..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Kim
Voynar
..Michael
Wilmington
SXSW 2009 Preview
Next week I'll be heading to the South by Southwest Film Festival, where I'll be on the jury for the narrative competition. That task alone is going to keep me hopping, with eight films to view in a few short days, but I'm also planning to hit as many other films as I can during my time there. Fortunately, all my jury screenings take place at the Alamo Ritz, so I can keep fueled with their delish milkshakes and the occasional burger.
I'm resigning myself now to the reality that I just won't have time to see everything at the fest I'd love to see, but I'm going to run down the categories (except for the Narrative Competition films) here just the same, highlighting those films that I've either seen and can recommend or am intrigued enough by that I'll be attempting to work them into my schedule myself. Here goes.
Spotlight PremieresSpotlight Premieres looks to be one of the more promising categories at SXSW if you aren't looking to take much of a chance on getting stuck with a bad film. There are quite a few Spotlight films I'd recommend (and several I'm trying to squeeze into my own cramped schedule): Fest opener I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segal looks promising, and fest-goers can get an early peek before it opens on March 20. I missed 500 Days of Summer at Sundance and have been kicking myself ever since; the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, and reports from Sundance were very positive. Fox Searchlight picked the film up, and it comes out in July, but why wait?
Humpday is a sure-fire good time -- loved that film at Sundance. Adventureland, which also played at Sundance, is a solid pick, especially if you grew up in the 1980s; the film has a rocking soundtrack. I'm hoping to catch Joe Swanberg's latest film, Alexander the Last; I have an uneven relationship with Swanberg's work, but he's always interesting, and the film stars Jess Weixler (Teeth, Peter and Vandy), who I like a lot.
If you're not familiar with Ramin Bahrani, you can start catching up with his third film, Goodbye Solo, at the fest. This cateogory also boasts fest opening I Love You, Man, Hurt Locker, Moon, and Observe and Report, starring Seth Rogen, Anna Faris and Ray Liotta.
Documentary Features CompetitionI'm not familiar with any of the world premiere films in the documentary competition, but just on a read-through I'm most interested in Garbage Dreams, about three teenagers living in a garbage village outside Cairo whose lives are upheaved by their livelihood going global; MINE, which looks to have something to say about race and class struggle under a story about pets adopted post-Hurricane Katrina and what happens when their first owners track them down and want them back; and Say My Name, about female MCs struggling to succeed in a male-dominated, misogynistic field.
Emerging VisionsIf you're feeling more adventurous, the fest has programmed some films I already know are good in the Emerging Visions category, including zombie hit Make Out With Violence, and Crude Independence, a doc about what happens to a small North Dakota town when oil is found there. Both films just played the Oxford Film Festival where they won the Best Narrative and Best Feature awards, respectively. Other good picks include The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, which premiered at Sundance (definitely hoping to catch that one), Awaydays, a rite-of-passage tale set in Liverpool, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, a look at the Japanese obsession with insects as pets, Died Young, Stayed Pretty, a look at the culture around the underground, indie rock poster movement and Wake Up, a documentary about a guy who sees and hears angels and demons, and ghosts (oh my!). Cool. There are plenty of solid picks in Emerging Visions this year, so cull through and choose what looks most interesting to you.
SX Global
The SX Global section is, not surprisingly, where you'll find films with an international flair at SXSW. This year, the lineup is packed with some potentially intriguing films, including Calling ET (Netherlands) about a group of people waiting for that close encounter with aliens; Favela on Blast (Brazil), which I may check out to see how it compares to one of my fave docs, Favela Rising; Gaza Sderot (Israel/Palestine), which looks to be a hopeful take on one of the most contentious borders in the world; and a pair from Danish director Janus Metz: Love on Delivery, about 575 Thai women married to Dutch men in a remote fishing village, and Ticket to Paradise, about a Thai girl's journey from peasant to sex worker.
Yes, they do mostly sound dark and depressing, but that doesn't mean they won't be good, too, and you can always hit an after party later to cheer up.
24 Beats Per SecondIt's all about the music with 24 Beats Per Second at SXSW. If you haven't seen it yet, you'll want to add Anvil! The Story of Anvil to your slate. Sacha Gervasi's doc about the Candian heavy-metal band has garnered rave reviews along the fest circuit; you can catch it early at the fest before it opens in limited release in April.
Other potentially interesting music-themed flicks: Intangible Asset #82, about an Australian drummer who goes in search of a Korean shaman; Iron Maiden: Flight 666, about my very fave band from my teen days on their 2008 tour; Soul Power, about a 1974 concert with the likes of B.B. King and James Brown put on to benefit the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle" battle; and Youssof Ndour: I Bring What I Love, a doc about the African musician.Lone Star States
Ah, Texas. Home of the Dallas Cowboys, the Texas Longhorns ...and more filmmakers than you might think. I'm quite interested in seeing Along Came Kinky ... Texas Jewboy for Governor, about Kinky Friedman's 2006 gubernatorial bid, and Over the Hills and Far Away (which I missed at Sundance but heard good things about), about a family's journey through Mongolia on horseback in search of a shaman to heal their austistic son. Also looking intriguing: ExTerminators, a dark comedy starring Heather Graham, Amber Heard, Jennifer Coolidge, Joey Lauren Adams and Matthew Settle; The Eyes of Me, a doc about four teens at the Texas School for the Blind; and The Least of These, a doc about immigrant children detained in a former medium security prison.
Midnight and SXSW Presents Fantastic Fest at MidnightIf you love midnight screenings, SXSW has a double dose for you this year, offering both their regular Midnight slate and SXSW Presents Fantastic Fest at Midnight. The regular Midnight slate offers zombie-baby flick Grace, which shook up audiences at Sundance, and Bulgarian neo-noir Zift, about a man freed from prison after a wrongful conviction who goes searching for the truth. The Fantastic Fest selection offers a varied (and presumably bloody and/or thrilling) slate, including French blaxsploitation extravaganza Black; The Horseman, a revenge tale about a father who goes on a rampage after his drug-addicted daughter dies performing in an amateur porn film; Lesbian Vampire Killers, about two losers whose holiday is thrown awry by an army of -- what else? -- lesbian vampires; and Canadian flick Pontypool, about murder and mayhem in a small Canadian town.
-by Kim Voynar
