Kittens, sausages and parties: seven things we learned at SXSW film festival
SXSW <3 kittens Midnight screenings are commonplace at film festivals, largely to the ire of sleep-deprived film journalists. Probably realizing they faced an uphill battle in revving up the crowd assembled for the world premiere of Keanu, which screened well past midnight on Saturday (due to daylight savings, the film didn’t let out until 3.30am), sketch comedy duo Key and Peele came armed with a surprise: a crate-load of stuffed kittens. Before the comedy – about a cat named Keanu that goes missing, prompting Key and Peele to dive into Los Angeles’ criminal underbelly to rescue it – the pair took to the stage at the Paramount Theater to toss the furry critters into the pit. Everyone collectively lost their minds – think back to how Oprah Winfrey’s audience behaved during her Favorite Things episodes and you get the picture. Even the sleepy critics got in on the action, jumping like giddy children for the toys as they flew past.
Sausage Party is sizzling hot
Sausage Party, the first animated film from This is the End collaborators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, rode into Austin as a total question mark. No footage had premiered ahead of its “work in progress” debut – Sony had only released one still image. All that was known about the release was that it centered on a hot dog named Frank, and featured the voices of Rogen and Kristen Wiig. There was intense secrecy leading up to its SXSW premiere, but it’s a hilariously profane and inspired animated comedy, the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen since Team America: World Police. The audience went wild. Shortly after the film wrapped, the first trailer popped up on the internet and the response was just as enthusiastic: it went instantly viral. Deadpool recently proved that R-rated entertainment can perform on par with PG-13 blockbusters. Given all the buzz now surrounding Sausage Party, it looks sure to become a cultural sensation when it opens wide in August.
Hardcore Henry shoots for glory
When The Blair Witch Project became a bonafide phenomenon in 1999, it forever changed the horror industry, inspiring a whole new subset of spooky found footage films, including the Paranormal Activity series. With found footage now on the decline (the last Paranormal Activity installment, Ghost Dimension, was the lowest-grossing of the franchise), it was only a matter of time before a new and innovative trend of film-making emerged. Enter Hardcore Henry (it debuted at the Toronto international film festival tilled simply Hardcore), a jawdropping action spectacle shot entirely from first-person perspective. It wowed SXSW, where it made its US premiere glossed up with updated special effects completed for its impending worldwide release. Hardcore Henry’s barebones plot doesn’t even merit mention: Russian writer-director Ilya Naishuller could care less about telling a good story; his chief intent is to pummel your senses into submission. And he hits it out the park. Naishuller’s wildly ambitious endeavor is sure to lure in gamers curious to see their favorite pastime brought to life on the big screen – but it’s sure to also appeal to mainstream audiences curious to know what all the fuss is about. If it’s indeed a hit, expect Hollywood to produce a slew of copycats to mimic its success.
Comedy comes home In introducing Sausage Party, Rogen praised SXSW for being the only film festival that treats comedy on an equal playing field as drama. He has a point. For years, SXSW has become known as the prime destination for mainstream comedy. Four of the most critically acclaimed studio comedies to come out in the last decade – Bridesmaids, Trainwreck, Neighbors and Spy – all screened at the event before going on to become blockbuster-level successes. Meanwhile, comedy powerhouse Lena Dunham has SXSW to thank for launching her career: her debut feature, Creative Nonfiction, screened at the festival, as did her follow-up Tiny Furniture, which won her the top narrative award, effectively putting her on the path to Girls, which she unveiled at SXSW a few years later. This year, on top of Rogen’s raucous Sausage Party and Key and Peele’s Keanu, SXSW also previewed the latest Pee-wee Herman adventure, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.
This year’s discoveries weren’t up for awards Short Term 12, the indie drama that put Brie Larson on the map before Room won her an Oscar, the award-winning family tragedy Krisha (which opens on Friday) and Tiny Furniture all have one thing in common: they won the narrative grand jury prize at SXSW.
This year’s winner, The Arbalest, received less than praise-worthy notices before going on to net the top honor, and is therefore unlikely to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned successes. In fact, the general consensus coming out of SXSW seemed to indicate that the strongest films in the lineup weren’t in the competition program, making them therefore ineligible for awards.
Standout world premieres included The Trust, featuring Nicolas Cage at his wacky best, Long Nights Short Mornings, a gorgeously realized drama starring Shiloh Fernandez as a New Yorker seemingly incapable of settling down, the revisionist teen horror I Am Not a Serial Killer, and Don’t Think Twice, from comedian Mike Birbiglia. Curiously, they all screened in non-juried sections.
Everybody Wants Some!! is going to make stars out of its cast
Following his defining opus Boyhood, Richard Linklater cut loose to deliver his most purely pleasurable effort since 1993’s Dazed and Confused, Everybody Wants Some!!, which opened SXSW. Fittingly, he’s billed his latest as a “spiritual sequel” to that classic high school comedy.
And like Dazed and Confused, Everybody Wants Some!! is all but certain to make starts out of its principal players. Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey and Ben Affleck all have Linklater to thank for launching their careers – before appearing in Dazed and Confused they were complete unknowns. The male cast that heads Everybody Wants Some!! are largely unfamiliar to audiences (save for Scream Queens star Glen Powell). Linklater’s subtly incisive screenplay makes the baseball players that populate the film distinctive from one another, allowing his cast to individually shine. There’s no bad seed in the bunch, with particular standouts including Tyler Hoechlin and Wyatt Russell, son to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Its lead, Blake Jenner, was in contention to play a young Han Solo for Disney.
Austin parties hard As a city that lives by the motto “keep Austin weird”, Texas’ coolest destination has a reputation for being a party town even when SXSW isn’t occurring. During the event, the fun-loving atmosphere only intensifies as the city closes down its main drag, Sixth street, to let the party spread onto the street. On top of attracting film lovers, Silicon Valley’s finest flock for the growing interactive section of the event, while the music industry transplants itself to Austin for the popular music portion. SXSW’s three disparate communities combine in Austin, resulting in a festival that goes hard well into the morning.