Austin Dispatch. 1.

That indieWIRE's "Insiders Guide" to SXSW is all about "Eating, Drinking, and Shopping in Austin" says loads about why tens of thousands of people, myself included, love to come here each year. While I've already sampled a wide range of only-in-Austin gastronomical delights, I've caught but one film so far, Monkey Warfare [site], a perfect opener, as it's as casually idiosyncratic as the festival itself.

Reg Harkema's story of a pair of ex-radicals (Don McKellar and Tracy Wright) who, hiding from the Man, inadvertently burrow deeper into the System - scrounging junkyards and garage sales for looked-over treasures they can hawk online, they scrape by as the ultimate free marketeers, albeit on a Mom and Pop scale - rubbernecks between the sad comedy and hilarious sincerity of a nostalgia for the lost ideals of the 60s. A young bicyclist (Nadia Litz) who sells them the pot they're far more dependent on than they'd care to admit - organic only - becomes a jolting reminder of the enlivening, aphrodisiacal courage of their abandoned convictions - and of the complex dangers of those convictions as well.

Just as he never settles on any particular set of delineated parameters for his film's universe (here and there, bold slogans stamp the screen to the beat; planes do strange, slow-mo acrobatics overhead), Harkema never settles on anyone's side here; there are no sides, no winning arguments, and for that, the trio is all the more engaging.

Filmbrain previews a film I'll catch tomorrow, Fish Kill Flea, "a fascinating little documentary about the mauling of a mall, and the decay of the American dream." Glenn Kenny offers a related personal note on that one as well.

And finally for now, Jette Kernion links to a slew of more SXSW resources from Slackerwood.

Posted by dwhudson at March 9, 2007 10:43 PM