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South by Southwest · 2023

South by Southwest 2023

Narrative Spotlight

Programme

19 films · 5 reviews

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Appendage

A young fashion designer, who seems fine on the surface, secretly struggles with debilitating self-doubt. Soon these buried feelings begin to make Hannah physically sick and sprout into a ferocious growth on her body:

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Anna Zlokovic; Writer: Anna Zlokovic; Stars: Hadley Robinson, Emily Hampshire, Brandon Mychal Smith, Kausar Mohammed)

BlackBerry

Review preview for BlackBerry

This is a film built in the edit, a story which can but understood in linear form only in retrospect.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Matt Johnson; Writer: Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller, based on the book by Jacquie McNish; Stars: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek, Rich Sommer)

Full review See: Q&A with Glenn Howerton about BlackBerry , Interview with Matt Johnson about BlackBerry

Bleeding Love (You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder)

Review preview for Bleeding Love

The acting and the visuals are of the highest order, especially given the sensitive and personal nature of some of the revelations.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
After overdosing on benzodiazepines and opioids, a young woman is picked up from the hospital by her father and the two embark on a road trip together. He was absent during most of her childhood due to addiction. In a last ditch effort to save her, he attempts to convince her to get sober.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Emma Westenberg; Writer: Ruby Caster, based on a story by Clara McGregor, Vera Bulder, Ruby Caster; Stars: Clara McGregor, Ewan McGregor, Vera Bulder, Jake Weary, Kim Zimmer, Devyn McDowell, Sasha Alexander)

Full review See: Proud dad Ewan on filming with Clara, Danny Boyle and wearing that moustache

Bloody Hell

A 16-year-old is unexpectedly diagnosed with MRKH syndrome. The diagnosis upends her plans to have sex, her presumptions about womanhood and sexuality, her relationship with her mother and aspects of her own identity.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Molly McGlynn; Writer: Molly McGlynn; Stars: Maddie Ziegler, Emily Hampshire, Djouliet Amara, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Ki Griffin)

Cora Bora

Cora senses her open relationship is on the rocks. When the struggling musician and messy millennial goes home to Portland to win her girlfriend back, she realizes it’s much more than her love life that needs salvaging.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Hannah Pearl Utt; Writer: Rhianon Jones; Stars: Megan Stalter, Jojo T Gibbs, Manny Jacinto, Ayden Mayeri, Thomas Mann, Chrissie Fit, Andre Hyland, Chelsea Peretti, Margaret Cho, Darrell Hammond)

Deadland

Review preview for Deadland

The difficulty with all this is that too many threads are left hanging, becoming distractions rather than contributing to the atmosphere.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
US border guards bury the body of a would-be immigrant deep in the desert in an unmarked grave. Days later one of them is called back to find the same migrant at the river's edge.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Lance Larson; Writer: Lance Larson, Jas Shelton; Stars: Roberto Urbina, McCaul Lombardi, Julieth Restrepo, Kendal Rae, Luis Chavez, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Manuel Uriza, Chris Mulkey, Chris White, Dave Maldonado)

Full review

Down Low

A comedy about one wild night, a deeply repressed man, the twink who gives him a happy ending and all the lives they ruin along the way.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Rightor Doyle; Writer: Phoebe Fisher, Lukas Gage; Stars: Zachary Quinto, Lukas Gage, Simon Rex, Sebastian Arroyo, Christopher Reed Brown, Audra McDonald, Judith Light)

Frybread Face And Me

It’s 1990. A Native American boy growing up in San Diego plays with dolls and listens to Fleetwood Mac. Everything he thinks he knows about himself and his family is turned upside down when his parents force him to spend the summer at his grandmother’s sheep ranch on the reservation in Arizona. There he meets his cousin, known as Frybread Face, a pudgy 11-year-old vagabond, tough-as-nails tomboy.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Billy Luther; Writer: Billy Luther; Stars: Kier Tallman, Charley Hogan, Martin Sensmeier, Kahara Hodges, Sarah Natani)

Hail Mary

Review preview for Hail Mary

Though it might easily have been twee, the young leads are fresh and natural, unintimidated by the symbolism, whilst Huston brings an unnerving edge to his pleasingly complex character.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A 17-year-old girl from Belize finds herself mysteriously pregnant. We find her walking, following the north star to safety across the US/Mexican border. She’s escaping a deadly virus and being chased by the right-hand man of the devil, Baal.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Rosemary Rodriguez; Writer: Knate Lee; Stars: Natalia del Riego, Benny Emmanuel, Jack Huston, Angela Sarafyan)

Full review

If You Were The Last

Adam and Jane are three years into a NASA mission that has gone very wrong. Their ship is broken and now they drift between Jupiter and Saturn, finding ways to pass the time as they become more certain that no one is coming to save them. Adam paints, Jane attempts to repair the ship. They argue over what movies to watch. And every day, they dance. One day, Adam poses that maybe they should sleep together.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Kristian Mercado; Writer: Angela Bourassa; Stars: Anthony Mackie, Zoë Chao, Natalie Morales, Geoff Stults)

The Long Game

When JB Peña moves to the small town of Del Rio, TX to take over as the school district’s superintendent, his dreams of joining the prestigious, all-white Del Rio Country Club are immediately squashed. However, soon he meets a group of high schoolers who happen to caddy at the club—they too are prohibited from playing the same course because of the colour of their skin. So JB and them band together.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Julio Quintana; Writer: Julio Quintana, Jennifer C Stetson, Paco Farias; Stars: Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, Cheech Marin, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nuñez, Richard Robichaux, Paulina Chávez)

National Anthem

Dylan lives an isolated life of routine in rural New Mexico, working odd construction jobs to help support his little brother and alcoholic mother. He accepts a gig working at the House of Splendor, a homestead built by a community of queer rodeo performers and ranchers, and soon the indefinable magic of an untamed America unfolds before him.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Luke Gilford; Writer: David Largman Murray, Kevin Best, Luke Gilford; Stars: Charlie Plummer, Eve Lindley, Mason Alexander Park, Rene Rosado, Robyn Lively)

Northern Comfort

A special forces veteran, an uptight property developer, an influencer with half a million followers and an incompetent instructor are thrown together on a high-end fear of flying course. The course’s final challenge is an experience flight from London to Iceland,

(Country: Germany, Iceland, UK; Year: 2023; Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson; Writer: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, Halldór Laxness Halldórsson, Tobias Munthe; Stars: Lydia Leonard, Timothy Spall, Ella Rumpf, Sverrir Guðnason, Simon Manyonda, Rob Delaney)

Only The Good Survive

A traumatised young woman tells a sheriff that she and three of her friends tried to steal rare coins from a farmer and his wife, but uncovered something far more valuable in the process and became targets of a powerful cult.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Dutch Southern; Writer: Dutch Southern; Stars: Sidney Flanigan, Frederick Weller, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Ropp, Darius Fraser, Lachlan Watson, Jon Gries)

Peak Season

Two New York yuppies arrive in the wealthy resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a summer vacation. One of them wants to enjoy a romantic getaway with her fiancé, but he neglects her to spend the week working, leaving her to wander town alone and meet a wilderness guide with whom she develops an unexpected connection.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter; Writer: Henry Loevner; Stars: Claudia Restrepo, Derrick DeBlasis, Ben Coleman, Fred Melamed, Stephanie Courtney, Will Neff, Caroline Kwan, Ron Hanks, Gadiel Del Orbe, Natasha Dewhurst)

Self Reliance

When a man is offered a million dollars to play a game in which hunters try to kill him, he thinks he has found the perfect loophole: they can only attack when he’s alone. His only problem is that none of his friends or family believe the game is real.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Jake Johnson; Writer: Jake Johnson; Stars: Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Andy Samberg, Natalie Morales, Christopher Lloyd, Wayne Brady, GaTa, Emily Hampshire, Mary Holland, Boban Marjanović)

This Closeness

Staying in Philadelphia for the weekend to attend a high school reunion, a couple has to rent a room in a stranger's apartment.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Kit Zauhar; Writer: Kit Zauhar; Stars: Zane Pais, Kit Zauhar, Ian Edlund, Jessie Pinnick, Kate Williams)

Upon Entry

Two would-be emigres face scrutiny upon arrival in New York.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vázquez; Writer: Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vázquez; Stars: Alberto Ammann, Bruna Cusí, Ben Temple, Laura Gómez)

War Pony

Review preview for War Pony

Everything here has a depth, a richness.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. At 23, Bill just wants to make something of himself. Whether it’s delivering goods or breeding poodles, he is determined to hustle his way to the American Dream. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Matho can’t wait to become a man.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Gina Gammell, Riley Keough; Writer: Franklin Sioux Bob, Bill Reddy, Riley Keough, Gina Gammell; Stars: Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder)

Full review