SXSW Film Reviews: 'We Cause Scenes'

We Cause Scenes

This is the story that millions have been waiting for, so hallelujah that it's told so well by director Matt Adams and his crew. Charlie Todd's ongoing series of Improv Everywhere projects – based in New York City, often involving hundreds of people, and captured in some of the most-viewed videos on the World Wide Web – are showcased by Adams' doc in dynamically paced sequence, along with much trenchant commentary by Todd and his co-conspirators. Shored up by behind-the-scenes footage and excerpts from marveling and mystified news-media reports of the phenomenon's birth, history, and current activities, this film provides a vigorous, visually compelling – hell, even thrilling – record of joyful, community-abetted subversion of everyday life, of what's possible to achieve in these Internetted times. With a provocative subject like Improv Everywhere, it was "only" a matter of Adams doing it justice – and he's done exactly that, as they say online, FTW.