SXSW with Abe: Family

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Family
Directed by Laura Steinel
Narrative Feature Competition

Some people just don’t want kids. There are so many different reasons that people don’t start a family, and not being able to do so biologically or not having found the right partner may not be all that stand in the way. For those who are highly motivated to succeed and may not have inspiring pictures of what a happy childhood can look like, or even those who do, work can take the place of all else, with the idea of kids serving as nothing more than a distraction that can’t be afforded in the pursuit of a successful career where winning and making money are paramount.

Kate (Taylor Schilling) is a driven, high-ranking businesswoman who will do pretty much anything to get ahead, happy to throw a colleague under the bus or to profit off someone else’s misfortune, be it an unruly child needing extra attention or an impending maternity leave. Her tendency to say whatever she is thinking has hardly made her friends, and her relationship with her family is nonexistent. When her brother (Eric Edelstein) and sister-in-law (Alison Tolman) beg her to watch their daughter Maddie (Bryn Vale) when they must make an emergency trip out of town, she is introduced to a whole new part of life, initially reluctant to bond with the unpopular teenager who really doesn’t feel like she fits in.

This is an undeniably funny movie, one that uses Kate’s antisocial nature and Maddie’s bizarre interests to create an entertaining dynamic between the two people who rarely do what others around them want or tell them to. Both characters don’t feel terribly true to life, exaggerated for comedic effect and not entirely consistent. Their predictable path to mutual understanding and friendship may be familiar, but it does manage to be enjoyable and involving. The film’s peculiar focus on Kate’s interest in being a juggalo gives it some unique if decidedly odd energy.

Schilling is used to playing someone no one else likes after starring on “Orange is the New Black,” and her performance here is decent if a bit purposely muted. Vale does a solid job of playing Maddie, capturing her general lack of desire to conform or be enthusiastic about anything. In supporting roles, Brian Tyree Henry and Kate McKinnon earn some laughs as Maddie’s karate teacher and an obnoxious neighbor, respectively, and Fabrizio Zacharee Guido steals all his scenes as Baby Joker, Maddie’s new friend from the gas station who has no clue what’s going on around him but doesn’t seem to care as he enjoys life. That’s a good description of this film in general, which is fun enough if some of its strangeness doesn’t feel necessitated.

B

SXSW with Abe: First Light

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

First Light
Directed by Jason Stone
Narrative Spotlight

Until aliens actually arrive, there’s no way to know for sure what life on other planets looks like, or if it even exists in a way that resembles the human race. The most common trope associated with aliens in media, aside from the notion of little green men, is the Unidentified Flying Object that mysteriously and ominously passes overhead, sometimes to abduct unsuspecting humans for unknown purposes or merely to light up the sky and signal that there is something else out – or, more accurately, up – there. What comes after the UFO shows up varies in every science fiction story.

Sean (Theodore Pellerin) spends most of his time looking after his little brother, who manages to get himself into plenty of trouble, and his grandmother, who has recently become immobile and unresponsive. When he sees his ex-girlfriend Alex (Stefanie Scott) at a party with someone else, he writes his phone number on her arm to inspire her not to forget about him. After Alex vanishes while swimming with her new boyfriend, she awakens a different person, not sure of what she has become. She calls Alex and implicitly trusts him, experiencing new and unexplained abilities as she soon becomes the subject of much interest in a town where one determined scientist (Said Taghmaoui) is tracking ships that flew overhead and certain that they are connected to what has happened to Alex.

This film’s alien-related plot is reminiscent of the short-lived TV series “Invasion,” in which humans were transformed in the water to become alien hybrids, still in control of their minds and motor functions for the most part but affected by new impulses and powers. The surrounding story here finds two people fighting to overcome the odds, to ensure that Alex isn’t captured and experimented on or separated from Sean, who hasn’t stopped caring for her in the aftermath of their breakup. It’s a slightly sentimental romance but not a terribly effective one, with neither character proving to be excessively emotive or complicated beyond their surface appearances and the obvious alien influence.

This film doesn’t feature any big stars, with Shonda Rhimes favorite and Emmy nominee Kate Burton serving as the biggest name in the cast as a government agent investigating Alex’s condition and what it means for the human race. Neither Pellerin nor Scott impresses all that much, but it’s also a result of lackluster writing. This film’s overarching themes, which are reminiscent of the unconventional alien film “Monsters,” are stronger than its actual content, which is slow-moving and directionless, reaching a conclusion that is likely supposed to feel epic in nature but fails to deliver.

C+

SXSW with Abe: Sadie

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Sadie
Directed by Megan Griffiths
Narrative Feature Competition

Sophia Mitri Schloss discusses the film
There are many different types of families, and not all children grow up with two parents in the picture. When one parent never existed or left for whatever reason prior to a child’s birth, that situation can be less difficult than when someone was there and then no longer was after their presence became a given. Divorce and other disruptions of a marriage can have immediate effects on the behavior of children, and it’s considerably more complicated when the union isn’t officially severed, just effectively so due to the absence of one partner, something that can be extremely confusing for those affected.

Sadie (Sophia Mitri Schloss) lives with her mother Rae (Melanie Lynskey), and the two don’t have a great rapport. Sadie writes frequently to her father, who has been serving in the military for a few years. While he returns her letters, he rarely communicates with his wife, causing her to entertain a close friendship with school counselor Bradley (Tony Hale), a relationship she casts aside when the far more self-assured, less clingy Cyrus (John Gallagher Jr.) moves in next door. After Cyrus spends the night, Sadie sees a threat to the happy marriage that will resume once her father returns and sets out to make sure that Cyrus does not become a permanent fixture in her mother’s life.

Sadie is a solitary character, one who has just one friend, her neighbor Francis (Keith L. Williams), who she frequently shields from bullying at school. Sadie clearly has an attachment to her father that has only deepened during his absence, and though she is astute and creative in finding ways to make her mother’s new suitor uncomfortable, mixing medicines into food so that he will get sick, her worldview is remarkably naïve and relegated to the hope that all will be the same as it once was, or at least how she remembers it, once he comes back to them.

Schloss rarely smiles throughout the film, delivering her own interpretation of a teenager ruled by angst and lashing out against her mother because her father is not there and she in part blames her for it. Lynskey and Hale are rarely found in drama but perform decently, as does Gallagher Jr. in a less friendly part than usual and Danielle Brooks in a supporting role. The film as a whole starts from an interesting place but loses steam as it progresses, and discussions after the film about the lengthy process from conception to release are evident in its dated treatment of issues like school violence. Sadie is a worthwhile lead character but this story in particular doesn’t seem to justify her existence.

B-

SXSW with Abe: The New Romantic

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

The New Romantic
Directed by Carly Stone
Narrative Feature Competition

The whole process of dating has undergone tremendous change over the years. Apps that match people online often mean that prospective partners correspond extensively – and quickly – without meeting face-to-face and might develop a rapport before ever even being in the same room. That can lead to a diminishing of the emphasis on courtship and romance, which might end up being more efficient but is also considerably less sentimental. There are those who have never known how things used to be but still pine for a more idealistic and sweet-natured progression into what could well be a lifelong relationship.

Blake (Jessica Barden) is a bright-eyed college student close to graduation who writes a sex column for the school newspaper that her editor decides to axe. Intent on proving that her life is interesting, Blake decides to become a sugar baby, dating a professor (Timm Sharp) who buys her expensive gifts in exchange for spending time with her and having a sexual relationship that he decides when to initiate. As she works to become part of her own story and competes with fellow student journalist Jacob (Brett Dier) to win a prize, she learns a lot about love and life, including the things that she never realized she wanted from a relationship.

This film earned a Special Jury Recognition for First Feature prize at South by Southwest, a deserving nod to the way in which Blake and this story so well capture a stage of life that’s vital to growing up and getting past unpleasant but ultimately necessary developmental experiences. Its title is analytic, as Blake narrates events and often ascribes an added meaning to them, noting how they would play out if they were featured in a romantic comedy from the 1990s. This film isn’t meant to break new ground entirely, but instead shows a current perspective on how love looks in the world, particularly through the eyes of someone who has yet to experience it.

Young British actress Barden, who has already delivered memorable performances in “Tamara Drewe,” “The Lobster,” and the Netflix series “The End of the F***ing World,” is wonderful as the bluntly honest Canadian protagonist, anchoring a film that feels refreshing even though it knows that it’s not reinventing the genre. Sharp and Dier serve their purposes well, contributing to a story that’s really all about Blake and her journey towards understanding what romance means now. It’s a sweet, energizing film that manages to be both entertaining and enduring.

B+

SXSW with Abe: The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter
Directed by Jody Hill
Narrative Spotlight

There is a certain type of filmmaking that is immediately recognizable as unintentionally campy and over-the-top, and the fact that those acting in it have no idea makes it all the more entertaining. Dated production values and an inauthentic sense of drama can contribute, and usually these kinds of films fall into “so bad it’s good” territory. Featuring clips of such fare in a fictional film about the people who make it and think it’s great is a strong recipe for hilarity, with the material exaggerated all the more to show just how out of touch with reality its creators truly are.

Buck Ferguson (Josh Brolin) is an adventurer who makes videos of his exploits with the help of his loyal cameraman Don (Danny McBride). Divorced from his wife and threatened by her newfound relationship with another man, Buck seeks to forge an unbreakable bond with his young son Jaden (Montana Jordan) by taking him on a trip to kill his first deer, which will also double as footage for the latest episode of his series. Jaden’s lack of interest and preoccupation with his phone and his girlfriend prove troublesome in the woods after Buck spots a non-typical deer, latching onto it as the ultimate prize that Jaden could take home on his first attempt.

This film comes from writer-director Jody Hill, whose latest work has been on the television shows “Vice Principals” and “Eastbound and Down,” both starring McBride. Anyone who has seen those will be ready for the experience that is this film, which fortunately serves as a tremendous improvement over Hill’s last movie, “Observe and Report.” Though its characters remain blissfully unaware of the way the world works and how they are perceived, this film knows exactly what it is. Hill wisely chooses to temper his characters, especially McBride’s, more than usual, still making them absurd enough to provide a great time for audiences.

Brolin, who earned an Oscar nomination ago for “Milk,” seems to be having a blast playing comic characters who are funny because of how seriously they take themselves, doing so effectively in “Inherent Vice” and now here as the ultimate manly hunter who isn’t nearly as tough as he looks. McBride, less vulgar and angry than he usually is, does a great job in a supporting role, and Jordan is particularly fantastic as a poor fit for his father’s enthusiasm, complaining frequently of back pain and a simple desire not to try hard. This film may be ridiculous, but it has a marvelous sense of how far to take each scene to the utmost effect.

B+

SXSW Short with Abe: Are We Good Parents?

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Are We Good Parents?
Directed by Bola Ogun
Narrative Shorts Competition

This highly entertaining short runs just nine minutes but manages to cover a good deal of ground through frantic conversation as Lauren (Tracie Thoms) and Bill (Sean Maguire) grapple with the news that the daughter (Gabrielle Skye Goodman) they always thought was gay is going to prom with a boy. Their antics humorously cover the number of normative practices that they’ve modeled which hardly seem progressive in the modern age, displaying bearable notions of heteronormativity that they now believe have stifled their daughter’s ability to be who she wants to be. It’s both an analysis and a parody of the current age, with these parents hilariously criticizing themselves for being too happy and not focused enough on showing their daughter alternate ways of expressing herself. Showing as part of Shorts Program 3, this film is brief but immensely memorable, and a lot of fun.

SXSW with Abe: Friday’s Child

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Friday’s Child
Directed by A.J. Edwards
Visions

It’s not easy to escape one’s circumstances, and there’s a reason that many criminals released from prison end up getting arrested and incarcerated again. Cycles tend to occur that those caught within are unable to break, and not being set up for success will most directly lead to people not succeeding. Repeated disciplinary issues during childhood predispose someone towards breaking the law, and the way in which they’re treated by those who could give them a chance that might send them in another direction very often push them straight back into the same tendencies which will forever ground them in the same lifestyle, unable to quit and make an honest go of it.

Tye Sheridan stars in the film
Richie (Tye Sheridan) turns eighteen and opts to live alone after foster care, renting a small home with the bare basics. When his landlord (Brett Butler) is murdered during a burglary, Richie is questioned by the police and thinks of leaving town, but stays when he finds Joan (Imogen Poots) clearly upset and unable to drive her car home. The two begin to build a relationship based on being there for each other without asking too many questions about what they’re going through. Richie starts to see the possibility of a bright future ahead, though he’s dragged down by his affiliation with a neighbor (Caleb Landry Jones) prone to criminal activity.

Director A.J. Edwards discusses the film
Director A.J. Edwards’ first film, “The Better Angels,” which played at Sundance in 2014, bears a lot of similarities to this one despite that film taking place during Abraham Lincoln’s childhood and being in black-and-white. Close-ups of characters’ faces are featured extensively, and it will come as no surprise that Terrence Malick was an obvious influence for Edwards since he served as editor for two of the notoriously indulgent filmmaker’s recent films. While the facial expressions of its protagonists get prime treatment, who these characters actually are is never really explored, making for an unfulfilling and seemingly pointless experience in which they wander through the story without really being developed.

Star Caleb Landry Jones discusses the film
Sheridan, who stars in Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming action movies “Ready Player One,” has a great history of independent films over the past few years, and he does his best with meager material here, as does Poots, who has similarly appeared in strong festival films and displayed great promise. Jones, as usual, is unhinged and unpredictable, sticking to his odd typecasting of being eccentric and volatile. The script doesn’t give much insight into its characters, and this film proves to be less than memorable as a result.

C+

SXSW with Abe: Most Likely to Murder

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Most Likely to Murder
Directed by Dan Gregor
Narrative Spotlight

Adam Pally, Rachel Bloom, and Vincent Kartheiser star in the film
Superlatives are a staple of school dances and graduations, predicting the futures of students who will undoubtedly be doing very different things years from that point. Most are usually optimistic and positive, though some have a negative slant because they assume that little will have changed with geographical relocation and emotional growth not guaranteed occurrences for everyone. It’s most difficult to predict what those who have a miserable time in high school, tormented by their peers even and especially if they’ve done nothing to deserve it, will go on to accomplish once they’re free of the confines of an immature social structure dominated by cool kids.

Producer-star Doug Mand and director Dan Gregor discuss the film
Billy (Adam Pally) is not doing particularly well for himself, working shifts at a Las Vegas club that find him cleaning the bathroom far more than interacting with the bigwigs who he’d love to meet to get his own business going. When his parents announce that they are retiring and moving, he returns to his Long Island hometown to pack up his things. While some things are the same, like his friendship with Duane (Doug Mand), his high school girlfriend Kara (Rachel Bloom) couldn’t be less recognizable, having moved on from her partying ways. Jealous that she is dating Lowell (Vincent Kartheiser), the neighbor Billy tormented throughout high school, Billy becomes convinced that Lowell has killed his mother and seeks to prove it to reluctant cop and former classmate Perkins (John Reynolds) and win Kara back.

Cast and crew discuss the film
This is not a sophisticated movie, but that’s not what it’s trying to be. It’s a comedy first and foremost, with a bit of suspenseful music mixed in every once in a while to heighten the mystery, which it doesn’t take too seriously. Billy still behaves like a teenager, drinking hard and being petty about everything, especially when his friends call Lowell sweet and urge him to stop picking on him. It does make for some good laughs and very funny scenes, but this isn’t really a parody of a thriller about a killer across the street, just a comedy featuring a murder subplot driving its hapless main character.

Adam Pally and Rachel Bloom discuss the film
Pally, familiar to most for his role on “Happy Endings,” is typically committed to playing a self-centered oaf who almost manages to become sympathetic over the course of the film before repeatedly revealing his lasting immaturity. Bloom, creator and star of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” isn’t given all that much to do that allows her to demonstrate her talents but works with what she has as best as she can. Kartheiser is perfectly cast and plays his part exactly as he should. This film is funny but not the hilarious hit it could have been, settling for sappy and uncreative sentiments where more potential existed.

B

SXSW with Abe: Wild Honey Pie!

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Wild Honey Pie!
Directed by Jamie Adams
Visions

Boredom can be a powerful motivator, and one that can lead to unhappiness if pondered too long. Those who live comfortable existences are often unfulfilled despite having everything that they could need, since what people want often overwhelms that and inspires the attainment of some impossible utopia where each moment is interesting. A tranquil relationship can be undone when one or both parties believe that there is something more out there even though they are perfectly happy, and such temptations usually prove to be temporary, so long as what happens in the pursuit of a moment of excitement doesn’t include anything irreversible.

Jemima Kirke stars in the film
Gillian (Jemima Kirke) and Oliver (Richard Elis) are married and in the process of working together to produce a Shakespeare play directed by Gillian while Oliver does DJ gigs to make some money. When an old friend of Oliver’s, Rachel (Sarah Solemani), comes into town and things with the play begin to fall apart, Gillian follows suit and begins to sabotage the relationship, tempted by both a prospective collaborator on the play, Gerry (Alice Lowe), and Oliver’s friend Matt (Brett Goldstein), who harbors feelings for Gillian, while Oliver continues to insist that they should be together.

Star Brett Goldstein and director Jamie Adams discuss the film
This film makes the crucial mistake of acting too much like its protagonist, whose own journey is a messy and unfocused one. After the screening at SXSW, Goldstein remarked that he was amazed the film had a story since the filming process was chaos, explaining that director Jamie Adams knows what’s going on but just doesn’t let anyone else know. Unfortunately, that shows through in the finished product, which is intriguing and occasionally captivating but as a whole fails to stand as a coherent and purposeful experience.

Kirke, best known for playing a rebellious trendsetter on “Girls,” delivers a fully committed performance as Gillian, wearing her emotions very visibly and allowing her to be directed by a whim at each moment, enormously susceptible to the influence of others despite her vocal disdain for most of society. Goldstein, who praised the American advent of the “chicken waffle” at the screening, steals his scenes as a brainless object of distraction for Gillian to further set her off course. This film is funny at times but far from fulfilling, more successful as a character study than a narrative which charts an actual story around the people it features.

B-

SXSW with Abe: Wild Nights with Emily

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Wild Nights with Emily
Directed by Madeleine Olnek
Narrative Spotlight

Writers contribute something lasting to the world that continues to endure long past their lives, at least for those who know about the existence of what they have written. Posthumous publication prevents the writer from benefiting from the public reception to their work, which may improve over time and therefore be worth withholding until the time is right. Yet there’s no real way to know that, and whatever anyone may think during a person’s lifetime if their work is not published until after they die, the writer’s ability to react to the response to their work is a privilege that those published posthumously are not able to enjoy.

Molly Shannon and Susan Ziegler star in the film
Emily Dickinson (Molly Shannon) lives a solitary life, barely leaving her house and spending her days penning poems and carrying on a secret romantic relationship with Susan (Susan Ziegler), her brother Austin’s wife. Discouraged by all, including publisher T.W. Higginson (Brett Gelman), from publishing her poems, they are left to be discovered after her death by the opportunistic Mabel Todd (Amy Seimetz), who carried on a lengthy affair with Austin, and who fails in every way to capture the true essence of who Emily was and what her reasons for not being published during her lifetime truly were.

Director Madeleine Olnek discusses the film
This film, from writer-director Madeleine Olnek, tells this story of Emily through a distinctly comedic lens, treating as absurd any notion that Emily not being published was because of her own desire to withhold her work for after she was gone and that her documented romance with Susan is mere conjecture. Casting Shannon, primarily known for comedy, in the title role is just the first of many signals about this film’s tone, which begins with a humorous scene and just continues throughout painting these wild nights as highly entertaining and relatively ridiculous in nature, far less serious than much of Emily’s writing.

The cast and crew discuss the film
Shannon is clearly having fun playing Dickinson, and it’s an interpretation that allows her to be far funnier and livelier in the company of selected people than most expect. Seimetz milks her professional gossip for all it’s worth, and Ziegler steals much of the film with a passionate performance as a woman resigned to the times but determined to enjoy what she can of life anyway. The film as a whole is enjoyable and groundbreaking in its own right, an amusing take on one of the most famous authors of all time that attempts to do its subject its own form of justice.

B

SXSW with Abe: Boundaries

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Boundaries
Directed by Shana Feste
Headliners

Christopher Plummer and Vera Fermiga star in the film
No person’s relationship with their parents is perfect. Those who have gotten along pleasantly for the majority of their lives without much incident will experience difficulty saying goodbye once the time comes when a parent is dying. An uncomfortable dynamic doesn’t necessarily make things any easier since there are unreconciled issues that exist and have limited time to be resolved when a fatal diagnosis is revealed or a person’s age or state reaches a point where the end seems near, and parting can be a problematic and highly emotional process.

Director Shana Feste discusses the film
Laura (Vera Farmiga) lives in Seattle with her son Henry (Lewis MacDougall) and doesn’t have a great grip on her life. She works as an executive assistant to her rich friend, feels the need to lie to her therapist, and can’t stop rescuing animals, starting out with nine furry creatures in her bed at the opening of the film. Henry is expelled from school and her father, Jack (Christopher Plummer), is kicked out of his retirement home at the same time, prompting a road trip down to Los Angeles to drop Jack off to live with Laura’s sister JoJo (Kristen Schaal), with Jack trying to unload a good amount of marijuana along the way with the help of his grandson.

Vera Farmiga, Lewis MacDougall and Yahya Abdul-Mateen discuss the film
Laura is intended to be someone who realizes that she has no control of what’s going on around her but still clings steadfastly to certain ideals about how people should behave, emphasizing humanity towards animals and reacting quizzically to her son’s penchant for drawing naked portraits of everyone he meets. She has no love for the father who always has an ulterior motive, and she sees herself as an imperfect influence for the son whose life she can shape into something great if a little off-center from the norm given his tendencies not to conform to anything around him. A road trip serves as a predictably informative and therapeutic way for these three to learn a lot about who they each are.

Vera Farmiga discusses the film
Farmiga, who spent a while on “Bates Motel” after breakout roles in films like “The Departed” and “Up in the Air,” is a very funny lead here, committed to her character’s blind passion for rescuing animals and for failing constantly to steer clear of disaster. Plummer, fresh off his third Oscar nomination at the age of 88, is typically excellent, and his comedic abilities shouldn’t be underestimated. MacDougall is a wonderful breakout, matching the two adults he shares screen time with, and the ensemble is rounded out by entertaining supporting turns from Schaal, Christopher Lloyd, and Dolly Wells. This road movie may not be fully fresh, but it’s entirely enjoyable and very clever.

B+

SXSW with Abe: American Animals

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

American Animals
Directed by Bart Layton
Festival Favorites

The line between fact and fiction can be blurred when adapted into cinema, with the appeal of more dramatic, suspenseful scenes often leading to the altering of history to enhance the audience experience. Telling the story in documentary form is the easiest way to present events as they happened, and occasional hybrids use actors to read what real people have said in interviews. One such film is “The Imposter,” about a con artist who pretended to be a long-lost teenager. While that film did not win over this reviewer, director Bart Layton’s follow-up effort, “American Animals,” succeeds wildly at straddling the line between dramatization and documentary.

Peters, Keoghan, Abrahamson, and Jenner star in the film
Spencer (Barry Keoghan) is a college student in Kentucky in 2004 who lives a comfortable life and aspires to be an artist. When he gets a tour of his university library and sees the collection of very rare books that lies within it, he mentions it to his less studious friend Warren (Evan Peters), who immediately latches on to the notion that they can pull off a heist and sell the items for a great deal of money. As they carefully plan their operation, they enlist Eric (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas (Blake Jenner) to complete the team that can manage this bold theft that will, more than anything, add some unparalleled excitement to their lives.

Director Bart Layton discusses the film
This film begins with the note “This is not based on a true story,” after which the middle words disappear to read “This is a true story.” All four of the actual people involved in the heist, as well as librarian BJ Gooch (played by Ann Dowd), appear in the film to introduce themselves and provide a glimpse of reality before their portrayers do most of the work. This allows for an incredibly introspective experience, with the perpetrators reflecting on what they did with the knowledge of how it all played out. It’s also used as a commentary on memory, as, in one scene, the real Warren is seen in a car sitting next to Peters telling him that, even though he doesn’t remember it happening that way, if Spencer does, “let’s go with it.”

The way in which this film is structured and edited make the planning of this relatively serious crime an entertaining, often hilarious experience. When it comes time to reenact the actual heist, however, the mood shifts to tense and enormously suspenseful, following an exceptional and invigorating opening scene to introduce the film’s plot. All five primary players are excellent, led by Peters channeling Warren’s wild energy and Keoghan providing a more muted, focused interpretation of Spencer, and the chance to see how the performances stack up with the people they’re playing is a unique and rewarding one. This film never lets up from start to finish, and it makes a strong case for this type of storytelling, recreating an unbelievably true tale with those involved there to help contribute.

A-

SXSW with Abe: First Match

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

First Match
Directed by Olivia Newman
Narrative Feature Competition

Elvire Emanuelle stars in the film
All it takes to break a trend or make history is someone being willing to step up and try something that hasn’t been done before. The impact of such a move can be monumental and policy-shaping on a regional, state, national, or international level, or it can be something smaller that affects just one place, dispelling a notion that had up until then been dominant and undisputed. The motivations for someone to take a stand and try something revolutionary can vary, but once a feat has been accomplished, the future will never be the same because it happened.

The film premieres at SXSW
Monique (Elvire Emanuelle) is a teenager who has bounced around the foster care system in New York City while her father Darrel (Yayha Abdul-Mateen II), a former wrestler, is in jail. After she gets in trouble for fighting and spots her newly released father on the street, not yet ready to provide a home for her, she signs up for the high school wrestling team, receiving questionable to negative reactions as the first girl on the team. Encouraged by Coach Castile (Colman Domingo), lifelong friend Omari (Jharrel Jerome), and new friend Malik (Jared Kemp), Monique struggles to stay focused as her father, providing support in his own way, looks to pull her into a much darker world with big risks and even bigger payouts.

The cast and crew discuss the film
This film, which had many in attendance at its SXSW premiere wearing shirts and pins that read “Wrestle Like a Girl,” is an affirming spotlight of female participation in the sport but also serves as a very compelling portrait of a teenager fighting back against her circumstances, determined to succeed in the way that she wants. Monique’s present situation is not desolate, living in a home with a foster mother who speaks only Spanish but provides a safe, clean environment for her while she dotes on her other foster child, a baby. Coach Castile suggests that she channel her anger into something productive, and wrestling is a logical outlet that allows her to pay tribute to the positive things her father taught her while giving her a leg up on a potential college scholarship that could change the way her future looks.

Director Olivia Newman discusses the film with star Elvire Emanuelle and a real-life girl wrestler
Emanuelle is a superb find, an actress who in the opening scene, when her previous foster mother is seen throwing her clothes out the window and hurling insults at her, is immediately memorable for the way in which she refuses to take that treatment sitting. It’s a marvelous breakout role for her, and hopefully she’ll have many more. The entire cast is great, creating a believable and layered world for Monique to define herself. Director Olivia Newman turns her 2010 short into a feature debut that is immensely commendable and will be available to a wide audience via Netflix on March 30th.

B+

SXSW with Abe: Write When You Get Work

I’m so excited to be attending the film festival at South by Southwest for the first time, and I’ll be posting reviews throughout the week as I see as many movies as possible!

Write When You Get Work
Directed by Stacy Cochran
Narrative Feature Competition

High school is a formative time for many, though it’s hardly emblematic of how a person’s life will turn out. Depending on their circumstances and influences, those who end up in trouble with the law throughout their younger years can continue down that path or change direction once college and adulthood come along. Returning to familiar settings or reencountering those who they associate closely with their rabble-rousing times can trigger a return to old habits that can utterly disrupt a person’s otherwise stable life which looks nothing like what it used to many years and experiences earlier.

Rachel Keller and Finn Whitrock star in the film
Ruth (Rachel Keller) works at an elite New York City private school and becomes the interim head of admissions when her boss is fired. Things are looking great for her career advancement, but the sudden death of an old mentor puts her back in the sights of her high school boyfriend Jonny (Finn Whitrock), who has hardly outgrown his penchant for criminal activity. Jonny begins showing up in every facet of Ruth’s daily life, targeting Nan (Emily Mortimer), a mother of a student at Ruth’s school, who is barely keeping it together as her husband (James Ransone) faces impending indictment for financial wrongdoing and is looking for someone to trust.

The film premieres at SXSW
There are multiple stories at play here in this film, which is probably best described as a comedy, though it’s unclear what genre it really wants to be. The overarching message is one about class and how those with extraordinary privilege concern themselves with new developments like the establishment of a scholarship program at the school which might somehow negatively affect the community of those already enrolled. Nan is an easy mark for Jonny because merely affirming her worldview gets him into her good graces, though his ability to infiltrate her upper crust existence and blend in perfectly without a hint of suspicion from anyone aside from a panicked Jonny is never adequately or believably addressed.

Star Emily Mortimer and director Stacy Cochran discuss the film
Keller, who is a fantastic part of FX’s “Legion,” isn’t given a tremendous amount to work with as Ruth is a thinly-written character whose home and work lives don’t align in a coherent way, and this hopefully won’t be the only lead film role she gets to prove her talents. Whitrock, best known for “American Horror Story,” smiles and charms his way through the film, but it’s not a very layered performance. Mortimer, on the other hand, is the reason to see this film, saying after a screening at SXSW that she had fun playing such a mess of a character. She’s excellent and far above the material, which is inconsistent and perplexing. Unexpected twists towards the end of the film come off as unrealistic rather than impressive, and this film ends on an unfulfilling note that makes the entire experience lackluster.

C+