Filmmaking brothers David and Nathan Zellner (Goliath) tackle the isolation and discovery of childhood in Kid-Thing, a naturalist East Texas-set fable about Annie (Sydney Aguirre), a lonely ten-year-old tomboy who discovers a mystery woman at the bottom of a well while playing by herself one day in the woods. Lending her distinctive voice to the proceedings is Oscar-nominated cult actress Susan Tyrrell (Forbidden Zone, Cry-Baby, Fat City) as the woman in the well, who may or may not be real – or harmless. Movieline spoke with Tyrrell and the Zellner bros. about their Sundance, Berlin, and SXSW selection, which screens in Austin today.
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Talking about Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s savvy and surprising genre deconstruction Cabin in the Woods, the opening night film of SXSW 2012, is a tricky thing partly because nobody involved wants any part of the film spoiled for their opening weekend audience and also, more importantly, because those surprises really are best left discovered by virgin eyes. So rest assured: All spoilery plot details, character developments, casting choices, kills, and surprises that follow in this piece have been redacted for the preservation of discovery, leaving only all the vital bits of information up for discussion. Like, after filming in 2009 and being delayed for so long that star Chris Hemsworth is now kind of famous, is Cabin in the Woods actually any good?
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Each year SXSW plays host to a slate of risk-taking fare of all kinds, from true indie offerings to upcoming studio releases geared to a slightly more open crowd, and the 2012 film line-up features no shortage of movies poised to earn that precious film festival commodity: Positive buzz. But some projects have more at stake than others -- say, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's long-awaited Cabin in the Woods, Will Ferrell's Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre, or the directorial debut of actor Matthew Lillard. On the eve of SXSW 2012 (which runs March 9-17 in Austin, Texas), check out the ten SXSW titles with the most to prove going into their festival debuts.
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While some marketing efforts demand a close read, others allow no margin for misundertanding what they are, where they come from, or what they portend. Take writer-director Jordan Roberts's comedy Frankie Go Boom, which premieres this weekend at South By Southwest with arguably the best tagline of any festival film in history and the promise of Ron Perlman in full transgender mode. Get your first look at the poster — and a tagline translation — after the jump.
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Joseph Kahn's Detention had me from its first knowingly self-aware trailer, and while word out of SXSW was polarizing -- a love it or hate it kind of deal, by many accounts -- it's one of my more anticipated films of the spring. True, the competition this season isn't too stiff, but still! Watch Josh Hutcherson (of next months The Hunger Games, perhaps you've heard of it?) as a cute hipster kid get ready to take a beating from the school tough guy while an actual killer runs rampant through town and tell me this isn't worth putting on the calendar for April.
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Film festivals have emerged as one of the best, most fertile grounds for discovering new voices in genre filmmaking, so much so that just about every fest these days has a midnight sidebar for edgier, darker fare. Among the just-announced midnight selections at this year's SXSW Film Festival (held March 9-17 in Austin, TX): Tales of killer lady bartenders, faceless spooks, space-traveling Nazis, a deadly virus, VHS tapes, and the most evil kind of nightmare-inspiring villain imaginable, feral children. (Shudder.) Let's rundown the freakiest-sounding offerings of the SXSW Midnight slate!
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SXSW routinely boasts the most varied and neverending film line-up of the year, and the just-announced 2012 behemoth of a roster is no exception. So let's make it a wee bit easier to take in, shall we? After the jump find the buzzworthiest titles among the 100+ features and documentaries debuting this March in Austin, from major upcoming studio peeks (21 Jump Street) to docs (a new Jessica Yu!) and much smaller (but potentially completely awesome) fare.
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After debuting to geek enthusiasm at Butt-Numb-a-Thon in December, Joss Whedon's long-awaited Cabin in the Woods will have its official world premiere at SXSW 2012 this March, the festival announced today. Also on deck to headline the film portion of the annual Austin conference are Jonas Akerlund's Small Apartments, Kevin MacDonald's music documentary Marley, and Lena Dunham's post-Tiny Furniture, Judd Apatow-produced HBO series GIRLS, which will preview its first three episodes. More details after the jump.
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Among this year's crop of true indie success stories -- this summer's Another Earth and Attack the Block among them -- is Bellflower, a film described as "a love story with apocalyptic stakes." Sweet and inventive -- then brutal and utterly devastating -- the debut feature from writer-director-star Evan Glodell was borne of over three years of sacrifice and dedication, DIY in spirit and in practice (as Glodell's homemade flamethrowers, groundbreaking camera rigs, and the tricked out car dubbed Medusa attest). So how did this $17,000 micro-budgeted labor of love (and pain) wind up with a distribution deal and some of the buzziest word-of-mouth of the season?
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First time writer-director Evan Glodell spent years obsessing over his feature debut Bellflower, a raw tale of love, betrayal, and apocalyptic-level emotional tumult set among a group of near-nihilistic twenty-somethings in Southern California. (Part of that obsession? Custom-building the badass, fire-breathing Mother Medusa muscle car, which figures into the film.) After the jump, see a new exclusive image from Bellflower and find out how you can see it in Los Angeles before it opens on Aug. 5.
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Two upcoming Sony releases scored their first honors Sunday at the 2011 L.A. Film Fest, where Michael Rapaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Sony Classics) and Joe Cornish's Attack the Block (Screen Gems) won audience awards. Also in the winners' circle: Stephane Lafleur's Canadian comedy Familiar Ground and Wish Me Away, a documentary about country singer Chely Wright's decision to come out of the closet.
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Azazel Jacobs' Terri earned a warm reception at Sundance, where critics acknowledged its indie movie-conventional, vaguely Rushmore-like set-up -- lovable loser strikes up unexpected friendship with authority figure, cue twee soundtrack -- but embraced its unique charms. Now a lovely little trailer has hit the web. After the jump, watch John C. Reilly and newcomer Jacob Wysocki slog through life's great struggle together and just try not to smile.
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Movieline hero Clint Culpepper strikes again! Sony announced today that it will distribute Joe Cornish's debut feature, the London kids vs. aliens action comedy Attack the Block, via its Screen Gems division. "The film is, at once, charming, scary, funny, hip, clever and completely hits its mark," said Screen Gems president Culpepper in a press release. Guess all that geek cred from SXSW did the film some good after all! Hit the jump for more info and a look at the film's nerdgasm-inducing trailer.
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Brit Marling studied economics at Georgetown and might have been an environmental activist or banker in another life if she hadn't answered the siren call of Los Angeles and moved west to risk it all as an actor. And what a payoff: having co-written, produced, and starred in two critically acclaimed films at Sundance (the sci-fi romance Another Earth and the wonderfully hard-to-define cult drama Sound of My Voice), Marling's smack dab in the middle of her well-deserved breakout moment. Movieline caught up with Marling at SXSW to discuss borderline illegal guerrilla filmmaking tricks, taking professional risks, and avoiding the "morally-corrupt swamp" that is Hollywood.
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When Harmony Korine's short film Umshini Wam screened alongside the latest from Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Thirst) at SXSW, both efforts had an unproven element to unveil. For Korine, the wild cards were his stars, the South African hip-hop act Die Antwoord. But for Park, it was something even more groundbreaking: he filmed the mystical, spiritual ghost story Night Fishing entirely using the iPhone 4.
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