Buy Tickets Today to See 'Qwerty' in Austin

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Qwerty poster

Updated: The Tugg screening of Qwerty met its initial ticket goal, so the screening will indeed take place. Plenty of tickets are still available!

I tend to avoid big Hollywood romantic comedies these days -- too formulaic, too mean-spirited, too dumb. (And let's not get started on the sexism.) I get my romantic-comedy fix from film festivals, because the indie films in this genre are often witty and smart and fun to watch, with well-written characters.

So it was with Qwerty, which I caught at Dallas International Film Festival this year. After the jump, you can read what I had to say about the film back then.

Qwerty is finally getting an Austin screening -- but it's via Tugg, so a specific number of tickets must be sold in advance for the screening to take place. Right now, they've got to sell about 30 tickets before 7:30 pm today (December 11). If enough tickets are sold, the screening will happen next Tuesday, December 18, at 7:30 pm at Barton Creek. Director Bill Sebastian and lead actress Dana Pupkin will be at the screening for a post-film Q&A.

So read my comments below and I hope they will persuade you to buy a ticket right now. If you like a good quirky romantic comedy that isn't formulaic or patronizing or full of poop and vomit jokes, you won't want to miss Qwerty.

"Klingon!"

The second I heard that from the main character in Qwerty, I knew I was going to like this movie. Or at least I hoped so. Zoe (Dana Pupkin) is just the kind of nerdy woman I would identify with -- fairly ordinary looking, solitary, somewhat shy, and in love with the written word. Her day job is at the DMV, making sure vanity license plate requests aren't dirty. She's a huge Scrabble fan who doesn't have the nerve to play with other people, she doesn't fit in with her family. While shopping one day, she meets cute (I can't resist) with Marty (Eric Hailey), another shy and solitary type, but somewhat more lonely and melancholy. 

Zoe and Marty fall for one another and eventually become an adorable couple -- he encourages her word-nerdiness, she finds him the perfect job and helps out his homeless friend. It's all very sweet without being too deliberately quirky or sentimental, and it doesn't have that rote-by-numbers feel of many romantic comedies. The emotions, particularly the more negative ones, felt real and not contrived. And video geeks will be happy to see that Zoe owns a lot of VHS tapes.

Qwerty is a fairly simple movie and it's difficult for me to say more than, this was beautifully made and I hope you get to see it. It has no distribution yet but is making the rounds on the fest circuit, so keep an eye out, especially if you are a Scrabble fan. Director Bill Sebastian brought his cute new baby to the screening, too.

Texas connections: Bill Sebastian is from Dallas and went to SMU; he had a role in Clay Liford's feature Earthling. Austin filmmaker and graphic designer Yen Tan did the artwork for this film.