This post was written by Ashley Hazlewood, who is helping me cover the vast amount of ground at SXSW Film.
The scheduling of the festival this year has necessitated a great deal of movie watching, coupled only with enough time to sleep, eat, and race back and forth across town. Here I've got a capsule rundown of about half of what I've seen thus far so that I can get going with full posts throughout the day tomorrow.
I Love You, Man
Full review here.
The Snake
No-budget indie pimped by Patton Oswalt. It's about a thoroughly unlikeable, morally-challenged guy who follows a bulimic to her support group and proceeds to stalk and manipulate her. It doesn't sound like a comedy, or that the premise could be anything but a psychological horror film, but it's a champ of a calling card movie. The filmmakers don't fall into any of the common indie film traps, which make this a great deal more interesting than most of the grainy, low-budget, pretentious as hell stuff people pass off as edgy.
Ong Bak 2
What a magnificent disaster. Director/star Tony Jaa's on-set breakdown was extremely well-reported in East Asia. They shut down production and weren't certain the movie would be completed. After the Thai studio conceded to some of his demands, he returned to the film, but based on the ending, I don't know how much additional shooting was actually done. A third movie is currently rolling.
Team Texas lost a Boat Race drinking challenge before this screening. Moises was the anchor leg, but it was lost before it got to him. Video and an explanation of what the hell I'm talking about will be included in the full review by Moises. Canadian pal Jason Whyte has challenged him to a one-on-one rematch.
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
Okie Noodling director Brad Beesley takes a look at female Oklahoma inmates who stay on best behavior all year to compete in a rodeo. Affecting stories from young women with long sentences, more related to drugs than anything else. It deserves better than going direct to cable or something like that. It's easily my favorite movie of the festival so far.
Objectified
The director of Helvetica has done a brilliant job of finding topics he finds fascinating that no one has covered (or covered memorably well) in the doc field. First footage I'm aware of taken inside Apple's design lab.
Moon
Sci-fi done right, or as Janet Pierson put it, "without CGI explosions." Less gloomy than Solaris, but with similar themes of isolation.
Letters to the President
A terrifying look at the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran. No V.O. narrator, just first-hand accounts from actual Iranian citizens. When people voluntarily offer their criticisms in the face of certain death, you really can't manage any overt manipulation. Everyone is encouraged to write letters to him and his advisors, but few actually get a response.
Sin Nombre
Another Sundance hit first feature that handles border-jumping immigration more realistically than I've seen previously. That they recruited most of the actors off the street in South America says something about how pretentious and over-processed an industry that Hollywood has become.
Women in Trouble
I figured going in that I wouldn't love the movie, but I like what they're doing here. I overheard plenty of male bloggers who skipped this for the Bruno footage commenting they heard there were "no boobs" in it. The large female cast did this movie because they wanted to do something "in between real jobs" that gave these talented female actresses something to chew on. They get the "let's see some tits" crowd in with the temptation of sexy naked women and trick them into watching women do more than just be the stock Lover, Mother, or Whore.