SXSW Film Festival
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The Playlist4 commentslike0tweet0
SXSW Review: Jodie Foster's 'The Beaver' Starring Mel Gibson Can't Quite Hit Its Tonal Sweet Spot
Tonight on the stage of the Paramount theater at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, director/actress Jodie Foster admitted that getting the tenor right for her new film "The Beaver" was the hardest endeavor of her career and it shows. Walking a tonal tightrope of voice -- light comedy, saddeni...
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The Playlist5 commentslike0tweet0
SXSW Review: 'Kill List' Is A Shocking, Emotionally Resonant & Horrific Ride
Few movies have scarred and emotionally terrorized people (including some on the Playlist staff) more than this year's SXSW Film Festival entry "Kill List," the sophomore feature from Ben Wheatley ("Down Terrace"). With its intriguing mixture of kitchen-sink domestic drama, hit man thriller, and creepy mysticism, it's the rare horror film -- which isn't really a "horror film" per se, but includes psychological, emotional and physically horrifying moments -- that doesn't play into any conventions of the genre. Every time you think you've pegged it neatly into one of the aforementioned genres, it'll swing around and surprise you again, and the ...
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The Playlist8 commentslike0tweet0
SXSW Review: We Aren't Buying Morgan Spurlock's 'Greatest Movie Ever Sold'
"POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" (yeah, that's actually the full title), Morgan Spurlock's new takedown of product placement in television shows and movies, starts out cleverly enough, with a sharp analysis of all the ways in which major corporations, in their limitless, greedy...
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The Playlist4 commentslike0tweet0
SXSW: Miranda July Says 'The Future' Is Her Version Of A Horror Film
And More We Learned About Her New FilmFew working filmmakers are as divisive as Miranda July. Her first film, "Me and You and Everyone We Know" was to some, one of the best films of the last decade, but to others was barely watchable insufferable hipster bait. We're firmly in the former camp, and a...
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SXSW Exclusive: Greg Mottola Talks The Influence Of Steven Spielberg On 'Paul'
Yes, the buzz is now near deafening around "Paul," but not without good reason. The film is already playing like gangbusters in the U.K., home to the film's stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and over the weekend, the film unspooled to an enthusiastic reception at SXSW. In our review, we called the fi...
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SXSW Review: 'New Jerusalem' A Hypnotic Film Experience About Friendship And Religion
Despite a rather large and enthusiastic critical embrace of American neo-neo realism ("Wendy and Lucy," "Goodbye Solo," "Ballast," and a few others), there haven't been many (if any) new players entering the field. By contrast, mumblecore micro-indies are cropping up like corn, with young directors seizing the me-too attitude and grabbing shitty cameras to capture characters in apartments talking about relationships or focusing on their own inadequacies. Some are different, some are great, and like anything, you have to wade through the shit (which still get perplexing amounts of overenthusiastic quotes) in order to find the few artists pushi...
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SXSW Review: 'Conan O'Brien Can't Stop' A Funny & Moving Portrait Of The Late Night Staple
The maelstrom of controversy, sensationalized media coverage and generally hurt feelings that broke out during the kerfuffle that surrounded the decision to dethrone Conan O'Brien from his position as the host of "The Tonight Show" after seven months (to replace him with Jay Leno… the man he replace...
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The Playlist2 commentslike0tweet0
SXSW: "I Don't Think It's Too Horrific" & More Learned From 'Attack The Block' Director Joe Cornish
By all accounts, it's been a remarkably strong SXSW festival so far, with a number of films picking up extremely positive buzz, or adding to the buzz that was already behind them. First and foremost among them was "Attack the Block." We've been looking forward to Joe Cornish's directorial debut ever...
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SXSW Review: Basketball Doc 'Elevate' Scores
In the last few years, documentary films (at least the ones that are seen by everybody outside of HBO subscribers or museum frequenters) have splintered, roughly, into two camps. In one camp are the "issue" films that tackle some kind of grand social or environmental concern (like, say, the diorama-...
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SXSW Review: Mike Mills 'Beginners' Is A Wonderfully Attuned & Empathetic Look At Love, Life & Grief
Touching, heartfelt, melancholy and suffused with a gentle humanity (pick your soulful cliché), with his sophomore drama, "Beginners," filmmaker Mike Mills demonstrates once more that he's acutely attuned to the bittersweet and funny frequency broadcast from the pain of love and life. Mills' empathy antenna has always been sensitively in harmony with the human condition, as evinced by the overlooked "Thumbsucker," his more recent music videos and the short, "Does Your Soul Have A Cold?" (which almost feels a companion piece here). And in "Beginners" he masterfully demonstrates a generous and thoughtful perspective on emotional suffering, crea...
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