By Amanda Gilmore
This emotional Documentary follows a group of women on a criminal justice crusade in Texas. The group filed a groundbreaking federal class-action lawsuit, the first to argue that sexual assault isnât prosecuted because itâs a crime that predominantly affects women. The group is determined to hold police and prosecutors accountable for their inaction, but their resilience is tested as they face setbacks from the system they hope to change.
The heartbeat of An Army of Women is the subjects themselves. Their passion and determination are inspiring and symbolize unwavering hope and resilience for all survivors. Director Julie Lunde LillesĂŠter allows the women to tell their harrowing stories without judgment. Their honest, distressing experiences are singular from each other allowing audiences a deeper understanding of the lasting effects of trauma and the justice system set against them.
The crusade these women go on brings audiences into a corrupt judicial system that allowed sexual assaulters and rapists to go unpunished. The substantial evidence that these women had against their attackers shouldâve resulted in charges. However, the police and prosecutors acted to protect the accused.
An Army of Women is a thought-provoking important documentary that should be seen.
An Army of Women screens at SXSW â24:
Mar 8 at 2PM at ZACH Theatre
Mar 12 at 2:45PM at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center
Mar 15 at 6PM at Satellite Venue: AFS Cinema
SXSW ’24 kicks off tomorrow, running March 8 through 16, 2024 in Austin, Texas! This Film and TV Festival is comprised of 115 features including 89 World Premieres, 3 International Premieres, 6 North American Premieres, 4 U.S. Premieres, 13 Texas Premieres + 80 Short Films including 19 Music Videos. The TV program includes 7 TV Premieres, 8 TV Spotlight World Premieres and 6 Independent TV Pilots. The XR Experience program includes 38 projects.
Highlighting this year’s Film & TV Festival are some high-profile titles like Monkey Man, the directorial debut from OscarÂź nominee Dev Patel. Kyle Mooney also makes his directorial debut with New Year’s Eve disaster comedy Y2K, and Sydney Sweeney stars in Michael Mohan‘s psychological horror Immaculate.
Speakers at SXSW this year include a star-studded bunch like Pamela Adlon, Samantha Bee, Danny Brown, Michael Dell, Colman Domingo, Kirsten Dunst, Ilana Glazer, Selena Gomez, Nick Kroll, Conan OâBrien, Lilly Singh, Sydney Sweeney, Margrethe Vestager and more. Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, will headline a keynote panel alongside Katie Couric and Brooke Shields, kicking off SXSW’ 24 as well.
The Films & TV Awards will take place on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 7:30pm CT at the Paramount Theatre.
The Team will be covering the Festival virtually this year and here are our top picks at SXSW ’24!
Arcadian
Hunting Daze
Grand Theft Hamlet
Monkey Man
Stormy
I love the eclectic style of SXSW and its emphasis on genre. Other festivals would go one way or another, but SXSW hits it right down the centre between sincere and weird — with a large helping of WTF sprinkled in for good measure. There are a solid mix of titles at this year’s fest, including a few that have been seen already (I dug Backspot and Smugglers, and our dear friend George Kozera was a big fan of Sing Sing) and plenty that have not just yet (Immaculate, Civil War, The Fall Guy — all can’t miss titles we will have access to in a few weeks). For my Top Five picks, I checked off the immediate titles that jumped off the page. A new Nic Cage joint? A French Canadian cabin in the woods thriller? An adaptation of Hamlet that takes place entirely in Grand Theft Auto? Dev Patel‘s directorial debut, which looks truly bad ass? A Documentary about Stormy Daniels, a young woman who you had to pretend to not recognize prior to her making the worldwide news? Like, what other Festival do you know of that would play in such a wide variety of places and genres, without the undercurrent of awards season coursing through its veins? It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see how these titles all play out.
Civil War
Babes
Monkey Man
Cuckoo
Omni Loop
This year’s SXSW has a stacked lineup. These are my most anticipated titles due to the talent attached, both behind and in front of the camera. I’m always excited to see what Alex Garland delivers next and Civil War‘s trailer had me on the edge of my seat. I loved Pamela Adlon‘s autobiographical TV series Better Things and can’t wait to see her feature Babes. Dev Patel is making his big directorial debut at SXSW with Monkey Man. That trailer is loaded with full-octane action. Hunter Schafer has had me locked onto her career since the first season of Euphoria, so can’t wait to see her in Cuckoo. And the talents, hilarious and captivating Ayo Edebiri stars alongside Mary Louise Parker in Omni LoopâŠneed I say more?
I’ve heard nothing but phenomental feedback about ROAD HOUSE, a re-imagining of the 1989 film of the same name.. but with an MMA twist! We’ve missed Jake Gyllenhaal and he rarely misses the mark. Should be exciting. Could things be going any better for Sydney Sweeney? IMMACULATE promises to be a thrilling ride and even outside the Festival, we’d be pumped to see this theatrically. Everything we’ve seen about Dev Patel‘s directorial debut MONKEY MAN has looked so intriguing and with Jordan Peele backing, we know we’re set-up for success. CIVIL WAR we’re sure is on everyone’s must-watch list – what a huge get for SXSW! And we are in it for fun, and Pamela Adlon‘s BABES certainly looks that. We can’t get enough Michelle Buteau after her first season of popular Netflix series Survival of the Thickest!
Festival schedule is here.
Happy SXSW ’24!
Today we get a new Trailer for Netflix‘s 3 BODY PROBLEM, ahead if its SXSW ’24 Premiere! THEY are coming!
TRAILER BREAKDOWN:
Over a haunting version of âThis Bitter Earthâ by Dinah Washington, the final trailer features the following dialogue against compelling imagery from the series.
I have to tell you somethingâŠsomething insaneâŠbut trueâŠabout all of us. It started a long time ago. – JIN CHENG (Jess Hong)
Back in 1977 they detected a sequenceâŠcalled it the wow signal⊠– DA SHI (Benedict Wong)
Whatâs it say? – WADE (Liam Cunningham)
They are Coming. – YE WENJIE (Rosalind Chao)
Who are they? – SAUL DURAND (Jovan Adepo)
Thatâs the question, right? – DA SHI (Benedict Wong)
Oh Hello Darling – DA SHI (Benedict Wong)
When your consciousness ends in one world it could continue to exist in many other worlds – WILL DOWNING (Alex Sharp)
What do you think is happening? – AUGGIE SALAZAR (Eiza GonzĂĄlez)
I think weâre at war – RAJ VARMA (Saamer Usmani)
How will you be remembered? – YE WENJIE (Rosalind Chao)
As someone who fought back. – JIN CHENG (Jess Hong)
About THREE BODY PROBLEM:
A young womanâs fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront the greatest threat in humanityâs history. The series stars (in alpha order) Jovan Adepo, John Bradley, Rosalind Chao, Liam Cunningham, Eiza GonzĂĄlez, Jess Hong, Marlo Kelly, Alex Sharp, Sea Shimooka, Zine Tseng, Saamer Usmani, Benedict Wong and Jonathan Pryce.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones) and Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy, True Blood) are co-creators, executive producers and writers of the series. Bernadette Caulfield (Game of Thrones, The X-Files) is Executive Producer. Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi), Ram Bergman and Nena Rodrigue are Executive Producers for T-Street. Lin Qi, the late former Chairman of Yoozoo Group, and Zhao Jilong, CEO of the rights-holder, The Three-Body Universe, are Executive Producers, along with Xiaosong Gao and Lauren Ma. Plan B Entertainment’s Brad Pitt, Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner are Executive Producers. Rosamund Pike and Robie Uniacke are Executive Producers for Primitive Streak. Derek Tsang and Andrew Stanton will direct and co-executive produce. Additional directors include Jeremy Podeswa and Minkie Spiro.
By David Baldwin
If I were to ask you who William Shatner is, you may have a different answer depending on when you were born. Most will always him as the original Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, while others may just know him as the Priceline guy who appears regularly at fan conventions around the world. But who is the real William Shatner when he is not on the screen or stage in front of us?
Writer/Director Alexandre O. Philippe sets-out to answer this question in his latest Documentary/Vsual Essay, and it starts with letting us know that Shatner prefers to be called Bill now. What follows is a journey that beams around the proud Canadianâs life from a young man growing up in Montreal, to his time on television and the stage, right up to his recent flight to space on Jeff Bezosâ rocket ship. All the while, the camera stays on Bill as he discusses the journey, sitting alone in a production warehouse with the unseen spotlight focusing on him and only him.
What Bill also discusses are his feelings on life, humanityâs relationship with nature, the dying Earth and his own mortality â all delivered in his frank, precisely inflected manner of speech (including a small aside about that often parodied but never equaled style). He is more candid and open than I ever would have thought, and YOU CAN CALL ME BILL is at its best when we are watching him in these deeper moments in the warehouse or live on stage. The tiny clips of Star Trek and television ephemera (including scenes from shows he starred in pre-Kirk) are fun to see, yet seem rather trivial while Bill is tackling the sorrow of knowing that at 91, he does not have much time left.
For all those candid comments however, YOU CAN CALL ME BILL glosses over Shatnerâs personal life and his relationship with the fan community. He gets in a few anecdotal comments and then goes on to something else. More frustratingly, Philippeâs breezy, thematic structure makes the film feel a bit too jumpy and unpolished. With the exception of last yearâs Lynch/Oz (which was fascinating flawed), his previous films have been focused on one scene or one film. Here he is taking on an entire lifetime of one legendary individual and all the iconography that goes with it, and it feels like he is out of his element.
YOU CAN CALL ME BILL screens at SXSW â23 as follows:
Mar 16 at 7:30pm at Paramount Theatre
By David Baldwin
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) has been living in the US for 8 months. In Afghanistan, she was a translator for American troops. Now she is working in a fortune cookie factory either packaging the cookies or writing the fortunes. She is struggling to adapt to her new life in America, and has trouble coming out of her traumatized shell. So she sets out to change that.
Co-Writer/Director Babak Jalaliâs portrait of this young woman living in an Afghan diaspora is not going to be for everyone. It is slow moving, droll and only sporadically funny. It has a lot it wants to say about Donya and her journey, but does not always find the time or ability to say it. Jalali cribs from the work of Jim Jarmusch here (with a slight hint of Woody Allen), spending more time focusing on Donyaâs isolation and the mundane, wordless moments of her day than it does on her as a character. When she does discuss her trauma with psychiatrist Dr. Anthony (Gregg Turkington), the conversations devolve into nonsensical observations and bizarre moments involving Jack Londonâs novel White Fang.
Hollywood It-Boy Jeremy Allen White (who was terrific on 11 seasons of Shameless before he struck gold with The Bear) shows up for a bit part that is more awkward than anything else, but what really impressed me about FREMONT was the way Jalali frames Donyaâs story. He tells it in 4:3, in stark black and white with minimal music, which is an all too blatant reflection of her less than thrilling existence. Stripped of colour, we learn more about Donya than the dialogue ever attempts to tell us. That gorgeous cinematography and production design is what kept me invested in FREMONT. I just wish the story did too.
FREMONT screens at SXSW â23 as follows:
Mar 11 at 6:45pm at Violet Crown Cinema 2
Mar 11 at 7:15pm at Violet Crown Cinema 4
Mar 12 at 8:15pm at Alamo Lamar A
Mar 13 at 7:00pm at Violet Crown Cinema 2
Mar 13 at 7:30pm at Violet Crown Cinema 4
By David Baldwin
Sarah (Lydia Leonard) is a successful building developer in London with a well-guarded secret: she is deathly afraid of flying. To overcome her crippling fear, she joins the âFearless Flyersâ course alongside other individuals suffering from Aerophobia. The final test is a trip on a real plane, which happens to coincide with the day Sarah is supposed to be going on vacation with her boyfriend and his daughter. And what should be a simple trip to Iceland becomes an ordeal no one saw coming.
NORTHERN COMFORT, named after an Icelandic beverage, is a cringe-inducing comedy that will have you wincing and laughing just as often as you are absolutely terrified for these poor souls. Co-Writer/Director Hafsteinn Gunnar SigurĂ°sson puts the whole gang through absolute hell on their journey to getting over their fear and then delights in reshuffling the deck and completely changing the game in the second half of the Film. It manages to maintain the same tone throughout thankfully, but the jarring number of subplots becomes a lot to digest, as does the fleeting directions the Film continuously wanders into. When it is simply about Sarah and her journey, the Film is fairly solid. When it diverts into showcasing the supporting charactersâ half-baked agendas, it gets a little lost in the weeds (or blowing snow drifts as it were).
That said, the Cast which SigurĂ°sson has put together here is game for anything and relishes in the madness that ensues. Leonard does a great job carrying the Film and balances the comedy and scarier elements quite well. Simon Manyonda has a whole lot of fun as an instructor who is in way over his pay grade, while comedian Rob Delaney drops in for an eyebrow raising extended cameo. Who really lets loose however is Timothy Spall, who goes for broke from start to finish. I only really know him as a dramatic actor (and as that rat of a wizard Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series), so seeing him as the radically unhinged Edward was just as wild and chaotic as all the mayhem he gets up to in the Film. He is having a blast and easily steals the show.
NORTHERN COMFORT screens at SXSW â23 as follows:
Mar 12 at 2:00pm at Stateside Theatre
Mar 13 at 6:15pm at Rollins Theatre at The Long Center
Mar 16 at 7:15pm at Violet Crown Cinema 2
Mar 16 at 7:45pm at Violet Crown Cinema 4
By David Baldwin
It is the late 1980s and Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is looking for a hit. The Video Game Designer and salesman is hemorrhaging money, but may have found his salvation in a game called Tetris. He is not the only one who wants a piece of it though, and once he learns that the IP rights belong to the Soviet Union, Henk decides he is going to travel behind the Iron Curtain and negotiate for them himself.
Did that sound convoluted? Well, there are a whole lot more rights-related shenanigans where that came from on top of family drama and light Nintendo-related nostalgia. Some of the story has been clearly embellished (particularly a bit cribbed from the Oscar-winning Argo), yet it stays grounded enough to keep your attention. I loved how Lorne Balfe incorporated the music from Tetris into his Score, yet could have done without the recurring neon-soaked 8-bit motif anytime a setting changed.
While Henkâs story is straight-forward enough, it feels like it is at odds with the bigger tale Director Jon S. Baird and Writer Noah Pink are more interested in telling: the dying days of the Soviet Union and all the corruption that goes with it. The shady individuals, the double-crossing deals, the KGB, the spying, Gorbachev, all of it is fascinating and often downright terrifying. There are a whole lot more of these elements in the Film than you might imagine â considering it is called TETRIS â and I think it suffers from having them smashed-together with Henkâs story.
TETRIS is a well-made film despite these qualms and I enjoyed watching it. Egerton is just as charismatic and committed as always, and his chemistry with Nikita Yefremov, who plays Tetris architect Alexey Pajitnov, is wonderful. Had Baird and Pink focused more on that budding friendship or made a separate movie about the inner workings of the USSR, then we could have had a much more cohesive picture about one of the most ultra-popular pieces of media ever created, rather than the messy film we did get.
TETRIS screens at SXSW â23 as follows:
Mar 15 at 6:00pm at Paramount Theatre
Mar 16 at 5:15pm at Alamo Lamar E
By David Baldwin
PAY OR DIE follows the stories of three families who have a connection to Type 1 Diabetes and are struggling with the price of insulin in the United States. More specifically, it centers around Nicole Smith-Holt, her activism, and her lobbying to get a new health bill passed in Minnesota â named Alecâs Law after her late son who died from diabetes complications â that would force pharmacies and insulin makers to provide emergency supplies of insulin to diabetics in need for a more reasonable price.
PAY OR DIE is not so much a discussion around insulin and Type 1 Diabetes, so much as it is a full-blown Horror film. I sat, riveted in my seat, listening to the startling statistics and stories around insulin prices, Diabetics who have been forced to stretch their insulin reserves as long as possible and have survived, and the family members mourning the loss of the ones that did not. It is absolutely harrowing hearing these tales, and often flabbergasting and downright disgusting. Filmmakers Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman rightfully take Big Pharma to task here repeatedly, comparing the insulin prices to other countries and showing just how much they fleece from these individuals with a terminal disease. It outright includes an entire section where a mother and her 11-year-old daughter (both with Type 1 Diabetes) drive from Seattle to Vancouver to buy up supplies for nearly five-times less than what they would have paid in the US.
For someone who has a minimal understanding of the US healthcare system, PAY OR DIE is a necessary watch that will have you crying and raging in your seat. My only complaint was around the timeline the film sets for itself. It is chronological in terms of the profiles of each family, yet bounces around almost erratically between them with no real sense of what year we are in. We are at one point following a young woman navigating a recent diagnosis in 2020 alongside Covid-19, and then suddenly back in time to Smith-Holt leading rallies at Eli Lilly headquarters. It does not take away from the central message or theme of the film thankfully; it just would have benefitted from being more cohesive and cleaner edited.
PAY OR DIE screens at SXSW â23 as follows:
Mar 11 at 3:15pm at Alamo Lamar E
Mar 13 at 3:00pm at Alamo Lamar C
Mar 16 at 2:30pm at Alamo Lamar B
Premiering at SXSW ’23 in its Film & TV program this Saturday, we get a new look at BEEF!
Synopsis:
BEEF follows the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.
Missed it at SXSW ’23? It arrives on Netflix on April 6, 2023.
(Photo/video credit: Netflix)
Paramount Pictures Canda x Mr. Will want to give Readers a chance to win Advance Passes to see DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, hot off its acclaimed premiere at SXSW ’23!
Screenings take places as follows:
TORONTO
Date: Saturday, March 25th
Time: 4:00PM start
Location: Yorkdale Cineplex Cinemas
VANCOUVER
Date: Saturday, March 25th
Time: 4:00PM start
Location: Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas
MONTREAL – ENG
Date: Saturday, March 25th
Time: 4:00PM start
Location: Cineplex Cinemas Forum
MONTREAL – FRE
Date: Saturday, March 25th
Time: 4:00PM start
Location: Cineplex Cinemas StarCité
CALGARY
Date: Saturday, March 25th
Time: 4:00PM start
Location: Scotiabank Theatre Chinook
Synopsis:
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.
To enter for a chance to win, click “like” on this Post at MR. WILL ON FACEBOOK. In the comments there please indicate your City. Re-Tweet the below for an extra chance.
Enter for a chance to #win Advance Passes in select cities to see #DNDMOVIE!https://t.co/t1FvlioKU8 pic.twitter.com/9kvZ6Bl6D6
— MR. WILL WONG 📸 (@mrwillw) March 15, 2023
Rules and regulations here.
#DNDMovie is in theates March 31, 2023.
(Photo/video credit: Paramount Pictures Canada)
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com