Local Cast and Crew

I had planned to see Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk with Me last Thursday afternoon, but it was playing the tiny theatre at Alamo Ritz and of course filled up with badges before we folks with passes or ticketbuyers could get in. I saw that Jonathan Lisecki's comedy Gayby was playing the State around the same time, and since my friend had caught an earlier screening of the film and loved it, I figured there was a good chance I would enjoy the movie. And did I!

The core relationship in Gayby is between thirtysomething single best friends Jenn and Matt. Jenn (Jenn Harris) loves her job teaching hot yoga and is supporting her married sis through her adoption process. After a conversation with her sister Kelly (Anna Margaret Hollyman), Jenn asks Matt (Matthew Wilkas) if he wants to have a baby with her. Matt, still feeling raw after a breakup months ago, has had a recent run of unsuccessful dates; we view one in the first scene, featuring Christian Coulson (aka Tom Marvolo Riddle from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Matt is the kind of guy who rearranges his work schedule so he won't be at his own comic-book store when his ex comes in.

However people decide they feel about the comparison about the similarity of Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas, if you watch Blue Like Jazz, there's certainly some validity to the argument that people in both cities are cut from the same cloth. Based on a novel of the same name, the movie Blue Like Jazz plays like the sort of coming-of-age tale that many sheltered adolescents no doubt experience when they first go off to college. It's the second novel from Donald Miller and is a collection of essays and personal thoughts written as he was experiencing college and learning more about God and nature.

As small-town Texas young adult Don (Marshall Allman) is choosing where to go to college, he learns that his mother has been having an affair with Don's friend, who's also the youth pastor at their church. This shock to the system leads Don to take his father up on his offer of free schooling at Reed College, one of the most liberal schools in the country. While there, he meets an unusual cast of characters who show him there's more to life than a strict Baptist upbringing, and he learns more about himself than he ever has.

This year's SXSW Film Festival featured over a dozen music-related films between special screenings and the 24 Beats per Second program selections, but none fused together film and music like Cuban filmmaker Jorge Perugorría's documentary/narrative Amor Cronico. The film spotlights Grammy nominated singer/songwriter and actress Cucu Diamantes, a Grammy-nominated Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist. Perugorria seamlessly blends together live concert footage of Cucu Diamantes' cabaret style performances across Cuba -- the first touring artist from outside the country in over 50 years -- with a narrative full of humor and homages to historical filmmakers and movies, including Cuban underground films.

Amor Cronico is a love story, but less about Gurapo's (Liosky Clavero) unrequited love for Cucu and more about Cucu's love for Cuba. All is not perfect for Cucu when she returns to her country of birth -- "too much of a Cuban to live in New York, too much of a New Yorker to live in Havana" and referred to as "the Crazy Red" and "Caribbean Mata Hari." Cucu's complexity relies on balancing her carefree artistic expression with her steadfast determination to be herself as demonstrated through her mantras -- "love performs miracles" and "you have to be who you are, and stand on your own two feet."

Crystal and Leo are the perfect couple.

Perfectly unhinged, that is. The two subjects of Sun Don't Shine live in a world of rage and are best avoided as they travel the highways of central Florida, greeting everyone who crosses their paths with wild-eyed looks of desperation. As their harrowing back stories unfold during their road trip, we learn the dark details of their lives and their journey.

If my description of Sun Don't Shine is cryptic, it's because revealing any further details would undermine most of the film's spellbinding tension. All I'll say is that Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil) and Leo (Kentucker Audley) are running a ghastly errand.

Filmmaker Amy Seimetz has crafted a gripping piece of cinematic horror with Sun Don't Shine, a film that peels away layer upon layer of darkness to develop its twisted story and characters. The story's simplicity and compactness belie its complex characters and broad indictment of human behavior. There is far more going on than just a crazed couple on a road trip from hell; the movie gets to the heart of what inspires people to commit violent acts and craftily blurs the line between good and evil.

The number of South by Southwest parties is so staggering that I unplugged from nearly all the SXSW Interactive parties and only attended a few SXSW Film parties this year. The opening and closing-night parties are always "must attend" events, as they provide an opportunity to mingle with festival attendees, filmmakers and actors from near and far.

At the Film Opening Party at Buffalo Billiards, I chatted with Austin filmmaker Geoff Marslett, seen above with actress Laura Aidan (Fright Night 2011) and her husband Chris Aidan. Marslett directed some of the SXSW 2012 Film Festival bumpers this year and starred in one -- I swear by the end of the bumper that he was emulating local film writer C. Robert Cargill.

The feature film Wolf, by Texan writer and director Ya'Ke Smith, is the story of a black family dealing with the fallout from their son's molestation by the bishop of their church. I specify "black" because Smith is telling the story from an African-American cultural perspective, which informs the actions of every character. Smith shot the film in his own church, with the blessing of his bishop, after hearing the stories of many friends who had undergone similar experiences.

In his acting debut, Jordan Cooper portrays Carl, a young man dealing with feelings of confusion and rejection after Bishop Anderson (Eugene Lee), feeling guilty for molesting him, has broken off the relationship. Carl's feelings escalate until they precipitate a suicide attempt. In the hospital, his parents discover what's been going on thanks to photos and video on his phone. While they encounter opposition from church leaders in their pursuit of justice against the bishop, they also must deal with opposition from Carl.

RTÉ, Ireland's national TV broadcaster, will be showing a series of pieces this St. Patrick's Day celebrating Irish diaspora and heritage, called "How to Be Irish." Included in this special will be two shorts by Austinite Jake T. Powell and his production partner Micha L. Crook. The two partners make up Monthly Adventures Productions, based out of Austin and Syracuse, New York -- both are Syracuse University grads.

Their first documentary short from 2008, The Feast of St. Patrick: Family, Friends and Food, focuses on the celebration of family history on St. Patrick's Day. The short first showed at London's Wyllie O Hagan Film Festival that year.

"I'm pretty pumped about this showing because it's the second time one of our shorts has screened internationally," Powell said. "I think that the reason it has appeal to the folks in Ireland is that we take a look at Irish-ness which isn't about silly stereotypes but is still a very American perspective. I like green beer as much as the next guy, but growing up around so many people of Irish descent I know it's a lot more than that, and that's what we want to illustrate."

RTÉ asked them to do a follow-up piece along the same lines to show in tandem with the 2008 short, so the duo filmed Fáilte: Irish Hospitality in Central New York earlier this year. "Fáilte" is Gaelic for "welcome." This second documentary short includes thoughts about the theme of hospitality from some Central New Yorkers with Irish ties.

Monthly Adventures starts principal photography on their first fictional short in the fall of 2012.

Horror movie fans have been duped for years now. They've longed for an original idea in horror. For a while it was the "found footage" subgenre. The premise is that the events taking place in front of you are really happening and therein is the terror of the film. It worked a few times, and now it all seems unoriginal -- the best ones one-up a previous good found-footage film by having more gore and/or elements of the supernatural. It's a band-aid on the need that horror film fans have when it comes that genre.

Sinister, which had a "secret screening" at SXSW this weekend, is an anti-found-footage film. Its terror lies in the feeling that it gives you while watching because the events unfolding are genuinely terrifying, not because it wants a part of your brain to realize that these things are really happening. It's a saving grace for horror film fans, and it's the film they've been waiting years for.

Ellison (Ethan Hawke) is a true crime novelist. In his mind, he's a has-been true crime novelist who yearns for the glory days of having a New York Times bestseller once again. To regain that past glory, he's moved his family to the town where a grisly murder once took place. His family doesn't know that he's moved them into the very house that these murders took place, and his kids, along with the local police force, would much rather Ellison go back where he came from.

"How 'bout them Cowboys?"
-- Dallas Cowboys fan Stan "Tiger" Shults

Yeah, how 'bout them? Meh -- I'm not a sports fan, much less a fan of America's Team. Dallas Cowboys football culture -- with its mindless hero worship, distorted sense of importance and blatant displays of greed -- is one of a thousand reasons why I left Dallas 20 years ago and never will go back.

That said, I still found Austin actor and filmmaker Jonny Mars's new documentary America's Parking Lot to be a terrific examination of one of America's most passionate subcultures, the raucous tailgaters at Cowboys home games.

America's Parking Lot focuses on Stan "Tiger" Shults and Cy Ditmore, two longtime members of the Gate 6 Tailgaters, so named because they parked near Gate 6 of Texas Stadium, the Cowboys' former home dome. It is impossible to overstate Shults and Ditmore's enthusiasm for their team or the importance of its role in their lives. How devoted are they? Ditmore has invested more than $10,000 in his grilling trailer, which he dutifully tows to every Cowboys home game -- he hasn't missed one since 1988 -- and uses to cook upwards of a thousand dollars' worth of meat for hundreds of his fellow Gate 6 revelers.

Those of us who are geeks of the female variety have often lamented about the scarcity of admirable leading female characters, and that's certainly true in comics. What makes Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines stand out is that it explores the history of superheroines, particularly the iconic titular character.

Wonder Women! begins explaining not just the genesis of the character but the evolution of superheroines over nearly a quarter of a century. The interviews include experts from scholars, writers, actresses and even fans, from Gloria Steinem to Jane Espenson and Lynda Carter (pictured at top).  It may be surprising to learn that the original character was written by a man who believed there would be a social shift towards matriarchy -- perhaps despite the titillating appearance of a chesty woman in a bustier.