Top 10 WORST Films of 2016: Part 1 (#10-6)

It’s time once again for the annual look back on the year of film. And for those who are new to this blog, I do things a little differently than most critics. Namely, I start with my ‘Worst of the Year’ list instead of my ‘Best of’ list, which I save for the first week or so of the New Year. Why do I do this, you ask? Simple, it’s because I want to end the year on a good note instead of a bad note. I’m well-aware that, compared to ‘Best of’ Lists, the ‘Worst of’ Lists are always the more popular of the two amongst folks on the internet. If the rise of shows like ‘Honest Trailers’ and ‘Cinemasins’ have proven anything, it is that people really love to see others rag on films. But I’m not one of those people. So, with that said, I’m just going to warn you now… don’t expect to see me get ‘really angry’ when I start to talk about these films. To be honest, I rarely get angry at films anymore because I find it to be a little ridiculous to get so worked up over a simple film. Now, don’t misconstrue me, that doesn’t mean that I’m ‘going soft’. While I don’t usually go to see a lot of the ‘worst films of the year’ in theaters, I try to at least have a full ‘Top 10 Worst Of’ list by the end of the year and I’ve done so again this year. So, without further ado, let’s get started with my personal Top 10 WORST films of 2016. This is Part 1 of 2 and today I’ll listing Films #10-6. Also, for the record, I will be addressing some spoilers with these films but because this is the ‘worst of’ list, it’s not like I’m recommending these films or anything.

To start things off, we have a first for me with these lists; a Dishonorable Mention.

DISHONORABLE MENTION – INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE

I list this as a dishonorable mention because, technically, I gave the film a positive review back in June, scoring it at a 3/5 rating. However, I’m clearly one of the few people who DID give the film a positive review. I also noticed that while reviews weren’t as bad initially, with the film’s initial RT score hovering around 50%, they got really savage on the first day of release. And, admittedly, I can see why. For a film that serves as a sequel to a film that was made 20 years ago, it feels like this was made in the 90’s. It just has a 90’s-narrative mentality to it that may have worked back then but definitely doesn’t fly today. So, with that in mind, why then did I give it a positive review? Well, I’ll admit that, at first, I thought it was going to be as big of a disaster as everyone was saying. The film didn’t start off on a good note; it was an awkward intro, to say the least. But then, for some reason that I can’t explain, I got hooked. For as cheesy as it was and despite the minimal amount of story and character development, I was fully into it by the end. But, keep in mind, this was back in the summer when I first saw the film. I haven’t seen it since and, as many film fans will undeniably point out, opinions towards films can change over time. There’s a possibility that I may have over-exaggerated a bit when it came to giving this film a positive review. But, until I end up re-watching it, my original thoughts towards it still stand, hence why Independence Day: Resurgence avoids landing in the Bottom 10. Though, with that said, I’m sure that it’s in many other ‘Worst of the Year’ lists.

As usual, the first few spots on this list go to films that I ultimately had ‘mixed’ feelings towards; films that weren’t outright terrible but weren’t really that great either. And kicking things off at Number 10 is a film that, unfortunately, was a disappointing effort from a talented cast and crew.

10. THE ACCOUNTANT

The newest film from director Gavin O’Connor (Miracle, Warrior) attracted some controversy upon release due to the premise surrounding its main character, a mild-mannered accountant who moonlights as a business partner of some of the most dangerous criminals in the world while, at the same time, also being a highly-functioning autistic. This controversy mainly stemmed from the idea that the film sets up that those with autism are supposedly the perfect candidates to be trained in combat and turned into assassins. So, as I noted in my review for the film, I understand if some people found this implication to be an offensive portrayal of those with autism. However, at the same time, I think the film did do a decent job of making the main character, Christian Wolff, to be a sympathetic figure who, despite being an undeniable badass when it comes to his combat skills, desires to find a legit human connection that he’s never really had. One of the best scenes in the film is a conversation between Wolff and fellow accountant Dana Cummings in which Christian admits to her the difficulty that he has in socializing with others, even though he wants to have that kind of connection. Ben Affleck does do an excellent job in the main role; he succeeds in making the character sympathetic in non-action sequences while also asserting his character’s badass status (no doubt helped by his turn as Batman) in the action sequences. Affleck is also backed by a solid cast that includes the likes of Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, and Jon Bernthal, just to name a few. And, at the very least, the film is well-shot and well-edited, especially in the action sequences.

But the film’s biggest downfall comes with its pacing. It’s simply too overlong, even at a runtime of 128 minutes. Now, granted, this isn’t an ‘action-heavy’ story as the trailers might’ve implied. It’s more of a character study and that’s fine; in fact, in this case, it’s good that the film decided to focus more on the story than the action. However, it doesn’t help that a lot of the dialogue scenes are dragged out more than necessary. It even gets to the point where this sometimes hinders the emotional impact of the moment, including a big monologue from J.K. Simmons’ character, a top government agent, about how he’s connected to Christian and the big reveal at the end that Jon Bernthal’s character is Christian’s younger brother. At the same time, other parts of the plot were rather underdeveloped. In this case, the one plot-point that especially comes to mind is how Marybeth Medina, the young woman placed in charge of the investigation on Christian, had a criminal past that she withheld from her superiors when applying for a job with the government. Simmons’ character then threatens to report this if she refuses to help him, which she does end up doing. Thus, this whole thing about her criminal past never gets brought up again after that scene, basically making it entirely pointless in the grand scheme of things. So, in conclusion, despite the best efforts of director Gavin O’Connor and its talented cast, The Accountant could’ve benefitted from being trimmed down a bit. Again, I have no issue with the fact that this film focused more on story than it did the action; it’s just that the balance between those two aspects was off by a considerable amount.

As much as I hate to say it, my Number 9 pick ended up being the most disappointing film of the year for me.

9. NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING

I’m a big fan of the original Neighbors. It was a funny ‘prank war’ comedy that benefitted immensely from not outright villainizing the fraternity group that comes into conflict with main characters Mac and Kelly Radner. While I myself am not a member of any fraternity, it’s clear that the film does a nice job of representing the true brotherhood of fraternities. Thus, the first film definitely stands as a modern example of a ‘great college film’. So, with that in mind, I was really excited for Neighbors 2, even if it was basically just rehashing the same plot of the first film with the only major difference being replacing the fraternity with a sorority. In the end, though, I, unfortunately, found the film to be rather underwhelming. Obviously, humor is a subjective thing, just like film, but personally, I felt that there weren’t as many ‘laugh-out-loud’ moments as there were in the first film. In fact, some of the best parts were clearly cut from the film as they were in the trailer and not the final cut, like a cameo from LL Cool J as one of the sorority girls’ fathers in which he dumbfoundedly goes through some of his daughter’s ‘adult’ items. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some funny moments in this and like the first film, they mainly stem from the various pranks that both sides commit against each other (e.g. the sorority girls crying loudly while watching The Fault in Our Stars to annoy Mac and Kelly). And the cast, as usual, is clearly having a lot of fun, just like they did in the last film. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne still have great chemistry together and Zac Efron is still very much a standout like he was in the first film in the role of former frat leader Teddy. Ultimately, though, I think that the main issue with the film is the fact that a lot of it felt scaled down compared to some of the big moments from the first film, particularly the ending.

I think many of us can agree that one of the best parts of the first film was the final fight between Seth Rogen and Zac Efron. And the trailers for this film implied an equally hilarious final fight between Rogen and co. and the new primary addition to the cast, Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays the sorority group’s leader, Shelby. However, that fight doesn’t happen; instead, a much more ‘dialed back’ ending occurs. When Shelby and her friends find themselves low on funds to the point where they’re about to get evicted from their house, they decide to throw a big party. However, this party ends up being exactly what led Shelby and her co-founders to form their own sorority in the first place; a sexist ‘frat party’, the only viable option that they had at this point. Ultimately, they realize their mistake and, with some encouragement from Mac and Kelly, band to stick together no matter what happens to them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do think the way in which they come to this conclusion is fine, namely in terms of the messages it conveys. Still, from a comedy standpoint, it lacks the impact of the fight from the first film. And while I do commend this film for its unabashed feminist stance, at the same time the film occasionally drills this message in way too much. We get it; the system is sexist. By comparison, the first film’s themes were executed more subtly, particularly the uncertainty of getting older, something that, for the record, was seen from BOTH sides of the main conflict. In short, while I will say that this film does have the potential to become a ‘college classic’ like the first film, unfortunately, I felt that it didn’t live up to the hype that was built up from the original.

This past March, I got the opportunity to go to the 2016 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. While there, I got to see a lot of great films… this wasn’t one of them.

8. HARDCORE HENRY

Hardcore Henry had quite a lot going for it, namely because it’s an action film set from a first-person perspective. In other words, the audience sees all the action from the perspective of the titular character, Henry. As far as I know, there hasn’t been any other film like this before and, to its credit, the film does live up to the ‘hardcore’ part of its title. The action is frenetic and insane from beginning to end and there are some genuinely memorable action sequences, including a big final battle at the end set to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ in which Henry jacks himself up with adrenaline before decimating a whole army of thugs. However, all that impressive action can’t make up for the film’s biggest downfall; it’s one of the most mindless action films of all-time. Plot and character development in this film are practically non-existent. The film is basically just Henry going from place to place and killing any bad guy in his path, which means that the first-person gimmick does end up getting stale after a while. It’s just non-stop violent action that doesn’t give you a break whatsoever and the whole film has an arguably obnoxious ‘young and immature adolescent’ mentality to it. Henry himself, our audience avatar, is literally a blank slate. I get that this is probably the point as most ‘first-person shooters’ encourage us to mentally step into the shoes of the character we’re playing as. But this isn’t a video game; it’s a film. The same goes for most of the other characters as well, including Henry’s ‘wife’ Estelle, who is abruptly revealed at the end to be the main villain’s wife instead, and the main villain Akan, who has unexplained Jedi-like telekinesis powers. When and where did he get these powers, you ask? You’ll have to read a prequel comic (that was given out to us SXSW patrons after the screening) to find that out.

The only major character to get any sort of character development at all is Jimmy, played by Sharlto Copley. There is this running gag in the film where Jimmy is constantly getting killed and yet somehow manages to reappear just a few minutes later in a different get-up. As it turns out, the real Jimmy was paralyzed from the waist down by Akan, which then led to him cloning himself. Not only that, but each clone has its own unique personality traits, including a hippie biker and a British WWII general (“Jolly Good!”). Copley is very much the main highlight of the film… but he is only able to do so much. I won’t lie, folks, the first time I saw this at SXSW, I left the theater as soon as it was over, and before the ‘audience Q&A’ started, because I felt winded by the whole experience. And even when I saw it a second time a month later when it was officially released in theaters, my original opinion of it still stood. To reference the review of the film that I published in April (Disclaimer: Not the one that came from my ‘SXSW Recap’ post), it was basically like playing Call of Duty on crack… and that’s not a good thing. I’ll give it credit for its uniquely original approach to filmmaking but I feel that someone like, say, George Miller could do a much better job with this kind of story. To end on an interesting note, at the SXSW screening, a few other audience members and I were approached by members of the film’s marketing and interviewed about the film. They subsequently used these interviews in the official marketing campaign. They didn’t end up using any of my interview footage but I can tell you one thing; during this entire interview, I was doing my best to not admit my true feelings towards the film.

One of the biggest video game franchises in the industry got a film adaptation this year. The results… were kind of mixed. And no, I’m not talking about Warcraft or Assassin’s Creed…

7. THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE

This installment of the ‘video game based’ film genre is particularly notable because it’s based on a series that initially started out as a collection of games for mobile devices. And before any of you say anything, no I’m not judging this film for being based on a phone app. I’ll admit that I’m a fan of the Angry Birds games. I’ve played most of the installments that make up the main series; the original, Seasons, Rio, both Star Wars games, etc. And sure, the large amount of Angry Birds games out there can be rather overwhelming at times but they’re ultimately harmless and enjoyable time-wasters that are easy to get into. And the film itself is the same thing; harmless fun for kids with colorful animation and cartoonish mayhem. However, I just found most of it to be rather dull. It isn’t until the third act of the film when it starts to resemble the games AKA the birds taking on the pigs. Now, sure, with that said, it would obviously be rather stupid to just have the entire film be just that. Still, let’s just say that the film’s best moments come in the final third, including a fun parody of the Quicksilver scenes from the X-Men films. But that, as well as a solid voice cast that is, at the very least, well-fit to each role (e.g. Josh Gad as the hyper yellow bird Chuck and Peter Dinklage as the ‘legendary’ Mighty Eagle), isn’t enough to save this film. At the very least, though, compared to one of the next animated films on this list, at least kids will get something out of this. But as for adults, not as much. Also, would it be weird if I said that a film called Angry Birds was perhaps just a bit too mean-spirited?

Normally I don’t count direct-to-video released films in lists like this unless they have some form of a theatrical release. This next film did have a brief theatrical release… and boy was it a disappointment considering its source material.

6. BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE

Since 2007, DC has been producing a series of direct-to-video films based on their iconic characters. Referred to as the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, many of these films have been based on new and classic storylines ripped straight from the comics and there was undoubtedly a lot of hype behind the latest installment of this series. And the reason why is simple; it was adapted from one of the most iconic DC Comics storylines of all-time. The Killing Joke, written by Watchmen creator Alan Moore in 1988, is regarded as one of the best Batman stories of all-time and, more importantly, the quintessential Joker story. It told the story of how Batman’s most notorious adversary came to be, proving how just one bad day can change everything. Thus, when an animated adaptation was announced starring Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, arguably the most famous duo to play the roles of Batman and the Joker, respectively, in animation, fans were really hyped to see the iconic story translated to film. The results, though, were not as great as people hoped, namely due to the filmmakers trying to work around the biggest controversy surrounding The Killing Joke. Because while the graphic novel was a major success upon release, there was some controversy over its portrayal of Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon. The story saw her shot in the waist by the Joker, effectively paralyzing her from the waist down. While this ultimately led to her adopting a new superhero persona as Batman’s assistant Oracle, it was a very controversial moment in comics history as many felt that the level of violence directed towards Barbara was too much. Thus, the filmmakers decided to try and further develop her character in this adaptation by way of a 30-minute prologue. This was also their way of expanding the story so that it would meet the requirement of a feature-length runtime, which they wouldn’t have been able to do with The Killing Joke alone.

And boy was this move an epic fail. This introductory prologue has NOTHING to do with The Killing Joke. The Joker doesn’t appear in this segment at all and the ‘main villain’ of this segment, a mobster named Paris Franz, doesn’t appear again after it’s over. But of course, the worst thing about it is that it makes the whole Batgirl situation even worse when it was intended to fix it. This prologue makes Batgirl out to be a hopeless romantic that constantly gets distracted whenever someone hits on her. Case in point, there’s seriously a scene in which she’s pursuing Franz but she ends up losing him when he starts to flirt with her. Thus, Batman decides to take Batgirl off the case, as he remarks that she’s this close to going off the deep end when it comes to combatting crime (in other words, it’d get to the point where she starts killing her foes). Batgirl gets angry about the situation, they tussle for a bit… and then they have sex. Yes, Batman has sex with his crime-fighting partner who’s basically been like a little sister to him all this time. And, for the record, yes, I am aware that sometimes other forms of DC media have alluded to a romance between the two… that doesn’t make this any better. So, yeah, this prologue with Batgirl is easily the worst part of the film, and despite the best efforts from Tara Strong in the role (who, for the record, is NOT at fault for the character’s shortcomings), this is effectively one of the worst portrayals of a superhero character in the history of the genre. But that’s only the first third of the film. Many felt that, even with the terrible prologue, the film does improve once it does start to get into the Killing Joke part of the story.

But, to be honest, I thought that even the Killing Joke part of the story was mediocrely handled. Maybe it’s just because I’ve only read the original story a few times prior to watching this but something about the overall execution seemed off. To the filmmakers’ credit, they did do a great job of staying as true to the source material as possible, from the tributes to artist Brian Bolland’s work on the graphic novel to the almost 100% accurate repurposing of the original dialogue. However, there are some minor changes here and there that don’t work as well as the filmmakers want them to. The one that especially comes to mind for me is the scene where the Joker, before his accident, learns about the tragic death of his wife Jeannie. The graphic novel handles this moment perfectly, best represented by a single panel in which the Joker says nothing with a completely defeated look on his face after a cop tells him of his wife’s accident. Here, it’s seen from the perspective of the Joker’s new criminal acquaintances and we don’t hear a single word of that conversation. Another moment that people keep bringing up is the ending. During the final confrontation between Batman and the Joker, the latter tells a joke that even Batman ends up laughing at. This ending, in the novel at least, ambiguously mulled over the possibility that Batman killed the Joker in this final moment. But in the film, they do not establish the impending arrival of the police to their location, which makes the ending awkward in execution. And that’s the best way to describe this whole film; awkwardly executed. The attempts to further develop Batgirl as a character don’t work at all and they end up hindering the entire film, even when it gets to the iconic parts of The Killing Joke. And despite the hype surrounding this being rated R, that rating is ultimately pointless. Heck, the animation isn’t even that good, and this got a theatrical release, for crying out loud. In conclusion, you’re better off with the other DC animated release of the year, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders. That at least was an accurate representation of its source material.

And that’s the end of Part 1 of my Top 10 WORST films of 2016 list. Thanks for following along and be sure to check back in tomorrow when I post Part 2, in which I’ll be going over my Top 5 WORST films of the year.

Hardcore Henry (2016) review

(Note: The following is a full review of one of the films that I had previously covered in my ‘2016 SXSW Film Festival Recap’ post. For a quick refresher on what I said in that post, click Here. But for now, here’s my full review of the first-person action film, Hardcore Henry.)

Hardcore Henry is a particularly unique entry into the action genre. The brainchild of director Ilya Naishuller, the frontman of Russian indie rock group Biting Elbows, and inspired by the band’s music videos for their songs ‘The Stampede’ and ‘Bad Mother******’, both of which were shot in a similar manner, Hardcore Henry is a 100% first-person action film. All of the action in this film is witnessed, and in this case mostly committed, from the perspective of the titular Henry, effectively placing the audience in the middle of it all. In other words, you know all of those first-person shooter games like Call of Duty and Battlefield? Well this is like playing those games… while on crack. Yes, Hardcore Henry is very much a film that lives up to its ‘Hardcore’ title with its balls-to-the-wall action and its extremely hyperactive pacing. However, I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is a good thing. I mean, sure, I will give the filmmakers credit for at least sticking to their guns and delivering us a no-holds barred action extravaganza. And again, at the very least this film can at least lay claim to the fact that it’s a pretty darn original entry in the action genre in terms of its overall style. However, this ends up being one of the most extreme cases of style over substance as the story and characters are basically just an afterthought in favor of endless action. Sure the action may be impressive for a film shot in this style but it really doesn’t matter if everything else is woefully underdeveloped.

As the film begins, the audience is placed into the perspective of Henry, a man who wakes up in a laboratory being given cybernetic limbs by his scientist wife Estelle (Haley Bennett). Estelle tells Henry that he has recently been in an accident, hence the loss of his limbs, and that he also has amnesia. However, before Estelle and the other scientists can install a speech module for Henry, they are suddenly attacked by mercenaries led by the mysterious telekinetic Akan (Danila Kozlovsky). Henry and Estelle escape from the airship that the laboratory is located in but when they land back on Earth in the middle of Moscow, more of Akan’s mercenaries come and abduct Estelle. Henry is soon rescued by a mysterious man named Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), who offers to help him take on Akan and his army in order to save Estelle. The only problem? Henry’s battery is running low on energy and at best he’s only got enough energy to last for about 20-30 minutes. This results in Henry embarking on a journey throughout Moscow as he fights through dozens of bad guys, with the help of Jimmy and a few other people as well, in order to not only ‘stay alive’ but to also rescue Estelle and to stop Akan once and for all before he can create a whole army of soldiers who are just like Henry and unleash them upon the world.

As I said before, this film does at least deserve credit for trying something new in the action genre. I mean, I can’t really think of any other action film that has been done from a first-person perspective. With that in mind, this film does go all the way with it and in that regard, it very much succeeds in making you feel like you’re Henry and you’re fighting all of these bad guys like a total badass. Not only that, but the film definitely does have some really impressive and cool action sequences, like a fight scene near the end of the film in which Henry fights a whole slew of henchmen that’s set perfectly to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. But even with all of that said, at the end of the day this style may prove to get old for some people after a while. That’s because the film does sort of stay on the same note throughout its runtime to the point where it actually gets rather repetitive at times. That and it should be noted that the film’s first-person style, which is ‘sort of’ similar to the found-footage style seen in films like Cloverfield and Chronicle (though to be perfectly clear, this is NOT a ‘found-footage’ film), could be very nauseating to watch for some viewers. I’m not someone who’s easily prone to nausea but I will admit that when I saw it at SXSW, I had to walk out of the theater after it was done because it was so intense. This film, and subsequently the action, goes by so fast that it actually kind of requires a second viewing of it just to notice everything that happens in it. The only question, though, is whether or not you’d care to watch it again.

Because where this film may shine in regards to its action, it severely lacks in terms of its plot and characters. To put it simply, this is easily one of the most mindless action films that I’ve ever seen. Because the action is so frenetic, we as an audience are never given much time to take a breather because this film keeps on going and going like the Energizer Bunny… on crack. And as a result, most of the characters are incredibly underdeveloped. For one thing, the main villain Akan is apparently a Jedi because of his telekinetic powers. How did he gain these powers? It’s never explained… well, at least not in the film. There’s a prequel comic focused on Akan, which covers his backstory, that was given out for free when I saw the film at SXSW… but I haven’t read it yet and to be frank, that stuff should’ve just been in the film. However, I will at least give Danila Kozlovsky credit because he actually does make Akan a pretty fiendish and even rather charismatic villain despite having jack to work with. Ultimately though, the real star of the show is Sharlto Copley as Jimmy, who to be perfectly frank is the only major character in this film who gets any shred of character development… and even then, his main role in the film is mostly just telling Henry where to go. Without giving too much away, a recurring plot-point in the film is that Jimmy is continuously killed but yet somehow keeps coming back albeit with different personalities each time, from a coked-up sex addict to a ‘peace-loving’ motorcycle riding hippie to my personal favorite, a World War II admiral who looks and sounds like he came straight out of Inglourious Basterds (“Jolly Good!”).

Fans of the action genre will probably get a kick out of this film and rightfully so as it does deliver a pretty distinctively original action style that could potentially be used in the future by other filmmakers if they ever decide to use it. But if they ever do, hopefully those filmmakers come up with a much stronger story to go along with it because this film doesn’t do that at all. The film’s non-stop nature means that there’s little-to-no-time for any sort of breather and as a result, none of the characters, aside from Sharlto Copley’s Jimmy, are ever fleshed out. We as an audience are basically just stepping into the shoes of a blank slate. And as impressive as the action may be at times, the fact that it’s all-shot in first person will be nauseating for some people and it may even eventually tire them out because it does get rather repetitive after a while. Again, I will give the film credit for being unapologetically, for lack of a better term, ‘hardcore’ and all but it’s so ‘hardcore’ that it becomes quite erratic at times. Now I’ve seen arguments that this film doesn’t really need a deep story due to its action and overall sense of adrenaline. But that same argument was made towards Mad Max Fury Road and after seeing this film, I will never be as critical towards Fury Road in regards to its writing ever again because at least that film had a plot and characters that were actually worth a damn. This is just action and violence for the sake of action and violence.  

Rating: 2.5/5

2016 SXSW Film Festival Recap

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 11^TH

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 1^st.

Rating: 4.5/5

DAY 2: MARCH 12^TH

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 8^th.

Rating: 5/5!

DAY 3: MARCH 13^TH

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 16^th.

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 14^TH

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 15^TH

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 16^TH

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 17^TH

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 18^TH

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 13^th. 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.