GreenCine Daily: SXSW Elsewhere. 2.

March 14, 2006

SXSW Elsewhere. 2.

In a snapshot at the top of Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks's SXSW dispatch at indieWIRE, a followup to Eugene's Sunday opener, you can spot me at the tail end of a string of bloggers as I seem to be spotting another blogger or two or more in the crowd - there were quite a few, and it was great to finally match real malleable faces to the voices I've enjoyed reading over the past couple of years. In the meantime, Cyndi Greening has been blogging many of the other panels - extensively.

Alison Willmore's in Austin, too, blogging for the IFC.

"It's easy to see why there is no Lester Bangs of film criticism," writes Terry Sawyer at PopMatters. "There's a stately reserve to watching movies in a festival setting. With notable exceptions, people fall silent as the houselights dim, laugh on cue and politely applaud at the end, even if they will later take the film out to the woodshed." That said, small town gay bar (screenings) gets a passing grade while This Film is Not Yet Rated (screenings) is "one of the most intellectually engaging films I've ever seen."

Also: Tobias Peterson on A Prairie Home Companion (screenings), My Country, My Country (Mawtini, Mawtini; screenings) and Live Free or Die (screenings).

Blake at Cinema Strikes Back: "Discovering gems like Fourteen (screenings) is what SXSW is all about."

Andrew O'Hehir is covering the fest for Salon, spotlighting Al Franken: God Spoke (screenings), cringing after Danny Roane: First-Time Director (screenings), noting that Before the Music Dies (screenings; site) is "the perfect film for this festival," and, harking back to Sunday, enjoying A Prairie Home Companion.

At Cinematical:

Karina Longworth on The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael (screenings), the conversation with Variety editor Peter Bart and the panel addressing "Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's vertically integrated filmmaking factory, now called Wagner/Cuban Companies." She also interviews Mary Harron, whose SXSW entry is The Notorious Bettie Page (screenings).
Jette Kernion on Summercamp! (screenings) and Crazy Again (screenings) and Letters from the Other Side (screenings) and Brothers of the Head (screenings) and Live Free or Die and Gretchen (screenings).

David Poland on Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (screenings; blog): "The film is smart and assured and while it doesn't have the breathtaking flourishes, it never falls over the edge in any way. This is a strong debut for a guy who is looking to have a long career." Related: Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker.