Sausage Party (2016) review

(Disclaimer: I don’t usually do this but there are going to be some MAJOR SPOILERS at the end of this review following the rating as I will be delving into how much the film has changed since I saw it at SXSW. Also some of you might have recently heard of the controversies surrounding this film’s production, namely the fact that some of its animators were overworked and underpaid. It’s certainly a troubling situation but I will not be bringing it up in the review.)

It’s time once again to talk more about one of the films that I got to see early at SXSW in Austin, Texas this past March. And this one, Sausage Party, is a particularly noteworthy one because when it premiered there on March 14^th, it wasn’t finished yet. It was shown in ‘rough cut’ form, with some of the animation being unfinished. It so wasn’t finished yet that there was actually a scene that was just storyboards and apparently it had actually been screened sometime prior to that as nothing but storyboards. So because it was only a ‘Rough Cut’, I decided not to give it an official rating in my 2016 SXSW Recap Post. However, now the film is finally out in its finished state, meaning that I now have the opportunity to review it properly. Sausage Party is certainly a unique entry in the animated genre. While it may seem like your typical Disney/Dreamworks affair, namely in regards to the cartoony designs of its main characters that would certainly fit in any other animated film, believe me when I say that this is not an animated film you’re going to want to take your kids to. This is a very much R-rated animated flick that is as crass and filled to the brim with sexual innuendos and pot as you’d probably expect from the duo behind it; Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. But if you can look pass all of the juvenile references, sex talk, and pot jokes, Sausage Party is actually a rather smartly written animated flick that very much takes advantage of its more mature rating, though maybe a bit too much at times, to produce a hilariously dark spin on what, on the surface, would seem like something you’d see in a Disney film.

The film mainly takes place within the confines of a supermarket called Shopwell’s. In this supermarket, its various food items are living beings who dream of being taken by ‘the gods’ [humans] and brought out of the store into ‘the Great Beyond’. One of these foods is a sausage named Frank (Seth Rogen) who dreams of being chosen along with his girlfriend, a hot dog bun named Brenda (Kristen Wiig), so that they take their relationship beyond ‘just the tips’. As fate would have it, they do end up getting chosen together by a female shopper during Fourth of July weekend. However, a jar of Honey Mustard (Danny McBride) that had been previously brought to ‘the Great Beyond’ but was then returned to the store warns them that the ‘Great Beyond’ is nothing but a bunch of BS and jumps off of the cart to his death, ultimately resulting in Frank, Brenda, a lavash named Kareem Abdul Lavash (David Krumholtz), and a bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr. (Edward Norton) falling out of the cart as well following a collision with another cart. Now on their own as the store closes for the night, the quartet decide to journey back to their aisles, all the while dealing with a douche (Nick Kroll, and by ‘douche’ I mean the feminine hygiene product) that seeks revenge against Frank for getting his nozzle bent. It is during this time that Frank begins to learn more about what Honey Mustard was talking about and through a meeting with the ‘immortal’ non-perishables led by liquor bottle Firewater (Bill Hader), Frank finally learns the truth about the ‘Great Beyond’; it is a lie. Even worse, when food is taken by humans, the humans end up “killing their asses”, resulting in Frank having to try and reveal the horrible truth to his peers before it’s too late.

The humor in Sausage Party is very much what’d you expect from Rogen and Goldberg; it’s full of sexual innuendo, pot jokes, etc. And in the case of this film, that also means quite a lot of food-related puns. Pretty much any food pun that you can think of is probably in this film. Now as far as the humor is concerned, I must say that this film actually has a really solid gag-to-laugh ratio. It will legitimately have you guffawing throughout and while on the surface it may seem like a really stupid food version of Toy Story, the writing is actually much more complex than you think. Yes, amidst all of the f-bombs, marijuana use, and many, many, MANY stereotypes that are represented in food form, there’s actually quite a bit of in-depth social commentary in this film, namely in regards to religion as represented by the food of Shopwell’s being led to believe that nothing bad ever happens to food, which of course isn’t true in their cases. Instead, the film promotes unity amongst cultures and taking control of your own life. So yeah… this film basically gives the idea of religion the middle finger. With that said, admittedly sometimes the film can be a little too crass for its own good. I mean, sure, I get it, it’s an R-rated animated film so they do have much more creative leeway to get away with stuff that you would NEVER see in something from Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks. Still, there are times where it does feel like they’re just relishing in the fact that it’s R, meaning plenty of f-bombs thrown out here and there really for no real reason other than they can. Thankfully, that only happens a few times in the film.

Animation-wise the film is perfectly fine as a film made by a non-Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks studio with a low budget. It’s nothing special, for the record, but it does definitely deserve some credit for the ways in which it brings this world of food to life, mainly through its character designs. It also certainly does its job in giving the film a Disney-esque style with its own cartoonish and colorful style. Heck, they even got Alan Menken, the man who has brought us countless iconic Disney songs over the years, to do the film’s opening musical number. Needless to say all of this gets really hilarious when the filmmakers start to do more adult stuff with the animation, namely in the ending which, without giving anything away, is something that truly needs to be seen to be believed. The same can be said for scenes in which food characters are brutally killed by humans. Obviously it isn’t graphic in the same way that scenes like this would be if they involved humans but it does still provide a hilariously disturbing sight. As for the voice cast, pretty much every one is spot on for their respective roles; Seth Rogen as Frank, Kristen Wiig as Brenda, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as some of Frank’s fellow sausages with the latter being viewed as a runt due to him being a deformed sausage, Edward Norton as the Woody Allen-ish Sammy Bagel Jr. (no joke, some people at the SXSW screening didn’t even realize it was Norton until the end of the film), Salma Hayek as a lesbian taco shell who harbors feelings for Brenda, etc. Admittedly most of the characters are rather one-note save for a few (e.g. Cera’s character Barry) but the cast does make it all work in the long run.  

Now like I said before, when I first saw this film I didn’t give it a rating at the time because it was only a ‘Rough Cut’. Plus, because the SXSW crowd was so into it (I’m pretty sure there were a few stoners in there… this is a Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg film, after all), sometimes I couldn’t even hear the dialogue. So now I’ve finally seen the film in its final form and overall I must say that it really is a solid animated flick. For one thing, the film is absolutely hilarious from beginning to end; most of the jokes, even some of the obviously offensive ones, do hit. And while on the surface this whole premise of food learning of their true purpose in life may sound really silly, and let’s be honest that’s exactly what it is, the writing can actually be rather smart at times, namely through how it comments on religion and the beliefs that one has through said religion. Pair that with the hilarious mash-up of Disney-style animation with the messed up crap that goes on in this film and the absolutely spot-on voice cast and you just have one absolutely crazy but still highly entertaining animated feature. Like Deadpool and superhero films earlier this year, perhaps Sausage Party will open the door for more R-rated animated films. Clearly people are open for films like this that aren’t afraid to be a bit more mature despite being part of a genre that’s mostly seen PG-rated stories. I’ve seen quite a few great R-rated animated films before; South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Team America: World Police, etc. So hopefully thanks to this film, we’ll be seeing more down the road, including the certainty that is a sequel to this film, which ends on quite an interesting note that will no doubt set up an even crazier follow-up.  

Rating: 4/5

****

SPOILER SECTION (IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM YET, READ NO FURTHER!!)

So as I’ve been saying throughout this review, when I saw this at SXSW not all of the animation was finished. Some scenes were in the early stages of rendering and some of them didn’t even feature full character animation yet. This was primarily the case during the opening song number and pretty much most of the finale, including the scene in which Frank tries to rally the supermarket food to fight ‘the Gods’ and, yes, even the infamous orgy scene. There was also one additional scene that didn’t end up in the theatrical cut. After the food have their massive orgy, Frank and friends learn from Firewater that they are actually only ‘cartoons’ brought to life by animators and voiced by celebrities like Seth Rogen and Edward Norton. The wise figure that is Gum then reveals that he has built an inter-dimensional device that would allow them to travel to their creators’ world. Frank and co. decide to enter it and they end up in Los Angeles right across the street from a diner where Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, and Edward Norton are having lunch. As the trio talk about doing an animated film about talking food, Frank and friends storm into the diner through the window to attack them. Now for the record I don’t know if this was actually intended to be in the film. The animation in this scene was completely non-existent; it was literally just the 2-D models of the characters on a 2-D plane set against the live-action footage. I mean personally I think it would’ve been a funny little ending tag seeing Rogen, Cera, and Norton get attacked by the food but it’s probably for the better that they didn’t use this scene. Instead, the film ends as Frank and his friends go into the portal. With that said, though, perhaps this scene will be featured on the Blu-Ray. It would certainly set the stage for what will no doubt happen in the sequel as Frank and co. interact with ‘their creators’.   

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.