Nordling here.
Yeah, I know I missed a day, for those of you following my South By Southwest previews. Sorry about that - just got swamped with other things. Let's move past that in this point in our relationship and go straight to the cuddling, shall we? For this installment, I wanted to look at the little films, movies that may have not gotten the exposure of CABIN IN THE WOODS or THE RAID, but important pieces of art nonetheless.
GAYBY
Director: Jonathan Lisecki
GAYBY is about two best friends, one a gay man, the other a straight woman, who decide to have a baby together, but instead of donating sperm, they decide to go about it the "natural" way, which causes havoc in their own lives and relationships. Director Jonathan Lisecki's first feature film is a comedy about friendship, sex, and navigating the waters between the two. I think the trailer's quite funny and charming, and hopefully the movie will be as well. GAYBY is in Narrative Competition for this year's SXSW Festival.
PLAY TIMES: Monday, March 12th, 1:15 PM, Stateside Theatre; Tuesday, March 13th, 1:45 PM, Alamo Lamar A; Thursday, March 15th, 5:00 PM, Stateside Theatre
EXTRACTED
Director: Nir Paniry
Really wish there was a trailer for this one, because the synopsis sounds fascinating: when a man invents a way to experience other people's memories, he offers to search inside a heroin-addicted criminal's memory to determine whether or not he committed a crime. But something happens and the man is trapped inside the criminal's mind for years, inside his memories, unable to escape. This debut feature film from Nir Paniry (he was a storyboard artist on the animated HELLBOY movies before making this film) sounds amazing, like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH meets DRUGSTORE COWBOY, although I hate to be reductive like that. I haven't seen any footage, but I bet it's visually stunning, even on its low-budget.
PLAY TIMES: Saturday, March 10th, 10:00 PM, Alamo Lamar C; Sunday, March 11th, 10:00 PM, Violet Crown; Tuesday, March 13th, 4:30 PM, Alamo Ritz; Thursday, March 15th, 9:45 PM, Violet Crown
BOOSTER
Director: Matt Ruskin
Simon is a young man trying to keep straight, but when his brother is arrested for armed robbery, Simon is asked to commit more armed robberies using the same M.O. to create reasonable doubt in the jury's mind for Simon's brother's acquittal. Simon is conflicted between entering a world of crime, and being loyal to his family. The great Seymour Cassel is in this movie, and he's one of my all-time favrotie character actors. The movie's full of great moral quandries and the trailer, by documentary filmmaker Matt Ruskin, reminds me a little bit of Scorsese's MEAN STREETS. There's a nice tension to the trailer that I hope carries over into the film, which is playing in Narrative Competition at this year's SXSW Festival.
PLAY TIMES: Monday, March 12th, 7:00 PM, Stateside Theatre; Tuesday, March 13th, 11:30 AM, Alamo Lamar A; Thursday, March 15th, 9:45 PM, Stateside Theatre
And that's it for today's preview! Thanks for reading.
