Writer/director Elijah Bynum must be feeling like crap these days. He did a film with one of the hottest rising stars in Hollywood, before he became a worldwide sensation and an award winner. His film Hot Summer Nights starring Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet is finally hitting theaters (and VOD)… too little too late. The vintage […]
Hawkes (Everest) performance is the selling point of Small Town Crime, a movie that can’t really put its finger on a genre. From a marketing stand point, Small Town Crime with it’s common, non-descriptive title, is ideal films for SXSW. Outside the festival, I am not sure who or where the audience for a film
Every year I catch at least one western at the SXSW film festival. Maybe there is only one each year. Either way, this year it was traditional western, The Ballad of Lefty Brown. Jared Moshe’s story has a catch though, he offers the sidekick, the bumbling cowboy behind the hero, his own chance at the
It’s hard to describe what this movie is, but one thing for sure, it’s one of James Franco’s best films behind the camera after a long continuous stream of junk. It’s also a career best for Dave Franco (Nerve) who has long struggled to find a role that provided a substantive challenge. There is a
From the side, barracudas appear to be finely formed, sleek, and silvery. Take a frontal perspective, however, and you see a cavernous mouth with fang-like teeth of different sizes. Barracudas are considered to be ferocious, competitive predators who use surprise and short bursts of speed to catch their prey. Keep these images in mind as
SXSW ended on a good note for me with Alex & Andrew Smith’s new film Walking Out. Shot completely outdoors in the wilds of Montana. This is the second film at the festival, filmed in Montana starring Bill Pullman (The Ballad of Lefty Brown). Walking Out isn’t an action film, despite it’s thrilling subject matter.
The SXSW indie breakout “Patti Cake$” begins with unflattering closeups of grilled chompers and never relinquishes the concept of ‘in your face’. Later we see our star, newcomer Danielle Macdonald, in a close-up brushing her teeth, and shots of the spit she produces. Writer/director Geremy Jasper, who did a Selena Gomez music video one time,
Uncredited John Wick / upcoming Deadpool 2 director David Leitch should have had the most stylish and rewarding action flick at SXSW this year. Unfortunately, Atomic Blond, the Charlize Theron – stylish and ultra-violent is more is more of an atomic bomb. Theron coming off the iconic Furiosa in Mad Max, I guess expectations were
There are a few films each year that seem to hit at the right moment, with all the right themes. Kumail Nanjiani’s The Big Sick, already won investors at Sundance (landing a $12 million dollar deal with Amazon), audiences at SXSW, and now with enthusiastic support from the critics (Anne Thompson calling it a best
Wife of famed Oscar winning director Frances Ford Coppola, Eleanor makes her writing and directorial debut at SXSW with Paris Can Wait. “I got a screenwriting program for my computer. Then I took a directing and acting class,” she casually admitted. The 80-year-old had an experience very similar to what we see happen in the