Scattered SXSW Notes

I've got about 20 minutes. Let's see what's been going on.

• A funny moment on opening night: The red carpet for I Love You, Man was super-crowded, plus it was cold and raining and ... I thought a minute, then rushed from Paramount to ACC and caught The 2 Bobs instead. This is a fun movie if you live in Austin, because you can probably pick out every single locale. Plus, Turk Pipkin has an unbelievably freaky small role.
• I just saw David Lowery's St. Nick and wow. Lovely. The kids are amazing.
• I've used the shuttle service a few times. Works very well, although you do have to allow a bit of time -- 20 to 30 minutes total.
• The only problem with the shuttle is that I suspect a lot of locals are parking their cars at Alamo South Lamar for the day, then riding the shuttle downtown and back. The South Lamar parking lot was entirely full, front and back, when I showed up there for movies last night. People were parking in the neighborhood, which isn't good for anyone. I found a spot in the parking lot that was technically legal, but still was relieved that no one towed my car.
• Having said all that, I'm currently at ACC and my car is at South Lamar. But I do have movies there tonight, so I'm not merely using it as a park-and-ride.
• I hope next year, the shuttle runs through the entire film festival. This is a hint.
• Funny story: I went to see American Prince on Friday night at South Lamar, and rode on the shuttle with a couple of Austin film critics who shall remain nameless. We get to the theater and since Winnebago Man is sold out, they decide to see American Prince with me. Because the movie is directed by Tommy Pallotta, who used to live in Austin, and has Richard Linklater in it, there are a lot of familiar faces in the audience. And it turns out that we're sitting in the row above the reserved row. So we see Linklater sitting near us, but he goes to a lot of Austin events, so we're all blase. There's Catherine Hardwicke, which is cool, but the two critics with me are blase. But then a guy I can't quite identify sits in front of us and my two colleagues go wild. "Is that really -- it is! It's Alex Jones!" "Shut up, dude, he'll hear you." It was as though they were schoolgirls sitting behind one of the Jonas brothers. Alex Jones groupies, who'd have guessed?
• The above photo is the audience for that screening, so you can see whether you can spot Alex Jones for yourself.
• I thought American Prince was more enjoyable than the movie it was paired with (and that it's about): Scorsese's American Boy. I hope that's not sacrilegious. But I liked the older Steven Prince better than the younger one.
• At the Q&A for American Prince, the first few audience questions were all related to the medical marijuana facility that Prince works with in California, by people who were ready to pack up the car and go there themselves.
• They really had live goats at the Artois the Goat screening. I'm sorry I missed that. I suppose it would have been appropriate to bring the goats back for the midnight screening of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, but having Raimi there in person was better.
• The audience for Drag Me to Hell was even livelier and more excited than the one for the Office Space 10th anniversary screening last month. The perfect way to see that particular film.
• I'm not sure whether I'm unconsciously stalking City Council member Laura Morrison or if she's stalking me, but she sat in front of me for Women in Trouble and next to me for Say My Name. Or maybe we just both like movies about strong and interesting women?
• I keep seeing Elvis Mitchell -- he truly is everywhere -- but am too chicken to go up and say hi. Someday ...
• I just stole a poster for Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo out of the press room. Admittedly, they are about to throw it out. I hope no one minds. But it's the loveliest poster this year, especially printed on the heavy light brown cardstock.
• Time to go see Eggshells. More later.