Hey everyone! I'm back again with more coverage from SXSW '16! Since staying up late for the work-in-progress screening of KEANU murdered me, I was back to basics on Sunday, hiding out in the theater. So, no antics around town for this girl on this day- just the reviews. My first outing was Keith Maitland's TOWER.
As one of our country's first mass murders, the shooting spree from the top of the now-infamous University of Texas tower horrified the world on August 1, 1966. Now almost 50 years later, director Keith Maitland brings us the stories of the witnesses, survivors, and even heroes of that terrible day. While many preceding films about the event have centered on Charles Whitman, the mentally ill perpetrator of the national tragedy, TOWER instead focuses on the positive stories of those young souls going about their usual business on the university mall that fateful day.
In order to weave together the various accounts, Maitland brilliantly employs gorgeous rotoscope animation in place of what would ordinarily be run of the mill dramatizations. Not only does this enable the director the ability to transport the audience back to the 60's, it also serves as a beautiful vehicle to feature some of the transcendental thoughts going through the victims minds at the time of the event. Paired with archival radio reports and actual film footage shot from nearby safe vantages, Maitland aptly conveys the confusion and mayhem that encompassed the event.
In the third act, it is breathtaking to finally meet the present day counterparts of the young ones featured in the retelling. To place the faces that have aged almost 50 years with those of the kids in the recreations somehow harnesses and brings home the reality and legacy of the terrible day.
Though I will admit that the inclusion of a forth act that brings the commentary to the current day shooting events that have dominated the media landscape seems mostly disjointed from the rest of the period piece, I can understand why Maitland might be remiss to not recognize this undeniable phenomenon. Though powerful, I feel that ultimately this unnecessary epilogue ultimately took away from the essence of the featured stories, and perhaps would work better in a special features section of the DVD. Interestingly, when I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Maitland (stay tuned for the interview after the fest!), he shared that there have been so many additional stories since principle shooting that they are doing an entire follow up called BEYOND THE TOWER that will further delve into stories from the day.
That being said, I was in tears by the film's conclusion, wracked with grief not only for the fallen but also for the men and women who risked life and limb to put a stop to the unthinkable. A freakishly still appropriate news report-cum-slap down by Walter Kronkite perfectly sums up the responsibility of society as whole- resonating perhaps even more today than when he delivered his address all those years ago.
While the film does have a home as part of PBS's Independent Lens series, everyone should keep an eye out for a theatrical release that would truly do the beautiful film- and it subjects- due justice. It is a film that needs to be seen.
Next on my list for the day was the James Caan thriller called THE WAITING. I was seriously about to call it a night when I learned that the man, the legend was going to be at the screening! As exhausted as I was, I simply could not pass up the opportunity to see one of my idols in the flesh and enjoy his film with a festival audience.
THE WAITING
THE WAITING is a sort of modern day REAR WINDOW, only in this case it's two teenagers who have masterminded a tech-assisted haunting of their elderly curmudgeon neighbor. At the onset there is no denying that what the boys are doing is wrong, just wrong. Ethan, the leader of the ruse, is adamant that the old man is deserving of the prank since the widower was a wife-beating drunk who has terrorized the quiet street.
The fellows hatch a scheme to plant a sophisticated array of surveillance equipment around their mark's house one day while he is out grocery shopping. With live video and audio feeds, the duo are able to observe the day to day activities of the man. To simulate an actual haunting, however, the guys cross the line from mere voyeurism to actual aggravation when they rig a series of "scares" throughout their victim's home. From electrical glitches to shattered windows, they succeed in tormenting their aging neighbor- though the end result of their cinematic endeavor is no where near what the teenagers could imagine.
Performances from the teens, particularly that of the aspiring filmmaker character played by Logan Miller were convincing enough to buy the insidious scheme. While Logan's charisma continually propels the story forward, his cohort played by Keir Gilchrist lends the film's the right amount of levity to counter balance the insanity that ensues. Though the film is certainly one that forces the audience to suspend disbelief to a great extent, the conclusion offers a terrific antidote to the seedy feel of the earlier sequences.
And then there's James Caan. Though his performance early on in the film demands a sinister type of subtlety, the turn he makes later will remind audiences why the man has been a successful working actor/movie star for half a century. Yet another rendering of a role that I simply can't imagine bested by another.
So there you have it! No big parties or glam events on this day, but there was some pretty great, solid films to fill another day at SXSW '16!
Rebecca Elliott,
Aka Annette Kellerman
