By David Baldwin

Ronnie Lipsick (Jackie van Beek) longs for the glory days, back when she was a talented soap star and not Mother to selfishly entitled Audrey (Josephine Blazier) and Norah (Hannah Diviney), who always comes last and is confined to a wheelchair. Her loveless relationship with her husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) is not much better. But a freak accident that lands Audrey in a coma may just turn things around for Ronnie and her family, even if it leads to a plethora of cascading lies and embellishments.

Though that certainly sounds bleak, AUDREY is actually laugh-out-loud funny. The dark humour permeates through the entire picture, yet never comes in front of the ridiculously odd situations this family finds themselves in at every turn. There is a whole lot of escalating cringe – mostly of a sexually depraved nature – and just as much charm and heart. You really feel for Ronnie’s plight and even if some of the things her family does are questionable at best, you want to see them succeed. Kudos to the core Cast for making this family so likeable, and to Blazier for doing such a good job portraying the narcissistic brat of a titular character.

As a debut feature from both Director Natalie Bailey and Writer Lou Sanz, it shows a lot of promise for future projects. And while I was not much of a fan of a third act shift from Comedy to Horror, I had a good time watching AUDREY otherwise. Maybe just avoid watching it with your parents.

Audrey screens at SXSW ’24:

Mar 10 at 2:30PM at Alamo Lamar 4

Mar 11 at 5:15PM at Alamo Lamar 8

Mar 11 at 5:45PM at Alamo Lamar 7

Mar 15 at 2:15PM at Alamo Lamar 6

By David Baldwin

Nina (Nahéma Ricci) just wants to go home. Stranded in the far North, she ends up at an isolated cabin in the woods with five guys celebrating a bachelor party. They are initially against her arrival, but gradually warm up to her. When a mysterious drifter ends up at the party, things take a sharp turn for the worst.

Saying any more than that would ruin the visceral nightmare HUNTING DAZE quickly becomes. The breathless intensity rarely dissipates over the course of its brief 79-minute running time. Instead, first time feature Director Annick Blanc just keeps ratcheting up the tension to unbearable heights. And nearly every moment outside of that is spent examining and basking in the sheer toxicity this group of men communicate and act within. Blanc deliberately frames the headstrong, gives-no-fucks Nina as being smaller and inferior to this bachelor party, and delights in using her to tear down stereotypes and any of your expectations.

The small Cast are good in their roles, with Ricci as the clear standout. I just kind of wish the film around them did not feel so drawn out. I understand Blanc’s intention of making the audience feel genuinely uncomfortable (why else would you have so many extreme facial close-ups?), but feel like the endlessness of some scenes could have been better reigned in. I watched HUNTING DAZE alone though. You might feel a bit different watching it in a big group, all collectively holding your breath and terrified of what comes next.

Hunting Daze screens at SXSW ’24:

Mar 9 at 10PM at Alamo Lamar 4

Mar 11 at 7PM at Alamo Lamar 4

Mar 14 at 9PM at Violet Crown Cinema 1

Mar 14 at 9:30PM at Violet Crown Cinema 3

By Mr. Will Wong

Jenny Carchman‘s Documentary WHATEVER IT TAKES takes us on a twisty journey to the unlikely, unveiling a dark web of corporate corruption at eBay that threatened to destroy the brand.

We meet Ina Steiner, Co–Founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and her husband David, who run a Blog which among other things, criticized eBay and other e-Commerce platforms. After doing this, they started receiving mysterious messages and package deliveries at their home. This escalated to the point where they genuinely feared for their lives, as their stalker(s) circled closer and closer to their home. The question though is who would be so invested in the couple that they would be all consumed in destroying their lives?

This Film explores the controversy which shook the world as we learned that multiple employees at eBay‘s Corporate Security Team were the masterminds behind this attempt to take down the Steiners, which resulted in guilty pleas and a $3 million fine to be paid by eBay.

Though we begin meeting the Steiners and become invested in their struggle, Carchman makes a sharp turn, instead exploring the politics and internal dynamics among the higher-ups at eBay and the Corporate Security team. The tone shifts from Thriller to more exploratory, where we learn about abuses of power and corruption, including a head of security who quickly got promoted to an executive position after joining the organization as a security guard, surrounding himself with young women he could manipulate.

Overall, a fascinating watch that uncovers some juicy, unsavoury things. We do wish it reconciled both sides of the story together a bit better, exploring more the part of the journey where these victims and how they confronted their tormenters. WHATEVER IT TAKES screens at SXSW ’24 as follows:

Whatever it Takes at Alamo Lamar 8
Mar 9, 2024 6:30pm—8:03pm

Whatever it Takes at Alamo Lamar 7
Mar 9, 2024 7:00pm—8:33pm

Whatever it Takes at Alamo Lamar 9
Mar 11, 2024 2:15pm—3:48pm

Whatever it Takes at Alamo Lamar 3
Mar 11, 2024 2:45pm—4:18pm

Whatever it Takes at Alamo Lamar 9
Mar 15, 2024 2:45pm—4:18pm

By Amanda Gilmore

Faced with rampant sexual violence on their college campus, a group of Tulane University students spent a year creating an immersive play from their real-life experiences. Building characters and scenes based on the sexual politics of their campus, the student actors confront hard truths.

Director Katie Mathews crafts an urgent Documentary about sexual assaults on campuses and the cathartic role art plays in both confronting trauma and healing from it. It’s her lyrical way of weaving these two worlds that makes Roleplay a standout among other films documenting assaults on campus.

Mathews follows her young subjects as they navigate campus life and in the safe confessional space in the rehearsal room where they become more vulnerable. Watching these young minds confront their traumas through art by performing characters that mimic what happened to them, shows the resilience of young adults and how finding an outlet can heal. It’s both heartbreaking and uplifting.

Roleplay screens at SXSW ’24:

Mar 9 at 3:15PM at Alamo Lamar 4

Mar 13 at 2:45PM at Violet Crown Cinema 1

Mar 13 at 3:15PM at Violet Crown Cinema 3

Mar 16 at 3PM at Alamo Lamar 8

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 isn’t prosecuted because it’s 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 Lillesæter 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 should’ve 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 ’24:

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 Oscar® 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 O’Brien, 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!

DAVID BALDWIN

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.

AMANDA GILMORE

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 Loop…need I say more?

MR. WILL

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 “This Bitter Earth” by Dinah Washington, the final trailer features the following dialogue against compelling imagery from the series.

I have to tell you something…something insane…but true…about all of us. It started a long time ago. – JIN CHENG (Jess Hong)
Back in 1977 they detected a sequence…called it the wow signal… – DA SHI (Benedict Wong)
What’s it say? – WADE (Liam Cunningham)

#

They are Coming. – YE WENJIE (Rosalind Chao)
Who are they? – SAUL DURAND (Jovan Adepo)
That’s 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 González)
I think we’re 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 woman’s 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 humanity’s history. The series stars (in alpha order) Jovan Adepo, John Bradley, Rosalind Chao, Liam Cunningham, Eiza González, 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 Canadian’s 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 Bezos’ 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, humanity’s relationship with nature, the dying Earth and his own mortality – 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 Shatner’s 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, Philippe’s breezy, thematic structure makes the film feel a bit too jumpy and unpolished. With the exception of last year’s 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 ’23 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 Jalali’s 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 Donya’s 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 London’s 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 Donya’s 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 ’23 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 ‘Fearless Flyers’ 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 Sigurðsson 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 characters’ half-baked agendas, it gets a little lost in the weeds (or blowing snow drifts as it were).

That said, the Cast which Sigurðsson 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 ’23 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