being fun...

For Monday we put our trust into the hands of the programming staff with both a Special Screening and a TBA screening on our schedule. Literally these could've been anything. So Adrian goes to park and I get in a, rapidly growing, line abuzz with stories of the "Drag Me To Hell" Screening the night before. Apparently a bat was trapped in the ceiling and ruined some people's experience... I ask the nice pretty lady in front of me if she knew what we were going to watch. She replied with "Me and Orson Wells" the new Linklater film. I immediately think about "Fast Food Nation," "Scanner Darkly," "Waking LIfe," "Dazed and Confused," and I'm starting to get pumped. I have never seen a Linklater film in a theater before, let alone in a theater with him. Very exciting.

"Me and Orson Wells"

At first this film felt like something I might watch on DVD years after it was theatrically released, and would've been drawn to it because of the subject matter. Well, let's just say the Caesar sequences were the most powerful and successful aspect of the film. For what it is worth seeing that performance recreated with so much faith and love in portraying it as much like it actually was as can be. I'm a film student, and a casual lover of most Shakespeare, so it would be hard for me to criticize the intent or the execution, because it was just so cool to see it in any respect. Unfortunately for me the rest of the film seems forced and unable to achieve the excitement of those scenes. Linklater's biggest achievement here was in the casting of Christian McKay, whose dead-on rendering of a Orson Wells seeks to gain this film most of its attention.

"It was great, but I was ready to come home." Director; Kris Swanberg

I wasn't sure what to make of this until the opening sequence of the film ended and the music had faded. I was sold, and was like many other people an instant fan. I think of all the films I've seen so far this year, I am taking away a lot from this one. It is empowering to see people send such a powerful message to audiences about what narrative filmmaking could be. Simple and yet eloquent the film follows the experiences of two young women as they travel across Costa Rica. During the Q & A I couldn't help but think, had we shot for two more days on either North Street or Sleet/Snow, we could've had a film at about this quality. Adrian and I walked a way from this film more then any other, frustrated with our mistakes and empowered to continue and start new and better projects.

"Luckey"

We met the filmmaker for this film in line for Kris' film and Adrian and I were already planning on attending the screening. I was very satisfied with the film, the ending was a bit hard, the film overall really maintained the complexity of a Father and Son's relationship as they struggle to accommodate for the father's paralysis. Really powerful and fun film.

"TBA" or "Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story" Director: Todd Haynes

Linklater presented the film, a 16mm print of it too, beautiful film and truly a shock even today. Not a big Todd Haynes fan, but this was a really great film. One of the best I have ever seen. Oh yeah, and it is illegal to screen publically, the film has been banned, so for SXSW to screen it they had to call it TBA and only offer vague descriptions of the film to anyone that asked.

More from Adrian

Yesterday- Sunday night- we left Jeremy's house and went to the premiere party for "Make Out with Violence". We talked to the filmmakers and one of the actresses who seemed very interested in us. There were also some old hooters girls there that were like "Hi, Adrian" and I was like "Hi".

 Afterwards we headed over to see "Humpday". Fantastic. Very funny cast, funny story, funny fun eating cheddar chex in the theater. Mark Dupass is incredible. The movie was unscripted. Incredible performances. Witty clever humor. Great.
After that we saw "The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle". Another great funny movie! It was great and funny! The opening title sequence was an incredible work of art! The movie was weird and funny and great and great and weird and funny! I loved it! There were unconventional cuts and effects and shots, but they all worked and the story was so crazy awesome that I want to watch it several more times!
"A Film with Me in It" was the last thing we watched Sunday. Daniel fell asleep through almost the whole movie. It started slow and was a tad boring, then it picked up and got a little better. We passed up seeing Raimi's new movie "Drag Me to Hell" because dizzle got out late. Oh well. So this morning we wandered into this "super special screening", not knowing what it was... Daniel asked somebody in line while I was parking and found out that it was linkletter's new film... Whoever that is... "Me and Orson Welles" with Zac Efron and Claire Daines. It was good. Huge budget, huge production, huge movie. Linklater is a cool guy.

When we got out we headed over to the Trade Show and I talked to the EP people about EP Budgeting and Scheduling and how we can get it at school and it seems pretty easy so I have to talk to Bart. Then I went over the the Texas Film Commission stand and talked to the woman there about getting a guest speaker to come to school and talk about the advantages of making friends with the film commission. It was fun.

Next we went to see "It was Great, but I was Ready to Come Home". We were standing in line next to all these important people who have movies in the feature competition and they are all friends and laughing and having a good time and I was wanting to just go over and laugh and have a good time with them... but then I got really mad. I started thinking about how they would just "shoo" us away or ignore us because we weren't on their "level" and how they would probably forget about us 5 minutes after we left.... Then we watched the movie (and I fell asleep in the end because I was so angry before the movie started and throughout it) and then Daniel and I walked over to the Convention Center and talked about our "futures" as filmmakers and I felt better. Comment if you would like to know more about my Hulk anger.

After our future planning session we headed over to see "Luckey". It was a pretty kick ass documentary with a not so good resolution. It seemed very long too. I enjoyed it. Daniel and I talked more about future filmmaking before and after the screening.

THEN we headed over to see a "TBA" screening which turned out to be Todd Haynes infamous BANNED documentary, "SUPERSTAR, The Karen Carpenter Story". It was funny... although I'm not sure if it was intended to be so. Yes... it was... and it was.

Tomorrow Erik and Carla might come and hang out with us and watch some movies. That should be fun.

I'm tired now though, so Too-Da-Loo!