Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 19
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A dog day at AFF
Starring a girl and her dog, the minimalist indie drama “Wendy and Lucy” melted hearts during its Austin Film Festival premiere Sunday night at the Paramount Theatre.
Directed by Kelly Reichardt and written by Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond, the drama tells the story of a homeless woman named Wendy — played by a grubby Michelle Williams in a pixie haircut — who loses her dog Lucy as they’re traveling to Alaska.
Plot-wise, that’s about it. The rest is emotional textures, so real they sting. It’s as heartbreaking and naturalistic as anything from the Italian neo-realists. Expect an early 2009 release.
Raymond and Austin-based producer Anish Savjani answered audience questions after the film. Raymond described Williams’ restrained, almost blank performance, as “black-belt acting, expressing without expressing.” It’s an apt way of putting it. And it’s also a supreme compliment.
Raymond and Savjani at the Paramount on Sunday
Williams and doggie Lucy
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: AFF
A ‘Model’ of hilarity at AFF
A very full-house at the Paramount Theatre roared and rolled Sunday afternoon during the blisteringly funny comedy “Role Models” at the Austin Film Festival.
A profane charmer, the movie, written by David Wain, Paul Rudd, Ken Marino and Timothy Dowling, stars Rudd and Seann William Scott as adult screw-ups forced into community service. They wind up at a Big Brothers-like outfit, at which they team up with kids to mentor for several days.
Of course, these ne’er-do-wells are utterly inappropriate role models for boys, but slowly if predictably, they learn how to be good, and learn life lessons along the way. Role-playing games, sex, satire and the rock band KISS mix for distinctly outre pleasures.
It’s an R-rated raunch-a-thon leavened by a big heart and the exceptional, always surprising comic talents of the crack cast, including the two kids.
Wain, who directed and co-stars, William Scott and scene-stealer Jane Lynch were at the premiere for a post-show Q&A. Wain noted that Austin “is the best place in the world” for premieres. He should know: Four of his films have premiered in our famed film town.
Wain, William Scott and Lynch busted up the Paramount crowd, on- and off-screen.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: AFF
Tom Skerritt talks writing at AFF
Actors Tom Skerritt (“Alien,” “Picket Fences”) and Dana Wheeler Nicholson (“Fletch,” “Friday Night Lights”) chatted Sunday at the Driskill Hotel during the workshop-panel “What Actors Look for in a Script” at the Austin Film Festival and Screenwriters Conference.
Quick bites:
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Hollywood,” Wheeler Nicholson said, bemoaning the state of feature films, while championing great cable TV writing. “I really don’t. I don’t understand what’s coming out of it any more.”
“I don’t want to hear anybody talking about making a movie until they talk about having a script,” Skerritt said to huge applause.
Skerritt said he’s tired of the “cookie-cutter” writing in feature films today. “All characters sound like the same person.”
Skerritt made pronouncements about writing and the world with such clarity and passion that moderator Warren Etheredge, who teaches writing with Skerritt in Seattle, said, “Whenever I hear you speak, Tom, I think you’re running for office.”
Skerritt during lunch at the Driskill Hotel, between panels Sunday
Wheeler Nicholson and Skerritt conducting the panel ‘What Actors Look for in a Script’ on Sunday at the Driskill
(photos: Chris Garcia)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: AFF
Capsule review: ‘Who is KK Downey?’
One of the beautiful things about the Austin Film Festival is that it gives a sizable platform to young writers who might not otherwise be able to reach such a large audience. Sure, you can see films like “Role Models,” “Slumdog Millionaire” or “W.” at the fest - all strong movies in their own right - but those are movies you will be able to see at cineplexes soon enough. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But AFF is as much about discovering hidden gems as it is about seeing big name films and attending informative and casual panels. Further, the fest has developed relationships over the past 15 years with young filmmakers, many of whom return semi-regularly to promote their films at the fest that helped launch their careers. Such is the case with the comedy collective known as Kidnappers Films from Montreal. After screening shorts at AFF for several years earlier in the decade, the group returned this year with their first full-length feature, “Who is KK Downey?”
With all of the feel good talk about minor films, aside, however, I must admit that, while the premise of the comedy “KK Downey” was intriguing - two hipster doofuses create alternate personas in an attempt to finally breakthrough as artists - the film unfortunately falls quite flat. Terrance is a jaded rock star, hopelessly in love with an ex-girlfriend who regards him as sad and desperate and has since moved on to date a music critic for “Gaze” magazine, a publication akin to “The Village Voice.” His bud Theo is a chubby, pitiful would-be writer who plays drums in Terrance’s horrific band, while kowtowing to the delusions of grandeur shared by his old friend. After coming to the realization that Terrance, despite the financial support of his parents and the shameless self-promotion of his band, will never be a rock star and Theo, despite his constant desire to talk about his forthcoming novel, will always be considered just another suburban kid writing about subjects with which he has no real relationship and not a literary star, the two decide to take fate into their own hands.
The two decide to take Theo’s manuscript, “Truck Stop Hustler,” a profane piece of literary pap involving a drug-abusing, trick-turning Southern Boy trying to find his place in the world and his next high, and make Terrance the lead character, KK Downey. What ensues is a sometimes funny examination of the way society latches on to cultural trends and its passion for hero-making, even when that which is being idolized is banal and trite. The two fall into a pit of buying their own hype, with all the ensuing groupies and drugs one would expect. The film has its funny moments, depicting the shallowness and simplicity of the hipster scene, and ones that attempt to be touching, such as in the boilerplate love story of a boy trying to win back a woman. Fortunately, the movie never takes itself too seriously, always reminding us that the film is farce at heart, while humorously reminding us of the fate of similar real-life characters such as J.T. Leroy, and to a lesser extent James Fray.
Sadly, the movie doesn’t hit hard enough at the places where it does find laughs - the desperation of its protagonists, the stereotypes it ridicules and the inanity of the premise. There is not enough heightening going on here, as it sometimes gets lost trying to tell the old boy-loses-girl, boy-tries-to-get-girl back story. Maybe the biggest problem of the film is the fact that none of the characters are actually likeable or sympathetic, not that a film has to have this element, but if you’re not going to like any of the characters, you want to be laughing more.
“Who is KK Downy” screens again Wednesday night at the Dobie at 8 p.m.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: AFF
