The End (SXSW)

Southby 'oh thirteen' has come to a close. I saw 20 films total, two of which I saw twice, and a few more of which I will talk incessantly about for the next several months. 

"The East" was the closing night film, directed by Zal Batmanglij who happens to be the brother or Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend. If you haven't seen a Brit Marling film, I would suggest you start with "Another Earth", which was my favorite movie from SXSW two years ago. "The East" is a bit too preachy and not the best testament to the writing strengths of Marling and Batmanglij. They're both incredibly smart and obviously have a lot of big ideas and loads to say, but dear god, this felt like the cinematic equivalent to that one kid who would never shut up in political science class. Oy vey. 

But hey, Vampire Weekend sat a couple of rows behind me, so there's that.

I also saw "Good Ol' Freda" today, a documentary about The Beatles secretary, Freda Kelly. So much love for that doc. See it ASAP. 

For the complete list of all the movies I saw at SXSW, check out my film diary on Letterboxd.

Turrah for now (I learned that from Freda). 

Don Jon

I was prepared not to like Don Jon. As I am more than a little "in like" with Joseph Gordon Levitt (and have been since Angels in the Outfield), I though it might be safer to go in with reasonable expectations. A lot of actors attempt to write and direct but I can't think of any, besides Affleck, that have pulled it off recently.  Add to that the fact that this movie is about a guy from New Jersey who is addicted to porn and well, yeah I was skeptical. 

But he did it. Don Jon is pretty great. Clever story, well shot, evenly paced...and come on, Tony Danza is in it! It would have been so easy to make this just another gross comedy, and that's what I was expecting, but it's not. There is a real story, with substance, meaning, and a great "Wow I need to think about that" kind of message. 

During the Q&A dapper JGL was so well spoken and personable I fully expected to look around and see puddles where all the females had  been sitting (I could be projecting there a bit). 

The movie already got picked up at Sundance so you all should get to see it this summer. And you should. 

SXSW "Oh Thirteen" Day 1

It's like Christmas up in here you guys! My favorite time of year has arrived. Roads have closed, obnoxiously loud booths are everywhere, so are geeks wearing jeans, blazers and glasses...it's glorious.

My schedule for these next 10 days has 23 films on it. I need to amend that slightly because it isn't totally feasible time wise, but STAND BACK! I want to see everything. 

Tonight I'm going to see Upstream Color (the new film from the writer/director of Primer), finally! Rian Johnson has been Tweeting about how great it is for months and I've felt annoyingly out of the loop. 

If any of you geeks happen to be here, I'd love to meet you. Even more so than the movies, meeting people is my favorite part of Southby. So please don't be shy, mkay?