Festivals: SXSW
SXSW 2024 Review: SMUGGLERS, Korea's King of Action Ryoo Seung-Wan Delivers A '70s Set Crowd-Pleaser
Two women’s lives transform when their diving careers move from harvesting shellfish to high stakes smuggling in Ryoo Seung-n’s ‘70s set comedic action thriller, Smugglers. After a healthy theatrical run in South Korea and a North American premiere at TIFF,...
SXSW 2024 Review: HOOD WITCH, Golshifteh Farahani Runs For Her Life In This Literal Witch Hunt
A trafficker of rare animals finds herself in the crosshairs of a literal witch hunt when a young boy plummets to his death following a visit in Saïd Belktibia’s Hood Witch, celebrating its international premiere at this year’s SXSW Film...
SXSW 2024 Review: CIVIL WAR, Is Not What You Think It Is. It's So Much More.
Civil War follows a quartet of war correspondents in the last days of the American republic as the Western Forces of the secessionist states of Texas and California advances on Washington, D.C. with harrowing results. Leading this motley crew are Lee...
SXSW 2024 Review: FAMILY, Ruth Wilson Gives The Performance Of A Lifetime In This Heart-breaking Horror
A little girl with a dying father reaches out to the heavens for a spirit to protect her family, but what reaches back has other ideas in Benjamin Finkel’s SXSW Midnighters selection, Family. Having just moved across the country in...
SXSW 2024 Review: THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT, Timey-Wimey Two Handed Thriller Delights And Befuddles
A pair of siblings on the run after a robbery take refuge in a house with mysterious time-warping qualities, only to find that the law isn’t the only thing they have to fear. Things Will Be Different, the latest from...
SXSW 2024 Review: ARCADIAN, Rich Relationships And Terrifying Monsters Make This A Winner
The old world is dead and the new one wants to kill us in Benjamin Brewer’s solo feature directing debut, Arcadian. A post-apocalyptic survival horror with strong character work and some incredible monsters, Arcadian packs an emotional punch rarely seen...
SXSW 2024 Review: DESERT ROAD, A Woman Navigates Her Way Through Despair In This Sci-Fi Gem
An intentionally convoluted science-fiction fantasy film about despair and recovery, first time feature filmmaker Shannon Triplett’s Desert Road is just the kind of small film with big ideas that really resonates with the festival crowd. Powered by an impressive lead...
SXSW 2024 Review: IMMACULATE, Sydney Sweeney Does Nunsploitation
These last few years have been a dream run for it-girl Sydney Sweeney. From her breakout role TV roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, to box office success in this year’s Anyone But You, she seems to have the...
SXSW 2024 Review: BIRDEATER, This Vivisection Of A Toxic Relationship Will Make You Squirm
An Australian stag party goes off the rails when the details of the happy couple's relationship get spilled during a night of heavy drinking and drugs in Jack Clark & Jim Weir's Birdeater, making its international debut at this year's...
SXSW 2024 Review: SEW TORN, An Enchantingly Whimsical Rube Goldberg Action Thriller
A struggling seamstress plays a dangerous real life choose-your-own-adventure game in Freddy Macdonald’s debut feature, the whimsical comedic thriller Sew Torn. Barbara Duggen’s (Eve Connolly) sewing shop in an idyllic hamlet in the picturesque Swiss Alps is on the rocks....
SXSW 2024 Review: MONKEY MAN, Dev Patel Is Your New Action Obsession. Get Excited
After sitting in the can for nearly four years, Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, was presented to a rapturous audience at SXSW last night. The film declaring loudly what the man himself was too humble to acknowledge; Dev Patel...
SXSW 2024 Review: TOLL, The Price Paid, The Damage Done
Maeve Jinkings and Kauan Alvarenga star in Carolina Markowicz's sophomore feature.
SXSW 2024 Review: RESYNATOR, Revelatory Musical History Turns Surprisingly Personal
Alison Tavel's terrific film documents a remarkable inventor who just happens to be her father.
SXSW 2024 Review: THE MOOGAI, An Examination Of Indigenous Trauma Let Down By Flaccid Script
An Aboriginal demon steps in for the real-life enduring trauma of Australia’s “Stolen Generations” in Jon Bell’s debut feature, The Moogai. Government sponsored assimilation programs ripped tens of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families to be placed with white...
SXSW 2024 Review: HUNTING DAZE, This Party Ends In Blood
One of several films at this year’s SXSW that explore the effects of women’s presence in traditionally male spaces, Annick Blanc’s Hunting Daze is among the bloodiest of the lot. When exotic dancer Nina (Nahéma Ricci) gets in a fight...
SXSW 2024 Review: AZRAEL, Samara Weaving Leads Dialogue-Free Ripper
In a future some time beyond the Rapture, a sect of penitents renounces the gift of speech in the hopes of secondary salvation. However, their survival depends on more than piety, and when a sacrifice goes awry, one former believer...
SXSW 2024 Review: THE IN BETWEEN, Stop Your Sobbing
Director Robie Flores and producer Alejandro Flores fill their debut feature with wistful yearning and thoughtful observations on their hometown, straddling Texas and Mexico.
SXSW 2024 Review: DEAD MAIL, Lo-Fi Retro Thriller Excites In Form And Function
When a mysterious bloody plea for help ends up in the dead letter office of a rural post office, the inspector on site becomes determined to find its origin, leading him down a deadly road in writer/directors Joe DeBoer and...
SXSW 2024 Review: ODDITY, A Creepy Supernatural Thriller From Ireland
The world’s creepiest mannequin holds the secret behind a shocking death in Damian McCarthy’s Oddity. Dani (Carolyn Bracken) is struggling to restore an old estate inherited by her busy doctor husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee). When a mysterious and violent death...
SXSW 2024 Review: A HOUSE IS NOT A DISCO, Burning Down Preconceptions
Brian J. Smith directs a love letter to Fire Island Pines, the legendary queer beach town in New York.
