Bellflower

Everyone knows that the end of a relationship can feel like the the world is collapsing. And not in that cool Buffy to the rescue apocalypse sort of way.  Bellflower takes that feeling and gives it physical heft in the form of a flame throwing car and the violent revenge fantasies of its creators.  Which also involve a flamethrower.  But I may be getting ahead of myself...

Continuing the recent trend of personal little mumblecore movies with an unusual hook (Cold Weather, Monogamy), Bellflower takes that concept and ratchets things up to eleven.  Or possible twelve.

Woodrow (Evan Glodell) and Aidan (Tyler Dawson) are friends, who while lacking visible means of financial support delight in practically preparing for the end of the world.  Mechanically gifted they design flamethrowers and a fire breathing smoke screening emitting super-car named Medusa.  All the while conducting random experiments of questionable long term value like shooting a propane tank with a shotgun (turns out it explodes in a big way).  Talented fellows they seem more like bored kids on the cusp of become adults than folks who actually believe there's a need to prepare for a coming Mad Max like world.  One night while out drinking Woodrow meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman) via a live cricket eating and falls for her - in a big way. In true hipster film fashion on their first date they cross state line in search of a meal at the worst possible restaurant Woodrow has ever seen.  En route she's charmed by his demeanor and mad engineering skills that among other things have furnished his ride with an en suite whiskey dispenser ("it's like a James Bond car for drunks").  Several days and a case of food poisoning later they're back home and thick as thieves. 

As oft happens paradise doesn't last forever.  In parallel with their relationship ups and downs team Woodrow/Aidan complete work on their flamethrower apparatus and Medusa.  When the breakup comes it creates a cinematic schism as alternate realities are explored.  One featuring a berserk worst breakup Woodrow ever and a somewhat more mellow one.  Reminding viewers that perhaps the cool boyfriend who builds flamethrowers in his spare time may in fact, as your mom tried to explain to you, not be the greatest life partner choice.  Even if his car dispenses booze.  Oh wait, actually, probably because of that as well...

The gritty yet artistic look of the film is definitely interesting to behold.  The camera used for the picture was custom made for the shoot - which is one of many indications that the construction of cool stuff in the film is autobiographical.   I sort of liked all the characters and their puttering around.  However when things went super disturbing my interest began to wane. The raw intensity was impressive but thinking back I don't feel as though my mind could wrap itself around the narrative jump given what I'd seen about the characters previously.  I feel that the big bloody quirk made the whole less interesting to me than if things had stayed at the initial more even keeled emotional level.  Of course that's not what the film makers were going for and I respect them for driving balls out to what they were aiming for.  Just didn't entirely work for me personally.  

The press for Bellflower strongly features Glodell's quest to produce a truly functioning Medusa, flame thrower and the apocalyptic feel of the film.  Even the SXSW intro involved a shout from the master of ceremonies about "are you ready to see some flamethrowers?!?"  It's an effective hook that I'm sure managed to trick some manly men into seeing what is at its core a relationship drama.  Confounding expectations is cool and all but I think in this case it's worth knowing you're not heading into an action movie.  Word is that Glodell and his crew have some future plans for Medusa (which of course they built themselves and actually does shoot flames) for a series of more directly post end of the world themed films.  I suspect I'll be easily lured back to try one of them as well.



The filmmaker's came out to SXSW in style parking Medusa (though slightly modified it seems since the film wrapped) outside the theater.  Writer/director/star Evan Glodell and a good chunk of the cast were in attendance.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for the Q&A having a tight next film connection.  But I leave you with some snapshots taken before the screening started.  Haven't been able to find a trailer for the film online as of yet - will update this post if I locate one.

Evan Glodell introducing his film

Now, if there was only a way to tell if this car was the car named Medusa in the film?

Happythankyoumoreplease

There's a point where a movie can be just a little too indy and a little too cute for it's own good.  Happythankyoumoreplease skates right up to that line but never crosses it resulting in an experience that was actually rather enjoyable.  Like a more serious episode of When I Met Your Mother with more artsy photography, considerably better music, and none of that bullshit where they pretend to be a comedy but kill off someone's dad when the ideas start to run dry.  Also Ted kidnaps a kid…

The film Happythankyoumoreplease in addition to being the bane of spellcheckers was written/directed and starred in by Josh Radnor.  An actor familiar to many as the character Ted who each week tells horribly inappropriate tales to his children on the TV's show  Met Your Mother.  In point of fact other than the fact that it's the same actor playing men of the same life stage the film bears little resemblance to the TV show.  That's just a cheap way to start - but seriously, why did they have to kill off Marshall's dad?

Anyhoo…. if you'd like to read my actual review you can jump on over to Three Imaginary Girls for the scoop.  I promise, no more How I Met Your Mother references.

A tale of two festival's bumpers....

It's taken a while, but it seems the time has finally come for me to close the loop on the one (and probably) only thing that annoyed me about the Palm Springs Film Festival this year - their pre-film bumper.  Most readers are probably familiar with the concept of the festival bumper - but just in case I'll review.  The idea is that before each film some intro bumper/trailer is generally played.  Sort of a way to add branding to the festival itself and get the names of a few key sponsors up in front of the audience. Some festivals have just one for the entire fest, others have a lot of variety, some have so much variety they seem to have ten minutes of excruciating delay before each film when all you want to do is start so you can stay on schedule (yes, I'm looking at you SIFF 2009).

Until this year with their high concept idea to take a sixteen minute dramatic short film of questionable merit and break it up into pieces randomly screened one per day the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) was way ahead the best festival in terms of bumper quality.  But most festivals, including Fantastic Fest had their moments.  But for whatever reason I felt Palm Springs hit a new low with their Malt Shop Girl trailer.  Why don't you first take a look to test the waters... ?



During the festival I actually spent an unhealthy amount of time counting the ways this bumper bothered me.  In the end I think the main issue was that the hero of the story basically breaks his writer's block by stealing the idea for his new movie from a movie he saw as a kid.  I mean, seriously - WTF?  Isn't that what we generally all are supposed to hate about Hollywood?  It's definitely not the reason most of us go to film festivals in the first place.  It's also just goofy as all get out, and don't even get me started on his "pitch" meeting with the kindly old Hollywood execs.  Actually, I take that back, I can totally see Hollywood green-lighting "Malt Shop Girl."  In fact maybe that's why the short existed in the first place...

If you agree feel free to post why you hate the trailer in the comments.  I suppose defenses are welcome too.  Feel free to post in that case, and I promise not to make fun of you for eagerly awaiting the new Transformers movie. ;-)

Anyway.... So it was with great pleasure that I discovered that the SXSW bumpers were considerably better.  Plus they're also educational at times - particularly the doc bumper about Knitta Please which explained the knitting I witnessed covering a pipe at the Alamo Theater on my first trip to Austin.  Sadly, the best of the bunch, which was truly awesome isn't available online yet.  I'll be back to post it as soon as that tragedy is rectified.  Until then enjoy the first few bar raising festival bumpers from SXSW.

Mario

Constellations

The Line

Documentary Bumper

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog has a unique voice as a film maker.  To support the claim that his presence makes for interesting narration all you need to point to is the voice-over he did speaking as a plastic bag in a short film I watched in Telluride a couple of years ago (which should definitely be checked out if you're unfamiliar).  In the journey put forth in The Cave of Forgotten Dreams Herzog takes viewers deep into the Chauvet caves which house the oldest known drawings in the world.  Located in Southern France and unavailable previously to all but scientists with a need to be there Herzog captures some amazing footage. To which he adds his signature narration style.  Only he could talk about the ancient people who did these drawings and then in a completely straight manner muse out-loud about the dreams of such an artist who had been involved in "proto-cinema"

Overall I found the endeavor quite fascinating.  I'm not generally a museum goer or a particularly big follower of 2D non-moving art.  But the unusual perspective and presentation fascinated me.  Well worth checking it out with an open mind.  It made me laugh at some of the film's descriptions but also took my breath away when it came time to gaze at the art itself.  Most importantly this is probably the only movie I've ever seen that truly needs to have been made in 3D.  With the possible exception of Step Up 3D. The drawings are on a cave wall and the pictorials use the natural dimensions of the surfaces to tell their stories - shot in 2D they'd be interesting to look at but definitely missing something.  The film is beautiful to look at, though clearly a Herzog piece.  He even manages to find a way to stick in albino alligators at the end. ;-)

One person I met afterward felt the long lingering shots and then re-shots of the same drawing made the film boring. For me being forced to stare at the art via the unblinking eye of Herzog's 3D camera brought out things I wouldn't have noticed on a quick glance.  Cave of Forgotten Dreams something I normally would seek out - but if this film hits a theater near you I would highly recommend seeing it.  Your home theater is really just not going to be the same.  My only regret is that Herzog wasn't at SXSW to conduct a Q&A afterward.



Update (July 2011): Just noticed the film is available on Amazon Video on Demand.  Presumably other channels as well. 

My Sucky Teen Romance

First just a small bit of background on why it's a little hard for me to completely objectively review the My Sucky Teen Romance.  It was made by Emily Hagins who was the subject some years ago of the documentary Zombie Girl which followed her efforts from age eleven to make a feature length zombie film (Pathogen).  Since then her continued evolution as a teenage film-maker have received quite a lot of attention online. Her new film My Sucky Teen Romance was extremely high on my list of films to see this year at SXSW - and not just because I'd donated some money to post-production via IndieGoGo.  The main reason was the storyline about vampires invading a local comic-con filled with teens befuddled by images of safe, sparkly vampires seemed like a clever one - the slick trailer (below) with a catchy tune playing across it simply sealed the deal.  Of course the fact that I'm completely stupid for quality "teen" films (mentally apparently I'm still there) put my interest way over the top. 

So, suffice it to say I was super excited to crowd into the enormous Paramount theater for the premiere of the film.  Excited enough to know I was likely missing a screening of Hobo With a Shotgun in order to attend  (I'm assuming in this case, given the title Hobo With a Shotgun I don't need to explain my interest in the film).

Overall I enjoyed the film which has a bright pop look to it, some amusing dialog and earnest, likable (albeit not super slick) performances populating it.  It's not a parody of vampire films, at least not a full on one.  Instead it feels more like a tragic romantic comedy that does get some of its laughs at the expense of Twilight and a trial and error process of figuring out which vampire lore applies in the kid's particular situation.  With many a nod towards the fact that it's hard out there for the teens...

The script itself isn't overly complex.  A group of friends are attending SpaceCon, their local comic and genre festival.  It's their last con before leaving for college - though refreshingly none of them seems determined to lose their virginity (or copulate with a pie).  The two main female characters are interested in meeting some cute boys, though there's a sense both may be destined for disappointment in that area.  Luckily, for the Kate (Elaine Hurt) the fellow she fancies from the local market, Paul (Patrick Delgado) is at SpaceCon as well.  Less luckily he's been turned into a vampire by Edward lookalike Vince (Devin Bonnée) during a botched robbery.  Paul's looking for a way out - though while spending time with Kate it's starts to look as though he's spread the contagion to her in a moment of weakness.  Or perhaps more accurately in a moment of klutziness brought on by one of the true villains of the story - men of a certain age hanging around comic conventions (a recurring joke I am trying not to take personally).  This sets up the main drama in the film - how can one un-become a vampire - a mission Kate and her friends approach aggressively with the help of their film based knowledge and some experts in the field that just happen to be attending the con.

I was interested, though not deeply invested in the movie's outcome.  I liked the look of the film - though it's certainly not going to be mistaken for a Hollywood blockbuster.  Given the subject matter I think it worked relatively well.  Ms. Hagins certainly has talent and I'll certainly catch her future projects.  A fairly brisk watch (I think it's just shy of 80 minutes) I'd say it's a nice stop along the way of what I'm sure will continue to be an improving career.  Just to put it into perspective on the wunderkind spectrum My Sucky Teen Romance is nowhere near the visual artistry brought to bear by Xavier Dolan in Heartbeats (or I Killed My Mother - when he was pretty much the same age).  In his case those films would have been impressive at any age.   It's not an entirely fair comparison, but one that I was thinking about this weekend after seeing Heartbeats (which should absolutely be on your "to see" list). 

Oh, almost forgot - I was particularly struck positively by Elaine Hurt who plays Kate.  I thought she brought a great presence to the role that contributed a great deal to my enjoyment of the film.

If you're a mass consumer of vampire pop-culture I'd say My Sucky Teen Romance is definitely worth your time.  Certainly more than some other recent efforts (yes, I'm looking at you Vampires Suck and and I Kissed a Vampire).  For everyone else I think the urge to catch it may be somewhat less urgent. 





Screening Notes:

The marquee of the Paramount was of course lit-up for the occasion

As mentioned above I caught the film in it's world premiere at the glorious Paramount theater.  Packed with well wishers I couldn't have hoped for a better screening environment.

Emily Hagins introducing her film before a packed house

You Instead

Shot on location at Scotland's "T in the Park" music festival over only five days You Instead manages to mashup the best aspects of an immersive, adrenaline pumping concert picture with a relationship origin story along the lines of Before Sunrise.  Without making you face any potentially ambiguous feelings you may have about the watchability of Ethan Hawke.

Two bands meet, one a group of women the other a male duo - and seem to take an instant dislike to each other.  The two groups start bickering in a pretty aggressive way.  Along comes what appears to be an official of the festival whose solution is to handcuff the two together and scoot away in his golf cart.  Which leaves Adam (Luke Treadaway who also appears in the SXSW hit Attack the Block) and Morello (Natalia Tena) literally stuck with each other.  At which point they do what any rational pair of people would do in this situation, go looking for someone with bolt-cutters.

They don't have a lot of success in that department even with the help of their band-mates and management.  Stuck with each other they try to make the best of it and we're treated to what are somewhat predictable scenes for this setup, difficulty walking around, going to the bathroom and the difficulties of playing your concert gig with some dude chained to your wrist.  They move through the standard stages of movie romance forced co-habitation with both being annoyed, then dealing with it, then one wanting it a little more until of course we realize they're stupidly perfect for each other.  Which it turns out is a surprise to each of the pair's significant others which are also on the scene with them for most of the day - even at one point all falling asleep together in a big bed.

It may be a surprise to the people in the movie that things work out between the couple, but likely not for any audience member old enough to purchase the ticket on their own.  Though I'll admit I can't quite recall another example where 'meeting cute' involved handcuffs.  That said their relationship onscreen works - and people don't keep remaking the same story because it doesn't work. As in any story about the inception of a romance it works onscreen if the characters get on together.  Even though the script doesn't take a ton of time establishing their storylines deeply it was still effective enough to make me care what happens in a positive way.  Meanwhile, writer Thomas Leveritt throws enough mini-stories into the mix about the men's manager, the other pair of the duo, and the remaining female bandmates to keep things nicely diversified. 

Equally importantly to the love story - director David Mackenzie very impressively captures the power and excitement of a concert's live performances making the music festival more than just a high concept backdrop.  There's a lot of musical and cinematic raw energy on the screen and it amps the experience up considerably.  This combination of love story with concert footage in some ways it reminded me of last year's SXSW entry This Movie is Broken - but overall found this a more complete experience.  Please note I'm a total sucker for these sort of love stories - so I may have been easy prey for You Instead.



Screening Notes:
Much if not all of the cast of the picture was in attendance for their SXSW screening.  Below are a few snapshots from the Q&A as well as a brief snippet of video from the proceedings.

Director David Mackenzie

Below are more photos from the Q&A

The FP

The FP was one of the films I was most looking forward to seeing at SXSW.  I enjoyed it, but more importantly I think it's seriously growing on me with each passing day.  I'm hoping to get another chance to see it again soon as I have a strong suspicion that with a less sleep deprived mind I might appreciate it more.  Or maybe a well rested but slightly altered state would work even better - it seemed to for the filmmakers - a situation I'll describe in more detail later in this post.

Why was I psyched to see this?  It was due both to positive buzz coming from folks online and the posted summary

"Accompanied by his brother JTRO, Beat-Beat Revelation champion BTRO must compete for the pride of their hometown, Frazier Park (The FP). His opponent: ruthless fighter and trash talker, L Dubba E. L Dub not only defeats BTRO, he sends him to an early grave. L Dub's instant climb to power has forced The FP to fall into disarray. Crazed with anger, JTRO vows revenge. After a crash course in the ancient techniques of Beat-Beat from master BLT, JTRO challenges L Dubba E. Their battle to the finish, born of lust, power and revenge, will leave only one man standing."

So, if you somehow missed the key points it sounds an awful lot like it's a movie in a world where gangs reign supreme and settle their scores through some version of the video game DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION (DDR). Which to me seemed destined either for total awesomeness or screaming while aflame into the side of a mountain failure.  Which is the sort of high risk/high reward proposition I love about the film festival world (see SexyKiller for another example).  Add to that the fact that one of my most bizarre and amusing childhood recollections was being told that local toughs "The Mill Basin Boys" switched to break dancing from fights because they were tired of getting their asses kicked - and wild horses couldn't have kept me away from the film.

The description wasn't a lie, and the film itself it an impressive send up of too many to name genres of 80's cinema, which by playing things 100% straight is also pretty damn funny.  The FP definitely lags a bit mid-way as even a fairly tight production is going to drag a bit when it's all roughly the same joke.  Because of that it falls short of perfection - but the ride is well worth taking.  Seriously, "for reals" as they say in Frazier Park (aka The FP). A phrase I guarantee (based on personal experience) you'll be saying repeatedly for at least the next week to folks you saw the movie with.

The film opens with JTRO and BTRO about to walk into a battle against their cross town enemies.  It's a brilliant sendup of the vibe of tons of other films, feeling like a mashup of Rocky and The Warriers.  With a touch of Escape from NY thrown in due to JTRO's Snake Plissken eyepatch and hairstyle.  After getting psyched up they walk out hard and ready for the DDR competition set in a FP nightclub that has an early Mad Max vibe going on.  There BTRO is fatally defeated by L Dubba E - the film's main trash talking, mohawk wearing villian.  Who appears (perfectly enough) unable to deliver any dialog without a full throated shout.

After his brother's tragic defeat JTRO (Jason Trost) retreats from town leaving The FP to the control of L Dub and his crew.  Working as a lumberjack (or something similar) he's doing his best to forget his past until KCDC (played most memorably by Art Hsu) tracks him down and begs him to return to save the town.  You see, with L Dub in charge folks are cut off from buying alcohol (there's a reason I can't quite recall) and without alcohol there are no "bums", and without bums there's no one to feed the ducks, and how can a fella deal with his issues without relaxing ducks to look at?!? That's actually pretty much the actual transitive argument presented by KCDC - but I assure you it's far more gangsta.

What follows is familiar to any fan of 80's actiondom - JTRO is convinced to do the right thing, experiences several extended training montages (that would put Gymkata to shame) and re-kindles a relationship with the girl he left behind in The FP.  All while every single character talks in a full on dialect of "the hood."

Yes, it's a parody.  But absolutely not a winking one.  While everyone clearly is in on the joke no one acts anything less than 100% serious.  And the Trost brothers shoot the film straight as well, with a look that could easily have been featured in any moderate budget action movie of the 80's.  For the first 30 minutes or so it works like a charm, especially if you have in your head what movies are being parodied.  I found myself laughing out loud ... a lot - and not just because of the absolutely absurd dialog.  Things faded a little bit partway as it's really, really hard to sustain something so over the top.

The film isn't especially long though and I feel that they pull things out towards the end to keep the insanity going effectively over the finish like.  Right up to the most memorable final shot of a hero being reunited with his love and being thanked for saving the town you're ever likely to see (even if it did leave me wondering if the Trost brothers had seen the remake of The Housemaid).

Here's the newly released trailer for the film.  Just be aware it's NSFW - but it is SERIOUSLY awesome. As they say in The FP the shit is about to get hot...


The FP - Trailer from Trost Bros. on Vimeo.

Screening Notes:
As mentioned above I caught this film at it's world premiere at the Ritz Alamo Drafthouse for a midnight screening.  Much of the cast and crew were in attendance and Jason Trost kicked things off with a pre-screening Four Loko drinking contest between the audience and cast.  Below are two short clips from someone with a better angle (first one) and myself shooting the festivities.



The clip I shot once I got over the shock of what was going on ;-)


Perhaps not unsurprisingly the audience was quite loosened up afterwards - and it seems some of the folks from the film may have been drinking beforehand.  Resulting in a screening where it became very, very clear that the folks with the film really enjoyed the final result onscreen.  Meaning some (especially one woman) was shouting quite a bit by the screening.  Interestingly enough this apparently behind the scenes tested the Alamo's famous loud people are thrown out policy as described in a blog post by Alamo founder Tim League. Personally I wasn't really especially annoyed - but found it doubly entertaining to have been in a screening with such drama across the twitterverse.

Paul

To paraphrase a popular T-shirt,  there are 11 types of people in the world:

• Those who are confident in the belief that they who would NEVER enjoy a road movie about two guys picking up a wisecracking, foulmouthed, pop culture-obsessed ET hitchhiker (personally I think such people are weird - but I'm sure they exist).
• Those who are now sort of curious, but are unable to view the idea of attending Comicon in a non-ironic light, and
• Readers who both get the joke that started this list, have attending Comicon on their bucket list, and have now probably stopped reading to check their local theater listings for when they can catch a screening of Paul.

To those in the first group - all I can say is: how far has this alleged self awareness really gotten you? In this case, it's going to keep you from seeing one of Seth Rogen's best performances since Freaks and Geeks. Those in the second segment - I feel pretty confident saying you're going to get good comedy value for the money. As an added bonus, you'll finally be able to point to folks from SNL in a movie that doesn't at all suck.

But for those in the last group? Bottom line is: you sort of have to go. This is the movie you hoped Fanboys was gonna be. A consistently funny road film about two British geeks who set off by RV post Comicon to tour the nation's famous sights of alien encounters. Inspired by their childhood viewing of Mac and Me, they've dreamed of meeting an extra terrestrial. Though perhaps when they imagined their first contact it wasn't with Paul: a smoking, cursing ET with a penchant for mooning people and making anal probe jokes.

I thought this was a fun ride which I feel pretty comfortable solidly recommending. It's not deep and meaningful, but who said the movies always had to be?  You can read a bit more of my thoughts on the film over at Three Imaginary Girls.

SXSW 2011 - The rundown on what I watched in Austin

I spent between last Thursday through Wednesday in Austin TX attending the SXSW Festival/Convention.  Better known by many for music the mega-fest hosts large Interactive and Film components as well.

This was my second year attending.  With a bit more knowledge about Austin's topology things were less daunting but still equally exciting.  From my perspective SXSW is completely different than other festival's I've attended - mainly due to the unbelievably high number of distractions there are from actually seeing film.  Even if you ignore the music/interactive sessions (which both are very tempting) there's still a large number of panel discussions each day.  Not to mention a ton of parties competing for your attention.  And that's ignoring folks on literally almost every street corner offering free food and alcohol.

The attendees themselves are a big factor in the fun as well.  I always enjoy talking to random people at film festivals, but I've got to say that SXSW definitely raises the bar for interesting conversation.  With lines and parties stuffed full of diverse sorts ranging from from industry buyers, to filmmakers, to mega amateur fans.  All the precedes this is my super, super long-winded way of saying I'm pretty impressed with myself for catching as many films as I did.  The final tally is 23 SXSW films (or shorts programs) while on the ground.  Add to that two things I saw before arriving in Austin and it means this year I caught 25 of SXSW's film related offerings.

The only regrets I've got include not spending enough time to catch-up in person with people I'd met there the year before and not doing any interviews (for which there were many opportunities). With so much going on I suppose something has gotta give.  Maybe next year I'll be able to stay the entire run which would probably eventually bring some balance.  Nah, who am I kidding - I'd probably just see some more movies...

I'm going to do my best to get up a review of each and every film I saw.  As a start though I wanted to mention five films (in no particular order) that really stood out positively for me;

The Dish & the Spoon - Greta Gerwig dealing with stuff on a journey kicked off by relationship troubles - 'nuff said.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to say considerably more about the film.  But honestly, it's going to boil down to something pretty similar. ;-)

Sound of My Voice - Brit Marling (who also co-wrote the script) makes a strong impression in this film about a couple attempting to infiltrate her cult.  They view her as a dangerous person who while never leaving the basement of a suburban house recruits followers who believe her story that she is a traveler from the future.  And we all now that sort of thing never ends well, right?

I mainly caught this film because I had nothing to do between other screenings, and it turned into one of those serendipitous festival mistakes that validates one's faith in the universe.  I was pretty darn tired when the film started, but I was completely awake after the first few minutes. Simultaneously fascinated and creeped out by the going's on.  Even by the end when I was pretty sure what direction things were heading the final reveal still gave me the willies.  Dramatic tension breaks within the movie used effectively with I'm confident the most surreal use of a song by The Cranberries ever committed to screen.  The camera loves Marling who also appears in another of my SXSW faves - Another Earth.  Limited in locations but sharp and crisply shot I was pleasantly surprised learn it was shot with the Canon 7D.  And boy did if hold my attention - without scaring the crap out of me.  Well played...


As a bonus the Q&A for Sound of My Voice was quite interesting. I plan to post some portions of it along with my full review of the film.

Another Earth - One of those fine films that uses a science-fiction premise to tell a story mainly about the human experience.  How would we feel if we learned there was a second life-sustaining planet in our universe? What if it was in our own solar system, rotating just out of sight, always blocked from our view by the sun?

Well, of course like the people in the film we'd probably name it Earth 2 in a show of extreme geo-centrism.  But if and when that day comes be sure to pull over while driving before staring at the new planet (suddenly visible due to a gravitational shift) in the night sky.  Because if you don't you may cause a catastrophic accident that results in the death of someone's wife and child.  Brit Marling plays a student who on the eve of her college career makes that mistake, killing a man's family.  Years later she goes to apologize and ends up more deeply involved than intended.  In the backdrop of this looms slowly revealed "reality" of Earth 2, which at least for a while has been a literal mirror image of our own.  What opportunities does it pose for those who have lost, for those who want to speak with another version of themselves?  Big issues such as these are explored implicitly in what other than the fantastical device is truly a small, very personal story.  An extremely well executed one.

You Instead - Shot on location at Scotland's "T in the Park" music festival You Instead manages to mashup the best aspects of a adrenaline pumping concert picture with a relationship origin story along the lines of Before Sunrise.  Without making you face any potentially ambiguous feelings you may have about the watchability of Ethan Hawke.

Two bands meet, one a group of women the other a male duo - and seem to take an instant dislike to each other.  Due to a series of events that almost make sense in context the lead singer from one band ends up handcuffed to one of the female performers.  Chained together they do their best to go about their day - which of course turns into something unexpected.  At least unexpected if you've never, ever seen a movie like this.  Though I'll admit I can't quite recall another example where 'meeting cute' involved handcuffs.  The filmmaker effectively captures the power and excitement of the concert's live performances making the music festival more than just a high concept backdrop.  Plus there's enough mini-stories involving the other band members to keep things diversified.  In some ways it reminded me of last year's SXSW entry This Movie is Broken - but overall found this a more complete experience.  Please note I'm a total sucker for these sort of love stories - so I may have been easy prey for You Instead. 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Werner Herzog takes viewers deep into the Chauvet caves which house the oldest known drawings in the world.  Located in Southern France and unavailable previously to all but scientists with a need to be there Herzog captures some amazing footage. To which he adds his signature narration style.

Probably the only movie I've ever seen that truly needs to have been made in 3D. The drawings are on a cave wall and the pictorials use the natural dimensions of the surfaces to tell their stories - shot in 2D they'd be fascinating but missing something.  The film is beautiful to look at, though clearly a Herzog piece.  He even manages to find a way to stick in albino alligators at the end. ;-)

One person I met afterward felt the long lingering shots and then re-shots of the same drawing made the film boring. For me being forced to stare at the art brought out things I wouldn't have noticed on a quick glance.  Cave of Forgotten Dreams something I normally would seek out - but if this film hits a theater near you I would highly recommend not making the mistake of skipping it like I might have had it not been for SXSW.


So that's roughly my top 20% of what I saw while in Austin.  There were a significant number of other films I really wanted to see but couldn't fit in.  I have a lot of notes for things I'll be keeping an eye out for as the year progresses.  Looking through my full list I've realized all were in English except for George the Hedgehog and a few of the SXGlobal shorts.  Pretty different than my experience at most festivals.  But still a heck of a lot of fun.

Over the next week or so I'm planning to post my thoughts on each of the films I saw.  For anyone curious until then here's the full list of what I watched.  Roughly in the order I saw them.

• Paul
• Inside America
• Wasted on the Young
• Sound of My Voice 
• Midnight Shorts
• Turkey Bowl
• Bag of Hammers
• You Instead
• 96 Minutes
• Bellflower
• Little Deaths
• SXGlobal Shorts
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams
• Detention
• Hesher
• Attack the Block
• The Dish & the Spoon
• Another Earth
• Win Win
• The FP
• The Key Man
• Caught Inside
• My Sucky Teen Romance
• Jex Jerzy (George the Hedgehog)
• Beats of Freedom

And yes - I know I'm supposed to have Attack the Block and The FP in my favorites list.  We'll chat about those later.  By all means bookmark the page and return to see my thoughts on all the films I saw (given enough time to write).  Not to mention my video clip of the infamous Four Loko drinking contest ahead of the screening of The FP. 

SXSW 2011 - A random photo tour (from cocktails to Pee-Wee Herman)

Back home now in Seattle and just starting to recover from the wonderful alternate universe that is SXSW.  With 23 movies under my belt (plus two I'd seen prior to arriving) feels like I covered a lot of cinematic ground.  But I also covered a lot of physical ground, walking all across Austin in search of free food, beverages, swag and parties.  It was a very intense, insanely fun week.  Now that I've started to bank some sleep I'm planning to begin sharing thoughts on films in earnest.  It's going to take a while to catch up - but hopefully it'll be worth it.

There's a risk that someone showing up recently to read my site could mistake it for some manner of photo-blog given all the recent pictures (between SXSW and the Emerald City Comicon).  I assure you more of my textual ramblings will return.  Just think of these recent posts as a way to help visualize what's been going on back in Austin this week.

For now, let's all look at some travel photos from the past week together. There are a lot of them so I'm putting them after the jump. My attempt to avoid feeling like that guy who drags you over to their house for a slide show on the family's trip to the Grand Canyon...

SXSW Photos - the iPhone Edition

In no particular order here are a few of the sites, and tastes around Austin during SXSW. Sometimes the iPhone was just an easier way to snap a pick, sometimes (OK just once) I left the memory card for my DSLR in the hotel room (and forgot to bring my backup point and shoot).  For whatever reason I took them in a first place those that follow came out at a quality level worth sharing.

I encourage you to click through to read more about this year's SXSW experience, along with lots and lots of pictures...

SXSW 2011 - I have arrived...

Flew in Thursday early evening for the start of SXSW Film on Friday.  The plane was completely packed with folks heading to the Interactive sessions and I enjoyed some fun conversation with my row-mates.  Once getting to the hotel I wandered downtown first to pickup my badge for the festival and then to grab dinner.  Nothing remarkable to say, but I snapped a few photos along the way.

Walking down to the convention center via Town Lake

While not quite a centrally located as I'd like, at least when it's light out the views on the way downtown are lovely

A look at the Film convention custom designed bag

I suspect tomorrow will be far crazier, but badge registration was a pretty quick affair

Given the number of extra barricades setup it's clear they're prepping for a much larger crowd than was there Thurs night

After picking up my badge I stopped at Austin's Ironworks BBQ based largely on it being the dinner choice of my flight's captain (rode the airport shuttle back to my hotel with the flight's crew)

Certainly not going to be a stop on a vegan tour of Austin anytime soon

Emerald City Comicon

This weekend was the Emerald City Comicon. With prep time running out before SXSW I didn't have time to attend for more than a few hours.  But I had a fun time browsing the booths and taking a few photos.  Below are some photos to give you a sense of the event.  If anyone is in one of these and wants a higher resolution copy just shoot me a note via email or in the comments section. Yes - I realize this isn't strictly film related.  But many of the characters are from films - so close enough. ;-)

For a reasonable charitable donation Mr. Vader was willing to choke the life out of anyone

Chewbacca hangs with some of the Rat City Roller Girls

Seems someone's excited to meet their favorite villain

If you were willing to wait in line and fork out the dough there were photos and autographs to be had

How often do you get to see a group of "Suicide Girls" cooing over a puppy en masse?

I'll admit ignorance on the part of this specific character. But imho the look seems to work for her.

'cuz it never hurts to have another photo of a puppy

As in most comic conventions there were plenty of t-shirts to be had everywhere one turned.

You'd think this guy would be trying to stop Vader above. But apparently he was on a break or something.

Some of those t-shirts even had an important message ;-)

In case you're wondering what an authorized photo costs...

That's one creepy ass rabbit

Honestly, I don't recall Batman packing this level of heat. But I wasn't gonna argue...

A sort of fuzzy picture of Clare Kramer

A couple costumed fellows pressed into service advertising one of the companies at the con

Last but not least a collection of Vulcans

And you didn't need to come pre-made up. At least one booth would do that for you.