Reviews

Drugs are bad, 'mmkay? In this post-Nancy Reagan War on Drugs age, we drink from the pharmaceutical fountain more than ever. We have pills to perk you up, pills to calm you down, pills for social anxiety, pills for depression and pills for erectile dysfunction. In fact, it seems like the only drugs it's not okay to take are the ones that exist just to have fun.

In Limitless, Bradley Cooper discovers the most exceptional drug ever created. Unfortunately, for a top-secret prototype, a lot of people seem to know about it and want to get their hands on it. On top of avoiding all the people who want to get their hands on his stash and negotiating corporate mergers to build his empire, Eddie (Cooper) begins to learn that the brain power the drug lets him access has to be paid back with devastating consequences.

The SXSW Texas Shorts screening is a diverse and impressive mix of shorts made in Texas or by Texas filmmakers. While the nine films range widely in their subjects and filmmaking styles, many of them are either dark or darkly funny, exploring everything from substance abuse to a murderous automated pool cleaner. Collections of short films can be hit or miss, but I enjoyed all the Texas Shorts selections. The smallish crowd at the screening on March 15 at the Rollins Theatre seemed very appreciative of the films also.

The most interesting of the lot is Chainsaw Found Jesus, directed by Spencer Parsons (I'll Come Running). Described as a "suburban fairy tale," the Austin-made film is a tragicomic story about two fathers and their sons who spend an afternoon together. While the kids entertain themselves with porn magazines and a neighborhood walk, the fathers do a drug deal in the garage and discuss why one of them recently turned to Jesus. The film is very funny and yet slightly bitter, and Sonny Carl Davis adds a bit of indie-film royalty to the mix.

Arguably the most intense film is Drawback, directed by Daniel Rigdon. In this Austin-made short, an impoverished, beaten-down man visits his former girlfriend. From their conversation and several slickly edited flashbacks, we learn that he's lived a hard life of bad choices and bad news; now he's trying to make sense of his fate. Well crafted, empathetic and thoughtful, Drawback is a captivating look at a life no one would envy.

For me, SXSW 2011 may be the year of the charmingly disturbing film ... although come to think of it, I saw a few of those in 2010 too. I've always said that I don't want to watch movies with unsympathetic main characters, but in the past couple of years, filmmakers -- those in Texas particularly -- have made me change my mind if the film is sufficiently good (or better yet, funny). The latest film from Texas filmmaker Clay Liford (who just moved from Dallas to Austin) is Wuss, a movie about a pathetic wet noodle of a loser, someone you'd shrink away from at a party or in the office breakroom, who is far more compelling than you might initially guess.

Part of the credit here must go to Nate Rubin, who portrays the character described in the title, Mitch. Mitch manages at first to draw the attention of a charming woman at his high-school reunion, even when he admits he's a high-school English teacher living with his mom ... however, she's suddenly repelled by him after he cows to verbal nastiness from the school's vice principal, Wally, played by local filmmaker Alex Karpovsky, who's developing a niche for believably awful characters.

I'm a longtime fan of films that deal frankly with society's worst problems. Poverty, domestic violence, crime, racism and other harsh realities of the human condition can be the stuff of stunningly powerful cinema.

Unfortunately, the gritty and earnest Yelling to the Sky isn't quite the powerful social statement it aspires to be. While it presents many convincing images of an impoverished and completely dysfunctional family, it suffers from clichéd story elements, uneven pacing and underdeveloped characters.

The film, which screened at the Arbor on the first Saturday of SXSW, is the story of Sweetness O'Hara (Zoë Kravitz), a Queens teenager doing her best to survive in her beaten-down world. Her father, Gordon (Jason Clarke) is a violent, manic depressive alcoholic who's often AWOL from the household. His wife, Lorene (Yolanda Ross) suffers from depression and other vague ailments that leave her barely able to function. Sweetness's older sister, Ola (Antonique Smith) is pregnant by an abusive loser.

I sometimes find it hard to review politically charged documentaries. Like many critics, I don't limit my opining just to film; discussing political and social issues is one of my favorite pastimes. (My Facebook friends know this all too well.) When the worlds of film and politics intersect in documentaries, it can be a struggle to separate my opinions about a movie and its subject matter.

Better This World is such a film, a fascinating but disheartening documentary about two young Austin activists, Brad Crowder and David McKay, who were charged with domestic terrorism while protesting at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. While I greatly admire the film (which had its world premiere on March 12 at the Vimeo Theater and screened again on March 14 at the Alamo South Lamar), I found the story it tells completely infuriating.

Crowder and McKay are longtime friends who grew up together in Midland and moved to Austin in their early twenties. In 2008, they attended an event held by the RNC Welcoming Committee, a Minnesota group that was recruiting activists to "shut down" the Republican National Convention by protesting and blocking streets.

As cliched as it may sound, the "must-see" movie at SXSW 2011 is Natural Selection, a joyful bittersweet story filmed in Smithville, Texas. From the opening moment, writer/director Robbie Pickering pulls viewers in for a fun and passionate ride from the pinnacle of conservative Christianity to the lows of the wrong side of the law.

The film focuses on Linda White (Rachael Harris), a barren and lonely Christian housewife in her 40s, who leads a sheltered existence in suburban Texas. Stringent religious convictions forbid Linda and her husband Abe (John Diehl) from copulating without the intent of procreating, resulting in an asexual marriage that has left Linda frustrated, lonely and full of shame. To compensate, she lives her life for everyone but herself.

After Abe suffers a stroke, Linda discovers that he has been keeping a secret -- donating to a sperm bank for over 20 years. From his hospital bed he asks her to find his 23-year-old biological son Raymond who is living in Florida. Linda sets off on a quixotic journey to find Raymond (Matt O'Leary) and bring him back before her husband passes away. Along the way, she develops a relationship with the troubled Raymond as they share their intimate secrets, allowing her to come to terms with herself and thereby discovering her own path.

Any film that gives away a critical plot device before the first scene starts is clearly ambitious. Aaron Rottinghaus' feature film debut Apart is just that, an intricately layered romantic thriller about a young man haunted by the past he cannot remember.

Inspired by a rare psychological disorder (folie à deux or ICD-10, F.24) that occurs when two people share delusions where the only known cure is separation, Apart reveals itself slowly as Noah Green (Josh Danziger) is recovering from an unrevealed trauma.  As Noah recovers, it's clear he's not aware of all that transpired before he ended up in the hospital. 

Flashbacks depict a strong bond with childhood friend and would-be sweetheart Emily (Olesya Rulin), now absent from his life.  Apart doesn’t so much play fast and loose with chronology, as it deliberately teases at what could have been and can never be, making it all the more poignant.  More importantly Rottinghaus’ script (based on a story by Rottinghaus and Danziger) underscores the ‘why’ while teasing out details, mimicking Noah’s quest to reconcile with his past and his childhood companion.  With the ultimate reason known before the first shot, Apart isn’t focused on a flashy reveal, and instead puts it where it belongs, in a very human story.

Deciding which movies to see at film festivals can be a crap shoot. Some incessantly hyped films with great pedigrees can be enormously disappointing. On the other hand, some largely unpublicized films don't come across well in trailers and synopses, so you skip them, only to hear later that you missed a truly great time at the movies. Still others seem worth a look, so you give them a chance and discover that they are, well, worth a look, but not memorable.

And then there are rare indie gems like Five Time Champion that remind you why you go to film festivals.

Be prepared for a gushing review of this stellar film, one of the best I've seen in ages. Oh, if only all movies were such a pleasure to review; the greatest challenge in reviewing Five Time Champion, which had its world premiere at the Paramount on March 12, may be finding enough superlatives to describe its many charms without being repetitive.

Set and filmed in Austin and Smithville, Texas, Five Time Champion is equal parts teen romance, coming of age story and commentary about the complicated nature of relationships at every stage in life. The protagonist is 13-ish Julius (Ryan Akin), a smart, scientifically gifted kid who's in the awkward throes of sexual exploration with his girlfriend, Shiley (Noell Coet). Complicating matters are the obvious charms of his classmate Teena (Gabi Walker), who's ready to take Shiley's place at the first available opportunity. Further complicating matters is Julius's general ambivalence toward sex; he wonders if he's gay, especially since his long-gone father, Harold (Robert Longstreet), is rumored to have left his mother for another man. Julius's confusion about his own sexual orientation leads to horrifying self-destructive behavior.

On Friday night, Austin-based filmmaker Aaron Burns brought his first feature-length film, blacktino, to the Paramount Theatre for its world premier. It was an event worthy of SXSW opening night. A food truck was parked on 7th Street, giving out free tacos to the crowd. A photo backdrop was setup for people to take pictures. Even the director was out -- buzzing a bit from opening-night adrenaline -- walking the line and greeting the enthusiastic crowd.

The movie started late, due to delays in seating, but once it did the crowd was no less enthusiastic. Every credit was given a loud cheer. If they showed those awful "FBI warnings" before cinema films, I think even that would have gotten applause. This clearly was a hometown crowd rooting for the home team. They even applauded a shot of the Austin skyline, later in the film.

Blacktino is a dark teen comedy about drama nerd Stefan Daily (Austin Marshall), born of an African-American mother and a Hispanic father. Daily lives with his Nana (charmingly played with a small dose of Betty White spunkiness by Selma Pinkard). In his spare time, Stefan writes music and keeps a blog. His school is divided into rigid cliques, and it's not that there is a lot of hostility among the groups -- they just don't mix.

Little Deaths is playing SXSW as part of its SXFantastic genre film series. It's a UK anthology of three stories connected by themes of sex (often kinky) and death (often disturbing).

In "House and Home," a couple with the enthusiasm of religious missionaries and an inability to find sexual satisfaction in each other do find that satisfaction by preying on society's unfortunates. They may have bitten off too much, however, with their latest victim. This story felt a bit simplisitic, and lacked the foreshadowing necessary to deliver satisfying payoff from the turns. Caution: while the entire film is infused with sex and horror, this particular short had scenes of sexual violence that might be difficult for some.