SXSW Days 2 & 3
This year's SXSW has been universally strong, from the features I've seen, and I'm keeping so busy that I'm running way behind. I'm hitting some really solid niche market products first and run a couple other major highlights, Before the Music Dies and Shadow Company as soon as I can.
Some topics aren't for everyone, but with "niche indies" (as Peter Bart called them) becoming a big deal in the mainstream, there's more room than ever for strong niche product.
Al Franken: God Spoke
If you hate Al Franken, you likely won't see this film, so it won't have the chance to change your mind.
Franken's book tour confrontation with Bill O'Reilly is the kickoff to this Pennebaker-produced doc that follows the progression of Al from humorist to commentator to statesman. We watch the birth and early-life complications of Air America, conflicts with Republicans targeting the one liberal talk figure in a sea of conservatives, and the galling insult and injury that drives Al to explore running for the Senate.
The impending sense of doom as the film approaches Election Day 2004 is palpable, but the bittersweet button on the film will really be satisfying for those who love Franken's work, and will only really change some minds if you can get a right-winger to watch it. If this is preaching to the choir, I say preach on.
It's wonderful to see this brilliant man's life paralleling other great political men. On a trip to Tallahassee a couple years ago, George Butler told me that John Kerry will have lived the lives of three men by the end of his lifetime. This film starts with the SNL funnyman and concludes with the humble, brow-furrowed man of the people that Franken is becoming, much to his surprise.
Tales of the Rat Fink
Ron Mann's subject specialization is incomparable here. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is a major cultural icon, but you wouldn't know these days. This doc does its best to correct that problem.
Roth was a major force in the Hot Rod era, making major trends like graphic t-shirts, pinstriping, and custom fiberglass designs not only the hot style of the moment, but carrying over for years to come.
Animated segments featuring Roth's signature Rat Fink character are exceptionally well-done, but they can run longer and show up more frequently than some may have patience for, generally speaking.
Regardless of that minor quibble, the movie is a lot of fun for anyone who was ever accused of being a "weirdo" growing up, whether for how they look or how they act.
Celebrity voice cameos pop in via the method Roth's story is told, through voiceover. John Goodman plays the man himself, with various others including recognizable actors, wrestlers, musicians, and authors piping in as the voices of the custom cars Roth designed. Call this a primer for the Pixar movie coming out later this year.
If schools employed Ron Mann to do their educational films, kids would learn a lot more on "video day" at school. I went into Rat Fink a relative newcomer, but I came out a proselytizer. If you've never seen Grass or Go Further, find an afternoon and get to know this filmmaker a bit better.
The Life of Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly: three words that, provided you know who he is, cause an instant reaction. Isn't he that funny guy from "The Match Game"? Isn't he that guy from "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir"? "Isn't he that funny guy from TV"?
All of the above are accurate, but they don't nearly crack the surface of this deeply complicated, fascinating figure of American cinema, stage, and art. To say he's a cultural icon is an understatement.
People can poke fun or impersonate him all they want in an effort to trivialize him, but his resume and life story beg to differ. For some time starting in 1999, Reilly performed a one-man, three hour plus show about the story of his life. He toured the country, from performance halls to universities, telling stories with tragic and surprising content.
Reilly took over the Uta Hagen acting program. He nearly died in a circus fire as a child. He was told by the President of NBC that "we don't put queers on TV" (boiy was he wrong). For years, and even still today, he's brushed off as a schtick comedian. In the film, he performs Hamlet at over 70 better than many men of any age I've seen deliver the same speech.
This "concert doc" captures an edited-down, 90 minutes or so of absolutely riveting performance from one of the most under-appreciated actors of his or any generation of the 20th century.
The Big Deals
The first is an expose on American credit debt system. The next is the big reveal on the Hollywood ratings system. The last examines the resurrection of the music industry out of the ashes of the record industry. All three are absolutely brilliant documentaries that must be seen.
Maxed Out
What would happen if someone did an expose documentary on the American
debt industry? Well, now we know. Director James Scurlock has made
more powerful people uneasy in their seats than even Kirby "This
Film is Not Yet Rated" Dick. Maxed Out follows the trail of the debt business through the lives of a broad range of Americans.
Dr. Elizabeth Warren from Harvard expounds upon the grave seriousness of new debt legislation and the fact that low income consumers who are almost completely incapable of repaying are just the debtors credit companies want. According to her, she was told by a high-ranking executive that bankruptcy filers are their best targets for two reasons: 1) they have a taste for credit, and 2) they can't file for bankruptcy again.
The friendliness betweek the Bush II administration and the debt
industry is profound, and explored fully in the debt legislation
recently passed in addition to Bush's appointment of Larry Thompson, a
former President of Providian Financial (the Enron of creditors), as
the nation's debt czar. Shortly after his appointment, Thompson was
under investigation by the Justice Department.
Clips of Jerry Falwell guilt-tripping his parishioners into tithing
and giving to the church, Suze Orman pushing the FICO score's
importance (when she has a sponsorship deal with the company), and
U.S. Representatives fruitlessly petitioning the Bankruptcy
legislation before it passes by a wide margin all appear throughout.
These clips and others anger you, sadden you, and call you to action
all at once.
This movie will inevitably get compared to Super Size Me, but
whereas that film stays somewhat playful and arch throughout (don't
get me wrong, I love the movie), this one starts that way briefly and
digs deep into debt culture and doesn't pull punches. People could
ignore the fact that McDonalds makes people fat, but they can't ignore
the debt everyone in America shares and rarely thinks about actively.
Maxed Out is going to be one of the biggest surprises of the
festival, I'm sure. A friend made mention that it doesn't stand a
chance of getting acquired due to its target: influential people with
money; however, I respectfully disagree. The Revolution Will Not
Be Televised this is not, and people from "both sides of the
aisle" will be all over it once they see it. Mark my words: you have
to find this film and see it.
After the screening, the director and some of the participants, one of
whom lost a son to the crushing emotional weight of his debt. The
crowd was alive and supportive, and if popular reaction is any
indicator, this will continue to be one of the most talked-about films of the festival.
This Film is Not Yet Rated
Not only did Kirby Dick's exceptional documentary get rated NC-17 by the ratings board it slaps in the face, but he recut it after he resubmitted it, including the names of the people on the Appeals Board.
Someone give Kirby Dick the "Biggest Balls in Hollywood" award.
The shock value inherent in revealing the kind of secrets Dick does in his film is more startling than the "moral aberrance" present in many of the films the MPAA has given the dreaded NC-17.
The X rating was a badge of honor until the blockbuster era began, when the renamed NC-17 would kill your film before it got out of the blocks. Recent films with notable directors and actors (from Boys Don't Cry to Where the Truth Lies) have seen the rating almost or definitively cost them audience and exposure.
Bingham Ray, formerly of United Artists and currently of October Films, used the "F" word when talking about them: Fascism. People risked a great deal to say things, and some are still anxious about the impact of their participation.
Echoes of the HUAC hearings of the 50's are heard when they mention that the second question most often asked (usually left out in documentary specials on the subject) was "are you a member of the Screen Writer's Guild?" and the amount of fear in the appeals rooms is just as palpable.
Wouldn't you be afraid if your film's rating was presided over by two members of the clergy? This film gives us that peek behind Jack Valenti's Oz curtain we've always wanted.