'Hours'

• SXSW Film Reviews

• 'Hours'

  BY DAN SOLOMON

• 'Swim Little Fish Swim'

  BY KIMBERLEY JONES

• 'Our Nixon'

  BY ANNE S. LEWIS

• 'The Wait'

  BY NORA ANKRUM

• 'Much Ado About Nothing'

  BY MONICA RIESE

• 'Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton'

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• 'Maidentrip'

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• 'Drinking Buddies'

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• 'Coldwater'

  BY JOE O'CONNELL

• 'Diario a Tres Voces (Three Voices)'

  BY JESSI CAPE

• 'Haunter'

  BY ASHLEY MORENO

SXSW Film Reviews

Hours

Hurricane Katrina hasn't been depicted much in narrative film, which would make Hours unique solely by virtue of its subject matter. But this high-concept indie doesn't rely on its setting alone. Walker stars as Nolan, a husband whose wife is rushed to the hospital with complications from childbirth while Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans. Suddenly a single father to a newborn who can only breathe with the help of a ventilator, Nolan finds himself alone and relying on a hand-cranked generator to keep his baby alive while the world breaks down outside the hospital walls. A tightly paced thriller, Hours amps up the drama by cheating on its conceit – the minutes Walker has to crank the generator won't hold up if you're using a stopwatch – and repeating some debunked Katrina myths as fact. Still, as a purely cinematic experience, Hours finds every drop of tension in its compelling plot.

Wednesday, March 13, 3:30pm, Violet Crown