GreenCine Daily: SXSW, 3/19.

March 19, 2007

SXSW, 3/19.

I'll have notes of my own as soon as I conquer jet lag (hell, I might even catch up with the Berlinale), but for now...

Frownland "I sat on the Narrative Feature jury at SXSW last week. As you know, we gave the Grand Jury Prize to Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Jamie Babbit's riot grrl riff on Lizzie Borden's early 80s feminist indie classic, Born in Flames.... But many of the press reports failed to mention the two Special Jury Prizes we gave out, so I want to say a few of words about these films." Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay on Ry Russo-Young's Orphans and Ron Bronstein's Frownland.

More on that one, too, from Alison Willmore at the IFC Blog and Rumsey Taylor at Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

Updated.

Among Paul Harrill's "final notes on my last day or so at SXSW": "I made it over to Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match. With all due respect to Frownland, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Quiet City, and the Zellner / Duplass shorts program, this was my favorite film of the festival."

What's this, the makings of a backlash already? Sujewa Ekanayake gets into a conversation with other commentators on Anthony Kaufman's "New Ultra-Indie Movement" entry - and points to Lance Weiler's interview with Joe Swanberg (that's an online listening tip, by the way). Related: "[T]his year's SXSW should've been re-named South by South-Swanberg, in honor of the filmmaker and friends who dominated the entire festival," writes Mark Bell in Film Threat's wrap-up.

"The real strength in the SXSW film programming this year lies in the surprisingly quiet, personal moments of several of the films on the slate," writes Michael Lerman. "Whether it be a studio blockbuster like Reign Over Me or a two-day-shoot DV documentary like Silver Jew, [event producer Matt] Dentler and [production manager Jarod] Neece's program finds its strength in telling true-to-life stories." Also at indieWIRE, Brian Brooks on the happy melding of music and film in Austin.

At Cinematical:

James Rocchi on : "It's part High Fidelity, part Glengarry Glen Ross - the love of music and the war of business - and also has a subtle, Southern sensibility to it, as well as hints of everything from The Music Man to Robert Altman's Nashville to Death of a Salesman to Christopher Guest's stumbling, stammering mock-umentaries. Directed by Craig Zobel - and co-written by Zobel and George Smith - Great World of Sound might be the best American independent comedy of recent memory - funny and vital and tough." Also: "Undead or Alive combines two pretty well-formalized genres: The zombie movie and the western. They're both dense fields - but Undead or Alive skips merrily over their surfaces with the breezy glancing bounces of a well-thrown stone over a river."

Scott Weinberg finds the "ferocious French import" Them to be "a stripped-to-the-bone stalker thriller in which two unfortunate souls spend one hellacious night trying to evade something extraordinarily murderous." Also, The King of Kong: "I'm utterly amazed at how a few astute filmmakers can take a story so slight, so silly and so trivial... and turn it into a 90-minute documentary that's as fascinating as something that Ken Burns put together." (More from Rumsey Taylor at NCTATNY.) And: "Scott Glosserman's crazy, cool and undeniably clever Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is many things at once: a winning mockumentary, a legitimate horror film and a very sly deconstruction of the slasher genre." And: "Equal parts witty, warm and almost painfully nostalgic, The Lather Effect might not be as professionally-crafted as is The Big Chill, but the sentiments are the same - and the cast, while not as flashy, is just as strong."
Jette Kernion enjoyed the illustriously peopled "Panel of the Dead."

Kurt Cobain About a Son "affected me in a way I haven't quite grasped yet," writes David Lowery. "I feel like a missing part of my own life has been filled in for me." Also, quick takes on Zoo and The Unforeseen.

Related: AJ Schnack looks back on the experience of seeing his Cobain in the Paramount. Also, a closer look at a film he's still got serious problems with, Manufacturing Dissent.

Another online listening tip. Spout reviews the fest's highlights.

Time Out's Chris Tilly offers his takes on He Was a Quiet Man and 638 Ways to Kill Castro.

Tim Basham's got views on Knocked Up and Pretty in the Face.

Online viewing tips. Tamara Krinsky talks with Mike Mills about Does Your Soul Have a Cold? and with Morgan Spurlock about What Would Jesus Buy?. Also: David Boreanaz (Suffering Man's Charity) and Max Minghella and Blake Lively (Elvis and Anabelle).