sxsw 2021

SXSW DAY 4 LOG (Lily Topples the World, The Fallout, Swan Song)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hi everyone! And now I am back for my final update on the SXSW festival. Honestly the festival started out rough but by the end I enjoyed most of the films I saw. There weren’t that many I adored and can see ending up on my top 10 of the year but I am still glad I attended the festival. I hope next year I can go in person but for now I’m grateful to have been able to attend in this virtual environment.

Thank you to all the volunteers and workers who made the festival a success and all the creatives who put their films out for us to judge and enjoy. I am very grateful!

So here are my final movies

Lily Topples the World

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Before watching this documentary I had never heard of domino toppling as a thing and these kind of ‘feature an odd hobby/career’ docs are always a lot of fun. Lily Topples the World tells the story of Lily Hevesh and how she creates incredible displays with dominoes that are toppled with the toppling being part of the art.

These installations are stunning and she has found a way to make a career out of it both on youtube and working for corporate clients like the Seattle Lottery.

Lily is also an adoptee from China and it was interesting to hear about her experiences and how she identifies and doesn’t identify as an Asian American. The documentary does feel a little stretched out and would have probably been better as a short but I still enjoyed it and especially loved watching all the artwork on display.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

The Fallout

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This outstanding drama is written and directed by actress Megan Park in her debut film! (Megan is a veteran of many Hallmark films so it was so cool to see her have such a successful debut). The Fallout tells the story of a young woman who is dealing with the aftermath of a school shooting at her high school. The scenes of the school shooting are intense and visceral and lead actress Jenna Ortega is fantastic. (She is also in the new comedy Yes Day on Netflix that I also enjoyed. She has huge star potential!)

This film could have felt manipulative and frustrating but I bought what it was selling. It is moving and the various responses to the trauma felt real and authentic. Julie Bowen is excellent as her Mother and Shailene Woodley is her therapist and they all work great.

8.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Swan Song

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Swan Song is an endearing film about a man in a nursing home who breaks free for a weekend to do the hair of a beloved past client of his who has passed away. Udo Kier is wonderful in the lead role and he is the reason to see this film. I don’t know if I have ever seen him before but he’s charismatic and charming.

My favorite part about this film is how it captures the sense of longing we feel for those that have passed who we miss so much. They might be in a better place but we miss them just the same.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

SXSW Day 3 LOG (Best Summer Ever, Fruits of Labor, Aliens on Stage, Inbetween Girl, The Drovers Wife)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hi everyone! So I am days late in my SXSW logs but I am here to play catch up. I just got so busy between watching all the films and all the stuff I have to cover for my podcasts that I missed my daily coverage of the films.

Anyway, let’s get to it and talk about some movies

Best Summer Ever

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Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for a musical. Even cheesy low budget musicals I defend like the DCOMS on Disney Channel I think are sweet and entertaining. As such I was excited for Best Summer Ever. I also love that it features an inclusive cast with disabled actors. I think that is fantastic. Unfortunately everything from the writing, to the acting, to the story felt painfully amateurish. Most importantly there wasn’t a memorable song in the show. I was hopeful this would be this year’s Anna and the Apocalypse but that film had good songs and was well put together.

I don’t want to be too hard on this film because obviously they had the best of intentions but it just didn’t come together for me

3 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Fruits of Labor

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This documentary follows several teens working in the strawberry fields with dreams to graduate from high school and improve their lives. I enjoyed following the girls and seeing their lives play out but the director is heavy handed with cheesy metaphors of butterflies coming out of their cocoon. The director needs to trust their audience that we can figure out the meaning behind what is happening.

For the girls alone I will give it a passing recommendation but it could have been a lot better.

5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Alien on Stage

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I am a huge lover of local small theater productions and I’ve missed those so much in this pandemic. As such, this documentary about a group of friends who put on a stage production of Ridley Scott’s Alien was good for my soul. I loved seeing them come together to make the clever sets and costumes and then when they get picked to perform at the West End in London it is such a happy moment! I love this group and love their story! I highly recommend checking this film out.

8 out of 10

Smile Worthy

The Inbetween Girl

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This has sweet moments and I liked all of the performances. However, I have a hard time relating to young adult, coming of age movies with such intense relationships. It’s so different from my experience. Shouldn’t teens be having fun going on dates and enjoying time together? Shouldn’t it be the exception to the rule that have intense relationships with a boyfriend or girlfriend?  It might not be fair to make my own experience the standard but at certain point I need to connect with melodrama of a coming of age story and I didn’t with this film.

Most of the film is about the lead girl cheating with a friend of hers who is dating a frenemy of hers. Something about it didn’t feel authentic or true but I’m sure others will connect with it. It’s not a terrible movie but not something I became invested in.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

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Watching this film was a bit of a risk for me because I am normally not the biggest fan of westerns. However, it had buzz around the festival so I decided to give it a shot. I recently enjoyed News of the World so you never know with any genre. Unfortunately, The Drover’s Wife was no News of the World.

I guess it is adapted from a play and I don’t think that would be my kind of play. The whole film is so unceasingly bleak and unpleasant. I didn’t enjoy it at all. It’s well made and the performances are good but it was not for me. I couldn’t wait for it to end.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

SXSW Day 2 Log (I’m Fine, Twyla Moves, US vs Reality Winner, Here Before, Tom Petty, Recovery)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hey everyone! After a rough start to the South by Southwest Film Festival Day 2 proved to be much better. In fact, I liked all 6 films I watched today to one degree or another. Hooray!

So let’s get started with the recaps!

I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)

I have to say COVID is proving to be a better setting for storytelling than I might have guessed. In this first entry writer, director and star Kelley Kali gives us a day in the life of a grieving widow trying to get housing for herself and her daughter during the pandemic. She travels around down in roller skates and does various gig work and gets more desperate as the day goes on.

It’s a sobering film but Kali is such a likable presence on screen it keeps us invested. It kind of reminded me of the first act of Moonlight in a lot of ways. Some will find the slice of life concept to be a dull but I enjoyed it.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Twyla Moves

Twyla Moves is a documentary done by PBS for their American Masters series (it actually airs this weekend on TV). I really enjoy American Masters and this goes right along with what they do. It kind of reminded me of Ailey about Alvin Ailey from Sundance 2020 (which was also for AM).

This one is about choreographer Twyla Tharp who I had never heard of but is absolutely incredible. They listed off her resume and she had major projects every year since the 70s including films like Hair and Amadeus. I kind of wish it had gotten into more of her backstory and personal journey but it stays mostly in the professional realm but still fun to watch.

6.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

United States vs Reality Winner

From the minute I heard federal secrets dropper Reality Winner’s name I wanted to learn more about her and that’s what this documentary does. It’s fairly basic in its presentation but the story is so strange and compelling it doesn’t need much manipulation to work. If you want to learn more about Reality than give this one a watch.

5.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Here Before

If you are looking for an artsy thriller at the festival Here Before may be the movie for you. It stars Andrea Riseborough as a woman who becomes convinced her new neighbor is actually her dead daughter reincarnated. This is a beautifully made film with an excellent performance by Riseborough (who is almost always good even in Birdman which I do not like). The pacing is very slow in this one and there were times my attention drifted away but still enough good to recommend.

6.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free

Obviously this Tom Petty film will be a must watch for fans of him and his music. However, I also think it will be interesting to anyone who has a love of music and is curious to go BTS of the making of an album. In this case it is his ‘Wildflowers’ album and of course everything is touched by the knowledge of his sudden passing in 2017.

If you are looking for Tom’s backstory or how he became a musician that’s not what this is. It’s a showcase of the making of an album and all the people and hours of work that went into it. As a lover of music I enjoyed learning about the process and hearing lots of great Tom Petty songs!

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Recovery

My friend Jonathan actually told me this movie was premiering at the festival. It stars Mallory Everton (who also cowrote and directed) and Whitney Call. They are both stars of the comedy skit youtube show Studio C and they bring that zany energy to this hilarious comedy.

Recovery is definitely a hair edgier than what you get on Studio C but it should be fine for adults. It’s about 2 sisters who have to go get their Grandma from a nursing home infected with COVID. A comedy like this comes down to the writing (which is very funny) and the chemistry which these 2 have in spades. I loved i! You may think it’s too soon to laugh at COVID but give it a chance. I bet you will find yourself cracking up just like I did.

It’s definitely the best of the festival so far. I loved it!

8.5 out of 10

Smile Worthy

SXSW Day 1 Log (Kid Candidate, Introducing Selma, Islands,Demi Lovato, Hysterical, The Lost Sons)

| Rachel's Reviews

Hey everyone! Today begins the first day of the South by Southwest Film Festival of SXSW. This is my first year attending the festival and of course I attended virtually this year. Hopefully next year I can go down to Austin and attend in person (which is something I was planning to do last year before the world went nuts).

I have to say day 1 I am mostly underwhelmed by what I saw. Maybe I just picked poorly but there is only 1 out of 6 I really loved and only 2 I think I will go fresh on. Oh well!

Here are my quick thoughts on the films:

Kid Candidate

The documentary Kid Candidate tells the story of Hayden Pedigo who is the 24 year old who decides to run for city council in Amarillo Texas. Hayden seems like a nice enough kid but his lack of motivation to study the issues and become an educated candidate makes the whole thing feel like a publicity stunt or at best a youtube gimmick.

The director also fails to challenge him on his ideology. He appears at tea party and MAGA events but then doesn’t seem to share their beliefs (or he may and the filmmaker just doesn’t ask him about it). The parts where we get to know the Senegalese population and the way religious dogma is used by the other candidates is interesting but not enough to carry the whole film.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Introducing Selma

Introducing Selma is only tangentially a celeb biopic. It briefly talks about Blair’s acting career and shows clips from Cruel Intentions and Legally Blonde but that’s about it. She could have had any job and the story would be compelling. It profiles her experiences with MS and her stem cell treatments in 2019 (and her time with the pandemic in 2020).

She is an inspiring, authentic person who struggles at times to speak and move. What could be cloying feels true and devastating. This was my favorite of the festival for the day.

8 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Islands

Islands is a story about a 50 year old Filipino man who must start caring for his aging Father after his Mother dies. This film has some sweet moments and if you like slice of life movies it may be worth a watch.

However, the acting feels mostly amateurish and when they have Josh fall in love it is with his cousin, which is a weird choice. It could have been a very sweet little love story if they weren’t related. This one isn’t awful but I can’t recommend it.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil

If you are a big fan of Demi Lovato you will probably enjoy Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil. As someone who doesn’t know much about her I found the experience frustrating. First, it is a docu-series put into a movie format which I think made the editing kind of weird but I felt like this is a situation of a director wanting a certain narrative that the subject wouldn’t provide.

Particularly off is a section where she tries to argue for moderation instead of sobriety and it’s painted as an inspirational moment until other guests like Elton John strongly disagree with that approach. There’s interesting stuff in there and some shocking reveals of what Demi and her team have been through but it unfortunately wasn’t put together very well. Also there is a cheap tie-in to her new album at the end which adds to feeling of being manipulated.

4 out of 10

Frown Worthy

Hysterical

Hysterical is a documentary about female stand up comics. There are definitely key figures I wish they had interviews with like Amy Schumer and Ali Wong who are seen but not heard from. Also Ellen Degeneres is never even mentioned (Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Silverman?).

Regardless, the ladies they do talk with are funny and I enjoyed hearing their stories and talking about how the comedy scene could do better in including female voices. It wasn’t a piece to complain but to show their obvious talent. Most importantly it was funny.

7 out of 10

The Lost Sons

When I watch a documentary I always ask: ‘would I rather read an article on the topic?’ If so than the film didn’t do it’s job. The Lost Sons is such a film. It does have a compelling story of a man who finds out he was a replacement baby for his parents who had their son kidnapped at the hospital. The problem is so many key players had died or were unwilling to be filmed that there’s not enough meat on the bone for a feature film. This would be great as a short true crime podcast or newspiece but not as a feature.

The man in question Paul Fronczak does about 80% of the interviewing and I wish he had more charisma. A side of me felt like this whole thing was an attempt to buoy his failing acting career (multiple clips are shown). It seems like others enjoyed this more than I did but it’s made by the same people who did Three Identical Strangers, which was far more absorbing and effective with a very similar story.

Feels like a TV spot stretched out to a feature film. Just listen to the podcasts about it instead.

3.5 out of 10

Frown Worthy