SXSW 2011: Day 1 reports
The SXSW festival being held in Austin, TX from March 11–20. Here is the first online report:
Moviefone: Everybody loved Attack the Block which screened at midnight.
Joe Cornish’s ‘Attack the Block’ absolutely killed at the midnight Alamo Drafthouse screening. Think ‘Critters’ meets ‘The Warriors’ — Cornish described the wildly entertaining aliens-vs-teen-thugs horror-comedy as ‘Super 8 Mile,’ and the audience loved every minute of it. Apparently American distributors are afraid of the thick British neighborhood accents, but in our opinion the general kick-assery of the movie overpowers any sort of language barrier. See this one when you can.
As you see other reports online or you’re there and want to give us your first-hand impressions, feel free to post in comments, and I’ll update throughout each day.
The official SXSW site here.
UPDATE: Matt Latham is at the festival and sends this along:
I should highlight a movie called Sound of my Voice that I saw today. It was co-written by the director and the lead actress, and it was really well written. I asked them about the nuts and bolts of how they co-wrote the script, and they said that they got together for 4 hours a day, hashing out the outline, and tried to get it to a point where they could tell the story orally. They also would improv scenes with each other and basically go by whether or not it really made them feel anything. There’s a well written argument scene, and they basically just argued with each other until they really felt awful, and then wrote that into the script. They said once they got to the actual writing of the script in Final Draft, it was easy.
The film is also very well structured, and makes you want to know what’s going to happen next at every moment. I have no idea whether or not they have distribution (the director said maybe online distribution?), but if it ever gets around to your area, I recommend checking it out. It’s a perfect example of a well written script, shot for almost no money, largely taking place in a basement, that can still absolutely grip you.
Here’s some more info on the film: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/01/sound-of-my-voice/
Thanks, Matt. Hope to hear more from you and enjoy SXSW!
UPDATE #2: Movie.com review of the movie Insidious:
Oh, sure, Insidious gets a little hokey. It leans on the jump scares more often than it should. Dialogue is not its strong suit. Some of the details, rather than contributing to a cohesive whole, are simply random. I will grant you all of this.
But I will also grant you the chills — actual, literal chills — that I felt at a few of the creepier moments, and the general sense of terror and unease that permeates most of the movie. Whatever flaws it may have, Insidious scared the hell out of me.
For more of the review, go here.
UPDATE #3: IndieWire.com review of the movie The Dish and the Spoon:
Due to the formidable chemistry of its talented leads, Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander, writer-director Alison Bagnall’s “The Dish and the Spoon” never turns into an overindulgent acting exercise, but it comes mighty close. Bagnall, the screenwriter of “Buffalo ‘66” and also the director of “Piggy,” constructs a basic two-hander out of flimsy material, finding a few heartbreakingly sincere moments before repeating them several times and running out of steam.
For more of the review, go here.