As the South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival progressed, I was finding it hard to fill my schedule with films I was dying to see. In years past, my biggest problem was having so many movies I had been dying to see scheduled at the same time. This year, though, I had a difficult time finding more than a handful of movies that warranted standing in line for nearly two hours. (One of the few drawbacks of SXSW is that as its popularity and attendance grows, so do the lines.)
Faults seemed like a strange little film that could end up being quite enjoyable. Indeed, the first ten minutes is hilarious, mostly a result of Leland Orser’s excellent performance. Orser plays Ansel Roth, a once-prominent-now-floundering expert in the psychological power of cults. In a moment of desperation, Ansel is hired to help “rescue” Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from a cult which calls itself Faults. The film starts out promising enough, but quickly takes a sharp left turn into “WTF just happened?” territory, but not in a good way. Again, Orser is magnificent and Winstead is decent in the very thin character writer/director Riley Stearns has given to her. Overall, though, the film ends up being a train wreck which thinks it is cleverer than the audience which it is trying to entertain.
(C-)
One of the films I was most looking forward to going into SXSW was
Frank, starring Michael Fassbender as the title character. Frank is the leader of an off-the-wall band with an unpronounceable name. Frank is a musical genius, so we’re told, but the giant plastic head he wears (and refuses to take off) limits his mainstream success. Just the idea of watching a faceless Michael Fassbender performance seemed exciting and the supporting cast (Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy) are all extremely talented. Sadly, Lenny Abrahamson’s film is too concerned with securing his indie/alt cred than making a decent film.
Frank is filled with cutesy antics and wacky behavior, but never takes its characters or their motivations seriously. Instead of an entertaining film with colorful characters, we get an annoying road trip movie with characters we have no interest in spending time with.
(D)
All ill will towards the SXSW programmers was forgiven, though, when I sat down to watch
The Raid 2. If you haven’t seen
The Raid (which premiered at SXSW 2012), you haven’t seen the most brilliant martial arts film ever made. There is no way to describe the awesomeness of
The Raid to someone who hasn’t seen it; you just have to sit them down and make them watch it.
The Raid 2 did not disappoint. Director Gareth Evans has stepped up his game in the sequel, taking a much more plot-heavy approach with his follow up. The action choreography in both films is unparalleled and makes Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan look like amateurs by comparison. Star Iko Uwais returns in his role as an Indonesian police officer set on taking down crime lords and dirty cops. Much like the first film,
The Raid 2 is not a movie going experience where you sit quietly by and watch. It begs the audience to cheer and shout as bad guys are dispatched in the most beautifully creative ways imaginable.
(A+)
What We Do in the Shadows is probably the strangest and funniest film of SXSW 2014. A mockumentary about three vampires and their struggles as flatmates, the film takes every vampire trope and flips it on its head, making fun of the genre and reality TV all at once. Written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, who also star, the movie is brilliant in how it develops its characters and the extremely mundane problems they face as immortal bloodsuckers: Who isn’t doing their share of the chores? How can they get into clubs if they always have to be invited? How do you kill a person without getting blood all over the furniture? What sounds like a one-joke concept more appropriate for a TV sketch show is successfully sustained for a feature film due to the absurdity of the story and the filmmakers’ boundless comedic talents. This will for sure become a cult classic for movie geeks around the world.
(A)
Leaving SXSW is always bittersweet; standing in line gets old really quick, but the people you meet and the films you see are always so intriguing. The last film I saw was
We’ll Never Have Paris, which stars and was written and co-directed by Simon Helberg of
The Big Bang Theory. “Based on a true story…unfortunately,”
Paris is the mostly true story of how Helberg bungled his proposal to his longtime girlfriend Jocelyn Towne, who co-directs the film with him. Seem like a strange and awkward production? According to Towne (who joined the audience for a Q&A after the film), it wasn’t at all. Helberg plays Quinn, a florist who decides to propose to Devon (Melanie Lynskey), his girlfriend of ten years, but immediately gets cold feet when his close friend, Kelsey (Maggie Grace) – who is also extremely hot – tell him she has feelings for him. Instead of your typical romantic comedy,
Paris is a genuinely inventive story about a guy trying to fix the biggest mistake of his life. The film is directed with a light-hearted sentiment and the cast is terrific. In my opinion, this was the best way to end another year of SXSW.
(A)
