SXSW Film

2AM

D: Korey Coleman; with Travis Ammons, Jeremy Denzlinger, Korey Coleman, Billy Brooks, Sonya Tsuchigane, Robert Henry, Jason Bohn, Mia Stitt-Selexman, Jennifer Matyear

Without further ado, here is your official South by Southwest Film 06 Dialogue Quote of the Festival: "Where the fuck did you two meet up at? A gender name exchange program?" Austin filmmaker Coleman blends laugh-out-loud snarkiness with the heart of a hopelessly incurable romantic and nails the whole shebang together using Austin's legendary nightvibe like some sort of Crazy-N-Luv Glue. The result is a bang-on sketch of what it's like to love, lose, and love again (but, you know, better, baby) deep in the heart of Texas. As one of five buddies winding down the night at their local pub, Coleman, who scripted and cut the seamless, flowing 2AM, co-stars as Les, the wisecracking, heartbroken Every-guy who lives to love another day (albeit sporting a snappy new shiner black). Ensemble comedies that wear their true blue romantic hearts on their sleeves as proudly as this one does are near-impossible to pull off; one person's wryly witty observation on the human condition is another's cynical, Cupid-eviscerating hatefest. Too often the jaded win the war of the roses, and more hearts get trampled in the process. 2AM never even comes close to shedding those bitter tears, preferring instead the wisdom of moving forward into possible bliss over the all-too-common task of gearjamming one's soul back into the comfortable numbness of known sorrows. The slippy, languid late night is only upped in its realism by a pair of ouchy roundhouse love taps from co-stars Denzlinger and Tsuchigane as aforementioned name-exchange programmers Carol and Joey, whose burgeoning truly, madly, deeply is enough to kickstart your own moribund heart, regardless of past collateral damage. If proof were needed, here it is: Coleman is the real deal.

9pm, Dobie