Today was the first full day of the SXSW Film Festival with screenings beginning as early as 10:45 AM and as late as 11:55 PM. I'm planning to see three to five films per day over the next week. Today I was able to see four.
Saturday, March 9th, 2019
Films I Planned to See
Showtime Title Location
12:00 PM Pink Wall Zach Theatre
3:00 PM Villains Zach Theatre
5:00 PM Porno Stateside Theatre
9:00 PM Her Smell Zach Theatre
Films I Actually Saw
Showtime Title Location
12:00 PM Pink Wall Zach Theatre
3:00 PM Villains Zach Theatre
5:00 PM Porno Stateside Theatre
9:00 PM Her Smell Zach Theatre
After being turned away from two screenings yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to get into all four films I attempted to see today. The Zach and Stateside Theatres tend to screen smaller films, but they have a lot of seats, making them great locations to buy single tickets. The big studio releases of the day were Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum, starring Matthew McConaughey, and Jonathan Levine's The Long Shot, starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen. Both of these films are scheduled to release nationwide in the next two months, so I elected to skip them.
Pink Wall
This is the best thing I've seen so far, and I'll be surprised if anything tops it. Tom Cullen's directorial debut dissects the relationship of two lovers played magnificently by Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass.
The film is divided into six timelines, each separated by approximately one year. Sections from each timeline are shown out of chronological order as the audience pieces together the full picture of the couple's changing relationship. In order to demarcate the timelines, Cullen uses a different aspect ratio in each one. He implements a boxy 4:3 ratio in the first year and slowly expands outward to an ultra-wide shot in year six, seemingly representing the lovers' expanded views of each other with the passage of time.
Cullen's preoccupation with the movie's cinematography and editing does not come at the expense of the actors or the story. The film's charming, intimate nature and its intense focus on the two leads remind me a lot of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise series. Maslany and Duplass exhibit fantastic chemistry as they examine a relationship's initial spark and its inevitable deterioration over time. As the characters age, they develop differing priorities that present new challenges to their relationship.
I saw this film for Jay Duplass, who's performance in Outside In was one of my favorites of 2018, and I came away equally impressed by Tatiana Maslany. I'm excited to watch Cullen's career going forward as he's clearly a very talented director with a unique approach to storytelling. There are no release details yet for Pink Wall, but keep an eye out for it later in the year. It screens again on Monday and Wednesday, so check it out if you're at the festival.
Villains
Villains is a fun(ish) B movie about a young couple that robs a gas station before ironically running out of gas a few miles down the road. They break into a seemingly empty house nearby and attempt to regroup before restarting their escape. Spoiler alert: The house is not empty and some weird shit goes down.
This movie is mildly entertaining, but it's pretty shallow. Kyra Sedgwick gives an unnerving performance as a childless woman who treats a baby doll as if it's her human son. She's the best part of a movie full of flat characters. Villains isn't terrible, but it doesn't really have anything going for it.
Porno
I had never seen the bloody remains of an exploded nutsack before, so I can finally check that off my bucket list. Porno is a gratuitous, disgusting film about a group of teenage movie theater employees who discover a random old film in storage and decide to watch it after the theater closes. It turns out the film has some nudity in it and unleashes a sex demon hellbent on mutilating the teenagers' genitals as punishment for soiling their virgin eyes.
Lots of dicks get ripped off. Lots of scrotums get crushed in graphic detail. My balls still hurt from watching it. It's poorly written. It's poorly acted. Fuck this movie.
Her Smell
Her Smell features Elisabeth Moss as a drugged out rock star who bulldozes through all of her friends, family members, and co-workers. Moss is great, but I was kind of disappointed in this film. It appears to be attempting to buck the standard structure of music films that has become all too familiar. Act 1 - Musician becomes successful; Act 2 - Musician becomes an arrogant drug addict and alienates everyone around them; Act 3 - Musician makes amends and does a final concert reminiscing about all the good times in Act 1. (*cough* Bohemian Rhapsody *cough*)
The film thinks it's smarter than this traditional, boring structure, but all it does is cut out Act 1 and drop you directly into the middle of Act 2. Moss' character is an absolutely terrible person for the majority of the movie, and when the redemption narrative kicks in, the audience is left puzzled by the idea that anyone would accept her back into their lives.
I'm not sure what this movie is trying to do. There's very little character development until the final third, which feels forced. The sound mixing reduces the volume of the dialogue and increases the volume of background noise, making it difficult to hear conversations. It's possible this was done by design to recreate the environment of a loud music venue, but it makes it tough to follow the plot. Without Moss' performance, this is a bad film. Her efforts raise it to mediocrity.
These four films really represent the grab bag that is SXSW. From the sublime to the mediocre to the downright dog shit, you never know what you're getting into when you walk into a screening. Let's hope the rest of the festival has more of the sublime and less of the shit.
Michael Dixon is a mild mannered accountant by day and a mild mannered movie watcher by night. He will not do your taxes for you. He lives in Austin, Texas with his lovely television and collection of fine whiskies. You can't purchase his book anywhere because it doesn't exist.
Saturday, March 9th, 2019
Films I Planned to See
Showtime Title Location
12:00 PM Pink Wall Zach Theatre
3:00 PM Villains Zach Theatre
5:00 PM Porno Stateside Theatre
9:00 PM Her Smell Zach Theatre
Films I Actually Saw
Showtime Title Location
12:00 PM Pink Wall Zach Theatre
3:00 PM Villains Zach Theatre
5:00 PM Porno Stateside Theatre
9:00 PM Her Smell Zach Theatre
After being turned away from two screenings yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to get into all four films I attempted to see today. The Zach and Stateside Theatres tend to screen smaller films, but they have a lot of seats, making them great locations to buy single tickets. The big studio releases of the day were Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum, starring Matthew McConaughey, and Jonathan Levine's The Long Shot, starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen. Both of these films are scheduled to release nationwide in the next two months, so I elected to skip them.
Pink Wall
This is the best thing I've seen so far, and I'll be surprised if anything tops it. Tom Cullen's directorial debut dissects the relationship of two lovers played magnificently by Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass.
The film is divided into six timelines, each separated by approximately one year. Sections from each timeline are shown out of chronological order as the audience pieces together the full picture of the couple's changing relationship. In order to demarcate the timelines, Cullen uses a different aspect ratio in each one. He implements a boxy 4:3 ratio in the first year and slowly expands outward to an ultra-wide shot in year six, seemingly representing the lovers' expanded views of each other with the passage of time.
Cullen's preoccupation with the movie's cinematography and editing does not come at the expense of the actors or the story. The film's charming, intimate nature and its intense focus on the two leads remind me a lot of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise series. Maslany and Duplass exhibit fantastic chemistry as they examine a relationship's initial spark and its inevitable deterioration over time. As the characters age, they develop differing priorities that present new challenges to their relationship.
I saw this film for Jay Duplass, who's performance in Outside In was one of my favorites of 2018, and I came away equally impressed by Tatiana Maslany. I'm excited to watch Cullen's career going forward as he's clearly a very talented director with a unique approach to storytelling. There are no release details yet for Pink Wall, but keep an eye out for it later in the year. It screens again on Monday and Wednesday, so check it out if you're at the festival.
Villains
Villains is a fun(ish) B movie about a young couple that robs a gas station before ironically running out of gas a few miles down the road. They break into a seemingly empty house nearby and attempt to regroup before restarting their escape. Spoiler alert: The house is not empty and some weird shit goes down.
This movie is mildly entertaining, but it's pretty shallow. Kyra Sedgwick gives an unnerving performance as a childless woman who treats a baby doll as if it's her human son. She's the best part of a movie full of flat characters. Villains isn't terrible, but it doesn't really have anything going for it.
Porno
I had never seen the bloody remains of an exploded nutsack before, so I can finally check that off my bucket list. Porno is a gratuitous, disgusting film about a group of teenage movie theater employees who discover a random old film in storage and decide to watch it after the theater closes. It turns out the film has some nudity in it and unleashes a sex demon hellbent on mutilating the teenagers' genitals as punishment for soiling their virgin eyes.
Lots of dicks get ripped off. Lots of scrotums get crushed in graphic detail. My balls still hurt from watching it. It's poorly written. It's poorly acted. Fuck this movie.
Her Smell
Her Smell features Elisabeth Moss as a drugged out rock star who bulldozes through all of her friends, family members, and co-workers. Moss is great, but I was kind of disappointed in this film. It appears to be attempting to buck the standard structure of music films that has become all too familiar. Act 1 - Musician becomes successful; Act 2 - Musician becomes an arrogant drug addict and alienates everyone around them; Act 3 - Musician makes amends and does a final concert reminiscing about all the good times in Act 1. (*cough* Bohemian Rhapsody *cough*)
The film thinks it's smarter than this traditional, boring structure, but all it does is cut out Act 1 and drop you directly into the middle of Act 2. Moss' character is an absolutely terrible person for the majority of the movie, and when the redemption narrative kicks in, the audience is left puzzled by the idea that anyone would accept her back into their lives.
I'm not sure what this movie is trying to do. There's very little character development until the final third, which feels forced. The sound mixing reduces the volume of the dialogue and increases the volume of background noise, making it difficult to hear conversations. It's possible this was done by design to recreate the environment of a loud music venue, but it makes it tough to follow the plot. Without Moss' performance, this is a bad film. Her efforts raise it to mediocrity.
These four films really represent the grab bag that is SXSW. From the sublime to the mediocre to the downright dog shit, you never know what you're getting into when you walk into a screening. Let's hope the rest of the festival has more of the sublime and less of the shit.
Michael Dixon is a mild mannered accountant by day and a mild mannered movie watcher by night. He will not do your taxes for you. He lives in Austin, Texas with his lovely television and collection of fine whiskies. You can't purchase his book anywhere because it doesn't exist.
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