SXSW: Narrative Review Roundup

SXSW is over and while I have reviewed many of the films I saw, there are still a few that didn’t get the star treatment. I’ve already posted a roundup of documentary reviews but there were some interesting narrative films as well that deserve attention.

I’m Here

This Spike Jonze directed short was one of my most anticipated films of the fest. Jonze is one of my favorite directors and he always does interesting work in short form films. His recent Kanye West short We Were Once A Fairytale was a phenomenal mindfuck and this looked to follow in its footsteps.

I’m Here is thirty minutes long and is set in a world similar to our own except for the fact that robots exist as a segregated population. They work menial jobs and are not allowed the freedoms of humans. Our protagonist is a library assistant who meets a manic pixie dream girl robot at a bus stop. What follows is a fairly typical and quaint love story with a sci fi twist.

I’m Here would be a pretty unremarkable film were the robots just humans, which they could easily be as the movie doesn’t dwell much on their robot nature. Having them be robots allows Spike to create an amazing visual metaphor for romantic relationships. As these two become closer they give more of themselves away and lose their individual selves piece by piece. To say more would ruin it for you.

This truth is something we all know on some level but to see it visualized here is at once beautiful and terrifying. Jonze does not pass any kind of judgement on this, he just shows it as it is. You are left to make your own conclusions as to whether this a beautiful aspect of love or if it’s a horror to be avoided.

The film is beautiful to look at and features Jonze’s typical hipster cool soundtrack.  If you have any affinity for the man you will fall in love with this.

Enter The Void

This was by far the most audacious film I saw at the fest, which was expected given that it was the latest from Gaspar Noe. Noe has made a name for himself for being visually inventive, controversial, and perhaps self indulgent. His last film, Irreversible, was equally praised and reviled for its manic camera work and startlingly vile imagery. One scene famously and graphically shows a brutal rape in its entirety without any cuts.

Enter The Void takes the elements from his past films and cranks them all to 11. Noe’s camera seems completely detached from any camera man or rig. It floats around the sets like a spirit in shots that seem to go on forever. Much of the film even takes place in a first person point of view, complete with blinks. The visual magic tricks Noe pulls off here are nothing short of stunning… at least for a while.

The problem lies in the story, which is extremely hard to parse. It seems to have something to do with reincarnation. The lead character (who is usually shot from behind or through his eyes) is killed early in the film and what follows is a trippy and disturbing journey as he waits to be reborn. We see fragments of memories clash with reality as his spirit flies around Tokyo watching the effect his death has on loved ones. The narrative is loose here and it doesn’t always seem to make sense. This would be easier to tolerate if the film weren’t nearly three hours long. After a while it just becomes painful. One scene, which runs probably ten minutes, is nothing but CG fractal imagery set to low churning noises.

Noe also again pushes boundaries as far as graphic content. There is an extended sequence where all the characters in the film are shown having graphic sex while glowing tendrils grow from their bodies. This all takes place inside of a scale model hotel in a long continuous shot. It’s that kind of movie. There are much more shocking bits as well, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.

I don’t know how I feel about this movie. I definitely need to see it again to try to get a better sense of exactly what was going on. In many ways it reminded me of Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist. Both are visually stunning and utterly unique movies, and both might very well be terrible.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Tucker and Dale is a comedy/horror that attempts to play with horror conventions and for the most part succeeds. We follow a group of college students as they take a trip to the woods and are seemingly picked off one by one by insane rednecks. However, it turns out the rednecks are really nice guys and the deaths are just a series of unfortunate accidents. It’s a comedy of miscommunication.

Alan Tudyk  and Tyler Labine play the titular characters and both put in hilarious performances. Tyler Labine is especially effective and is given the most to work with as he has a love story subplot. Labine was great in Reaper and had a scene stealing performance in Zach and Miri Make a Porno but this movie seems like it could be his breakout.

This is a simple film and isn’t likely to stick with you long, but it succeeds in its modest goals and is entertaining throughout.

Skateland

This was the surprise of the fest for me. I knew nothing about it except that it was set in the early 80’s and was made by Austin filmmakers.

Skateland stars Joaquin Phoenix lookalike Shiloh Fernandez as a gifted writer who is wasting his life working at a small town skating rink. He’s a typical young adult who lets fear overcome ambition and tries to convince himself that he is happy where he is, despite everyone around him wanting him to make something of himself. It doesn’t help that he’s fallen in love with a local girl, played by Twilight’s Ashley Greene.

All this is threatened by the imminent closing of the skating rink, which serves as a metaphor for a new decade and oncoming adulthood. The whole movie is very reminiscent of films like Adventureland, American Graffiti, and Dazed and Confused but I happen to really like those films so I welcomed this one despite its lack of originality.

It’s an affecting and funny take on the typical coming of age love story that I encourage everyone to check out when they get the chance. It also has a killer soundtrack.