The expansive convergence of Film, TV, music, Tech, and Education returns to Austin, TX, March 12-18.
Construction be dammed, Austin may have lost it’s convection center but SXSW ploughs on. For the first times it’s various elements overlap, in old and new locations across the city, and from the Cinapse perspective, the all important Film & TV portion looks set to deliver another year of outstanding programming. The full schedule has been announce and you can peruse that here. To help sift and prioritize, the Cinapse crew has sifted through the schedule and come up with their short list of “most-anticipated” features. Be sure to check back with us throughout the festival for ongoing footage, but for now, you can scope out these potential highlights below.
The Paramount effect is very real, a jam packed, ornate theater in the heart of downtown Austin, where if you program the right kind of film, the raucous reception of around 1300 people lifts it to another level. This year we have a triple threat of kickass female led features that seem assured to do just that. Ready Or Not: Here I Come looks set to deliver a game cast, lashings of blood spattered gore, and more of that blackly comic sense of humor that made the first so fun. They Will Kill You from Russian director Kiril Sokorov (Why Don’t You Just Die?) blends blood and action in a film where Zazie Beetz has to slaughter her way through a high-rise building. Finally, Pretty Lethal casts a medley of up and coming talent (Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Iris Apatow, and Avantika) as a troupe of ballerinas forced to take up arms when their tour bus breaks down in dangerous surrounds. Throw in Uma Thurman as a retired mentor figure and you have the makings of a cult, action romp.
The midnighters category at SXSW has been on a hell of a run over the past few years and so I’ll assuredly be teeing up a couple of horror and genre flicks to cap off each of the hectic days in downtown Austin. The standout is Hokum, the latest from director/Screenwriter: Damian McCarthy, which looks to plant Adam Scott into a gnarly slice of folk horror, as an author seeking to inter his parent’s ashes at their final resting place. His last film Oddity shook audiences at SXSW two years ago, not only with a creepy concept and creature design, but some outstanding sound work to really set you on edge in that films final act., and if Hokum rips half as much as that, then we’re in for a treat.
And last but by no means least are the “I know little about these films but the concept intrigues me” selections. The Fox pairs Jai Courtney with a Fox (voiced by Olivia Colman) who offers up a solution to his fracturing relationship, but help seems to come at some kind of a cost. While Drag features Lizzy Caplan and Lucy DeVito as bank robbers who after launching their latest heist, sees one of them throw out their back. A simple concept, but with the talent involved, this could be a comedy gem.
SXSW’s horror lineups have been on a tear in recent years, with last year memorably giving us Good Boy, The Surrender, Hallow Road, and so much more. This year’s selection ups the ante with a combination of hotly anticipated festival favorites and exclusive premieres–all of which promise some memorable frights.
Leviticus: I’m always stoked for any debut feature that can ride a wave of Sundance buzz straight into a NEON acquisition, even more so when it’s a provocative Queer horror romance. Its logline harkens back to 2010s classic It Follows through a bitingly timely Queer lens, as two gay teens are terrorized by a shapeshifting supernatural force as part of a conversion ritual in their conservative Christian town. Horror has a unique power to put audiences in someone else’s skin like few other genres, and Leviticus is my most anticipated of SXSW for how it seemingly bottles the ache of first love and the terror of persecution into something visceral for viewers of any orientation or faith.
Hokum: With only two slow-burning features–Caveat and Oddity–Irish auteur Damien McCarthy has quickly made a bone-chilling mark on international horror. His latest, Hokum, is another in NEON’s Horror slate this year, and is McCarthy’s most high-profile film to date. Featuring Adam Scott as a horror author visiting a haunted inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, Hokum looks like just the kind of armrest-gripping slice of folk horror I go batty for, and what excites me most is how it signals both an expansion of McCarthy’s signature claustrophobic style and a deeper, earnest embrace of his Irish roots as his star continues to rise.
Ready or Not 2: Radio Silence’s Ready or Not was an unexpected delight, reinvigorating horror comedies and placing star Samara Weaving in the spotlight. Equally unexpected was the announcement of its sequel, which not only brought back Weaving but an eye-popping stack of stars (Sarah Michelle Gellar! Elijah Wood! Shawn Hatosy! DAVID CRONENBERG!) eager to get in on the murderous mayhem. It’s the kind of grisly thrill ride that’s total catnip for a game SXSW crowd, and I can’t wait for whatever new delights Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have connived in the 7 years since the first film.
Buddy: Too Many Cooks has already solidified itself as a piece of brain-breaking, horrifyingly hilarious internet comedy, yet Casper Kelly has ambitiously tried (and succeeded) to one-up himself with the bizarre journeys featured in Adult Swim Yule Log and the Fun Size segment of VHS Halloween. Kelly’s knack for gruesomely mundane “everything is fine don’t worry about it” horror comedy is why I immediately beelined for his first feature Buddy, featuring a murderous Barney-like unicorn that draws his victims into his inescapable kids show. Like Ready or Not 2, Kelly’s debut has snared quite an all-star ensemble, including Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Keegan-Michael Key, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Shannon–who I particularly hope is wholeheartedly on board for Kelly’s brand of meta madness.
Through his comedy duo BriTANick, Saturday Night Live, and various other projects, Nick Kocher is someone who’s been on my radar for over a decade. I remember him running around Austin back in the early 2010s promoting the comic mystery Searching for Sunny at the Austin Film Festival. If my memory fails me and I’m mistakenly attributing someone else’s efforts to Kocher, welp there’s not much I can do about it now. All of that to say to that for my most anticipated of this year’s SXSW I’m going with a pair of Kocher projects.
First up is the Kocher co-scripted, Jorma Taccone-directed Over Your Dead Body. Taccone has kept me laughing consistently for two decades and I’m willing to bet that continues with this dark comedy about a couple with their eyes set on killing each other. I haven’t seen the Norwegian film this is based on, so I’m going in with no expectations and pure excitement.
Also on the docket is Pizza Movie, written and directed by Kocher and BriTANick partner Brian McElhaney, about a group of high college kids traversing a couple flights of stairs to get pizza. High-jinks are sure to ensue and SXSW is the ideal place to launch a crowdpleasing stoner comedy.
As each year of my life passes by, and I continue to adore cinema, and carve out time to seek it out at festivals like SXSW and Fantastic Fest – subtle shifts occur. One of those is in and around anticipation. More and more these days, I don’t really anticipate. I simply carve time out of my life to be present at SXSW and trust what the filmmakers and programmers have in store for us. As such, while I’m as excited as ever to attend and cover SXSW… I’m less aware of what it in store for me than ever. And I like it that way. THAT SAID, we’re here to discuss what I am excited about, so here it goes, in no particular order:
– Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice: I’ve enjoyed writer/director BenDavid Grabinski’s presence on social media for years, and am excited to see what he has for us with an incredible cast built around what appears to be a mob-related crime caper.
– They Will Kill You: Russian director Kiril Sokorov created the nasty and fun Why Don’t You Just Die! Here he brings an English language action film that puts Zazie Beetz in a starring role in a film that looks like a more action heavy riff on Ready Or Not? Sure, count me in.
– Ready Or Not: Here I Come: Speaking of Ready Or Not, I very much enjoyed that original film, and have found star Samara Weaving to be imminently watchable, while also frequently picking projects that I end up loving (Eenie Meanie) or at least significantly appreciating (Azrael). So while I can’t bring myself to called it Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come, because that naming convention absolutely breaks the flow, I’ll be there with bells on at this world premiere.
– Normal: I’m an action movie junkie and while I wouldn’t say that I absolutely love the Nobody franchise, it has given Bob Odenkirk a chance to become a different kind of star, and I’m here for a new action title with him in the lead and John Wick scribe Derek Kolstthad writing under the direction of Mr. Ben Wheatley!
– I’ve also really enjoyed the career of young up and coming star Ben Wang, so look forward to his star vehicle Brian. I intend to also keep the Samara Weaving love train rolling and check out Over Your Dead Body where she stars alongside Jason Segal as directed by the hilarious Jorma Taccone. Pretty Lethal looks like it could be a lot of fun, if reminiscent of Ready Or Not and/or John Wick, and star Maddie Ziegler really impressed me in previous SXSW film The Fallout. I’m a big fan or writer/director/actor Macon Blair, so I plan to check out his latest: The Shitheads. And Obsession was a massively buzzed about title at Fantastic Fest that I missed, so plan on righting that wrong at SXSW this year.
As is always the case, SXSW is a mix of a lot of knowns and unknowns in terms of what to expect. One of the highs in the “known” category is Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Radio Silence’s sequel to their Satanic panic hide-and-seek roller coaster ride. All of Radio Silence’s previous films (the first Ready or Not, Abigail, a few Scream movies) have all been gory, gleeful delights and I can’t wait to see their latest. Also high on my “must see” list is Beast Race (or Corrida Dos Bichos to use its Portuguese title.) Brazilian cinema has been on a hot streak as of late, and it is exciting to see City of God director Fernando Meirelles teaming up with some younger directors in that space to create a seemingly Mad Max-inspired dystopian thriller.
In the less familiar territory, there is Chilli Finger, a movie about a woman who decides to make her fortune suing a fast food chain after discovering…well, a finger in her chilli. I am not familiar with the paired directors Edd Bend and Stephen Helstad, but the stacked cast (Judy Greer! Sean Astin! Bryan Cranston! JOHN GOODMAN?!?) is intriguing enough to catch my attention. And in the Documentary category, the most fascinating subject is Black Zombie, which explores the history of the zombie from Haitian folklore into Hollywood staple, and seeks to redefine it as emblematic as symbol for resistance.
Dan Tabor
As the unbadged, out-of-town wild card, I usually play the fest by ear—bouncing between screenings and seeing what sparks joy. One title that’s firmly on my radar, however, is the coming-of-age teen comedy Edie Arnold Is a Loser. It immediately caught my eye from the SXSW blurb. I’m a sucker for a sharp, scrappy teen comedy, and at a breezy 73 minutes, it feels like a can’t-miss swing. The film promises Catholic school hijinks as two girls decide the best way to rebel is by starting a punk band, which honestly sounds like exactly the kind of chaotic fun I’m hoping to stumble into at a festival.
SXSW Badges and Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.
