The Screening Room

So I have made it back to my safe Dallas cave (time of journey from Austin: 2 hours, 45 minutes. Speed Racer, baby). Saw lots of good stuff. What were my top five SX movies, you ask? Oh you didn't ask. Too bad. Here they are.

1. Gonzo - I dug Alex Gibney's style before he won the documentary Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side. This doc on Hunter S.Thompson captures the gonzo spirit of the man and his times without sugarcoating either.

2. The Visitor - Richard Jenkins has long been the best actor you've never heard of. His role here as an emotionally stifled econ professor coming out of his shell in the presence of a Syrian immigrant is a joy to behold.

3. Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay - Like the first one, but more political. And Neil Patrick Harris takes 'shrooms. Our little Doogie.

4. Mongol - Epic portrait of the young Genghis Khan that I didn't get to see all of because the 30 minute delay caused by the theater staff putting the wrong lens on the projector and I had to go to my next interview. But I liked the 3/4 that I watched.

5. Crawford and Tulia, Texas -Two docs about small Texas towns, made by outsiders who take nothing for granted.

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Elvis Mitchell has been a film critic (most recently for The New York Times), a brodcaster (currently as host of the KCRW film show The Treatment) and a magazine editor (Interview). Now, with The Black List, he can add "filmmaker" to his resume.

Right now, in a room across the hall from where I'm sitting right now, Mark Cuban is moderating a discussion with Michael Eisner. So why am I sitting in here instead of over there? Because the room is at capacity, and about 30 people are waiting in a line outside the door in attempt to get in as people leave.
I've been to many a panel here at SXSW, and the procedure has always been just show up and walk in. This one's the first one that I've ever seen closed off to more viewers.
So I'm sorry, dear readers, to be failing you today. But the good news is that the festival will release video and audio of all the panels on its Web site in the near future. Maybe me and the rest of the poor souls who didn't get in will get together for a watching party.

Last year, Universal brought the Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up to SXSW, creating a buzz that propelled it to one of the biggest comedy hits of the year. And the studio seems to be sticking to the formula, as its Forgetting Sarah Marshall, also produced by Apatow, had its world premiere Monday night at the Paramount Theatre.
As much as I loved Knocked Up (it made my top 10 list this year), Forgetting Sarah Marshall is at least its equal.

The nerds are here in full force. No, I'm not dissing the socially challenged among us. But when one of the hot films at the festival is called Nerdcore Rising, the other N-word is fair game.

Billy Bob Thornton is standing across from me in the Radisson lobby. He's on a panel tomorrow afternoon - conversation with Billy Bob kinda thing - and his band is actually playing at Antone's tomorrow night. He's being very cool and taking pictures with fans and lookers-on. Looks sharp in his black leather jacket.

If Carrolton's John Gordon III isn't the youngest filmmaker at South by Southwest this year, he's got to be close. The 15-year-old R.L. Turner sophomore's short film, To the Ends of the Earth, was accepted into the Texas High School Shorts competition and screened to a packed house of parents and students on Friday night at the Dobie Theater.
The five-minute film follows a father (John's father, John Gordon II) and son (John's younger brother, Taylor) as they travel to the airport, where the boy wanders off and gets lost. There's no dialogue in the film; instead, a contemplative narrator speaks of the uneasiness of separation.
"The film comes from the feelings that you have when something we value is lost," John said during an interview Monday morning, his beaming mother, Benita, sitting near by. "It really came from my younger brother, who gets lost all the time. It's such a deep impact -- I know how I feel."
You can catch a trailer for it here.

This morning I had the chance to interview one of my musical idols, Daniel Lanois. Never heard of him? Odds are you are familiar with his work: He, along with Brian Eno, produced many of U2's albums, including The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind. And he's also produced acclaimed albums by Willie Nelson (Teatro) and Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind).
When he sat for our interview, he looked as rock and roll as one can get, wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, dark shades and a black cap. And as we talked, he fiddled with an acoustic guitar, which he referred to as his security blanket.

The Promotion, the comedy about two grocery store assistant managers (Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly) competing for the same manager job, enjoyed a raucous reception Sunday night at a packed Paramount Theater. The film marks the feature debut of Steve Conrad, best known as the writer of The Pursuit of Happyness. And it's a marked depature from Pursuit, with several moments of broad, laugh-out-loud comedy. If you think the idea of Reilly trying to fight Scott while wearing tap shoes sounds just absurd enough to be funny, you'll like the movie.
Afterward, Conrad and Scott took questions from the audience, during which Scott talked about his experience working in the plumbing department at Home Depot, where he spent most of his time hiding inside one of the shower floor models practicing for auditions. Sounds like it all worked out -- three months after he took the job he landed his big break in American Pie.
So far, The Promotion doesn't have a Dallas release date, but it seems a safe bet that you'll have the chance to see it closer to home before the year's out.

Helen Hunt, the writer, director and star of Then She Found Me took part in an interview with Associated Press movie critic Christy Lemeire on Sunday afternoon. The main focus: How many times people told her "no" when it came to making her movie, which she said she began work on 10 years ago. But with a room full of filmmakers in attendance, most of the questions dealt with actual moviemaking rather than the usual celeb questions you might expect. An early questioner asked Ms. Hunt why she decided to direct the movie in addition to writing it (she says she actually decided to star in it fairly late in the process).
"After the long process of writing the movie, I became more and more married to the movie," she said. "It got to a point where it would have taken longer to explain to someone how I wanted it directed than to direct it myself."
And what was the experience of running the show like for the first time director?
"Well, the Coen Brothers have the other Coen Brother," she said. "All I had was me."

Have you ever wondered what happens to all those little independent films that make the festival circuit, only to die off without reaching a wider audience? I did, which is why I stopped by the B-side Entertainment booth on Sunday in the festival's exhibition space.
B-side's mission is two fold: to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the thousands of independent films made each year and to help those filmmakers extend the lives of their films past the festival circuit.
"There are 20,000 films at 4,000 festivals each year, only a small portion of which actually make it to a theater near you," said B-side founder Chris Hyams. "We think that's pretty inefficient."

Richard Jenkins is in town, and if you don't know the name you know the face. He was dead dad Nathaniel Fisher on the hit HBO series Six Feet Under, and he has played in Coen Brothers films including The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty and the upcoming Burn After Reading. He's one of those familiar-looking guys who gets stopped on the streets by folks who think they knew him in college, or at their first job. He's also a hell of an actor whose latest film, The Visitor, feels like a career high point.

The marquee film at the Paramount on Saturday night was Helen Hunt's directorial debut, Then She Found Me. Why should you care? Well, for one, it will open the AFI Dallas Film Festival in a few weeks. And another reason is: it's a pretty good movie.
In addition to directing, Ms. Hunt adapted the screenplay and stars as a woman with a whole life's worth of drama coming at her at once. First her new husband decides married life isn't for him. Then her adopted mother dies. And if that weren't enough, she's contacted by the birth mother (a show-stealing Bette Midler) she never knew who all the sudden wants a relationship with her daughter.

Gun nut, drug nut, all-around nut: the late Hunter S. Thompson was hell on literary wheels. He rolls on with full force in Gonzo, a robust portrait directed by recent documentary Oscar winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) and produced by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's HDNet Movies.

A pair of strong docs at SXSW, Crawford and Tulia, Texas, present complex looks at small-town Texas life. Crawford, directed by Austin's David Modigliani, looks at what happened when a president looking for a frontier image moved into a town of 700 people. Tulia, made by Californians Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen, tracks the infamous 1999 drug sting that saw a since-disgraced undercover officer put 39 black residents behind bars (all were released when the case's many holes, including an arresting officer with a criminal record, were exposed; you can read more in Nate Blakeslee's excellent book). Both films do an admirable job of avoiding yokel stereotypes and leaving room for their stories and characters to develop. You'll be hearing a lot more about both: they're slated to play the AFI Dallas International Film Festival later this month.

Josh Brolin strolled into the Dobie Saturday around 2 p.m., just as the lights were dimming for his short film, X. He looked like a man who didn't really want to be noticed and didn't want to take any attention away from the feature attraction, an excellent and socially illuminating documentary called Tulia, Texas But once both films were done, he shuffled up to the front of the theater and took some questions.

I just got back from a nice chat with the co-directors of Bi the Way, Brittany Blockman and Dallas' Josephine Decker. For their film, the pair took a roadtrip across the country exploring what they thought was a shift in how American viewed bisexuality.
"We set out in the middle of a cultural war. The country was really divided," Ms. Decker, a 1999 Higland Park High School graduate, says of their feelings when they set off to make their film in 2005. "I was expecting to hear people say, 'No way! Those people are going to hell!' and then other people to say, 'whatever.' But people were more centered. I was more surprised to how open America was."
Almost more amazing was that the women, who met on their first day of school at Princeton University, were able to spend several months in a car together and remain friends in the end. They'll be celebrating their film (and friendship) tonight at its premiere and later a party at The Enchanted Forest that they say will feature burlesque dancers, beatboxing and body painting. What's not to like? As for the premiere, Ms. Blockman says they are trying to get 100 people to makeout before the film. Unfortunately I'm going to miss that spectacle (I'll be watching Helen Hunt's directorial debut, Then She Found Me) but I'm going to the party tonight, so I'll be sure and investigate how they, um, madeout in that endeavor. Sorry.

A great number of films at SXSW will also be rolling through Dallas later this month for the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. Among them is Intimidad, a slight but bracingly intimate portrait of a determined Mexican family navigating the global economy and trying to make enough dough to raise their young daughter. The film was directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. Redmon, a Dallas area native who made the docs Mardi Gras: Made in China and Kamp Katrina, has a sharp eye for stories that fold highly personal stories into larger economic issues.

AUSTIN - Last night I caught Super High Me, one of several films at SXSW about pot and the smoking thereof (others include Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, Humboldt County). The premise of this doc is a direct rip-off of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me: Comedian Doug Benson, a regular toker, decided to abstain for 30 days, then do nothing but smoke for the following 30. He visits doctors and a shrink to determine how much his daily herb effects his daily functioning, and comes to the conclusion that he really, really likes smoking pot.
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AUSTIN -- Consider this the beginning of our SXSW Film Festival coverage here on the Screening Room blog. So far .... not much to report, other than the usual 100-yard-long line to pick up my pass whizzed by in a brisk 45 minutes or so.
So let's talk about what's on tap. Tonight I will be headed over to the Texas Film Hall of Fame inductions, which has a decidedly North Texas flavor. Morgan Fairchild and Mike Judge both earned admission to the hall, as did Jayne Mansfield (whose daughter, Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order fame will accept) and ZZ Top, who will be presented by Luke Wilson. Urban Cowboy will also be recognized and will be represented by Debra Winger. Dan Rather will serve as emcee.
After that, it's off to check out the best high school filmmakers at the Texas High School Shorts presentation. R.L. Turner sophomore John Gordon earned a spot in the field with his five-minute film To the Ends of the Earth. You can catch a trailer for it here.

Harold and Kumar, the Rolling Stones and Helen Hunt: that's how the SXSW Film Festival will roll next month. The full lineup for SX 2008, running March 7-15, has been announced. Here's some stuff we're looking forward to.