When it was announced that the newest film from eighteen-year-old director Emily Hagins, entitled My Sucky Teen Romance, was going to premiere at SxSW, I was ecstatic. Almost every member of our SXSW coverage team either lives or has previously lived in Austin and knows Emily personally. Hell, some of us even donated our time to assist in the movie’s completion. That made it slightly difficult to lend our voices to reviewing the film. So do we decline to review it? Do we expend no words on it at all? Yes…and no. There is a story here, and a damn good one at that, completely divorced from the film itself. Emily’s story. Hagins wrote her first feature-length film, Pathogen, at age 11.  The next year, she earned a grant from the Austin Film Society to produce Pathogen, effectively becoming the youngest recipient of that award. Her tireless dedication to making her first feature film, and the fact that she wasn’t even in high school yet, attracted the attention of a trio of documentary filmmakers who noticed Hagins’s casting call posted on a local website called Austinactors.net. They crafted their 2009 film Zombie Girl: The Movie around her efforts. Between 7th and 8th grade, when the biggest thing that happened to most of us was getting our first kiss at a skating party, she was hard at work on The Retelling, her second feature. And now, here at SXSW 2011, Hagins’s third film played to bright marquee lights and packed houses [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Walking down the street in Austin one fine afternoon, I made the remark that I wasn’t sure how to feel about a film that just played Fantastic Fest because it had a happy ending. “No one was raped or killed, I’m not sure how to feel about that.” I’m not an advocate of raping and killing (except when they really, really deserve it), but the vast majority of films I saw this year dealt with those themes heavily. Seeing something happy and cheery actually threw me pretty hard. Luckily, Red White & Blue from writer-director Simon Rumley was there to bring me right back down into a pit of despair and make me want to give up on life. Red White & Blue follows a trio of Austin residents as their stories intersect and collide with unfortunate events. Erica (Amanda Fuller) is a promiscuous girl down on her luck who finds something close to a relationship developing with the off-kilter Army veteran Nate (Noah Taylor). Rock-n-roller Franki (Marc Senter) has a brief fling with Erica and the results of said fling have ramifications for all.

So some guy in Austin just became CEO of his company again. Why should you care?

This week, Brian Salisbury stocks up on junk food and takes us back to the drive-in to celebrate what’s playing while we all make out.

Luckily we had a list of the winners sent to us because we didn’t remember all the names. Or where our pants went.

You asked for us to be canceled, but apparently your appeals to your school board commissioner fell on deaf ears because we’re forging ahead and diving deep into the hellish chaos of Fantastic Fest by broadcasting from its epicenter.

If you want to see Danny Trejo cutting people into pieces for revenge, Sony might just have exactly what you’re looking for.

This week’s Culture Warrior takes a look at three great American cities and their equally great cultures of movie nerd-dom.

The folks at the Alamo Drafthouse have officially announced today that the Sundance sensation Mystery Team will be making its debut here in Austin at the Alamo Ritz on Friday, August 28th.

The official Fantastic Fest blog has announced today that Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Inglourious Basterds will be coming to Austin for a premiere event on August 15th.

Gentleman Broncos! Journey to Saturn! Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl! Trick ‘r Treat! A fantastic line up for a Fantastic Fest.

We take one more look back at what is quickly becoming the geek event of 2009, complete with our own Executive Editor making an appearance on G4′s Attack of the Show.

SXSW gave us the double-edged sword of joy through the heart known as Metropolis with the addition of a live performance of an all-new original score for the film. Plus, we drank beer during it. Only in Austin.

If you live in Austin, educate yourself for when the nominees are called for Best Animated and Live Action Short during this year’s Oscars by checking them out all this week.

Assuming we don’t get into trouble on the 18 hour drive between Columbus, Ohio and Austin, Texas, here is a quick preview of what our upcoming week should look like…

The reviews on this will probably be a mix of A’s and F’s. It’s either love or hate for the D, and movie-goers won’t be able to know which side they’re on until they pay their ten bucks for a seat.

I was excited for the end of the festival to come because I was anxious to get home, and also because the last two days’ movies were going to be a great experience. Word came today that the last TBA film for the closing night would be Nightmare Detective, a movie I figured I’d have to import on DVD in two years. Of course, there’s always the Pick of Destiny and the closing night blow-out bash to look forward to. With that in mind, I stayed sober in preparation. I was also looking forward to the films of the night, because they were both comedies, and after seeing The Room the night before, I was ready for an intentional laugh. One is the heartwarming tale about a robot and the other is the heartwarming tale of the brave men and women of World War Two and its heartwarming devastation. Altogether, it was to be a heartwarming night – I blame most of that on not being able to afford another adjective. On my salary, I was lucky to get one with three syllables. Also, both films had exclamation marks, which could only be a good thing. On with the reviews! Run, Robot, Run! And Military Intelligence and You!

Making movies just isn’t good enough anymore. We’re thrusting headlong into an exciting new world where movies aren’t just biographical, but fictionally biographical; not just documentaries, but mockumentaries; not just fictional, but reality-based fiction. With meta-humor becoming as commonplace in comedies as explosions in action flicks, it’s getting tougher to create the next big twist on classic stories.

There are more than two parts to making every movie, but if it had to be done, the process could be split into concept and execution. Every critic knows this since many of them rely solely on the arsenal of insults involving the execution of a film, praising its concept as genius while distressing over how it could have been made better. I’m not one to follow trends, but after watching this movie, I’m forced to say that I loved Run, Robot, Run!‘s ideas and yawned at the way they were presented.

The festival is almost over by this point – most of the L.A. types (excluding myself) have all flown back to their respective homes where they are, as all know, waited on by man-servants and washed by professional bathers. Yes, rich and poor alike all take in the luxury that is Los Angeles. With no panels to go to anymore and limited transportation, I found a way to get Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD and sat transfixed in front of the warm glow of television as a change of pace from the warm glow of the aperture. At least I could lay down in the hotel room. Theaters usually frown on that sort of behavior. I feel like I almost didn’t give justice to the two movies I saw that night since I was notably excited about the closing night film – a rare underground piece called Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny that will probably crowd art houses in larger cities and only attract those who truly “get” film. However, looking back now I see the night as one big high and one big low. If you could measure the width of height, that is. Although you probably haven’t heard anything about this films, you should really check out these reviews because they will make you want to see one of the movies and know to avoid the other. I’m not telling which is which. You’ll have to read for yourself. I know, it’s hard work: The [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]