SXSW Film: Coda
Even as the thoughts and reverberations of dozens of movies roll in my head there are always a few gems that I missed at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. For every World or American premiere I attended there were a couple I missed. So I missed a few audience award winners like the narrative feature Short Term 12 and the documentary An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story or the midnight programmer Cheap Thrills.
Of the films (21) I did see some are must see events when they come out later this year. Like Richard Linklater’s adult exploration of romantic relationship Before Midnight (May 24), or Jeff Nichols follow-up to Take Shelter called Mud (April 26) that features another great iconic Matthew McConaughey performance as a criminal on the run living in an abandoned boat in a tree in the woods. Nichols is just one of more than a few directors that maintain a residence in Austin, another being David Gordon Green.
Green shot Prince Avalanche (which had a screening at SXSW) in a burnt out portion of Bastrop State Park, still charred black from the 2024 forest fire that destroyed over 34,00 acres in that area. PA stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch and fits the mode of indie films that Green launched his career with. Which is to say it’s more George Washington and All the Real Girls than Pineapple Express or The Sitter.
I can’t leave out delightful oddities like Milo from director Jacob Vaughan (former Austin resident now based in L.A.) about a deadly creature that lives in Ken Marino’s intestinal tract. Only this ass monster movie is more a comedy than a horror film as evidenced by the funny turns by Marino as well as Peter Stomare, Stephen Root and Patrick Warburton (Gillian Jacobs and Mary Kay Place also co-star). Also controversial was A Teacher, which examines an affair between a pretty but emotionally distraught woman and one of her male high school students. As graphic as A Teacher turned out to be most of the carnality was suggested and the ending portends how easy it can be to be betrayed by our emotions.
Another solid experience was the black-and-white Much Ado About Nothing (June 7) helmed with a sophisticated touch by Joss Whedon, evidently around the same time he was making The Avengers and cast with several of the actors he’s used throughout his career (Amy Acker from Cabin in the Woods, Nathan Fillon from Serenity, Clark Gregg a.k.a. Agent Coulson, Alexis Denisof from Buffy). When Much Ado opens in limited venues this summer it’s sure to attract devotees of Shakespeare as well as Whedon fans. Much Ado has a frothy humor and taste for language that shows that Whedon’s talent isn’t limited to action heroes.
As usual SXSW offers up great musical documentaries every year and 2024 was no exception. Films that were directly or peripherally about music included the Napster doc Downloaded; a history of the famous Muscle Shoals recording studio that offers candid recollections from its musicians, recording artists and engineers; and The Punk Syndrome from Finland, which chronicles a punk band the members of whom are mentally handicapped. While I am leaving out several music docs that I missed I did see and was most impressed with Twenty Feet From Stardom, a celebration of back-up singers that includes portraits of Darlene Love, Judith Hill and Merry Clayton and includes then and now testimonials of the power of their voices.
— Michael Bergeron
