SXSW Day 7: Drive-By Reviews

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SXSW 2009

With the film conference over, and the music conference and festival well underway, attendance is dropping for the screenings, but not nearly as much as in recent years. From what I understand, attendance is up overall, but this is a very positive sign for the festival and for Janet Pierson's first year as the producer. Succession is not an easy thing, and Matt Dentler certainly left his stamp on SXSW, but I have to say it's been a solid program, and the SXSW team should be proud.

I had the day planned out, I was going to make it to five screenings, but first I got up later than expected, and then the music festival hit. I'm not a big fan of the Sixth Street insanity at the best of times, and the cacophony of very loud music from every possible angle, just made it impossible for me to keep my sanity and stay at the Ritz as planned. So after just one screening, I was back at the South Lamar Alamo, which is my home theater. I ended up skipping my last screening there, not because the buzz was bad (just the opposite), but because I'm getting movied out. I'm so movied out, I haven't done the snippet reviews of what I watched yesterday.

When I planned to skip it, I planned to be home "early" but didn't make it home until after 1 am, because I was just hanging out talking. That's what makes film festivals in Austin great; there's a real sense of community, and SXSW has that in spades. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was hanging out downtown earlier in the week, and no one was bothering him. I've seen Justin Kirk once as well, and heard he's seeing other films and not just here for his (Four Boxes). There's not a whole lot of the celebrity syndrome here.

It was feeling a lot like Fantastic Fest to me, where people were enjoying the down time out on the patio at the South Lamar Alamo, and not waiting in queues. No agenda, just hanging out and talking to everyone, from filmmakers, reps, and critics, to festival and theater staff and fans, and had a great time. I have an open invitation from one director to look him up if I ever get to Australia. If I can muster up the energy (and skip another film), I may go see someone's band play kid-friendly music at Hey Cupcake on South Congress tomorrow at 2 pm that I'd never know about otherwise.