The SXSW Film Festival has officially opened for business. Let’s go to the tape, shall we?
Chances are you’ve already seen the preview for Opening Night film The Cabin in the Woods – if you haven’t, we hear it’s best if you go in blind anyway – and as for the other razzle-dazzle Paramount Theatre premiere tonight, boy hidee, you do not want to Google “Babymakers,” unless what you were really looking for was Olivia Munn nudie phone hack shots. (We just lost half the readership to a porn-seeking Google search, didn’t we?)
So what of the less star-studded films screening today? Early word out of Electrick Children’s world premiere at Berlin last month was that teen-aged lead Julia Garner (Martha Marcy May Marlene) is a star. The film combines the Church of the Latter-day Saints (writer/director Rebecca Thomas was raised Mormon) and another something holy: rock music. (3/9, 7:30pm, Stateside)
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Not to get all Footloose on you, but the devil’s music tends to lead to dancing… a whole lot of dancing in the case of Jacob Krupnick’s Girl Walk // All Day, at least based on the thoroughly charming trailer. It’s a mashup of Girl Talk sounds and YouTube star Anne Marsen’s freestyle moves, set on the streets on New York. (Marsen look familiar? She cameoed on The Good Wife.) (3/9, 7:30pm, Vimeo)
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“What’s the next step when you retire before your 30th birthday?” asks the trailer for The Last Fall. In the case of first-time filmmaker and former NFL player Matthew A. Cherry, the answer was to write and direct a narrative film that called on his own experiences transitioning out of the sport. (3/9, 6pm, Alamo Lamar)
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Bobcat Goldthwait’s films aren’t everybody’s cup of tea. (Truth: We watched his last film, World’s Greatest Dad, wearing a 99-minute grimace.) But we’re also not gonna argue against provocative comedy that pokes a stick at societal mores. Judging by the red band trailer below, his newest, God Bless America, just doesn’t just poke a stick but pop a cap in that ass. (3/9, 9pm, Alamo Lamar)
This article appears in March 9 • 2012.
