Hey folks, Harry here... Took a vacation from SXSW yesterday to take care of pressing business concerns regarding world conquests and what not. So without further ado, I turn ya over to the funky Monki...
Monki here again with some more SXSW reviews.
STRANGE FRUIT
I started the night at the Drafthouse expecting to see Nosey Parker, but instead was informed just prior to the screening that we were in fact going to see a documentary called “Strange Fruit.” This film was a documentary about the song “Strange Fruit” and its origins and how it became an anthem for civil rights.
It was a well made doc, pretty fast moving, clocking in at just under an hour it seemed to fly by. One note of interest was the fact that this song that was seen as an African-American anthem was actually written by a white Jewish man.
Anyways, it was pretty interesting and worth a watch.
DIRT
After that I got a chance to check out the wonderful movie Dirt. Dirt follows an illegal El Savadorian woman who is working inNew York cleaning apartments. We follow her as she acts as the fly on the wall in various upscale lofts before returning to her incredibly small place of her own with her husband and son.
Julieta Ortiz is amazing as the struggling mother trying to keep her family afloat after her husband loses his job and her son is rebelling in his high school years. We get to see all aspects of her character from incredibly happy to very depressed. Throughout the film we are treated to amazing work by this actress. Keep your eye on her.
I believe Showtime has picked this one up, so definitely check it out if it’s on TV or in local theatres.
SPUN
Following Dirt I saw a movie that I’m still not quite finished digesting. Spun. Damn, this is a twisted movie. I heard it best described as “Requiem for a Dream’s younger brother.”
We get to see what speed does to a group of people and then follow them as they all break down in different ways. Jason Schwartzman plays the “main” role and we follow him around as he tries to score some dope from John Leguizamo’s Spider Mike. Brittany Murphy is “the cook’s” woman who is obsessed with her dog named Taco. Mena Suvari is in her most disgusting role ever as a strung out junkie. Patrick Fugit is a junkie who is hooked on a video game where monkeys beat the hell out of each other and then jerk off. (One of my favorite scenes….cause of the monkeys…not the jerking off) Eric Roberts plays the homosexual drug boss who surrounds himself with younger beefed up men and watches wrestling.
All around this movie was …interesting… Quite a bit of the film is borrowed straight from Requiem; the flash cutting, the constant extreme close-up of the eye shots.
I still can’t say whether or not I liked this film, but it is definitely something. If you are into watching cars being hit by trains then you might be interested in this one. It is definitely a ride that I wasn’t expecting.
-Monki
