'Citadel'

• SXSW Film

  Daily reviews and interviews

• God Gave Rock & Roll to Her

  BY JOSH ROSENBLATT

• A Silent Pearl Pops With New Sound

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• The Path to Enlightenment

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• 'Eden'

  BY MONICA RIESE

• 'Sun Don't Shine'

  BY MARC SAVLOV

• 'John Dies at the End'

  BY JOE O'CONNELL

• 'Decoding Deepak'

  BY ANNE S. LEWIS

• '$ellebrity'

  BY ANNE S. LEWIS

• 'Code of the West'

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• 'Gimme the Loot'

  BY MONICA RIESE

• 'Starlet'

  BY NORA ANKRUM

• 'In Our Nature'

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• 'The Imposter'

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• 'Francine'

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• 'Citadel'

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• 'Blue Like Jazz'

  BY JOE O'CONNELL

• 'Jeff'

  BY ANNE S. LEWIS

• 'Lovely Molly'

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• 'Booster'

  BY ASHLEY MORENO

Citadel

When Tolkien created Middle Earth, his shire was inspired by the rolling fields of pastoral England. Now Citadel's piss-stained take on urban blight reimagines the dilapidated Edenstown estate as a modern-day Mordor, roamed by orclike teens shrouded in puffy jackets. Embattled and besieged single dad Tommy (Barnard) is a dead ringer for Frodo midquest and Nurse Marie (Mosaku) is his ever-optimistic and loyal Sam, while James Cosmo's grizzled priest leads this fellowship as a blaspheming, surly Gandalf. Yet Tommy's precious is not the one ring but his baby daughter – and the orcs are always hunting for her. Foy's script keys into the UK's media-driven "hoodie" scare, where kids were flesh-eating demon spawn, and makes it a literal truth. This is the apocalypse of degeneration and collapse, and Foy ably and shockingly skates between the grounded and the gruesome, making a pedestrian tunnel as epic as the bridge of Khazad-dûm.

Thursday, March 15, 12mid, Alamo Lamar