SXSW, 3/15.

First, major congrats to Matt Dentler and his team for an outstanding edition of the SXSW Film Festival. As it wraps today and Austin thumps on, louder than ever (Aaron Hillis captures the transition to the SXSW Music blowout well at In the Company of Glenn), what's been a flood of film reviews - again, sampled all but randomly below - will likely soon dwindle to a trickle. But that trickle will last and last, particularly if it's as leisurely paced as it will be here at the Daily. I'll eventually get around to every film I've seen here - but it may take a while.

"In the face of the six-headed Hollywood hydra, indie-film fans have to play a role alongside filmmakers in making sure that smaller, stranger pictures get seen by people who might actually like them." So Andrew O'Hehir offers a subjective list of this year's SXSW discoveries.

"Something that's stayed with me since leaving Austin is how utterly grounded many of the narrative films were in the performances of their female leads," writes Durier Ryan in a roundup for Filmmaker.

At indieWIRE, Brian Brooks reports on the many ways music and film cross-polinate at SXSW.

Peter Martin, who's seen two dozen films at SXSW, lists half a dozen favorites at Twitch.

"The Toe Tactic is a highly original film with a particular artistry, whimsy, and a peculiar humor, but it's also, and somewhat paradoxically, brazenly esoteric," writes Rumsey Taylor at Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

"Paper Covers Rock is a simple, lovely expression whose quote-unquote disposability is hardly evidenced by the care that's been put into its execution," writes David Lowery for the SpoutBlog.

"Brief, honest, and admirably to-the-point, Explicit Ills follows a group of seemingly unrelated South Philadelphia folks who try to lead normal, happy, anonymous lives - but their station on the lower rung of the income scale means that even the most basic requirements remain frustratingly out-of-reach." Scott Weinberg at Cinematical.

At indieWIRE, Kim Voynar offers quick takes on They Killed Sister Dorothy, Some Assembly Acquired, We Are Wizards (site) and Full Battle Rattle (site).

"With Wellness, Jake Mahaffy has created a world well worth visiting, although you sure wouldn't want to live there." Scott Von Doviak for ScreenGrab.

For the IFC, Stephen Saito talks with Jay Delaney about Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie (site).

Online listening (and downloading) tip. From Paul Ford in the Morning News: "Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s."

Posted by dwhudson at March 15, 2008 7:30 PM