Nordling here.
Day 3 of my SXSW Preview! So far it's shaping up nicely this year, and today I thought I'd concentrate some on the Midnighters, but first I wanted to talk briefly about one film in particular. So here we go:
THE RAID
Director: Gareth Huw Evans
Oh boy. I'm embargoed until the film plays at SXSW, but let me just say this... DIE HARD. HARD BOILED. THE RAID. Yeah, it's that fucking good. It totally deserves to be mentioned with those classics of action cinema. A police squad is ordered to take down a crime boss in a dilapidated apartment building, but get more than they bargained for, as a rookie cop does everything he can to get back home. Iko Uwais (MERENTAU) is a human battering ram in this movie, and I dare say there's no one alive who wants to be punched by him. But this movie's full of amazing scenes, and Gareth Evans' direction is simply stunning, with a style that's never confusing and always intense. It's only playing once at the festival, and I guaran-goddamn-tee you they'll be sitting on the stairs for this one. Do not miss this.
PLAY TIMES: Sunday, March 11th, 9:30 PM, Paramount Theater
V/H/S
Director(s): Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence
A found footage anthology movie, which would ordinarily make me pause, but the feedback from Sundance was so intense and positive that I'm going to have to check this out myself. A group of burglars stumble upon a collection of video tapes, and what's inside them takes the audience on a horrific ride. The varying reviews I've read each tout a different segment as the strongest one, so I'm thinking that there might not be a weak one in the bunch. I've been less than complimentary of found footage movies before, but I'm always open for anything that makes the genre work, and word is, this works. It works very well, from what I'm told.
PLAY TIMES: Sunday, March 11th, 11:45 PM, Alamo Lamar A; Tuesday, March 13th, 11:30 PM, Alamo Lamar B; Friday, March 16th, 11:59 PM, Alamo Ritz 1
GIRLS AGAINST BOYS
Director: Austin Chick
Having its World Premiere at SXSW this year is GIRLS AGAINST BOYS, a coming-of-age story about two young women bartenders on a murdering spree. Because you can only truly understand who you are and your place in this world when you're slaughtering a bunch of people who did you wrong. Director Austin Chick was a producer of WHEN THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, writer of XX/XY, and director of AUGUST, and this movie sounds like an interesting choice for a Midnighter. A feminist slasher movie? Or something else? We'll see when it has its premiere.
PLAY TIMES: Friday, March 9th, 11:59 PM, Alamo Ritz; Saturday, March 10th, 3:45 PM Violet Crown; Tuesday, March 13th, 11:30 PM, Alamo Ritz; Wednesday, 7:30 PM, Violet Crown
And that's it for today; tomorrow I'm going to dive into some of the documentaries playing this year. A real variety of subjects and filmmakers this year.
