Steve McQueen is not the first established director to get the bug to direct a highly sexual film for adults, and he certainly won’t be the last. Sadly, most directors who have actually made bold films about sexuality ended up with sub-par movies. Verhoeven’s Showgirls is a punch-line, Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is an interesting mess, and Cronenberg’s Crash is maybe the best example of these experiments. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Lars Von Trier do an adult film in the next few years; he’s already expressed interest in the subject. While McQueen’s Shame does a lot of things right, it stumbles just before the finish line. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a normal guy. He goes to work, goes out for drinks with co-workers, goes home. But every waking moment he has is devoted to sex. Thinking about it, watching it, paying for it, sex pervades his every thought. This goes beyond the normal human desire for and fascination with sex and actually consumes his life. When his sister, Cissy (Carey Mulligan), shows up for an unannounced and open-ended visit, it puts a cramp in his style. His normal evenings of watching porn, paying for webcams, and inviting prostitutes over don’t really work with his sister sleeping on the couch. Then he gets in hot water with his boss when IT checks his work computer and finds all kinds of pornography filling his hard drive. But he can’t stop. His is a true addiction and Brandon can’t stop himself.

It’s always nice to see a labor of love make its way to the big screen. More often than not, film festivals are the proving grounds where young filmmakers cut their teeth seeing their low budget passion projects play before audiences and critics. Austin is home to several film fests, and it’s always great to see a local production find a home at one of them. Austin High is the brainchild of Will Elliott and Kirk Johnson, and it’s having its world premiere at this year’s Austin Film Festival. They co-wrote the screenplay (from a story by star Michael S. Wilson), co-produced the shoot and then co-edited the footage to create the final product, a feature length comedy. While making a film is a collaborative effort that requires lots of hard work from multiple people, Elliott, Johnson and Wilson seem to be the main creative force and in a lot of ways the film is their baby. Austin High tells the story of Samuel Wilson, the principal of Ladybird High School in beautiful Austin, Texas. Sam is a laid back guy who enjoys the occasional herbal remedy as do more than a few of his students. But when a new crackdown on marijuana is initiated, Sam must figure out how to get his school to comply without comprising his own ideals.

Rules are made to be broken – especially stupid, self-imposed rules that apply giant blanket statements to something as unique and weird and changeable as love itself. In Blayne Weaver’s 6 Month Rule, writer and director Weaver also stars as Tyler, dude about town, rakish ladies’ man, (somewhat) drunk photographer, and a steadfast believer in a set of rules that he thinks keep their followers from romantic heartbreak. The most important of those rules? There’s no woman so perfect that you can’t get over her in six months. That’s a snappy rule, right? Great way to gird yourself from emotional upheaval? Of course. Tyler really thinks he’s got it all figured out. Until he doesn’t. In the film, Tyler inevitably falls in love (with the very charming Natalie Morales), but their “spooky synchronicity” is made complicated by her douchebag musician boyfriend (Patrick J. Adams) and the albatross that is his heartbroken best friend (Martin Starr). Will Tyler toss out his own rules in the face of true love or continue to cat around town? Learn how to get over (or under, as it were) a woman, and check out the trailer for 6 Month Rule after the break.

Balcony Releasing has unveiled a trailer for the Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel directed doc Louder Than a Bomb, hands down one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long while. This exhilarating true life story was the winner of a Jury Award at the 2010 Austin Film Festival, as voted upon by a jury upon which yours truly served. The vote was unanimous, if I remember correctly. It tells the story of kids from schools around the Chicago area who compete for school pride in slam poetry competitions. Their words, their passion, their unbridled energy light up the screen as their stories touch upon the simultaneous tragedy and beauty that makes up the human experience. If you do any one thing today, I’d recommend breathing (it seems necessary). But if you’d like to move on to a second thing, I’d recommend checking out this trailer. But beware that it might put a stop to that first thing you were doing.

Like its many kindred frames throughout the rest of the year, this week was filled with distractions for yours truly. First there was the launching of a new “lifestyle” site called Badass Digest, the new home of Devin Faraci (of CHUD.com fame). For weeks, many of us have been patiently waiting to see where he would end up. Now we see that he’s teamed up with Tim League and the Drafthouse Empire, where he will now begin embracing life as a blogger. The site has been a time sucking venture around Reject HQ, as we can’t keep our eyes off of it. Good on ya, Mr. Faraci. Your competitive strategies are working like a charm.

With movie websites getting clogged with stories and reviews about movies that will never reach the public, are film festivals more ado about nothing than we’d like to admit?

Grab your Sony Handicam and a few friends that claim they can act. It’s time to submit your entry into AFF.

The living legend is going to be celebrated at this year’s Austin Film Festival in late October. Hopefully, there’s an Opie retrospective.

Need something to do Wednesday night? Of course you do. If you live in Austin, we’ve got you covered. If you live anywhere else, you’re sadly on your own. Start taking night classes or something.