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Thursday, March 12, 2009
By Chris Garcia
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 01:15 PM
Part primer, part eulogy, this
century-long survey of the art and racket of movie criticism arrives when film critics are the first to be hurled overboard as newspapers sink.
Splash — there went another career critic, who will likely scamper to the refuge/wilderness of the Web, joining swelling legions of self-anointed arbiters.
In this engaging if superficial documentary, filmmaker and longtime critic Gerald Peary notes that 28 print critics have been canned in recent years. He enlists a range of critics to anatomize what this means to consumers and filmmakers and, of course, the art form itself. We meet ‘em all: the trailblazers, from James Agee to Pauline Kael; agreeable consumer guides with supple thumbs; and today’s digital whippersnappers, including Austin’s Harry Knowles.
Critics are a querulous, self-important and tribal bunch, huffing and puffing about stuff that passionately matters to them. They’re smart but increasingly monomaniacal. As an ambivalent member of this group, I most appreciated what Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum advises aspiring critics: travel, cultivate other interests, read, take a break from movies as a lifeblood. In other words: Get a life.
Screenings: 8 p.m. Monday and noon Wednesday, Alamo Ritz; 4 p.m. March 21, Alamo South.
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SXSW 2009
By Chris Garcia
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 01:12 PM
Japanese pop culture is furrowed with bizarre enthusiasms — some cute or “kawaii,” others wretchingly perverse — that reflect an arrested, often infantilized sense of wonder. Jessica
Oreck’s entrancing, meditative documentary reveals one more outre fetish object for the island-nation: bugs.
Oreck, who knows her critters and her science, cogently explains how the creatures’ oneness with nature, perfect engineering, lovely coloring and overarching strangeness fit into the Japanese pattern of peculiar passions. She ties the bug love to historical, literary, spiritual and scientific roots, and lyrically juxtaposes electric, kinetic Tokyo with the gossamer domains of dragon flies, butterflies, crickets and caterpillars. The two worlds meet: We see a child purchase an exotic beetle for $47 at an urban pet shop.
But nature rules, and Oreck illuminates both earthbound and airborne cosmos with glittering imagery and sumptuous sensory detail — the squirm and squish, the creep and crawl, all of it buzzing on an alien frequency that languidly dazzles.
Screenings: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, noon Tuesday and 3 p.m. March 21, Alamo Ritz.
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SXSW 2009
By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 01:09 PM
Director Joe Swanberg once again examines the trials and tribulations of the young, smart, talented and good-looking in
“Alexander the Last.”
If your skin has started to sag, you may find it difficult to empathize. But Swanberg, long known for his low-fi looks at interpersonal relationships, pulls some fine performances from a professional cast that includes Jane Weixler, Justin Rice, Barlow Jacobs and Amy Seimetz.
The screening at
10 p.m. Saturday at the Paramount will be the world premiere for “Alexander,” and it should be greeted more warmly than past efforts, some of which have been labled self-absorbed and narcissistic.
This one isn’t. It looks thoughtfully at love — and the difficulties of staying that way without straying.
Other screenings: 11 a.m. Thursday at the Alamo South; 11:30 a.m. March 21 at the Austin Convention Center.
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SXSW 2009
By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 01:06 PM
Maybe it’s my upbringing. Maybe it’s my taste in music. But in my humble opinion, this documentary rocks.
“Soul Power” focuses on a three-day music festival held in Zaire in 1974, when Muhammad Ali and George Foreman met for the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.” The festival included performances by James Brown, Celia Cruz, the Mighty JBs, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba and the Spinners.
The footage, which includes plenty of scenes with the Champ, has long been held in limbo because of financial difficulties associated with a Liberian investment group that paid for the festival and the filming of it.
The early highlights include Cruz jamming with other musicians on the flight to Africa, as well as scenes of musical street life in Kinshasa, the Zairian capital. The movie also shows how close the whole concert came to falling apart.
Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who edited the boxing documentary “When We Were Kings,” directs, culling from more than 12 hours of film.
The performances by Withers, King and Brown are nothing less than amazing.
Screening: 2:30 p.m., Thursday, at the Paramount.
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SXSW 2009
By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 01:01 PM
Inspired by real-life events,
this powerful narrative feature looks at a young, African American single mother of four who is arrested in a Hearne, Texas, drug roundup, even though police fail to find any drugs on her or in her apartment, and even though she has no prior drug record.
Instead, she is prosecuted based solely on the claims of a single confidential informant.
The only way she can get out of jail quickly is to plead guilty to felony drug charges. But she refuses, and with the help of an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, helps change Texas law to halt such single-informant arrests.
The names have been changed in the movie, possibly for legal reasons, but the real case involved Regina Kelly, and the ACLU lawyer was Graham Boyd.
In the movie, newcomer Nicole Beharie stars as the Regina Kelly character, Dee Roberts. She’s able to capture the complicated, tumultuous feelings that build up as she struggles against a system that’s stacked against her. Tim Blake Nelson, in a slyly witty turn, plays the ACLU lawyer. And Alfre Woodard stars as the matriarch who’s worried about her determined-to-resist daughter.
Although the movie can be heavy-handed, there is some justification. When faced with these kinds of outrages, it’s hard not to have an attitude.
Tim Disney (yes, of the famous family) directs.
Screening: 4:30 p.m. Sunday, the Paramount.
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SXSW 2009
By John DeFore
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:38 PM
Austin-based documentary veteran Hector Galan continues his career-long interest in Mexican American culture with “The Big Squeeze,” which centers on an accordion showdown sponsored by the nonprofit Texas Folklife center.
Part of the Accordion Kings & Queens celebration, the Big Squeeze gathers promising nonprofessional players in a search for tomorrow’s stars. The youngsters here have talent, and some, like John Ramirez (who took up the instrument at the age of four and rehearses on a stage built in the family kitchen) display real charisma in performance. But the half-hour television format required for this film doesn’t allow for much development of drama or character — especially when the filmmakers have footage of stars such as Mingo Saldivar and Step Rideau to, er, squeeze in as well.
Screening: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Austin Convention Center.
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SXSW 2009
By John DeFore
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:36 PM
Aron Gaudet’s
heartstring-tugging documentary hovers around a small airport in Bangor, Maine, at which a group of elderly men and women gather religiously: Whether it’s midnight or noon, they trek out whenever a flight is scheduled to carry U.S. troops into or out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The film explores the motivations of a few greeters (some are vets of World War II, some have grandkids in the service, others are simply patriotic) and spends much time tying the clouds of mortality and loss in their own lives to the dangers being faced by American troops. (The film has no political agenda to speak of.)
But its most affecting scenes are those of direct interaction between generations, as soldiers who were sent out with hugs and encouragement are amazed to see the same supporters waiting months or years later to applaud their return.
Screenings: 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Austin Convention Center; noon Monday, Alamo South; 7 p.m. Thursday, Austin Convention Center.
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SXSW 2009
By Jack Frink
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:34 PM
Chicago Second City alums David Pasquesi and TJ Jagodowski have been performing long-form improv theater for six years.
“Trust Us, This Is All Made Up” (TJ’s catch phrase) spends its first 20 minutes following Pasquesi and Jagodowski around the streets of New York before a gig at the Barrow Street Theater.
Then the movie turns into a concert film as director Alex Karpovsky captures the duo in fine live form. The connection they have onstage is remarkable. Like twins who finish each other’s sentences, Pasquesi and Jagodowski seem to share parallel thought patterns. Pasquesi appears to be in charge at first, but as the performance continues Jagodowski connects the dots to make the story work.
Karpovsky’s cinematic eye is able to turn two men on a stage with three chairs into an intimate, dynamic movie experience.
Screenings: 9:15 p.m. Friday, Alamo Ritz; 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Alamo Ritz; 8 p.m. March 20, Alamo Ritz.
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By John DeFore
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:30 PM
It’s not your average nursing home: Socialists, anti-war activists and the world’s oldest sex-advice columnist are among the elderly
subjects of this doc.
They’re residents of a London facility established for those willing to leave home while they “still have all their marbles.” While everyone here talks about fading faculties and the pain of outliving loved ones, viewers will likely be most intrigued by long sections of the film pondering the merits of religious faith (evidently not widespread in this community) and the question of what happens after death.
Though it lacks any unifying narrative drive, the movie’s obvious empathy for the women on camera — curiously, male residents are seen but not heard from — makes the film endearing if not entirely novel.
Screenings: 11:30 a.m. Saturday and 11:15 a.m. Tuesday at Alamo South, and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Alamo Ritz.
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By Jack Frink
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:28 PM
“Movies are a record of the time that produced them.” So begins David Gargani’s
“Monsters From the Id,” an analysis of 1950s science fiction films such as “Forbidden Planet” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
During its brisk 71 minutes, the movie morphs from an energetic clip compilation into an analysis of the American character, which was marked at the time by a fear of atomic energy, as well as an optimism that science — and scientists — might be able to help solve our problems.
This spirit interests Gargani as much as the monster movies that dominated ’50s pop culture. With commentary by Homer Hickam (the retired NASA engineer whose life story inspired 1999’s “October Sky”) and other experts, the doc blends movie footage and Brian Aumueller’s eccentric, rousing score to arresting effect.
Screenings: 10 p.m. Friday, Alamo South; 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Austin Convention Center ; 2 p.m. March 21, Alamo South.)
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SXSW 2009
By John DeFore
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:24 PM
Filmmaker Jennifer Steinman creates her own documentary subject by gathering a half-dozen women grieving over lost children and sending them to South Africa for more than two weeks, where they are to volunteer at day care centers and clinics in communities devastated by HIV/AIDS.
Those inclined to see this mission as solipsistic may not be won over, since even when surrounded by scores of needy children the women spend most of their onscreen time discussing their own emotional states and need for healing. More sympathetic viewers will appreciate moments in which the mothers’ and locals’ needs overlap, as in a grief workshop where the Americans speak empathetically with kids whose parents have died.
Despite a contrived reality-show vibe that even the subjects point out,
“Motherland” has something to offer those considering volunteerism in the wake of personal tragedy — even if it’s just an opportunity to ask deeper questions about whose interests are being served.
Screenings: 11 a.m. Sunday, Alamo South; 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Alamo South
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By John DeFore
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:21 PM
Installation art, musical composition and general whimsy unite in
“Trimpin.”
The artist/composer in question, who goes by the single name Trimpin, emigrated to the U.S. from Germany “to come in search of junk” — gears and bits of metal, cheap electronic toys and deranged pianos that can be incorporated into music-producing machines. The resulting objects barely overlap the commercial world of art galleries, but enchant visitors to spots like Seattle’s Experience Music Project, where Trimpin’s multistory tornado of abused guitars has robotic string-pluckers that play music with no ego-toting rockers involved.
Throughout the portrait we glimpse an ongoing collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, who alternate between embracing and fearing Trimpin’s (to say the least) unconventional approach to creating a piece for them to perform.
Screenings: 7:15 p.m. Saturday, Austin Convention Center; 2 p.m. Monday, Alamo Lamar; and 9 p.m. March 20, Paramount
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By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:17 PM
At the age of 2, Rowan Isaacson of Elgin was diagnosed with autism, dramatically changing the life of his parents, Kristin Neff and Rupert Isaacson.
Like many other people facing such developments, the parents struggled to cope with a child who retreated into himself and sometimes screamed for no apparent reason.
Isaacson, an author and human rights worker, and Neff, a psychology professor, did what they could in the way of seeking medical treatment, but the traditional therapies had little or no effect.
But one day, Rowan wandered into a neighbor’s horse pasture and began to bond with the herd’s boss horse, Betsy. Thus began the exploration of a connection between a boy and a horse. Amazed by the bond, Isaacson hatched a plan. Why not take Rowan to Mongolia, where the horse was first domesticated and where shamanism was still the state religion? Perhaps, the combination could help.
With documentary filmmaker Michel O. Scott in tow, the family took off on the journey of a lifetime. The beautifully photographed movie,
“Over the Hills and Far Away,” takes us along for the ride. As you might expect, the trip wasn’t easy. But the results provide inspiration and hope of breakthroughs, even small ones.
This is probably one of the touching and thoughtful documentaries at the festival.
Screenings: 11 a.m. Tuesday, Paramount; 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Alamo South; 7 p.m. March 20, Austin Convention Center.
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SXSW 2009
By Chris Garcia
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:15 PM
Filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, who recently moved to Austin and made his latest feature
“Beeswax” here, has cultivated an aggressively low-budget, lo-fi way of making movies.
“Beeswax” and his two prior — and far superior — films “Funny Ha Ha” and “Mutual Appreciation” are accidental contributions to the so-called mumblecore movement. These are inexpensive, character-driven features marked by long, meandering takes filled with stammered dialogue and the tics and foibles of semi-improvised performances by nonprofessional actors.
They exude a quirky charm and, when done right, hit their emotional targets with a naked realism you won’t find in blundering Hollywood confections.
Bujalksi’s films observe young adults making their way in the world, tip-toeing the gantlet of love and friendship, work and play, and all the messes these things cause in our lives. “Beeswax” is different in that it presents a more pronounced plot line about an Austin shop owner who’s on the verge of being sued by her business partner. What it’s really about, though, is the caring and devotion that glues together friends and family, even when the glue weathers and peels.
But Bujalski and his cast don’t give us enough to cling to. Rambling scenes are captured in a real-time languor in which story is imperceptibly nudged forward and a valid response to a direct question is: “Yeah. I mean … I don’t know.”
The characters lack vividness. They wear a blank, searching look, and Bujalski lets them hang there and bang around in the dead space. They stammer and giggle, eyes never quite fixed on anything. Save for a few exceptions, they don’t seem real, just vacuous and unfocussed.
The camera keeps rolling, encouraging the awkward pauses that expose the discomfort and difficulty of communicating with others. That’s fine, but “Beeswax” remains flaccid and dramatically inert. There’s no tension, nothing to be resolved, and the ending is deliberately left wide open with a pseudo-cliffhanger. It’s a nonending to something of a nonmovie.
Screening: 2 p.m. Saturday, Paramount
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By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:13 PM
It seems like a simple concept, trying to do good in the world. That’s been the mantra of Hugh Romney, the Beat Generation poet who went on to become the master of ceremonies at the Woodstock Festival and later a peace activist, changing his name to Wavy Gravy.
Today, Gravy putters around his Berkeley, Calif., commune, where he has lived for more than 40 years. And he still engages in humanitarian efforts, hosting music fundraisers to help causes such as bringing cataract surgery to people in poverty-stricken areas of Southwest Asia.
But most of the
new documentary from director Michelle Esrick follows his lifetime journey — his early days with Bob Dylan, his later days with Ken Kesey on the Electric Kool-Aid bus, his protests against the Vietnam War, his founding of the Hog Farm commune and his transition from a merry prankster to a court fool to a clown. (Wavy says he started dressing like a clown in part because policemen tend not to beat up protesters who are dressed that way.)
Austin is probably one of the best places for this world premiere. Gravy would be right at home here if he ever left Berkeley, which is unlikely. He’s the closest thing to a saint that I’ll ever meet. You may, of course, think that I must be hanging around a bunch of heathens. Go see the movie and judge for yourself.
Screening: 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Alamo South; 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Austin Convention Center; 6:45 p.m. March 21, Austin Convention Center.
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By Chris Garcia
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 12:11 PM
Back in the hair-lashing, riff-crunching heyday of ’80s heavy metal, Anvil was a rising force of anthemic noise and comically lewd antics. The group’s snaggle-toothed frontman called himself Lips and played his V-shaped guitar like a perverse love object.
From its Toronto base, Anvil had plans for world domination and almost pulled it off. But, after pioneering the thrash-metal movement and influencing upcoming rock giants Metallica and Slayer, Anvil vanished into obscurity.
“Everybody ripped them off and left them for dead,” says former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash in this oddly touching and enormously entertaining documentary about Anvil’s current comeback attempt. Directed by Sacha Gervasi, an old friend of the bandmates (and now an accomplished Hollywood screenwriter),
“The Story of Anvil” catches up with Lips and original drummer Robb Reiner, who formed Anvil as teenagers in 1973.
Almost 40 years later, now well into their jowly 50s, their hunger for hard-rock glory remains unquenched. Instead of sports stadiums, though, Anvil plays sports bars. Lips and Reiner’s impossible dream to reclaim the metal-god mantle is the drama throbbing through the film.
Passion, perseverance, rejection, humiliation, frustration — these are the age-old themes of the struggling artist, and the movie explores them with unflinching honesty. It shows how exhaustingly difficult it is to get noticed in a youth-oriented music industry whose entire business model has changed. And it shares the squabbles sparked when egos clash in a creative fever, recalling the fiery band in-fighting seen in the 2004 Metallica documentary “Some Kind of Monster.”
While this invites our empathy, the movie is also extremely funny, filled with inadvertent “Spinal Tap” moments that make you laugh and love the characters even more. Lips and Reiner endear because they operate in a bubble in which time and good sense have stopped. Their optimism veers on boyish naivete, and they almost infect us with their quixotic hopes. Says Lips: “It can only get better.”
Screening: 10 p.m. Sunday, Alamo South; 9 p.m. Wednesday, Alamo Ritz.
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SXSW 2009
By Chris Garcia
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 11:21 AM
Some pertinent breaking news just knocked. We answered. On the doorstep: adored Austin musician/artist Daniel Johnston. The special delivery he carries goes like this:
The makers of the inventive, award-winning teen dramedy “My Suicide,” enjoying its U.S. premiere Sunday at SXSW film, have snagged the rights to what they call “one of the most sought-after stories of the new century: the life story of manic-depressive genius singer-songwriter-artist Daniel Johnston.”
We take this message and ponder it. A dramatic feature about Dan “Hi, how are you?” Johnston. Our response is bifurcated: Cool. Then: Crap.
(Who will play him? Jonah Hill? Philip Seymour Hoffman? Oprah? “My Suicide’s” teen lead will play the young Johnston.)
Regenerate Films producers David Lee Miller, Larry Janss and Gabriel Sunday are developing the script.
Johnston, by the by, is playing twice at SXSW Music: 2:45 p.m. March 19 at the Brooklyn Vegan/Paste Magazine party at Radio Room and 1 a.m. March 21 at Emo’s.
For “My Suicide” show times at SXSW Film, go HERE.
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SXSW 2009
By Charles Ealy
| Thursday, March 12, 2009, 11:05 AM
IFC Festival Direct and South by Southwest are teaming up to present five movies this year that will also be available, by pay per view, on television.
In Austin, the movies can be accessed through IFC in Theaters on Time Warner Cable’s Movies on Demand Channel 1000. Prices range from $5 to $7.
The highest-profile movie in the lineup is ‘Alexander the Last,’ directed by Joe Swanberg.
Swanberg has become a regular at the Austin festival and typically premieres his films here.
The low-budget ‘Alexander the Last’ focuses on the perils faced by a young couple, both of whom are creative professionals and being tempted by the attractive people with whom they work. Like other Swanberg movies, it poses questions about monogamy, both emotionally and sexually. Barlow Jacobs, Jess Weixler and Justin Rice star, and Swanberg and most of the cast will be on hand for the premiere at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Paramount. It will also screen at 11 a.m. March 19 at the Alamo South and at 11:30 a.m. March 21 at the Austin Convention Center.
The other movies in the program are:
‘Paper Covers Rock,’ which focuses on a young woman (Jeannine Kaspar) who tries to commit suicide and then has to fight to regain her daughter. Joe Maggio (‘Virgil Bliss’) directs. 7 p.m. Friday at the Hideout.
‘Medicine for Melancholy,’ returning from last year’s festival and dealing with the one-night stands of two African Americans in San Francisco. 9 p.m. Friday at the Hideout.
‘Three Blind Mice,’ an Australian tale about three Navy officers who go out on the town in Sydney before shipping off to war. 5 p.m. Sunday at the Alamo South, 10 p.m. Tuesday (March 17) at the Alamo South and 3 p.m. March 20 at the Alamo Ritz.
‘Zift,’ a Bulgarian story about a man who’s released from an unjust imprisonment to discover that he’s living in a totalitarian state in the 1960s. Javor Gardev directs, and cinematographer Emil Christov brings an atmospheric eeriness to the film. 11:59 p.m. Friday at the Alamo Ritz and 11:59 March 19 at the Alamo Ritz.
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SXSW 2009
