Yesterday the Twittersphere (a place where topics are only discussed in rational proportions) was abuzz with the news that Terrence Malick’s long-awaited magnum opus Tree of Life was booed at its Cannes premiere. While the reaction to Malick’s latest will no doubt continue to be at least as divisive and polarized as his previous work has been, for many Malick fans the news of the boos only perpetuated more interest in the film, and for many Malick non-fans the boos signaled an affirmation of what they’ve long-seen as lacking in his work. (Just to clarify, there was also reported applause, counter-applause, and counter-booing at the screening.) Booing at Cannes has a long history, and can even be considered a tradition. It seems that every year some title is booed, and such a event often only creates more buzz around the film. There’s no formula for what happens to a booed film at Cannes: sometimes history proves that the booed film was ahead of its time, sometimes booing either precedes negative critical reactions that follow or reflect the film’s divisiveness during its commercial release. Booed films often win awards. If there is one aspect connecting almost all booed films at Cannes, it’s that the films are challenging. I mean challenging as a descriptor that gives no indication of quality (much like I consider the term “slow”), but films that receive boos at the festival challenge their audiences or the parameters of the medium in one way or another, for better or [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]

Barry Munday was the first film I saw for SXSW, and it could have only been one of my favorite films of the festival for maybe another day or so. However, we are now on our seventh day of coverage for the fest…and Barry Munday is still one of my favorites.

Just this morning I was watching the trailer for Chris D’Arienzo’s comedy Barry Munday on the YouTube, and it had me wondering if I should share it with you as part of our SXSW preview today. Then an email came in with not only the trailer, but a gallery of images and an official synopsis from the fine folks handling the film’s publicity. It was destiny, leaving me no choice but to share it with all of you.

Inspired by a true story, this film follows a man who travels to Peru and comes back and begins to experience mystifying events. Events that lead him to slay his own mother with a sword.