SXSW 2006 - Saturday, March 11 - Day 2

Today was my first day at SXSW, as I arrived in Austin Friday night after they had closed the registration booth. As a result, I didn't get my film badge until this morning, and last night I had to wait in the standby lines of the films that I wanted to see. Of course, I didn't get into any of them. I missed out on a film called The Last Western (about a 'town' that was built as a Hollywood set that turned into an honest-to-goodness community) and This Film Is Not Yet Rated. My buddies who made it into TFINYR loved it, so now I have to decide whether to see the second screening tonight (and miss TV Junkie) or wait until it's released in theaters or DVD. Right now I'm leaning towards the former, but we'll see how it goes. So, after going to bed kinda pissed last night, I was ready to get a full day of SXSW today. Here's what I saw, and some brief thoughts.

Bondage
Director: Eric Allen Bell
SXSW Summary: An O.C. youth escapes an abusive home only to find himself entangled in the California Juvenile Justice system and a psychiatric ward.

I ended up at this screening almost by accident... the line to pick up my film pass was longer than I expected and I didn't have enough time to make the drive to the Alamo South Lamar to see the Reel Shorts 1 program. So, I decided to head over and see what the Alamo Downtown was showing. I'm really glad I did. The place was packed, which surprised me for an 11 AM screening. I guess the movie's been getting good buzz though, and it deserves it. Based on the Director's messed-up childhood, Bondage manages to be both very funny and very tragic at the same time. The movie follows the Bell character as he spends time in a California juvenile detention center, and later a psychiatric ward, while a series of flashbacks reveals the abuse he received from his family growing up. Bell did a Q&A afterwards and revealed that he hopes this movie will shed some light on what he claims is a very corrupt penal system in that state. The two young leads, Michael Angarano and Mae Whitman have a very natural acting style, and there are a ton of great supporting actors, including Rocky Marquette and Illeana Douglas. This one plays later this week, so if you’re in town I would recommend checking it out.

Live Free or Die
Director: Andy Robin & Gregg Kavet
SXSW Summary: An offbeat comedy about a would-be criminal who's struggling to escape the dreariness of his northern New Hampshire hometown. He finds himself in real trouble when he teams up with a dim-witted high school friend and attempts to prove his chops as a local outlaw.

After Bondage I thought my day had peaked early, and was surprised to find that I liked Live Free or Die even better. In fact, I’m planning on seeing it again Monday morning. It’s that good. The movie follows Aaron Stanford’s character, ‘Rugged,’ a guy who is the butt of a lot of jokes in his small New Hampshire community, but has almost convinced himself that he’s a real tough guy. He mostly runs small scams like ripping off rebate companies or selling cheapo speakers that he claims are stolen. When an old high-school acquaintance, Lagrand (Paul Schneider), comes back to town, Rugged discovers that his bravado stories actually impress the guy. Rugged’s attempts to be badass kinda backfire when someone dies, leading Rugged and Lagrand on an increasingly futile attempt to cover up their actions. This movie is so well written, and Stanford and Schneider have such impeccable comedic timing, that I’m 100% convinced this movie will become a campus cult favorite once it’s released on DVD. If you like movies like Bottle Rocket, give Live Free or Die a chance.

Despite the poster, this isn't animated. [Click For Larger Image]

Maxed Out
Director: James D. Scurlock
SXSW Summary: Why are Americans addicted to debt? Maxed Out probes into the heart of the American Dream and the backrooms of American Banking and Government to deliver the truth. Alternately disturbing and hilarious but always intelligent, Maxed Out is the first film to document the dramatic shift in American culture which is turning the world's largest economy into a third-world nation.

I was apparently the only person in the theater who didn’t like this movie. It was well made, but it completely failed to address the aspect of individual responsibility. The movie kept talking about college kids who got into debt by using credit cards as if the debt were something that was forced onto them, almost like a disease. I just don’t have any sympathy for people who spend money they don’t have, unless it is to buy necessities… which wasn’t the case for the majority of these case studies. There’s also a particularly irresponsible section of the film involving a family who’s mother killed herself over credit card debt and two young guys in the debt collection business. The two guys are enthusiastically describing how much they enjoy their business, and how great it feels when they’re able to collect on some of these debts. What Scurlock does, however, by cutting between their enthusiastic descriptions and the family telling their ‘tragic’ story, is give the impression that those two guys get off on hurting people. The sequence is in incredibly bad taste, and is indicative of the comically one-sided agenda that Scurlock presented. And the lady beside me who kept thoughfully moaning at 'appropriate' moments didn't help things either.

Darkon
Directors: Andrew Neel & Luke Meyer
SXSW Summary: Everybody wants to be a hero. This documentary takes a good look into the bizarre and fascinating world of Darkon. Darkon is a full-contact medieval fantasy wargaming group, active in the Baltimore/Washington area since 1985. Every other Sunday, between 150 and 300 members gather in costume and armor to fight unchoreographed mock battles with padded weaponry. For most, it is much more than a game.

This movie was a blast. I was so glad to see that the directors didn’t go for the ‘look-at-the-freaks’ approach, and instead just let these interesting people talk about their passion for Live Action Role Playing (or LURG-ing). The movie was a success just in the sense that people I talked to afterwards all agreed that, after seeing the movie, playing a character in Darkon seemed oddly intriguing. The ‘fantasy’ world becomes incredibly real for the people involved, which doesn’t seem that weird when you realize that the same sort of thing happens all throughout adult life… people devoted to their fraternity or their alma matter or their company… who want to crush the competing organization. One of the subject admitted that the territory that they claim is just an imaginary hex of land on paper, “but when someone else wants your imaginary hex of land… you want to fight to keep it.” And thanks to the Darkon players I met in the street at 2:30 that morning who gave me an official piece of Darkon currency.

The film's main subject speaks on Darkon. [Click For Larger Image]


Darkon Coin Front [Click For Larger Image]


Darkon Coin Back. [Click For Larger Image]

The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael
Director: Thomas Clay
SXSW Summary: The film follows the life of Robert Carmichael, a talented yet alienated young man. His friends introduce him to drugs and his life spirals out of control.

This movie is getting a lot of buzz right now as the new ‘controversial it-movie,’ and to me that’s all it really has going for it. The first 80 minutes are excruciatingly slow.. the titular character is terminally depressed and doesn’t say more than a dozen words through the film. The camera uses still wide or medium shots almost exclusively. Characters come and go with no real purpose. The last 10 minutes features an admittedly brutal home invasion, which is basically the same scene as in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, amped up a few notches. And that’s it. It’s not that I was offended by this film… but it really doesn’t serve any purpose, or have any meaning that I could discern. Moving on.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Director: Kirby Dick
SXSW Summary: IFC Original Documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the breakthrough film from Oscar-nominated director Kirby Dick (Twist of Faith) is an unprecedented investigation into the MPAA film ratings system and its profound impact on American culture.

So I decided to see this of after all, and am pretty sure I made the right decision. The less I say about this movie the better… there’s plenty of scenes in here that I would hate to spoil for you. I just want to commend Dick for this amazing piece of what can only be called investigative journalism, to expose one of the most secretive and most influential institutions in all of American culture. Dick stuck around for a Q&A afterwards, and told us horror story after horror story about the MPAA and their legal team. This one will be coming out (unrated, of course) in Fall 2006, and should be required viewing for anyone who goes to the movies.

- Micah