Film School Rejects » SXSW Blog

The Assassination of a SXSW Audience

Neil Miller — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:22:23 +0000

It always says something positive when a festival crowd, constantly pressed for time, always running from screening to screening sticks around for the Q&A after the film. In the case of Assassination of a High School President, it was no surprise to see the butts in the seats well after the credits were done rolling.

The story of a whip-smart high school newspaper reporter and his quest to solve his school’s greatest mystery and to feel the warmth of the female touch at the same time, Assassination was the unequivocal surprise hit of the Sundance Film Festival back in late January, landing itself at the very top of my Best of Sundance list. It was dark, funny and immensely intelligent — and now it can add the fact that it is a definitive crowd pleasure to its resume.

Director Brett Simon, star Reece Thompson and writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski were on hand to take questions from the thoroughly entertained Austin crowd — a crowd that very noticeably found both the humor and the noirish roots of the film. While introducing the film, director Brett Simon said that he was excited to see the film with an Austin audience, the best audience in the world. It was that audience that would ultimately feel the energy generated by his film — an audience that will probably walking away from this film just as the Sundance audiences did, marking this as the surprise film of the entire week.

Assassination of a High School President is set to release in theaters sometime in August 2008 — we don’t intend to let you miss it. Because if you do, you’ll be missing out on the best film of the entire year so far.

SXSW Blog: Ninjas, Indie Rock Chicks and Packed City Streets

Neil Miller — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:33:39 +0000

I mentioned this before, but the streets of Austin have been revitalized with a new life, a new energy and a completely new and different crowd — the musicians are here and they smell a little different than the interactive folk. I’m not saying it is a bad smell, it is just different.

When we last met I was telling tales of Kristen Bell, the Veronica Mars hottie that posed for a picture with me at a private event yesterday. Since then I have received countless jealous emails, mostly from friends who are angry that I get to do what I do on a daily basis. Well my friends, I am here to push the envelope of jealousy — I had by far the best celebrity sighting moment last night.

Despite the fact that I saw Choke at Sundance, I was convinced by Peter that I had nothing better to do last night than see it, so I went along. There I was sitting, chatting with Ken from First Showing about Rambo (odd, I know), when the guy in front of us turned around and asked us if who we wrote for (because we were obviously bloggers, there were just no two ways about it) Once we got the pleasantries out of the way, he explained that he was at SXSW with the producers of Rambo and that they were making a new movie with them, a remake of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. It took a second, then it clicked — I pointed at him and said, “Wait, that means you are one of the AskaNinja guys!” — guilty! At that point I proceeded to geek-out all over him, quoting the Ask a Ninja review of Pirates 3 and everything. It was the moment of the festival for me. I know… I’m a huge nerd, but whatever — Ask a Ninja fuckin’ rules. In the end, he was a really nice guy — and judging by the little kid glow he had about the Tomatoes remake, I can tell that it could turn out to be awesome.

As for Choke, I’m happy to report that it was even better the second time around — even more intelligent, more irreverent and more absurd. Sam Rockwell is still the man.

This morning I made it out of the house before anyone else was awake, as I had an interview to do with the guys from Second Skin — one of my favorite films of the fest thus far. They were awesome. In fact, I was surprised when they began thanking me for the review I had written. The interview, which probably should have only lasted 15-20 minutes, went on for 45 minutes as we chatted about gaming, society and the art of making a great doc. Look for a full feature from me sometime before the weekend is up.

After the interview I had the pleasure of catching two more movies this afternoon: the absolutely phenomenal artistic sub-culture doc Beautiful Losers and the shocking, engrossing doc Bulletproof Salesman, about a German man who deals armored vehicles in the Middle East. Those full reviews are on the way, as are a few others — assuming no major news hits this evening.

That brings us up to date once again. If you are following me on Twitter (which you should be) then you already know that I am in for the night, partied out, doing some laundry and getting caught up on my reviews — I’ve seen too many awesome movies not to be writing about them all.

As well, we should get an update to our SXSW Flickr Photos, so keep an eye on that. Until tomorrow, you stay classy…

Explicit Ills Takes SXSW’s Top Award; But Was it an Honest Win?

Neil Miller — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:30:13 +0000

On Tuesday evening the South by Southwest Film Festival was unofficially drawn to a close when the winners of the Festival Awards were handed out in a ceremony at the Austin Convention Center. Like most film festivals, the awards were split up into two categories: Jury Awards and Audience Awards. While the Jury Awards are highly coveted by filmmakers, it is the audience award that is most reflective of the best film of the festival — because lets face it, Jury’s are a group of 3-8 people, considered “experts” by the festival programmers. With an audience award, you generally get a sample of hundreds of die hard movie fans, those who wait patiently in line and diligently attend screenings on their own dime. There is no agenda for the audience, just a measure of film quality and entertainment value. And for the most part, the audience award is unable to be spoiled by corruption, falsification or other shenanigans — at least, until now.

This allegation of deception or foul-play is directed at this year’s winner of the SXSW Narrative Feature Audience Award Explicit Ills, directed by Mark Webber. Along with my friend Peter at Slashfilm (who mentions the following story in his blog here as well) I had the fortune of being one of the first people in line to see Webber’s film when it premiered at the Alamo Draft House on Saturday March 8th. It was an exciting event to attend, as almost the entire cast was present, including actress Rosario Dawson. Curiously though, as we watched the cast and their entourage enter the theater, we noticed that they were all receiving ballots for the audience award. This would not present a problem had their only been a few members of the film’s entourage, but there were a good many of them. In fact, there were so many that a very limited number of SXSW badge holders made it in to see the premiere of the film.

Before anyone was let into the film, Rosario Dawson, full of charisma and excitement, made an appearance before the group. Jokingly she said, “Here is how you fill out this ballot — you tear off the 5.” It provided everyone with a good laugh, but one would assume that everyone got the joke — at least everyone in the general audience. Her remarks could be taken lightly by any onlooker, had it not been for the fact that the general audience members did not receive ballots. Yes, you read that right. By my count, our group was within the first 15 general audience members to be let into the theater and by the time we made it to the entrance, there were no more ballots left. So in reality, the only people left to vote for the film were members of the cast and their collective entourage.

Of course there was a second screening of Explicit Ills on Monday, one day before the awards were announced, but a situation like this gives an unfair advantage to the film — an advantage over the other great films that we have seen here at SXSW. In fact, I only bring this story to light out of respect for the other narrative features shown here in Austin this week. It is disheartening and disappointing to know that something like this could have occurred at such an amazing event, a true celebration of great independent film.

As well, it should be noted that this is not a condemnation of Mark Webber’s film. In fact, he has delivered a very good film that is worthy of the award. Not only was it recognized with the Audience Award, it also received a Special Jury Award for Cinematography, an award that it certainly deserved. Ultimately, I question not the fact that Explicit Ills won the audience award at SXSW, but the manner in which is took home that award. To think that a film was given any unfair advantage in proceedings such as this is just disappointing. It leads me to say that for Mark Webber, congratulations are in order. For Matt Dentler and the folks running SXSW? — maybe some self reflection.

At this time, we are seaking comment from Matt Dentler and the heads at SXSW. We will provide updates when we receive word back, so as to give you both sides of the story on this particular issue.

UPDATE: I just got an update from Erik Davis over at Cinematical. He informed me that director Mark Webber actually apologized to folks who did not get in when he introduced the film on the second night — a classy move, indeed.

To view the complete list of Award Winners, check out the official SXSW Blog.

SXSW Blog: Geek Movies, Kristen Bell and Other Diversions

Neil Miller — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:59:51 +0000

I’d be lying if I said that we’ve been getting tons of emails from readers asking where our SXSW Blog has been the past few days, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone is, in fact, interested in reading about our shenanigans. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you can see that it has been a busy week — well, I guess that depends on your definition of “busy”.

Today being Wednesday, it is time for the Music Festival here at South by Southwest. While I am sad to see our friends from the Interactive Fest go, especially our good friend Muhammad Saleem, I believe that the arrival of the musical side of SXSW has breathed new life into the entire event. The Film Festival keeps on kicking, all the way to the end of the week, even though the Film Awards were given out last night — it’s back assword I know, but that is how SXSW rolls. Needless to say, we are here until the absolute end of the festival on Saturday. There is no reason why we should miss out on the chance to kick it in a great house and see more great films.

Speaking of great films — we have certainly seen a few gems thus far. We’ve got a bunch more reviews coming in the next day or so, but if you’d like to see write-ups on some of the best of SXSW so far, check out my review of The Promotion starring Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly or Brian’s review of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet. I also loved the film Nerdcore Rising, which chronicles the first national tour of MC Frontalot, the nerdy rapper who is taking over the world. Keep an eye on our SXSW homepage for more reviews over the next few days as we attempt to get ourselves caught up.

Why would we need to get caught up? Simply, we’ve fallen prey to all the wonderful diversions that Austin has to offer during SXSW week. It seems like every night brings a new party, a new round of fun and more drunken shenanigans. Monday night we had an opportunity to attend the highly secretive and uber-exclusive Ain’t It Cool News Forgetting Sarah Marshall cocktail hour. There we hung out with the usual crowd of online movie blogger-elite (Scott Weinberg and Erik Davis from Cinematical, Harry and Quint from AICN, Pete and Mel from Slashfilm, Alex and Ken from FirstShowing.net and many others.) We also got the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the cast, including Jason Segel, Kristen Bell and Russell Brand. Kristen Bell was a sweetheart, Russell Brand was outrageous and Jason Segel was really laid back and cool. Director Nick Stoller actual stopped and talked with us for a few minutes as well — he was a great guy. Overall, it was an awesome experience.

Since then it has been back to work — more films and more reviewing to do. In fact, I will leave this a bit short and get back to writing up some of the awesome films that I have seen before. Keep an eye on my Twitter stream for on-the-go updates from Austin and be sure to check out our Flickr Photostream for more pictures like the ones above. Until tomorrow, you stay classy, world wide web.

Click Here to Visit Our SXSW Homepage!

SXSW Blog: Chiptunes, Rosario Dawson and Hannah from American Teen!

Neil Miller — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:49:39 +0000

Alex Discovers Late-Nite Jimmy Johns

By now you are probably well aware of how the first day of the SXSW Film Festival ended for us, a real drunken, silly mess. If you haven’t seen, you may want to head over to Slashfilm, where Peter has posted a very funny video that was recorded right before everyone passed out for the evening. I will also say this, in confidence, that Alex Billington is an absolute riot — thus far he has been the must-see event of the South By Southwest experience.

Hungover, dehydrated and way behind on work, we were able to get up and moving in time to throw together a shadow of a plan for the day. I decided to skip the first film (the Harry Potter tribute band doc We Are Wizards) in an effort to catch up on things — someone has to get you your news, right? I was also able to finish my review of Second Skin, the documentary about obsessive online gamers. So far, it is the best film I have seen here in Austin — though I am discounting American Teen, as I saw it first at Sundance and then again yesterday here at SXSW.

The Alamo Draft House on Lamar

And speaking of American Teen, after everyone got our of We Are Wizards we headed over to the Alamo Draft House (which is very quickly becoming a reason why we all want to move to Austin) to see it, for me, a second time. The theater was absolutely packed and the reaction was amazing. There were moments during the film when Hannah Bailey (who was in attendance) was talking to her parents about not wanting to live out their lives that drew cheers from the capacity audience. I remember the reaction at Sundance being great, but this was something else altogether. And rightfully so, as American Teen is still one of the best films of 2008 thus far.

After American Teen and a quick “Hi, hello” with Hannah Bailey outside the theater (I’m still working on securing that interview, by the way), we were off in separate directions. Brian headed over to see Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet, which he absolutely loved (click the title of the film to read his review). Across town, Peter, Alex and myself headed to the other Alamo Draft House for more food and a date with Rosario Dawson’s film Explicit Ills. While waiting to get into the theater, we were passed by Rosario and many other members of the cast. Not to be creepy, but Rosario Dawson smells fantastic. Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) also smelled pretty good.

Rosario Dawson and Francisco Burgos at the Explicit Ills Premiere

The film itself was an interesting experience. And while I don’t want to spoil everything before I publish my review sometime this afternoon, I will tell you that it left me confused, yet affected. As well, it is one of those movies for which you will need to do research before you see it if you would like to somehow understand it.

After the screening and the round of perplexed looks we headed out for some drinks. First stop, the Explicit Ills after-party where we apparently were on the list to be in the VIP section, but somehow ended up in the “regular folks” party, where we saw Morgan Spurlock. After assessing the lame factor, we moved on to meet up with the guys from Reformat the Planet and Brian before heading over to the Iron Cactus, which was a pretty cool bar down on 6th street. From there, we had a relaxing bout of drinks. I must say that 6th street in Austin is a trip — sitting in the bar near the window we watched some of the most random, ridiculous things (including 2 guys repeatedly punching each other in the balls and a drunk woman trying to tear the shirt off of her male companion). It was good for a few laughs.

Looking ahead to today, we’ve got some screenings (although at this point, I’m not sure what they are) and then the Gawker Media Party this evening. So if you are out and about in Austin and you are looking to party, give us a shout, a twit or just ask someone if they have seen a big group of geeky film bloggers — we shouldn’t be that hard to find.

Click Here for More from South By Southwest 2008!

SXSW Blog: The Long Road into Texas

Neil Miller — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:50:17 +0000

It began, in the true fashion of the Film School Rejects, a little late — our trip to Texas for the South by Southwest Film Festival was supposed to begin sometime in the early afternoon on Wednesday (that’s two days ago at this point). But thanks to some procrastination and our need to make sandwiches for the road we didn’t get going until the sun had already dropped below the horizon. Thankfully though, we were still on pace to miss rush hour in every major city between Columbus, Ohio and Austin, Texas — or so we thought.

For almost 19 hours straight, yours truly and FSR Associate Editor Brian Gibson braved the rolling (read: boring) plains of southern Ohio, traversed the dangerous terrain of Sparta! (Kentucky) and nearly slept our way through the desolate (and mostly smelly) state of Arkansas — our apologies to our readers in Arkansas, we really wanted to like your state, but the rest stops along I-40 and I-30 South need some attention.

But alas, despite the slinkiness of Arkansas we made it to Texas, where is was rainy and cold. And as my partner in crime would say, it is like Ohio, just with bigger belt buckles. Eventually (and I do mean eventually) we made it down to Austin, a beautiful and character-filled city. Instantly I was in love with the aesthetic of this town and the denizens that make it so unique.

We arrived to the house in Austin around 6 p.m. local time, just in time to grab dinner with our housemates Peter Sciretta (Slashfilm.com), Alex Billington (FirstShowing.net) and Kevin Kelly (i09.com). We took in a burger at Hut’s Hamburgers — which were absolutely fantastic, especially after 19 hours of PB&J — before calling it a night. Needless to say, there wasn’t much that was exciting about our trip, except that we learned that in Texas, it is still called The Texas Roadhouse. Amazing.

The next morning brought the official day one of the SXSW Film Festival. After spending most of the morning in the kitchen of our fantastic rented house researching Jonathan Brandis — who once auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels, did you know that? — we headed down to the Austin Convention Center to pick up our badges. The lines were long, but we paid no mind, it was clear immediately that we were in the Mecca of Geekdom, the intersection of technology, music and film. Much different than Sundance or Comic-Con, SXSW brings together not only movie geeks, but fans of technology and pop culture in general. It is here that we are truly home — now if only we can find and accost Kevin Rose.

Alamo Draft House, We Drink Your Milkshake!

Badge pickup, lunch and then off to see a special press screening Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay at the Alamo Draft House. Although, thanks to some wayward directions from Kevin Kelly and then some confused looks from SXSW programming director Matt Dentler, we realized that we were at the wrong Alamo Draft House, so we scampered across town to the other Alamo Draft House (they are so awesome, they needed 2). Thanks to Quint from Ain’t It Cool News, we scored seats and saw the flick — and ultimately it was pretty good. As Peter will tell you, it isn’t as clever as the first film, but it works. Keep an eye out for Brian’s full review of the film later today.

Our night finished with the world premiere of Second Skin (which was awesome, review forthcoming) and the official SXSW Film opening night party at Buffalo Billiards. There we met John Campea from The Movie Blog, Scott Weinberg and Erik Davis from Cinematical, among others. As you can see from our Twitter stream, we had a great time. Alex had the best time, hands down.

And that brings us up to date — this morning brings an opportunity to get some work done (reviews, reviews, reviews) before we head on over to see We Are Wizards, a doc about Harry Potter inspired bands. We are also taking in Reformat the Planet, which is all the more exciting as we got a chance to hang with the filmmakers last night. Besides that, who knows. Keep an eye on Twitter for the up-to-the-minute updates and on Flickr for the latest photos.

Click Here for More from SXSW!

A Blogger’s Day Always Ends with Booze. From left: Neil (FSR), Alex (First Showing), Kevin (i09), John (The Movie Blog) and Brian (FSR)

Film School Rejects » SXSW Blog

The Assassination of a SXSW Audience

Related Reading:

SXSW Blog: Ninjas, Indie Rock Chicks and Packed City Streets

Related Reading:

Explicit Ills Takes SXSW’s Top Award; But Was it an Honest Win?

Related Reading:

SXSW Blog: Geek Movies, Kristen Bell and Other Diversions

Related Reading:

SXSW Blog: Chiptunes, Rosario Dawson and Hannah from American Teen!

Related Reading:

SXSW Blog: The Long Road into Texas

Related Reading: