, Fantasy A is a certifiable laugh riot that comes alive with an audience—one that may operate on an initially unfamiliar wavelength, but one we can all quickly adjust our radars to receive en masse. Paired with the delightful and delightfully dark animation Booked a Room, this is a mind-expanding program that points in fertile new directions genre filmmaking has yet to explore.

— Eric Allen Hatch

Star Fantasy A, producer Safiye Senturk, director Noah Zoltan Sofian, and director David Norman Lewis expected for a post-film Q+A.