20 SXSW Films You Need To Know About
More weird documentaries and horror spoofs, sure. But really, really good ones!
Used to be that you could count on all the cool new art house films - basically anything that doesn't have a number in the title or the Marvel Studios logo in the opening credits - premièring in one of two places. Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival is the starting point for basically every major indie movie success of the past few decades. Meanwhile, in the much more temperament climate of Cannes, the more affluent of the auteur sort of directors will début their latest head-scratchers that will probably go on to win a Best Foreign Film Oscar and then people will actually watch it. That's since expanded to include any number of smaller, disparate film festivals around the globe, from Edinburgh to Berlin, and even further than that. One of the more recent additions to the market (ie the place where all the films you'll be watching for the year get their first public airing) is the South By Southwest Festival, or SXSW, in Austin, Texas. A multimedia extravaganza, SXSW has grown with each passing year to the point that it's the place to be for basically all up-and-coming pop culture stuff: buzz bands play sold-out shows, tech companies bring out their new gizmos and, now, directors are showing off their latest projects. This years festival was a sheer embarrassment of riches. Along with giving the first US showings of Ex Machina (already out in the UK) and Ryan Gosling's directorial debut Lost River (booed at Cannes last year), along with the surprising first look at Furious 7, there were a whole host of new movies that probably weren't on your radar. But they should be. Here are twenty SXSW films you need to know about.
20. Trainwreck
Any new Judd Apatow film is cause for celebration. As a writer and producer he's been behind some of the biggest comedic hits of his generation, from Anchorman to Superbad; when he's writing and directing, meanwhile, he's balanced the laughs and drama with great aplomb, with Funny People and This Is 40 pointing to a major new voice.
Throw Amy Schumer into the mix, and the pot only gets sweeter. Her Comedy Central sketch show is one of the best things on TV right now, both for her writing and performing skills. Schumer does both in Apatow's new feature Trainwreck.
Schumer's Amy is a commitment-phobe whose promiscuous ways are tested when she starts to settle down with Bill Hader's Aaron. A heartfelt, hilarious and affecting comedy-drama.