Hey folks! So if you’ve been following me on Twitter and
Instagram these past few days, you’ll know that I’ve spent the last week in
Austin, Texas for the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival. It was all part of
a school trip that I went on that was being held by the University of Rhode
Island. Suffice it to say, this was one hell of an experience. It was pretty
much my first major ‘Film Festival’. For the record, I had actually
participated in another film festival before, the Rhode Island International
Film Festival back in 2013, but this was more or less my first ‘primetime’ film
festival experience (in other words, something along the lines of Sundance or
TIFF). I saw a lot of films, went to a few panels, and came across many interesting
folks along the way. So today, I’m giving you folks a recap of everything that
I did down in Texas this past week. Though actually, when I say ‘everything’,
I’ll mainly be focusing on the films that I saw these past few days, from the
event’s big ‘headliners’ to a few noteworthy documentaries.
DAY 1: MARCH 11TH
Admittedly there’s not much to talk about for this first
day. This was just the day I flew down to Texas. I departed from the TF Green
airport in Providence in the early morning and made a quick stop in Tampa
before flying into the city and getting there around 11:00 AM CST. For a while
I thought I would get in later than usual because President Obama was flying in
for a Keynote Speech and I heard that the airport was going to basically shut
down all activity for his arrival. Thankfully I got in about two hours before
he did. I wanted to get into Austin early so I could catch the Opening Night
film which was…
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME
Everybody Wants Some
is the latest film from director Richard Linklater and has been described as a
‘spiritual sequel’ to his 1993 classic Dazed
and Confused. And that’s definitely a perfect description of it as both
films are admittedly fairly similar in terms of their plots. Both films are
basically just about a group of characters hanging out and getting into a whole
bunch of shenanigans. But whereas Dazed
and Confused was set in the 70’s, Everybody
Wants Some takes place in 1980. I did watch Dazed before I went on this trip and overall I will say that both
films are excellent. Everybody Wants Some
is definitely one of those films worth seeing with a crowd. As noted, I saw
this on Opening Night and the crowd at the Paramount Theater loved it, which is
fitting seeing how Linklater is from Texas and was pretty much responsible for
establishing Austin as a premier locale for filmmakers. While I’ll admit that
sometimes the crowd was a bit too excited for the film to the point where some
bits of dialogue were drowned out by audience laughter, I did still have a lot
of fun watching Everybody Wants Some.
It definitely is a very entertaining crowd-pleaser that is full of humor,
primarily thanks to the cast’s great camaraderie, and of course has a great
soundtrack just like Dazed. The cast
is mostly made up of ‘unknowns’, with the biggest name being Glee alum Blake Jenner in the lead role
of freshman pitcher Jake, but everyone in the cast is terrific. While
admittedly the film isn’t very deep in terms of its story, this is still very
much a really fun time to be had at the theater. Everybody Wants Some is set to come out on April 1st.
Rating: 4.5/5
DAY 2: MARCH 12TH
This was my first real day of getting to explore Austin and
the various premier spots to check out during this year’s SXSW festival. My day
started off with two ‘Conversation’ events featuring actors from some of the
featured films that were premiering that night. The first featured Jake
Gyllenhaal and was moderated by Pineapple
Express director David Gordon Green, who is collaborating with Jake
Gyllenhaal on an upcoming film called Stronger
about Jeff Bauman, a survivor of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. It was a
pretty packed event and it was pretty cool to see Gyllenhaal talk about his
career and ‘the craft’ of acting while also showing that he’s quite the charismatic
guy off-screen. Immediately after that, I then stuck around for another
‘Conversation’ event, this one featuring Joel Edgerton. Surprisingly there
wasn’t much of a crowd for this event compared to Gyllenhaal’s panel but it was
still a pretty cool panel, as Edgerton talked about his career as well as his
recent efforts in regards to directing in the wake of his well-received
directorial debut from last year, The
Gift (which for the record I still haven’t seen yet but I promise I will
soon). The rest of the day involved around me checking out the two films that
Gyllenhaal and Edgerton starred in that were premiering at the Festival. First
up was Joel Edgerton’s new film…
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter), Midnight Special stars Michael Shannon
as Roy, a father who goes on the run in order to protect his son Alton (Jaeden
Lieberher), who is revealed to possess ‘special powers’. They’re joined by
Roy’s longtime friend Lucas (Edgerton) and Alton’s mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst)
all while being hunted by both a religious cult that had taken on the role of
Alton’s foster family and the government. Overall I will say that this is a
very fascinating film and I highly recommend you go into it knowing little
about it. Though with that said, the film admittedly does sort of leave a few
parts of its story unanswered. I’m not saying that there aren’t any strong
themes and story beats because there are, especially in regards to the
relationship between Roy and Alton. But just like Mad Max: Fury Road, it would’ve helped if there was just a bit more
to the narrative so that the audience could get a better idea of everything
that’s going on. Still, it’s fascinating to see where Nichols goes with this
unique and original story of a special boy and the lengths to which his family
will go in order to protect him. It’s also very much a performance-driven film,
with excellent performances by Michael Shannon (who’s became a regular of Jeff
Nichols’ films), Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, and Adam Driver, the latter of
whom actually provides a lot of the film’s humorous moments as the government
agent who heads the investigation into Alton’s ‘disappearance’. In short, Midnight Special is a very compelling
sci-fi flick that held my interest throughout, even if the film could’ve
benefitted from being just a bit more, though not too much, forthcoming in
terms of its story. At the time I’m writing this, it is already in theaters for
those interested in checking it out.
Rating: 4/5
DEMOLITION
I’ll just get straight to the point… Demolition was the best film that I saw at this year’s SXSW
festival. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, director of Dallas Buyers Club, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an investment
banker whose life is forever changed when his wife tragically dies in a car
accident. The rest of the film follows him and shows how he handles the
situation and to put it simply, he has a very interesting way of dealing with
it. Despite the film’s dramatic storyline, the first two-thirds of the film are
actually knee-slapping hilarious as Gyllenhaal’s character, Davis, pretty much
goes nuts to the point where he literally writes letters to a vending machine
company, which then leads to him befriending the company’s customer service rep
Karen (Naomi Watts) and her son Chris (Judah Lewis), all just because one of
their machines didn’t work for him one day. What then follows is a series of
crazy shenanigans, including Davis taking apart various objects from his
refrigerator to eventually his whole house, hence the title of the film Demolition, and Gyllenhaal shines as a
result of his great comedic timing. But then when the film’s final act kicks
in, suddenly it goes all serious and we see Davis finally reach emotional
catharsis over the loss of his wife. These scenes do pack an emotional punch,
especially those involving his wife’s father (Chris Cooper), and the end result
is a very entertaining dramedy that’s two parts black comedy and one part
emotionally resonant and it actually does come together very well. I’m actually
surprised this film has only gotten mixed reviews so far because it went over
extremely well with the SXSW crowd, who gave it the Audience Award for ‘Best
Headliner’. In short, I highly recommend you check this film out when it’s
released on April 8th.
Rating: 5/5!
DAY 3: MARCH 13TH
As part of the class that this trip was revolved around, we
were required to meet with a professional ‘mentor’ from the industry and I was
lucky enough to meet with a film critic, Gerald Peary, who used to write for
the Boston Phoenix up until its
closure in 2013. Currently he writes reviews for The Arts Fuse, ‘Boston’s Online Arts Magazine’. I showed him one of my reviews and he gave me some advice as to
how to further my writing. His main suggestion? Condense my reviews, which I
totally get seeing how most people probably don’t spend a lot of time reading
written reviews. That’s definitely something I’m going to try to work on these
next few months. Anyway, this day notably saw me experiencing my first ‘crowd
incident’ at one of the screenings. At the very end of the first screening that
I was at that day, someone in the audience was kicked out, apparently because
he was distracting everyone by being on his phone (the nerve.). Anyway, that
was at a screening for…
IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE
Director Ti West, who’s mainly been known for horror films
like The Innkeepers and for directing
one of the segments of 2012’s horror anthology film V/H/S, takes on the western genre with his new film, In a Valley of Violence. Ethan Hawke
stars as Paul, a drifter who enacts revenge upon a group of deputies from the
rundown town of Denton when they do something terrible to him after he provoked
Gilly (James Ransome), the son of the town’s Marshal (John Travolta). What
follows is a very engaging Western tale featuring terrific performances from
Hawke, Travolta, and the rest of the film’s cast, which also includes Karen
Gillan and Taissa Farmiga as sisters who run Denton’s sole hotel and Burn
Gorman as a drunken priest who Hawke’s character comes across a few times
during the film. But the most interesting aspect of the film is that the
‘finale’ features quite a lot of humorous moments. This film’s humor mainly
stems from the fact that the characters are clearly shown to be way over their
heads in regards to all of this and how they’re ill-equipped to respond to it.
With great performances, a good sense of humor, a cool score by Jeff Grace
that’s reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s score for The Hateful Eight, and excellent cinematography, In a Valley of Violence is a pretty cool
spin on the Western genre. It is set to come out on September 16th.
P.S. The dog featured
in this film, Jumpy (who some of you might recognize from YouTube), absolutely steals
the show.
Rating: 4.5/5
HARDCORE HENRY
Hardcore Henry is
a very unique spin on the action genre. It is an action film that is entirely
set from a ‘first-person perspective’, centering on a cybernetically-enhanced
man named Henry who fights through Moscow in order to rescue his wife Estelle
(Haley Bennett) from warlord Akan (Danila Kozlovsky) with the help of his
‘friend’ Jimmy (Sharlto Copley). What follows is a film that I can basically
describe as the equivalent of playing a game like Duke Nukem while on crystal meth… and that’s not necessarily a good
thing, I might add. The action in this film is fricking insane and while I will
give the film credit for the fact that the action is pretty impressive thanks
in part to the film’s unique shooting style, it can get a little nauseating at
times. This film is pretty much non-stop action throughout… and that definitely
shows considering that this film is ultimately pretty damn mindless. Obviously
the action is the most important element of the film but the plot is pretty
much an afterthought and some things are never explained, like the fact that
Akan is basically a Jedi because he has telekinesis. How did he get these
powers? Never explained. The film does feature a pretty standout performance by
Sharlto Copley in the role of Jimmy who, without giving anything major away,
goes through numerous ‘iterations’ throughout the film. But ultimately, I was
not really a big fan of Hardcore Henry.
I will give it credit for its unique style which we haven’t yet seen in the
action genre but ultimately the film ends up being a fairly juvenile affair.
It’s by no means a ‘terrible’ film but not one I was particularly fond of
either.
Rating: 2.5/5
DAY 4: MARCH 14TH
To paraphrase Darth Vader, this is a day that, for me, will
very much be long-remembered. First I went to a special screening that ended up
being the premiere of a documentary about the making of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This documentary is going to be
included on the film’s Blu-Ray release so obviously I won’t be giving it a
rating for that reason. Still, what more can be said besides the fact that it’s
a really awesome inside look at one of the best films of last year and it was cool
to learn more about a film that for months was shrouded in secrecy. Heck it was
even introduced by J.J. Abrams himself and R2-D2 made an appearance at the
subsequent Q&A. Speaking of J.J., my main highlight of the day was going to
a special panel titled ‘The Eyes of Robots of Murderers’ that featured both
J.J. and filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, creator of HBO’s The Jinx. Basically the panel was a discussion about the
advancements of technology and how it affects the film industry. J.J. showed
off a sizzle reel from the new HBO show that he’s producing with Jonathan
Nolan, Westworld, while Jarecki
showcased his company’s video app KnowMe, a pretty cool app that allows its
users to create unique videos to share online. But the real highlight of the
panel for me was at the end when I was able to get J.J’s autograph. While I
have definitely seen a lot of great films this past week, getting the autograph
of quite frankly my favorite director in the film industry was definitely one
of the best moments of this trip for me.
Later that night, I
attended a special screening for an R-rated animated film…
SAUSAGE PARTY
This screening was particularly special because this was
very much a ‘work-in-progress’ cut of the film. By that I mean not all of the
animation was finished yet. There was even a scene that consisted of nothing
but storyboards. This is something that quite frankly no one is ever going to
see again save for the possibility of bonus material on the Blu-Ray. But what’s
there is certainly going to lead to a unique animated film when it’s released
this August and one that very much lives up to its distinction of being an
R-rated animated film. Sausage Party is
the latest film from the duo of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, centering on a
bunch of food objects in a supermarket that dream of being chosen by ‘the gods’
(AKA humans) and being brought out into the ‘Great Beyond’. But soon they
discover the horrible truth about ‘the Great Beyond’ which of course is the
fact that the humans end up eating them, which does result in some gruesome
food deaths that aren’t ‘graphic’ in the same way that most action sequences involving
human characters are but are very much graphic from the perspective of food. And
it very much lives up to its R-rating with its sexual humor and an ending that,
without giving anything away, is something that has to be seen to be believed.
It’s got a really nice voice cast; Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, and Jonah Hill
star as some of the sausages, Kristen Wiig stars as the hot dog bun that
Rogen’s character is attracted to, and Edward Norton goes full-on Woody Allen
as a bagel, and that’s just to name a few. So because the film is not finished
yet, I’m not going to give it an official rating just yet. But I will say that
this is shaping up to be a very unique spin on the animated film genre and
given the highly enthusiastic response it got from the SXSW crowd, it looks
like this film is going to be a hit.
DAY 5: MARCH 15TH
After two straight days where I had to wake up early in
order to get to the events I wanted to go to, today was a more laid-back day
for me. Both of my screenings were at the Alamo Drafthouse in South Lamar. This
was the first time during this trip that I was able to see a film at an Alamo
theater and for those who have never been to one of these theaters before, it
is quite frankly one of the best, if not the best, theater chains around; great
food, great movies, and great crowds in a chain that enforces a ‘no
talking/texting’ rule. What more do you need? Anyway, today I saw two
documentaries. The first was Newtown,
which was a documentary about the Newtown shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in
2012. As you might expect, the film is very emotional as it focuses on some of
the families who tragically lost some of their kids in the shooting. I
guarantee there won’t be any dry eyes when this film is watched.
Silicon Cowboys details
the history of the computer company Compaq, who became famous in the 80’s for
their personal computers that were compatible with software for computers from
tech giant IBM. Basically this is a story of David and Goliath in which Compaq
managed to compete with IBM and eventually overtake them to become the biggest
PC supplier of the 1990’s and I always find tech-related films/TV shows like
this very interesting. This documentary also made a few modern-day connections,
including clips from current tech-themed shows like AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire and HBO’s Silicon
Valley as well as noting some of the more recent advancements in technology.
All in all, this was a very entertaining documentary that serves as a neat
piece of nostalgia in regards to telling the story of how one company managed
to make its mark in the personal computer industry.
DAY 6: MARCH 16TH
Turned 21 today. WOOT WOOT! Anyway, today consisted of
another back-to-back pair of screenings at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse.
The first film was Miss Stevens,
which stars Lily Rabe (The American Horror
Story series) as the titular Miss Stevens, an English teacher who takes
three of her students on a weekend trip to a drama competition. While there,
she deals with some personal struggles all while helping one of her students,
Billy (Timothee Chalamet), deal with some of his own problems. Overall it’s a
really solid flick with some good humor and an excellent performance by Rabe (4/5).
The second film I saw today was Don’t
Breathe, the newest film from Fede Alvarez, who directed the 2013 remake of
Evil Dead. Fittingly enough, this new
film is also produced by Sam Raimi and stars Evil Dead lead Jane Levy in the lead role. This film centers on a
trio of teens (Levy, Dylan Minnette, and Daniel Zovatto) who plan on breaking
into the house of a blind army vet (Stephen Lang) who had recently acquired a
large sum of money from court following the death of his daughter as the result
of a hit and run. However, they soon realize that this old man isn’t as
helpless as they thought. What follows is a very tense game of cat and mouse
and there are some very suspenseful moments throughout, including a sequence
set in the vet’s basement that is entirely in the dark. Levy does a really good
job in the lead role while Stephen Lang steals the show in the role of the
blind army vet. Admittedly it takes a bit to get going and is rather simplistic
in terms of its characterizations but I will say it’s a very pulse-pounding
thriller in just the right places (4/5).
DAY 7: MARCH 17TH
Old St. Paddy’s Day started off with a very engrossing
documentary called Tower. This film
is a retelling of the 1966 school shooting committed by Charles Whitman from
‘The Tower’ at the University of Texas, in which 14 people were killed and 32
others were wounded. Tower is
predominantly an animated film, utilizing a roto-scope style to tell the story
from the perspective of some of the survivors of the event (portrayed in the
film by actors). Ultimately though, the film does cut to the real-life people
at the end as it progresses into the present day. There are mentions of almost
every other infamous shooting from Columbine to Aurora as the film does address
some of the political debate that has arisen over these incidents. But ultimately
the film’s biggest achievement is how it highlights the heroism of some of
those who were around the area when this happened, including a woman named Rita
who comforted then 18-year old pregnant student Claire Wilson, who was the
first shot by Whitman from the Tower which resulted in her not only losing her
baby but also kept her stuck laying on the South Mall area of campus in the hot
sun, by approaching her and laying down with her on the Mall even at the risk
of being shot herself. Tower pretty
much won all of the big Documentary awards at this year’s festival and
rightfully so as it was very much an excellent retelling of arguably the most
infamous moment in the history of Austin. For those interested, this
documentary is slated to air on PBS sometime this year or the next. When it
does air, I highly recommend you check it out.
That night, I
attended the world premiere of a film that was slated to be released the
following day. The film in question marked the long-awaited return of an icon.
PEE-WEE’S BIG HOLIDAY
In the 80’s, comedian Paul Reubens became known for creating
the classic character with the child-like innocence known as Pee-Wee Herman,
who debuted in 1981 on his own stage show The
Pee-Wee Herman Show. While the show was geared towards older audiences,
Pee-Wee later became a childhood icon with the 1985 comedy classic Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, which notably
served as the directorial debut for Tim Burton, and the TV series Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, which ran for five
seasons from 1986 to 1990. Now over two and a half decades later, everyone’s
favorite ‘eternal child’ is back in a whole new adventure, Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, which debuted at SXSW before being released
on Netflix the following day. In this new film, Pee-Wee meets a cool stranger
by the name of… Joe Manganiello; yes, Manganiello plays himself in the film.
The two strike up a pretty fast friendship which leads to Joe encouraging
Pee-Wee, who is established to be against the idea of ever taking a holiday and
leaving his hometown of Fairville, to travel to New York in time for Joe’s
birthday. This inspires Pee-Wee to finally leave Fairville and go off on a big
road trip across the country. And of course, this then leads to a whole bunch
of shenanigans that come from all of the places that Pee-Wee travels to and the
people that he meets along the way.
Big Holiday obviously
has a fairly similar road-trip premise to Big
Adventure but instead of being a questionable retread, it still manages to
be its own thing. Admittedly it does lack the surreal and quirky production
design of Tim Burton but it still manages to be a very charming adventure
featuring Pee-Wee and it’s clear that everyone involved in this film clearly
had a lot of fun making it, including Paul Reubens, who slips back into his
iconic role with ease, and Joe Manganiello, who strikes up a very nice
camaraderie with Pee-Wee. At the end of the day, there’s no denying that
Pee-Wee is such a lovable character and as the highly positive response from
the crowd at SXSW showed, is still very much an icon in the eyes of many people
even after some of the incidents that Paul Reubens got into years back. So in
short, if you’re a fan of Pee-Wee, I have the feeling you’re really going to
enjoy this new film. It’s a very pleasant return of one of the famous
characters in pop culture history.
Rating: 4/5
DAY 8: MARCH 18TH
My final day of screenings at SXSW consisted of yet another
duo of documentaries at the Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. The first documentary was The Slippers, which, as you might have
guessed, was based on arguably the most iconic prop in film history, the ruby
slippers that were worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. This documentary explores
the journeys that various sets of the ruby slippers made over the years and the
people who owned them at various points in time. This includes a pair that was
stolen from the Judy Garland museum in her birthplace of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, which unfortunately have yet to be found, and a more exotic-looking ‘test
pair’ that was given to Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds, who had attempted to
set up a museum of film memorabilia but ultimately never got the chance to. In
a way, the attention given to these slippers pretty much led the way to the art
of film memorabilia collecting that many of us partake in today. All in all,
this was a very interesting documentary that not only focuses in on an
interesting side of the film fan community but also re-establishes how much of
a classic The Wizard of Oz truly is.
However, I will admit that it does suffer from one issue; it’s a bit overlong
at just over one and a half hours. Still, anyone interested in collecting film-related
artifacts will no doubt be interested in this one.
The second documentary I saw that day was Fantastic Lies, which was actually one
of the 30 for 30 films that ESPN
produces, which aired on TV on the 13th. This documentary explores
the 2006 Duke University Men’s Lacrosse team and the incident in which some of
its players were accused of committing sexual assault against an exotic dancer
during one of their parties. Now I’m going to be perfectly honest with you
folks; while I was aware of this incident, I never really knew ‘much’ about it.
I actually had no idea that the three specific players accused, Reade
Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans, were actually innocent, that the
prosecutor involved with the case, Mike Nifong, had been withholding evidence
from the court in order to paint the players as guilty, and how the media turned
this whole incident into a frenzy through influencing people and their views on
the entire lacrosse team based on things like race and privilege. It really
opened my eyes as to how the legal system can sometimes fall victim to
corruption and there’s quite a sense of satisfaction when the three players are
finally proven innocent. Save for my current gripes with the network over how
it handled a certain football-related incident involving my favorite team that
I won’t repeat here so that it wouldn’t have to spawn any further discussion,
ESPN has always done a great job with these 30
for 30 films and this one is no exception.
So that was my recap
on my 2016 SXSW Film Festival trip. For those who were there as well, what were
your thoughts on these films? For those who couldn’t be there this year, do any
of these films interest you? Be sure to sound off in the comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment