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SXSW is one of the best and most fun Film Festivals there is. I love it, there’s so much to do, so much to see, and it’s pretty much all accessible for not a lot of money compared to other festivals. This year, the documentary reigned supreme, ever since Bowling For Columbine documentaries have been getting hotter and hotter (Mostly because studios saw the 800% return-on-investment in the US alone). Fortunately, they’re getting better in quality as well. I’ve never seen so many brilliant documentaries. On the fiction side, the mockumentary is gaining in popularity, too. Most of these docs were shot on $2-3000 dollar DV cams, … what’s holding me back?
Anyways, here’s a little bit about the films I saw, a few will be going wide.
Antone’s: Home of the Blues
This is the closest thing that I had in the festival – I interned for
one night for $50. I was keeping an eye out for footage that was shot by me,
none made it. Anyways, I’m not much of a blues guy, but I can get into
some of it, Stevie Ray Vaughn and the like. Antone’s (pronounced An-tones,
not Antwahns) has an incredible history behind it, from the caliber of musicians
that’d play every night of the week to the legal problems that faced owner
Clifford Antone. Overall, it was pretty solid, had trouble hearing it at times.
It seemed a bit long at times, and rushed at times. With everybody involved,
they could’ve easily made it a PBS 6-hour mini-series. Blues lovers will
love it – others will find it decent.
Code 46
This is the new Michael Winterbottom film, and I love 24 Hour Party People,
so I was pretty excited about this one. Starring Tim Robbins and the Pre-cog
from Minority Report didn’t hurt either. This is probably his best-looking
movie visually, some of the shots are just flat-out gorgeous. However, it feels
very restrained. The overall premise of he film is that in the future, clones
are legally you (IE your brother is your clone’s brother, regardless of
if you or your brother have ever met your clone). Cloning is so prevalent that
people accidentally commit incest, so the government places restrictions on
reproduction. A lot of issues are brought up, but they aren’t dealt with,
just kind of left there. There’s also not a lot of exposition to why the
future is like it is (which, I can understand – I don’t go around
saying that because of traffic abundance and the power of the car it is law
that we have to stop at red lights.) Overall it was alright, but I wanted much
more. For most of the festival I was recommending 24 Hour Party People as the
premiere Winterbottom film. Opening wide someday.
The Hunting of The President
This is an extremely well done documentary that I fear will be written off by
many. It’s based on the book of the same name, about the right-wing conspiracy
to discredit Bill Clinton. While this is the bulk of it, and a scathing dissection
of some of the actions taken by those who participated, it’s more an indictment
of the political process and who it can be overtaken by non-policy rumors. Even
if you don’t support Clinton, it’s interesting to see how many of
the things that have damaged his reputation (Whitewater, troopergate) had no
real substance to them. Unfortunately, most of its play will be “preaching
to the converted”. Opening in NY in June, I believe, then traveling around
the country. Oddly enough, the company that will be distributing it is Fox-Searchlight
– they even helped fund it halfway through production. Very odd.
The Agronomist
This documentary by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) follows Jean Dominique,
the first Haitian filmmaker, and operator of Radio Haiti, Haiti’s only
free media. As Haiti has revolution after revolution, Jean finds himself in
various political problems, and is forced to flee to the US numerous times.
Jean is one of the most charismatic people I’ve seen in a documentary,
but the doc, as a whole, wears very long. Sometimes I really couldn’t
tell what he was saying. I didn’t know a lot about Haiti coming in, and
I really don’t know much about it now. I’d hoped it would’ve
given me a little bit of insight into the current Haitian troubles, but it really
doesn’t. Only very little connects. It’s impressive in scope (going
from the 1960s to the 2000s) but just didn’t work for me. Oddly enough,
my friends all speak very highly of it.
Dear Pillow
This movie follows the old time formula – Boy tries to get laid, boy ends
up hanging out with old pervert and begins to write smut for sale to magazines.
Hasn’t it happened to us all? Anyways, this movie was really funny, and
surprisingly well done for a super-low budget film. It’s actually able
to go from really funny sex issues to really uncomfortable ones really quickly
and really well… It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be edgy
or shocking, it’s just showing what’s going on with these people,
no matter how odd. I don’t know about the distribution of it, they’re
supposedly in negotiations, it deserves at least a limited release – if
you get a chance, check it out.
Super Size Me
This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
(really nice guy, too) took a look at the ruling of the lawsuit versus McDonalds
by the kids who claimed that McDonalds was responsible for their obesity. An
important part of the ruling regarding the issue of whether McDonalds said that
its food was meant to be eaten for every meal every day. So Morgan decided to
eat nothing but McDonalds food for 31 days and document its effect on him. The
results are staggering, and the process Morgan goes through is just something
you can’t take your eyes off of. Not only that, it’s really fucking
funny. Whether he’s giving surprising facts about the food at McDonalds
(only 5 items at McDonalds do not have sugar in them) or discussing how the
food has affected his sex life (with a vegan chef) Morgan is able to add a lot
of humor to the process. Opening wide eventually – go see it.
12:00 High (Shorts Collection)
I really like shorts when they’re done well, which is why it bugs me that
they don’t ever get distribution. Fortunately with DVD pressing prices
coming wayyyyyyy down, these might have a life. This was the best collection
of shorts I’ve ever seen, so I’ll type up a bit on the best of the
best.
Walkentalk – This was really great. A guy who emulates Christopher
Walken in every facet of his life meets his brother’s girlfriend and speaks
to her only in Walken quotes. Dear lord this one was funny. Had some of the
most dead-on Walken impressions I’ve ever heard.
Frank International Film Festival – I don’t know how well
this one would screen outside of a festival, but I was laughing my ass off for
this one. Had Bob Odenkirk and Fred Armisen in it, really great stuff.
Milton is a Shitbag – the story of a girl and her cat who hates
her and loves Pat Buchanan. Animated hilarity.
The Day Robert DeNiro met James Caan – Two men with the names
in the title meet while mall-walking. This one had a more subtle humor and I
love that stuff.
I am Stamos – I love this movie. Oh dear god do I love this movie.
I want the hat, the t-shirt, the DVD with 100 different commentaries. Screening
with the writer, director, and both Stamos’ didn’t hurt either.
The provided description “A dark comedy about a character actor whose
wish to be a leading man comes true when he magically begins to photograph as
John Stamos, provoking the unholy wrath of Stamos”. Love, love, love this
short. Website: http://www.iamstamos.com
Jersey Girl
Alright, it should be said upfront that I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. I love
his movies, that said, I really thought this movie was going to be shit. The
trailer was awful; he was going out of his element, making a movie about how
he loves his kids, things I ordinarily would pass up at the theatre. That said
– it’s Kevin Smith, with Kevin in attendance. So I went and the
movie was alright. It was the best movie of that type, and it had a few really
funny bits. A pleasant surprise. His worst movie, but not a bad movie. That
said, seeing him on stage and his Q&A session were worth the wait alone
and much better than the movie. The evening with Kevin Smith DVDs are chopped
up, but not because he has dull bits and tangents and things like that, it’s
more to get everything in. He’s a wonderful speaker, go see him if you
have a chance.
Hellboy
Technically not a SXSW film, but a film screened during SXSW. The promoters
always made that very clear for whatever reason. This was a very cool screening,
a very hard to get into screening. People were lined up around the block for
this one, all buzzing about Guillermo being the second coming of Christ –
a belief that I don’t hold. I wasn’t too high on Del Toro, I’d
seen Blade 2, which was mediocre (except for that last last last bit with the
sunglasses) and the trailer looked like utter crap. Nothing redeeming about
it. My friends all wanted to see it, and so I went with them to hang out. Guillermo
Del Toro is NOT a good speaker. Mumbles a lot, but can be pretty funny in between
that. He said that it was the first screening ever for the film, that neither
the studio nor Ron Pearlman (who was in attendance) had seen it. I was expecting
junk, but instead I got what’s probably been the best comic book movie
in a long, long time. From the beginning it had me hooked, it was really well
done. I hope the studio doesn’t screw it up. I’m going to have to
look at more of Del Toro’s works.
Napoleon Dynamite
This movie came with a lot of buzz from Sundance and I was really wanting to
see it. It got put into some really tiny theatres against some movies that people
were clamoring to go see, so it didn’t really get the recognition that
it deserves. This movie is the kind of movie I needed. The day it was showing,
where I had an option to see it, was the day I got into a car accident, and
didn’t feel like seeing a 3-hour depressing Lars Von Trier (Dancer in
the Dark) movie. The icing on the cake was it being compared to Donnie Darko
3 times in a two-paragraph synopsis (I don’t care for Donnie too much,
but the hilarity of the line “Not since Donnie Darko has a film pushed
the extremes of the often alien world of High School” really got me excited
about this movie. In the two years since Donnie, this is the movie that really
gets high school, Fuck you “The New Guy”.) I came into the movie
with a lot of hype about it, and it delivered and then some. Napoleon is a spaz
who just goes through his normal life, and has the insanity come to him. Really
funny stuff, I’ll probably see it when it comes out again in theatres.
Slasher
John Landis’ (Animal House) new film is a documentary of all things, following
a used car salesman known only as “The Slasher” and his team, consisting
of a freelance salesman, and a DJ. This was a great look at the used car world,
and the dynamics of how it works, the Slasher advertises all over the place,
and uses it to create a character, which feeds his own ego, and feeds the desires
of the people who’re looking to buy a car. He also promotes what turns
out to be the holy grail of the used car world – a car for $88. The Slasher
is quite a character, drinking heavily before breakfast, smoking heavily and
celebrating a day of car sales with a strip joint (his wife didn’t appreciate
that part). The guy needs help. This actually had some really beautiful DV footage,
and John said it’ll look better on TV (This was made for IFC, I believe).
A really funny thing happened in his Q&A, he was answering a question for
somebody and stops in the middle of his sentence to say “Hi Harry!”
looking at somebody in the crowd. He then says “Harry Knowles….
Aint it cool news…” his voice trailing off. “You’re
not Harry? Oh…. I’m terribly sorry”. I can’t think of
a worse insult off the top of my head. I looked, I couldn’t see anybody
who looked like him, which makes it an even odder occurrence. If you have IFC
check it out, I think most people will enjoy it, it’s really funny.
Cigarettes and Coffee
This is Jim Jarmusch’s collection of all the Cigarettes and Coffee shorts
since his first on Saturday Night Live. Now, I love Jim Jarmusch movies because
absolutely nothing happens in them, they’re snippets of life that you
don’t talk about. In his words, “Nobody ever comes home and when
asked about their day says ‘I had a coffee break today’. That’s
why I made this.” So, it being Jim, I loved it. It starts off a little
slow, but it really gets going. It’s really amazing the people Jim gets
for these things, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits did one together (Tom getting a lot
of cheers from the Texas crowd), Jack and Meg White debate the merits of Jack’s
new Tesla coil, however the best short, hands down, is with RZA, GZA and Bill
Murray. That is worth the price alone. Really liked it, but I’m a Jim
fan.
Blind Horizon
This is Val Kilmer’s movie that’ll be opening wide everywhere sometime.
It is a mess of a movie. A complete and utter mess. It tried to be Memento meets
Reconstructing Harry meets In the Line of Fire. The big difference – those
movies were generally original and they were also good. Blind Horizon is the
worst edited movie since the Hulk, and that’s hard to do. Stay far, far,
far away.
Experimental Shorts
I was hoping to see something innovative – instead I got a lot of stereotypical
student art films. I see other movies called pretentious – you really
don’t know pretentious until you see things like these. Ugh. I left early.
Mail Order Bride
I should mention right off the bat that this is a MOCKumentary. I didn’t
know that coming in and I thought it was real. It was incredibly convincing,
one of the best mockumentaries I’ve ever seen. Basically, a fat, lonely,
dumb guy orders a mail order bride, and then pretty much makes her a servant
and then makes odd pornographic films of her. Then the documentarian tries to
“save” her. From there it gets more and more bizarre. Incredibly
realistic, incredibly well done and really funny. I don’t know if this
is getting any sort of distribution, but it deserves it.
Public Domain
I hit a real bad streak. The description made this seem appealing, the concept
was that a game show hid cameras in people’s houses, and viewers voted
on who had the most pathetic life. It was supposed to be a comedy. Instead it
was the worst edited movie since Blind Horizon. It was supposed to be cynical
and misanthropic, two things I really enjoy, and it was neither. It was dumb.
Flat out stupid. Plot holes that you could drive a battleship through, most
of it made little sense, terrible story telling. Awful awful awful.
Haute Tension.
A French horror film, if you translate it directly from French it means “High
Tension”, which is why the studio decided it’s US name should be
“Switchblade Romance”. It’s your typical slasher film, a farmhouse
in the middle of nowhere, a family and a visitor, and a guy who comes in the
middle of the night with a razor blade and kills everybody for no reason. It
was mediocre; the plot twist was incredibly bad, making most of the film impossible
(I mean, impossible by even horror movie standards) it’s slightly redeemed
by some pretty gruesome kills that are pretty technically well done. Really
good atmosphere, but as a movie, the plot twist really kills it. If you’re
a fan of the genre it’ll be worth checking out, if not, move on.
Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8
With a name like “Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8”
I thought this would be a media criticism documentary, leading itself to issues
such as clear channel, the FCC, etc. Instead I got a doc about a Canadian radio
station that called itself the Big 8 during the 60s and 70s, responsible for
launching the career of Alice Cooper and… people I hadn’t heard
of. It was alright, it felt like I was watching PBS. Sparse humor, mostly right
to the facts, a few anecdotes here and there, mostly to establish the importance
of the radio station. It was alright, it demonstrated the supposed power of
the radio station well, but it didn’t really get me going or excited about
radio or anything.
Reel Shorts Three
Another shorts program, these were much better, but too long. They won’t
come be released so I won’t say much, just that one made a table setting
contest interesting.
A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
How can you not love a movie with that title? This doc follows the world of
professional bowling and its attempt to revamp itself. Once the most watched
sport on TV, professional bowling is hemorrhaging money, and is seen as a “common”
and “blue-collar” sport, and is so identified with the Al Bundys
of the world that it’s looked down upon by pretty much everyone who isn’t
Al Bundy. It then gets into the 3 ex-Microsoft employees who bought the PBA
and hired a Nike exec to make it “cool” again. Fantastic documentary,
it won the audience prize for best documentary. It made me want to go bowling…
for about five minutes. It actually made me respect professional bowlers a bit
more than I had before, as odd as that may seem. I’ll keep an eye out
and see if Bowling emerges as the sport they hope it does…. We’ll
see.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
I’d been looking forward to this doc, this follows Metallica as they seek
therapy, find a new Bassist and produce everybody’s favorite Metallica
album: St. Anger. It was really interesting to see how the band interacts with
each other, especially when the therapist gets involved – hearing Lars
say “What I’m hearing is…” and “What I’m
feeling is…” is incredibly odd. Even non-Metallica fans were praising
this one. Yes, Napster is covered briefly in the doc, namely through MTV-News
reports and a flash animation they found on the internet. It actually does a
semi-decent job of making St. Anger look semi-decent – as they show the
band working on the album you hear what didn’t make it onto the album…
and that stuff was complete and utter crap beyond what the album was, by comparison
– it doesn’t look as bad. It’s more of a documentary about
intergroup politics and relations and the group happens to be Metallica –
you can equate what’s going on to just about any group. Fun stuff.
The Grudge
Aka: Ju-on, this is a Japanese horror movie. I think there was an American one
showing, but I didn’t catch it. There was also the Miike (Ichi the Killer)
movie Gozu playing, but I missed that one. This one was done, I believe, by
the guy who did versus. This is a much more well done movie than Haute Tension,
some unbelievably cool shots. The premise is that if somebody dies in a fit
of passion (their words) then the places they lived become cursed, and so on.
The curse had pretty much no rules whatsoever, something that horror movies
need in my opinion. This was pretty creepy, perhaps the scariest shower scene
since Psycho in my book (but I don’t watch too many of them) – it’s
one of those that sticks with you, doesn’t make you scream, but the images
stay. If you’re into this sort of thing, check it out.
Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story
Starring Rob Corddry of the Daily Show, this mockumentary was hilarious. Corddry
plays Bobby Dukes, a paintball champion who gets banned from the sport after
a “wiping” incident. 10 years pass and he tries to get back into
the game to reclaim what glory he used to have. Not as real as “Mail Order
Bride”, but it accomplishes it’s goal of being really freakin’
funny. You’d think it’d be hard to poke fun at paintball, something
that really can’t be all that serious, but this manages to do it well,
bringing in people such as Ed Helms (Daily Show) and one of Conan O’Brian’s
writers. I’d say more, but I really don’t want to spoil anything.
Shot on a 24p Panasonic DV cam that looked gorgeous, should be a great DVD if
it doesn’t get theatre distribution.
Male Fantasy
This movie made by one of the guys from The New Pornographers has its moments,
a decent premise, but doesn’t hit everywhere it could. In fact, if it
wasn’t for the strength of the lead actor, it would’ve been a failure.
It’s about a guy who, basically, tries to sleep with a bunch of women.
He gets a mantra going and makes himself confident with mixed results.There's
some good themes and good ideas, but it doesn't really follow them through as
much as I would've liked. Overall, it’s mediocre at best.
Up for Grabs
This is the best baseball documentary that I’ve seen that isn’t
about baseball. Instead this one is about the two fans who both had a claim
to Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 73rd home-run baseball, and the huge legal
battle surrounding it. It’s almost unbelievable to see what these people
did for a freaking baseball. Yes, a valuable baseball, but still… a baseball.
I remember the news story when it happened, it saturated the news so badly it
was impossible to ignore, but I never heard the end of it. Now I finally have
closure. Ahhhhh. A solid doc, has some funny bits. Had best use of a song with
David Lee Roth’s “Life goes on without me” (or whatever it’s
called). Good stuff.
Dig!
I went to this movie on a whim, I’d stopped in on a panel with the filmmakers
and the panel was incredibly boring, so I left. For some reason, I still decided
to go to this documentary, and I am incredibly glad that I did, it’s one
of the best I have ever seen. It won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary
for a reason. It follows two bands, The Dandy Warhols (who I had heard of) and
the Brian Jonestown Massacre (Whom I hadn’t.). Now I’m wondering
why I’d never heard of the Massacre because they are flat out incredible.
I downloaded one of their albums and saw them live the next day. Really good
stuff. The story follows one band’s success and another’s battle
for true musicianship and a happiness that will probably never be found. Dig!
Was a huge project, spanning many years (I believe it started around 94), shot
on every format known to man, covering the dynamics between the two bands, and
the struggles they faced in the industry and in themselves. Joel Gion of the
Massacre is the most charismatic person I’ve seen in a documentary ever.
I cannot wait to see this again, I cannot wait to get a hold of a DVD, I really
liked it.
Able Edwards
Shot entirely on green screen this was a really ambitious movie. It didn’t
achieve what it wanted to, but it tried. In some cases, it tired too hard. It’s
in black and white and reminds me of the trailer to Sky Captain and the World
of Tomorrow (Whatever happened to that movie?) However it tried to be the Citizen
Kane of chromakey, following a fictional character whose name is practically
notWalt notDisney. I didn’t get into this movie until the middle and the
ending didn’t do much for me, it’s mediocre overall, but impressive
in it’s technical aspects – especially when it the most expensive
backdrop cost $1.98. Made for $30,000 (machines, actors, etc) and produced by
Sodebergh it’s got some things going for it, but if the story was more
compelling and it was more willing to go out on a limb and tell a new story
in a new way, it’d have been great. Instead, telling a story that I could
pretty much tell with a cloth backdrop and adding in some future words doesn’t
make the best use of the technology.
Double Dare
Yet another documentary, I said they were hot. This one follows an old stuntwoman
(who filled in for Linda Carter as Wonder Woman) and a new one (who filled in
for Xena). Apparently Xena really stretched in its later years as Xena was being
hit by Ford Mustangs and such. Just seemed odd. As for the doc, it’s a
fun one, watching the torch being passed from one generation of stuntwoman to
the next. It doesn’t give much insight to how stunts are done, but more
to the process of getting stuntwork, and union woes. As a bonus it has a bunch
of behind the scenes footage of Kill Bill around the end. Liked it, it’s
fun, probably won’t get picked up though, which is a shame.
Bush’s Brain
Yup, documentary. The title is clever in the fact that the documentary is not
about president Bush at all, but about Karl Rove, who the filmmakers and authors
of the book of the same name believe to be running Bush’s political machine.
Karl Rove is by no means a favorite of mine, and so this was an interesting
documentary to see the kinds of dirty tricks he’d used throughout the
years. It’s meant to be a commentary about the political system, but comes
off too one-sided to accomplish that effectively. As a doc on the tactics of
Rove, it does what it wants to pretty well. I liked it until they criticized
the war by telling the story of a soldier who died and speaking to the family
in an unnecessary emotional appeal. (I have no problem with them criticizing
the war, or supporting it for that matter, but to use the story of one soldier
who died is exploitation and really, using the same tricks that the documentary
is supposed to serve to denounce.) Besides, putting the emotional appeal at
the end is a poor editing choice, in my opinion, as emotional appeals (when
necessary and relevant) are better hooks than closers. If they cut the part
about the soldier and criticized the war as a policy change, as built on false
pretenses or for nearly any other reason, I’d have been fine with it.
But that reason doesn’t fly with me.
Total Features seen: 27 (may have counted wrong)
Lessons Learned: While you cannot survive on only on fast food, you can survive
for a week by eating mostly the food at the Alamo Drafthouse. But if you order
a “Buffalo ’66 Sandwich” and claim that it’s in honor
of “The greatest director ever – Vincent Gallo” people will
take you seriously. Free drinks are good drinks. Most producers carry guns.
A good business card will get you far. Sometimes even a car accident won’t
even ruin your week. While most directors are really cool people, some are just
beyond reality – the people who made “Red vs. Blue” –
using graphics from Halo, claim that their new “art” is “The
new Godard” in all seriousness.
My inacurate schedules:
My (Tentative) SXSW schedule (ical)