SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FESTIVAL (SXSW) 2020 (Amazon Prime)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/SXSW3.jpg

REVIEWING THE SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FESTIVAL ONLINE

Due to its cancellation SXSW has become perhaps the first big festival to offer a selection of its originally planned offerings online, in this case, free from April 27-May 6, 2020 to those who have Amazon Prime, otherwise, for a fee. I have Amazon Prime. I'm going to watch them, if I can, and write about them in the Filmleaf Festival section. For more information see the article on boston.com. And This week.

FESTIVAL COVERAGE SECTION
FIND THE FILMS ON AMAZON PRIME HERE
SEE THE FILMLEAF PREVIEW OF THE FILMS HERE

Links to the reviews:
Cat in the Wall (Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva 2019)
Choc du Futur, Le (Marc Collin 2019)
Gunpowder Heart (Camila Urrutia 2019)
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Karen Bernstein 2019)
Lions in the Corner (Paul Hairston 2020) - short
My Darling Vivian (Matt Riddlehoover 2019)
Selfie (T. Aurouet, T. Bidegain, M. Fitoussi, C. Gelblat, V. Lebasque 2019)
TFW NO GF (Alex Lee Moyer 2019)

CAT IN THE WALL (Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva 2019)

Two Bulgarian women who've lived in London collaborated on this feature film about adult Bulgarian siblings with one kid living in a housing project ("Council estate") in the extreme southeast of the city and squabbling with neighbors. Pretty pointless and messy, but it has moments, notably a meeting organized by the sister of the small group of flat residents who own their flats, and they talk, instead of shouting, about multiculturalism, the economic system, and Brexit. Oh yeah, a cat gets stuck in a wall. Hard to see this as signalling a comedy as some are saying.

GUNPOWDER HEART (Camila Urrutia 2019)

Two young queer Guatemalan women who are femme types but like butch stuff like tattoos and bikes get involved with each other and then are attacked and raped or almost raped by three men. They argue over whether to seek revenge. One of them already has a pistol. This is a pretty rough effort but in its more and more chaotic finale it captures the desperation love can lead to. Could become a cult film for its niche.

LE CHOC DU FUTUR (Marc Collin 2019)

A French homage to women pioneers in the development of electronic music, focused on one young woman with big chic glasses who lives on cigarettes and coffee, played by Alma Jodorowsky, the Mexican cult director's granddaughter. To be honest watching someone twiddle knobs on a synthesizer isn't as exciting as seeing Eliot and Darlene write code, but things liven up a bit over the short run-time and electronic music fans say the music excerpts are great. Could be seen as a companion piece for Mia Hansen-Løve's more ambitious Eden (NYFF 2014) based on the life of her brother, but that covers a decade and this transpires in one day.

SELFIE (T. Aurouet, T. Bidegain, M. Fitoussi, C. Gelblat, V. Lebasque 2019)

An anthology film with five stories and links all by different writers with different directors. The announced subject is "the influence of digital technology on decent people." Episodes bog down at times in the effort to make specific points and jokes about every detail of YouTube, social media, dating ratings, trolls, hackers, etc., but the experienced French actors save many scenes, which for the most part are cute and fast-paced and benefit from being quite neatly interwoven. You may see yourself or people you know here. The French are a bit behind us in this stuff (one hopes!) but that makes the treatment appeal to all levels of digital addiction, beginning and hard core. Thomas Bidegain is known as the writer for Jacques Audiard's A Prophet and Rust and Bone and also Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent.

I'M GONNA MAKE YOU LOVE ME (Karen Bernstein 2019)

A documentary about Brian Belovitch, a chubby, effeminate working class boy in Providence with many siblings, came out as gay in his teens, then in his late teens and till his early thirties became a vivacious woman (but without sex change surgery), then transitioned back to a male. This seems only so-so as a film but partially saved by good footage of the wild phase and intelligent narration by the present-day Brian, now in his sixties and married to a nice gay man who's a botanist.

Like the other films here it was to have been in SXSW 2020 but due to the pandemic cancellation is running free to Amazon Prime subscribers for a limited time.

MY DARLING VIVIAN (Matt Riddlehoover 2019)

The forgotten story of Johnny Cash's beautiful first wife, told by their four daughters. They were deeply in love. The daughters came fast. Then he became famous and was away on tour all the time. Then came the drugs. Then June Carter. The documentary offsets the lying story she built up and pays homage to a forgotten woman, written out the story of Johnny Cash or maligned in the Joaquin Phoenix movie.

TFW NO GF (Alex Lee Moyer 2019)

She presents five "incels", young white American males who are lonely and disaffected and angry and have no girlfriends, may be virgins, usually are school dropouts, and pour out their feelings on 4chan. Many find this film discomfiting because it's from their point of view, without any talking head outsider experts. Their posts can be full of suicide, racism, misogyny, and hate. But I found this unmediated approach interesting.

LIONS IN THE CORNER (Paul Hairston 2020)

My favorite SXSW 2020 short on offer on Amazon Prime, about a guy who runs a fight club to quell violence in rural Virginia. Hairston, the young director, is ace.

At present you can watch LIONS IN THE CORNER h e r e.

SXSW 2020 on Amazon Prime:
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/sw.jpg

Links to the reviews:
Cat in the Wall (Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva 2019)
Choc du Futur, Le (Marc Collin 2019)
Gunpowder Heart (Camila Urrutia 2019)
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Karen Bernstein 2019)
Lions in the Corner (Paul Hairston 2020) - short
My Darling Vivian (Matt Riddlehoover 2019)
Selfie (T. Aurouet, T. Bidegain, M. Fitoussi, C. Gelblat, V. Lebasque 2019)
TFW NO GF (Alex Lee Moyer 2019)