The Austin Film Festival’s annual barbecue on the grounds of the French Legation Friday evening was again one of the highlights of the weeklong event. It’s a lovely gathering of the out-of-towners, festival filmmakers, and members of the local film community. The beer and wine flowed freely (though I would have loved it even more if festival sponsor Absolut had participated in the event), and the cloudy residue from our once-quarterly rainfall (it’s been a little parched here in case you’re not up on Austin’s annual rainfall totals) earlier in the week cleared out and made for perfect, sunshiny BBQ weather. The schmooze was lively, but catching up with old friends and connecting with new ones got in the way of getting my feed on. The food was all gone by the time I made my way to the chow line, sending me out to my first film of the fest with a hunger in my belly.
Fortunately, Robert Townsend’s Phantom Punch was a great distraction. The film is a biographical portrait of former heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston. Townsend is most commonly thought of as a comedy director due to his breakthrough films as a director, Hollywood Shuffle and Eddie Murphy Raw.
However, Phantom Punch is a dark drama based on the career of the troubled boxer, whose life was further complicated by racism and the mob’s grip on the sport. Ving Rhames plays Liston; Townsend introduced the film as “Ving Rhames’ baby,” a passion project the actor long wanted to get off the ground. Rhames and Nicholas Turtorro, who plays Liston’s manager, deliver vivid performances in this film that’s so much more than another gritty boxing movie.
From Phantom Punch, which was playing at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum, it was a fascinating ride downtown to the Paramount Theatre through the heart of tailgating country, where fans were gearing up for Saturday’s UT football game. Screening at the Paramount was festival honoree Danny Boyle’s first film Shallow Grave. His newest film Slumdog Millionaire, which I saw last month at the Toronto festival, screened earlier in the evening, and an enthusiastic audience mostly stuck around for the bottom half of this double bill. Upon entering the theatre, Boyle could be seen in the aisle by the stage talking with fans who were left over from the Slumdog screening. It’s always part of the charm of Austin festivals to see that kind of easy mix between the VIPS and the fans. I spoke briefly with Boyle who described what fun he had that afternoon walking around Austin and catching its vibe. “It’s so different from Houston and Dallas,” he remarked, since those were the only Texas cities he had previously experienced. “I walked and walked and walked, and found the most amazing bookstore called BookPeople,” he said. He introduced his very dark comedy Shallow Grave by talking about some of the same things he told me a couple weeks ago during a phone interview, which can be seen here. He truly believes that a person’s first film is always his or her best work, and that there’s no way, no matter one’s constant attempt, to recapture the passion evidenced in that first project.
This article appears in October 17 • 2008.
