Celebrity Sightings

The documentary Best Worst Movie kicks off a cross-country tour tomorrow with a week-long run in the best city possible for such an event ... this one. It's not that I'm biased about Austin, although I am, but this is a town where screenings of the cult film that is the focus of the doc, Troll 2, sell out like crazy. In fact, Troll 2 events at Alamo Drafthouse and Rolling Roadshow are featured in the documentary, and you can even catch a nostalgic glimpse of the original Alamo Drafthouse on Colorado. Opening the movie in New York or LA first would have been downright wrong.

As all good Troll 2 fans know, Troll 2 isn't actually about trolls. The monsters are in fact goblins. And to promote Best Worst Movie, a pair of goblins have been venturing around Austin all week, visiting some of the city's finest and most unusual landmarks. You have to admire their dedication -- after all, you didn't see any Na'vi bumming around Barton Springs to promote Avatar, or sad teen vampires lurking around the Daniel Johnston frog mural for the Twilight movies.

You can view the full set of photos from the "Austin Goblin Tour" on the Facebook page for Best Worst Movie, including stops at Iron Works (but aren't they vegetarian?), Toy Joy, Spider House and I Luv Video. The Best Worst Movie folks have kindly granted me permission to show you a few of my favorites from other stops on the tour, below the jump.

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.

I've missed John Pierson's master class at The University of Texas this year. I've enrolled in the master class several times, and have always enjoyed the guests from the film industry that Pierson interviews each week. He's brought a variety of speakers to Austin, from film-festival programmers to local film critics to actors such as Steve Buscemi to well-known filmmakers such as Kevin Smith and Ross McElwee. The "celebrity" speakers are always fun, but I naturally have a soft spot for the local guests ... one of my favorites was a very candid evening with Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League a few years ago.

Last week's class was one I was especially sorry to miss: author Alison Macor, whose book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids was recently published, discussed Austin film history with local filmmaker Richard Linklater. I hope this is one of the sessions that KUT recorded and will air this summer, as they've done with other sessions from Pierson's classes.

This was my sixth SXSW Film Festival and my fifth as a distinguished member of the press. This was also the first SXSW that I seriously felt like an editor here at Slackerwood. If you look at our SXSW coverage list, you'll see why. We've written 50 articles during and after SXSW so far, not counting the guides and interviews done beforehand. We were able to run five articles a day some days, which is really fucking incredible for a site that used to be dead for two weeks at a time because Chris and I felt too busy or slackery to update it. We had unexpected contributors who pitched in and added to the fun. It did mean more time on the computer and less time in the theater, but I still saw so many wonderful movies that I can't complain.

Let's get to the fun part. I'm taking the slackery way out and giving you a list of my SXSW 2010 experiences.

Favorite movies coming to a theater near you: Micmacs, the latest film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), which I liked so much that I saw at a press screening and then at the official SXSW screening. Okay, part of that was because the line for Cold Weather was too long and I knew I wouldn't get in, but still. Here's my Cinematical review. Expect to see Micmacs in American theaters sometime this summer. I also really liked Steven Soderbergh's film about Spalding Gray, And Everything Is Going Fine, which I hope to review soon (we'll see). And the Duplass brothers' film Cyrus was quite enjoyable (my review), and should be hitting theaters this summer too.

I know I've mentioned before (possibly to the point of causing you to roll your eyes) that my favorite Austin red-carpet event every year is the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards. The only drawback to the evening is that it's the night before SXSW, so I get sucked up into this whirlwind of festival-tude before I can show you all the cool pictures I took.

This year, for the tenth annual awards, I covered the red carpet portion of the evening and Debbie Cerda took over for the actual awards ceremony. I admit I missed getting to watch the ceremony, which I enjoy, although I get exhausted from all the standing and kneeling and photography work by the end of the night. Someday maybe I'll get a seat at one of the tables. I'd probably have to dress up then, though. One advantage of working as press is that I get to wear sneakers.

I wrote about the evening for Cinematical, and that article includes a nice photo gallery of nationally recognizable celebrities, as well as excellent embedded videos from other media sites. You might want to check that out first. But I still have some photos left, especially of familiar Austin faces, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Off we go.

I confess that the movie Lemmy was a pleasant surprise for me at SXSW. You'd think I would learn my lesson -- just because you aren't familiar with or aren't fond of a certain type of music, or musician, that doesn't mean you won't like a documentary about it/them. One of my favorite music documentaries is The Devil and Daniel Johnston but you won't find any of Johnston's albums in my house. I was assigned to review Lemmy for Cinematical and wasn't terribly enthusiastic, not being a big Motorhead fan, but as you can see from my review, I liked the documentary very much and found Lemmy to be a quite fascinating subject.

After Lemmy played the Paramount, filmmakers Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski appeared onstage for a Q&A. They were shortly joined by Lemmy himself, who is even more entertaining in person than he is in the movie. And near the end of the Q&A, the rest of Motorhead walked up from their seats in the audience and joined the group onstage, as you can see from the above photo. No one wanted to leave -- it was a fun and lively Q&A.

I've got a photo of Olliver and Orshoski after the jump. No news yet on when we'll get a chance to see Lemmy again, but I'll keep you posted.

The DVD release of Twilight: New Moon was not on my radar last week until a couple of "Twihards" asked, "OMG -- did you get to meet Ashley Greene or Kristen Stewart at SXSW?!" As I showed you previously, I saw Stewart at The Runaways screening along with her co-star Dakota Fanning and rock star Cherie Currie. Indeed the red carpets were abuzz for the arrivals of both Twilight stars for their respective movies.

Ashley Greene, who plays Alice Cullen in the Twilight series, showed up in Austin during SXSW to promote Skateland. Skateland is set in the early 1980s and is centered around a 19-year-old skating rink manager who is forced to look in his life in a new way. However, it's the strength of the female characters and the women who portray them -- led by Greene -- that stands out in this film. Although most of the filming took place in Shreveport, Louisiana, the story is set in a small Texas town and many of the filmmakers graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, including producer Heath Freeman, who also plays Greene's character's brother.

If I recall correctly, I covered a total of nine red carpet premiere events at SXSW Film Festival this year. By far my favorite event was the red carpet for the locally produced documentary Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission, which took place on Sunday afternoon, March 14, at the Paramount Theatre. On display were some special items from his space travel collection, including a spacesuit and an actual Sputnik.

Young film stars Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart joined Cherie Currie and writer/director Floria Sigismondi at the SXSW premiere of The Runaways last night. Fanning portrays Currie and Stewart delivers an outstanding performance as Joan Jett in this biopic based on Currie's novel, "Neon Angel."  The Runaways covers the formation of the all-girl musical group of the same name through to Currie's departure at the peak of their success. The relationship between lead vocalist Currie and guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett is highlighted as well as Currie's drug addiction.

Check out Jenn's review for more details. If you missed the screening, don't worry -- The Runaways opens in theaters today.

More photos of the Q&A are available on our Flickr page -- and no, I do not have photographic evidence of Floria's wardrobe malfunction so don't ask!

[Photo credit: 'Cherie Currie, Floria Sigismondi, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart at SXSW for The Runaways', by Debbie Cerda for Slackerwood on Flickr]

On Sunday, cast and crew of Simon Rumley's latest film, Red White and Blue, slipped away from SXSW to another theater for a private screening before the official world premiere of the film. The events reunited the entire cast and crew for a special celebration and viewing of the final cut of the film. The theater was eerily quiet as everyone focused on the dark and gruesome sequence of events unfolding on the screen. Actors Noah Taylor, Marc Senter and Nick Ashy Holden (pictured above) were all sitting together. As a filming location for last summer's shoot, I enjoyed recognizing my house in several scenes. Just look for the Fantastic Fest poster in the film and you will understand why I have trouble leaving the curtains open at night.

Red White and Blue is reminiscent of Rumley's The Living and the Dead in that once again he is not afraid to expose raw nerves -- like a bad car crash, you can't help but look -- but stylistically it's the cinematography and direction takes on a different approach. Stay tuned for Jenn Brown's review of Red White and Blue.

Red White and Blue plays SXSW one more time: Friday, March 19 at 9 pm at Alamo South Lamar.

[Photo credit: Noah Taylor, Marc Senter, and Nick Ashy Holden, by Debbie Cerda for Slackerwood, on Flickr. More photos are available on our Flickr page.]