SXSW

When it comes to contemporary scary tales, most films resort to fantastic gorefests and extremism to provoke reactions from the audience. Thankfully, The Last Exorcism rarely resorts to such cliched convention.

Shot in documentary style, the subject is Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a reforming evangelist who's out to prove how believers can be convinced that demonic possessions and exorcisms are faked to exploit them. Cotton is arrogantly charming, fully aware of his power to persuade, and how that factors into his ability to hoodwink the faithful. When he randomly selects a request to perform an exorcism to expose the trickery behind them, he and the documentary crew are off to rural Louisiana to answer a desperate farmer's pleas. Unfortunately for Cotton, he is asked by a desperate father to perform an exorcism he never wants to do; one on a child.

The acting in The Last Exorcism is outstanding, starting with Fabian (Big Love) as Cotton, whose glee at revealing his tricks could have been annoying, if it wasn't clear his goal is to help people. Ashley Bell, Caleb Landry Jones and Louis Herthum as the Sweetzers all seem straight off the farm, with homespun earnestness and love for their family that expresses itself in different ways for each character.

Robert Duvall returns to the big screen in Get Low, a tale of intentions, reputations and secrets too powerful to remain kept in a Depression-era small town.

When recluse Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) comes to town, tongues wag, conjuring up nearly unspeakable tales, each one worse than the last. Rumors range from strange powers to cold-blooded murder, and he's become such a frightful figure that he's the bogeyman children scare themselves with, as they wonder just what the old man does on his land so far from town. Townsfolk are shocked when he shows up in down in his mule-drawn wagon at a time when cars are taking over the road. Felix is planning for a funeral. But not just any funeral, a living one -- where anyone and everyone who has a story about him will come and tell it to the rest of the gathers and Felix himself.

Local funeral-home owner Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) is more than willing to take Bush's money and sets his assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) to ensure a tidy profit. But what seems an eccentric wish turns into a mystery: Why has Bush isolated himself all these years, and what is his relationship with Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), recently returned to town? As the funeral party plans evolve, the mystery deepens, as Felix clearly has an agenda revolving around his past secrets.

While checking out photos from the red carpet events across the globe for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, I was struck by how photogenic co-star Ashley Greene is. Her natural grace and beauty stands out on the red carpet -- but perhaps I'm biased since I was able to get some great shots of Greene and the rest of the cast during the Skateland premiere at SXSW this year, like the one above.

It has to be no easy feat with the pandemonium that follows The Twilight Saga stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, as I experienced at The Runaways premiere. Stewart seemed quite withdrawn at the SXSW event both on the red carpet and onstage for the Q&A. I dismissed it as the effect of a rigorous press junket, but according to this NY Daily News article, Stewart is quite uncomfortable and fearful during large events. That would definitely explain why she spent most of the Q&A crouched down on the stage.

It doesn't seem that long since my SXSW Film 2010 wrap-up, but SXSW staff are already preparing for 2011. The SXSW PanelPicker went live today, and you can add your ideas here for next year's Film, Interactive and Music conferences.

Per the PanelPicker press release, the SXSW Film Conference is "most interested in proposals geared towards creating, marketing, and finding audiences for films in this new digital age, as well as hands-on workshop ideas."

I really enjoyed this year's "How to Rawk SXSW Film," moderated by Agnes Varnum of Austin Film Society. Questions from the audience included where attendees could find screenwriting tips -- not in panels, but mentor sessions are good places -- to how and where to meet with Interactive Conference attendees. I recommended the "crossover" panels and special events as good locations to intermingle.

SXSW welcomes crossover panels, which focus on the areas where film, music, and interactive meet. Bear that in mind when you're planning to submit panel ideas for 2011. I mentioned some of these panels in my "SXSW 2010 Guide: Balancing Film and Interactive," but how cool would it be to have a film and music panel about film scores from local composers Graham Reynolds, who scored The Lost World screening at SXSW 2010, and/or Brian Satterwhite (Artois the Goat, Man on a Mission)?

If you missed the Reel Women short films that played during SXSW this year, you can catch special encore screenings of these locally produced films on Friday night, April 30, at Picture Box Studios. The shorts are divided into two sections, one of which screens at 6:30 pm, one at 8:30. Many of the filmmakers are in the above photo.

Local nonprofit organization Reel Women provides support for women at all levels of experience in the film and video industries, and their member filmmakers along with cast and crew from the shorts will be at the event to answer questions. Admission is $5 for one screening, or enjoy a double feature for $8. Reel Women members are admitted for a discounted price of $3 for one screening or $5 for both screenings.

I didn't attend the screenings at SXSW, and am looking forward to seeing these films on Friday. I find the synopsis of Hung Up to be quite intriguing, done in a film noir style and told from the point of view of a dress worn by the femme fatale. The filmmaker is Erin Randall, who has also worked as a costumer on several Robert Rodriguez films. It was voted an "Audience Favorite" by attendees at the SXSW screenings.

It's only mid-April, but the first blockbuster hopeful has arrived, with SXSW 2010's Opening-Night film Kick-Ass expecting to kick some box-office ass this this weekend. Officially the summer blockbusters aren't opening til May, but something tells me that Kick-Ass, a very well-named film, is going to leave some lasting impressions at the box office. 

The Art of the Steal (pictured above) -- In 1922, The Barnes Foundation was scorned as a repository of  "horrible, debased art" but after the turn of the millennium, the collection of Renoirs, Cezannes, Matisses, Picassos, Modiglianis and Van Goghs are the subject of a "rancorous" court battle.  This wasn't on my radar, but the synopsis certainly caught my interest enough to be willing to sit in Austin's least comfortable theater to see it. (Dobie)

City Island -- Andy Garcia is a corrections officer secretly studying to be an actor, whose life and that of his family change when Steven Strait's ex-con enters their lives. Debbie has the full scoop in her review. (Arbor)

There are superhero movies and there are anti-hero movies and rarely do the two mix so well as in Matthew Vaughn's aptly named adaptation of Kick-Ass, the comic book series by Mark Millar, and the ultimate homage to hero movies.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an ordinary high school student who just wants to get the girl, and oh yeah, fit in.  He even goes so far as to try to make friends with Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), son of a reputed crime boss. Dave's obsession with superheroes inadvertently turns him into a YouTube superstar as the vigilante "Kick-Ass." When Kick-Ass lets it go to his head, he ends up encountering other masked heroes and things get pear-shaped.

With Kick-Ass opening on Friday, it seemed like time to revisit the film's screening on the opening night of SXSW. This year's festival started with a record crowd turning up for Kick-Ass, with many of the film's stars and creators in town. Although Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine), pictured above, had not been to SXSW before, he revealed that this wasn't his first time in Austin. He admitted that he loved Austin and had planned to move here after college, but landed in Los Angeles instead.

It's always heartening to see independent productions get a chance to find audiences in theatrical release, and SXSW 2009 selection The Square, a thriller from Australian filmmaker Nash Edgerton, is a superb example. The movie opens Friday in Austin theaters.

Set in the suburbs during holiday season, The Square is a deceptively simple story built upon chaos theory, where seemingly minor events have tragic consequences. Ray (David Roberts) is a construction manager living the good life and building more opportunities for others to do the same. Like many cinematic middle-age men, Ray is dissatisfied with his life but not enough to leave his wife. Ray's fortunes change when his lover approaches him with a pile of cash and the seductive opportunity to start over.

From the UT Film Institute (The Cassidy Kids, Elvis and Annabelle) comes the powerful drama Dance with the One, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival last month and screened this week at the Dallas International Film Festival. Actor Michael Dolan (Hamburger Hill, Biloxi Blues) makes his directorial debut with a story co-written by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith. As thrilling and suspenseful as a crime caper, it's really the family drama and determination of the main character that engage viewers.

In Dance with the One, small-time pot dealer Nate (Gabriel Luna) is in the business to support his family. Scarred by the tragic death of their mother, Nate wants to get his little brother Sitter (Mike Davis) away from his alcoholic dad Owen (Gary McCleery), as well as himself and his childhood sweetheart Nikki (Xochitl Romero) out of Texas to Oregon. Nate takes the opportunity to help his boss Bobby (Paul Saucido) -- who's also Nikki's dad -- to take care of a situation with a harder substance, hoping the money he earns will be the final push to freedom. However, things go wrong when the drugs go missing, and Nate must find a way to protect his family from the silent partner out for his investment and blood.