SXSW Online 2021 Review Feature
One year ago, the cancelation of South by Southwest 2020 occurred right at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The short notice cancellation of the 2020 festival made for an understandably different experience from what we have come to love about SXSW, but in the wake of such grave uncertainty for film festivals, the fine folks down in Austin are putting on SXSW Online 2021, an all digital incarnation of the beloved event featuring the same core pillars of prior festivals (minus the ‘Interactive’ segment) running from March 16th to the 20th.
For the second year in row, Cinema As We Know It will be experiencing SXSW from the remote isolation of our living rooms, covering as much as we can while we long for the days of Torchy’s Tacos and Alamo Drafthouses. Below you’ll find our written reviews from the 2021 festival all in one place. We’ll be releasing reviews as the festival goes on, plus we’ll also be adding written pieces in the days after as we get caught up with every thing we’ve seen, so check back regularly for new additions!
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Language Lessons
“…As a birthday present from his husband Will, Adam (Mark Duplass) receives a series of weekly, virtual language lessons to practice his Spanish skills. Taught by Cariño (Morales), the student and teacher pair build up a conversational rapport with one another until their initial awkwardness fades entirely. When Will dies, Adam falls into a depression, and the weekly meetings start to take on a supportive escape, opening up the dynamic to mutual investment in each other’s lives.
What begins as an opportunity to brush up on linguistics evolves into a codependent friendship. As Adam deals with grief in Los Angeles, Cariño deals with a set of her own personal issues in Costa Rica, issues she is reluctant to open up about. The dialog the two engage in underscores an inherent need to communicate and connect with others, irrespective of time zones or language barrier or background, making Language Lessons’ ultimate point feel universal.
Though the film is not explicit in its mention of COVID, its themes are COVID adjacent. The inherent lack of human connection this past year has made its presence stand out all the more, particularly since we’ve all been communicating the same way Adam and Cariño do. Video calls, by nature, are a way to put a face to a conversation that’s more intimate than a phone or text message. The choice to tell this story through video calls serves as not only as a byproduct of production circumstance, but also a reminder of why we do them in the first place: to connect with others. And while third act plot progression advances in obtuse ways, the ending is a tender culmination of friendship, making Language Lessons a pandemic film I can get behind.”
FULL REVIEW CAN BE FOUND HERE
—Greg Arietta
The Spine of Night
“The Spine of Night is kind of film you would find on Adult Swim. In part because of its graphic animated violence, but also because of its niche, high-fantasy genre dealings that play well with late night audiences. As a highlight of this year’s SXSW film festival, Philip Gelatt’s and Morgan Galen King’s rotoscoped feature film leans hard into influences, pulling no punches when it come to its world building or sense of scope, and it’s precisely because of this commitment to the fantasy genre that The Spine of Night satisfies as much as it entertains.
This branching tale centers around Tzod, a witch of the sacred swamp lands whose home is burned to the ground by an imperialist lord. Around her neck hangs a wreath of blue flowers that are capable of untold powers. Said flowers descended from ancient gods long before Tzod’s time, but within their petals contain knowledge beyond understanding, power too much for any one human to possess alone. When those flowers fall into the hands of academic scholar Ghal-Sur, the realm plunges into darkness as he uses his ill-gotten abilities to conquer towns and cities and bringing death and destruction in his wake. Chronicled by the collective efforts of a select few, the land tries to restore balance by bringing an end to the reign of a maniacal zealot hell bent on becoming a god…”
FULL REVIEW CAN BE FOUND HERE
—Greg Arietta
Violet
“…Violet’s most alluring aspect is its cinematic embodiment of Violet’s internal voice. It isn’t simply made of a snippets of biting voiceover from Theroux, but rather it incorporates a diverse use of cinematic tools. During an escalated argument with her friend Lyla, and during much of the film’s runtime, scrawled text appears overlaying the screen saying “Please don’t go.” Does this hint at Violet’s true emotions or her deceitful internal voice? Adding to the variety are stunted glimpses of traumatic memories that hint at characters’ unseen pasts and frames that slowly changed hues to accentuate particularly intense moments. In all, Bateman does not want a passive viewing experience, but it does at times border on overwhelming, especially out of the gate.
Still, these tactics embody the death-by-a-thousand-cuts-of-inner-thought that consume Violet and inundate the viewer. As she tries to reassess what makes herself happy, including romantic flames with her best friend Red (Luke Bracey), Munn’s calculated performance as Violet makes the character feels like a universal representation of self-doubt. It’s easy to empathize with, but it soon becomes clear that in order to change, Violet must stop listening to “the committee” and start listening to herself. While Violet loses steam in delivering that emotional payoff, its blend of cinematic tools makes the film an interesting journey nonetheless.”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Kevin Conner
Midnight Shorts
“After a long day of festival dramas and documentaries, it’s nice to know that at the end of the day there are midnighter shorts waiting for you. Often passed on by festival attendees in favor for glamorous headliners and indie darlings, this programming block is consistently home to the best genre experiences of any festival, and you never know what you’re gonna get. Weed smoking marionette puppets, sex deprived quarantine horniness, taxidermy musical numbers, and transactional deals with the devil to become a rap god are just some of the premises among the thirteen lucky selections in this year’s SXSW midnighter shorts section, and with pitches like that, how could one not be at least a little intrigued by what’s in store?
Making up the lighter, weirder, and funnier consortium this year were a number of shorts that went for shock value and really leaned into their high concept premises. Joanne is Dead focuses on two neglectful retirement home nurses who dismiss a patient as senile, only to learn through a bait and switch reversal that what she’s saying might have some truth to it. Flick depicts the gradual decent into madness after a reclusive college student picks his nose and a parasitic booger clings to his finger, refusing to vacate and demanding drastic measures be taken for removal. And Run That Shit! tells the aforementioned story of an aspiring rapper who is promised fame and glory if he can steal the coveted fecal matter of a fellow rapper and deliver to the devil. All three of these shorts have commendable elements but were unfortunately compromised for one reason or another, be it inadvertently cruel dialog, predictable cliches, or a flat ending that failed to live up to its proposition.
A standout of the ‘funny-weird’ subgrouping, though, was A Puff Before Dying, a film that lets us know what a 1980s D.A.R.E. advisory warning crossed with Team America would look like. Told using marionette puppets, a teen is about to head out for her Friday night and party with her friends, but before she leaves, her father, the local sheriff, is concerned that she may succumb to the pressures of *gasp* marijuana. To her dad, the daughter would never entertain the idea of smoking weed and quickly dismisses the concern, but out on the road with her friends, she asks, “How much harm could one hit do?” The answer to which is as ironically affirming as it is comedically violent. With a good grasp of absurdist tone, A Puff Before Dying leans into its anti-drug message with a gleeful mix of silliness, surrealism, and sadism that makes this inventive hand-crafted production a surefire (bong) hit…”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Greg Arietta
Alone Together
“…And that’s what really shines about Alone Together: the dynamic between Charli and her fans. Like everyone else, Charli is in lockdown. The doc extends sympathy to Charli regarding her mental hurdles during this period, but critically, Alone Together also extends that same sympathy to everyone else. Her fans are just regular people, not internationally renowned pop stars. They have their own personal struggles in their own private lives under their own circumstances, and the doc recognizes that. It is not singular in its pathos, but rather multidirectional. The interconnectedness of fandom working collectively together yield a support network of sorts where even one lonely fan can feel a sense of belonging with others feeling the same shared pandemic experience, including Charli herself.
For Charli, self-worth comes from her music. In very honest and blunt testimony, Charli worries, like many of us, that she isn’t pretty enough, isn’t smart enough, isn’t good enough to warrant a content existence. Her sense of worth derives from her music, and tasking herself with an entire album that could disappoint stresses those mental hurdles even more. When the doc starts to pull in those same concerns from fans who feel the same sense of self-doubt in isolation, Alone Together starts to level the dynamic between pop star and fandom. It’s only through the creation of how i’m feeling now where we can see how much Charli needs her fans as much as they need her, and when we’ve all been alone for so long, the idea of belonging is a warm sentiment to be had.”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Greg Arietta
Introducing, Selma Blair
Introducing, Selma Blair positions itself like any other documentary. The film’s subject, the titular Selma Blair from such fame as Cruel Intentions, Hellboy and Legally Blonde, has been dealing with multiple sclerosis for several years now, and has granted director Rachel Fleit access to her life at a moment when she is about to undergo an experimental procedure to help with her chronic illness. Such openness reveals the difficulties of MS in a way that others might be socially ashamed to share with other — to revel in what was and hide what is — but Blair is an open book who seeks to bring awareness about the disease and inspire with an illuminating spirit. With an accessible demeanor, Fleit relates Blair to the audience with a universal manner: to live life means to experience joy as much as possible and nothing should inhibit that, no matter the hurdle. A hopeful message that’s always worth hearing.
—Greg Arietta
The Lost Sons
“Over 50 years ago, Chester & Dora Fronczak welcomed a healthy baby boy, Paul, into the world at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago only to have their baby kidnapped without a trace. Nearly a year later, authorities recovered an infant in New Jersey matching Paul’s description, and, in disbelief, the Fronczak’s considered the recovery of their child a miracle.
Like many people, Paul Fronczak cannot remember his time as a newborn with clarity, but this tale about his recovery is what Paul knows to be true. At least on the surface. Then, unlike most people, Paul discovers in his middle-years that those stories he was told might not be about him. While Paul is now fully grown, wearing leather jackets and proudly displaying his “trust no one” arm tattoo, he can’t shake the existential possibility of not knowing his blood parents. Ursula Macfarlane’s documentary The Lost Sons chronicles his attempts to unfold his own personal family origins and unearth a mystery several generations in the making…”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Kevin Conner
Clerk
Do you like Kevin Smith? Would you like to know more about Kevin Smith? Do you like talking head documentaries that contextualize an individual’s career and lasting legacy? Then Clerk is just the film for you. Centered on moviemaker, storyteller, stoner, podcaster, comic book guru, and all around polyplast Kevin Smith, Clerk compiles five decades of stories and consolidates it into a one hour fifty-two minute linear history. From his younger years in Red Bank, New Jersey to his ascent (and subsequent descent) as indie filmmaker darling to his fan-driven empire he stands upon today, the film deploys the tried and true method of documentary filmmaking that gathers testimonials from the influenced talking about the influence and plots them around major milestones in Smith’s career. For all its genre conventionality, it does succeed at painting Smith as the big friendly cultural giant he has become within various circles and fandoms. In all, a nice visual Wikipedia article for those so inclined to watch.
—Greg Arietta
Potato Dreams of America
“…Once Potato and his mother eventually hop oceans and land in Seattle, the film focuses more on Potato’s budding adolescence and sexuality. Potato becomes infatuated with a particular movie found at his local video store—which happens to be the beloved Scarecrow Video—and he finds himself rewatching the more erotic moments between two actors repeatedly. He knows this would be at odds with his religious stepfather so he keeps it a secret. This glimpse into Potato’s character is welcome as in Russia he felt more distant. All in all, the latter half of Potato Dreams of America slows pace and forgoes much of the intriguing style choices found in the USSR opening. Nonetheless the film’s thin veil of fiction doesn’t prevent you from seeing it’s stranger-than-fiction backbone (of which a past SXSW documentary was made). Wes Hurley’s coming of age tale is engaging to say the least and his translated version to the silver screen is a disarmingly unique ride.”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Kevin Conner
Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel
Using recently surfaced archival footage, Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel documents the recording sessions of Petty’s Wildflower album in 1994, his first solo effort post-Heartbreakers. As someone removed from the Petty fandom and his music, the doc proved, as most docs are, insightful, offering a glimpse of his artistic brilliance at his creative peak and at an inflection point in his life, both personally and professionally. For all intents and purposes, it is a rudimentary documentary. The genre formula has been traversed so many times at this point that the film itself requisites interest in the subject matter, and when a film like this replicates the conventional form to a tee, it’s hard to find value beyond the information set before you. Like the Kevin Smith documentary at this year’s SXSW, this one is best watched and appreciated by the fans.
—Greg Arietta
WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn
“In the summer of 2019, the WeWork saga was rampant. Initial public offerings (IPOs) were reaching higher and higher levels (that continue to this day), and WeWork was just another tech unicorn in a long line of high profile companies that had planned on making their public offerings that year. The other major IPO of that time was Uber, and just like Uber, both companies had former CEOs who eviscerated billions of dollars of market value in the span of a few weeks because of their unapologetic god complexes and sheer commitment to defy reality.
Adam Neumann, the six foot five CEO and Silicon Valley cartoon character, had in essence peddled WeWork as a technology company which was a far cry from what the company actually did. WeWork’s business model entailed leasing property from a landlord, renovating the space to give it a new look, and then subleasing it to people and businesses who wanted a co-op style of work. Any outsider with a bare grasp of reality could have told you that this is not a technology company, but within the occupational cult of WeWork and through his own deft charisma, Neumann was able to convince investors that his company was worth *$47 billion*. The tales of which are nothing short of amazing…”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Greg Arietta
The Sparks Brothers
“In addition to being a cinephile, Edgar Wright just so happens to be a music junkie. His annual ‘Best Songs of 20xx’ lists and curation of music throughout his filmography are emblematic of his love, but if you were to sit down with him and talk music, chances are the conversation would eventually lead to the Sparks. “Who are the Sparks?” you might ask, “I’ve never heard of them.” You’re not alone in your questioning, but it's an inquiry that Wright wants to answer en masse and with emphatic enthusiasm in The Spark Brothers.
The Sparks are “the greatest band you’ve never heard of,” as Wright puts it. At the center are two brothers from Southern California who grew up on The Beatles, Saturday matinees, and coastal beaches: Ron and Russell Mael, two characteristically unique individuals who have made twenty-five albums together over the span of five decades, amassing to a mind boggling 820 songs. Statistically speaking, those are insane numbers, but it's the content and quality of the Maels’ work in tandem with their personas that made them so influential, qualitative metrics that Wright makes sure to highlight over the course of his documentary…”
Full Review Can Be Found Here
—Greg Arietta