{"id":137,"date":"2010-03-30T23:54:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T23:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/zombielapdance\/2010\/03\/30\/the-movies-of-sxsw-2010\/"},"modified":"2012-08-17T05:23:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T05:23:57","slug":"the-movies-of-sxsw-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/zombielapdance\/2010\/03\/30\/the-movies-of-sxsw-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"The Movies of SXSW 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking through the list I was a bit shocked by how few movies I actually caught. Last time I went through the SXSW movie wringer I caught about twenty-five. I guess I just had a lot of other stuff going on.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, most of the films that I did catch, were later on in the evening, and that was when they scheduled most of the Fantastic-Fest tie-in screenings. I’ve been repeatedly harangued by certain individuals to attend the yearly Fantastic Fest, but I never have. Now I have more of a motivation I guess, because I was generally pretty pleased with the fantastic bent of the movie selection this year. <\/p>\n

Higanjima<\/a> is your standard manga turned live-action film.
\n
\nThere’s a mysterious island overrun by vampires and a bunch of high school kids have to defeat them. The best part about this movie is that their vampires only seem to die if you completely splatter their heads with a blunt object. The heroes use a weapon that seems to be a giant tree trunk with some ropes wrapped around it as handholds. Then the trunk is picked up and used like a battering ram on hapless vampire heads. Splorch! <\/p>\n

\nJimmy Tupper vs. the Goatman of Bowie <\/a> is a ruthlessly realistic single-take found footage from a camcorder horror movie.
\n
\nThe characterization is wonderful and there are some seriously scary moments. But considering that it’s got some shaky hand-held footage made by characters who were falling-down drunk in scene — well, let’s just say that I wish I hadn’t sat in the front row. This was the first time that I actual felt motion sickness at a movie.<\/p>\n

I’m Here<\/a> is a Spike Jonze not quite a short and not quite a feature.
\n
\nImagine a mumblecore film that stars robots.<\/p>\n

Successful Alcoholics<\/a> was part of the same bill as "I’m Here."
\n
\nIt was about people who manage to be brilliant despite being totally wasted. Which is reasonably funny.<\/p>\n

The movie that I’ve been recommending to everyone is Monsters<\/a>. And it’s got distribution, so you’re likely going to have a chance to see it.
\n
\nThis is a British-produced roadtrip romance sci-fi thriller kaiju film. It’s about a couple of Americans travelling through a Mexico that has been infected by alien spores. The cinematography, directing, production design, and CGI were all beautiful and impeccably flawless. Which is extra impressive when you realize that all that was done by one guy.<\/p>\n

Outcast<\/a> is a joint Scottish\/Irish production.
\n
\nWhich means that there’s incomprehensible dialects of several slightly differing flavors. The best part about this movie is the fantastic magic system, which involves, blood, hair, runes, tattoos, and no little amount of haruspicy. The heroine is a fairy\/witch woman who has had an affair with a mortal, and then has to hide her offspring from a number of organizations. The take home message from Outcast: "Cross-racial coupling is WRONG!"<\/p>\n

Originally I wasn’t going to comment about Earthling<\/a>. Because I didn’t have much nice to say about it.
\n
\nI had plenty of warnings. When the director introduced the film (technically a "video" in more than one sense of the term), he described it as "esoteric sci-fi." Then he said that it was about two hours long and that we should have already gone to the bathroom. Ninety minutes in, I walked out of the screening, realizing that I really had to go to the bathroom, and that it probably wasn’t going anywhere, and if it was, I didn’t care. Considering that probably only the director will read this, let me just say: Edit it down next time! All the parts with the teacher co-workers hanging out in the bar? You didn’t need that at all. Quit noodling around and just make a fifteen-minute short next time.<\/p>\n

Cargo<\/a> is a low-budget Swiss sci-fi epic. In space, everyone speaks German.
\n
\nIt gets some mileage out of its budget, and there’s some unfortunate plot telegraphing, but you should definitely check it out when it hits Netflix instant view a year from now.<\/p>\n

Those wacky Canadians. They think they can rock. Suck<\/a> is a vampire rock and roll movie, where vampirism is a transparent metaphor for your bandmates taking up hard drugs.
\n
\nThere’s some impressive cameos. In particular, Alice Cooper steals the movie. The screening Q&amp;A had Jessica Par\u00e9, reputedly one of the top 25 most attractive Canadians, and Dave Foley, who is not.
\n
\nDave Foley arrived at the screening drunk and funny, and after the screening was even drunker and funnier. It’s like a super power or something. The other members of the crew watched him like snake handlers, wondering what hilarious venom he would spit next.<\/p>\n

Elektra Luxx<\/a> is film festival bait if anything is.
\n
\nIt’s about a retired porn star. There’s overlapping narratives, risque banter without a hint of nudity, and serious, yet inexpensive Hollywood actors. <\/p>\n

The funniest movie I have seen in years is Four Lions<\/a>. It’s about an Islamic extremist terrorist cell in Britain.
\n
\nBut that’s not funny!, you protest. There’s nothing more serious than Islamic extremism and terrorism. Silly, that’s exactly why it’s so amazingly funny. Imagine Laurel and Hardy, but with explosives and security forces. <\/p>\n

The super-secret midnight screening was Neil Marshall’s Centurian<\/span>. You probably remember Marshall from his previous work, Dog Soldiers<\/span>. Centurian<\/span> is much like Dog Soldiers<\/span>, but with Picts instead of werewolves.
\n
\nYeah, the Picts are scarier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking through the list I was a bit shocked by how few movies I actually caught. Last time I went through the SXSW movie wringer I caught about twenty-five. I guess I just had a lot of other stuff going … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Movies of SXSW 2010 - Zombie Lapdance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/zombielapdance\/2010\/03\/30\/the-movies-of-sxsw-2010\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Movies of SXSW 2010 - Zombie Lapdance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Looking through the list I was a bit shocked by how few movies I actually caught. 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