Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I got a late start today, so there’s going to be a lot less of me, and we’ll just get directly to our scoopers, like Monki, who has done a great job covering SXSW for us. Better than most of our regular Austinites, actually. Go figure...
Monki here with my last SXSW update. Damn, it all seems like it happened so fast, I started slow but ended strong with a total of twenty quality films.
I’ll start off with the eerily familiar Cinemania. This is a film that tracks the lives of five obsessive film fans in the New York area. These are people who don’t have jobs for fear that any kind of employment would get in the way of films. We meet an elderly woman who had actually strangled a ticket-taker because of the way she acted. We meet a man who knows the running time of almost every single movie out there.
These people are scary. Are you listening Harry? S-C-A-R-Y, but to get a view of life from their eyes is a pretty interesting thing, and it made for a really cool documentary. I enjoyed it a lot. The movie seemed to have a German title sequence, so I’m not sure if it was produced by Germans or what, but if you can find this one, give it a look-see.
Another interesting documentary was the one entitled “The Target Shoots First.” This was a film made by a guy who had just gotten hired into a marketing position at Columbia Music; you know, those guys who promise 400 CDs for $2.
Anyways, this guy filmed almost every single day at his job and it really made for some interesting viewing. You really get a grip on corporate life in a large company like that one.
As the movie progresses we watch as our filmmaker slowly goes insane with the routine of work, hiding under his desk, climbing about in his office, and then he gets promoted.
If you can find this one, definitely check it out. It is a really well made flick that provides a very interesting look into a very odd company.
After that was another documentary entitled Girl Wrestler. This was the only documentary I absolutely wanted to see at SXSW this year. The reason? I thought I might be in it. You see, I was working in a local mall here a few years ago (the Austin area) and happened to see a woman carrying a huge camera following a couple of young girls into my store. I asked her about what was going on and she explained to me the whole deal. Time passes (a couple of years) and I had completely forgotten about this one until I read the synopsis of Girl Wrestler and realized just what the heck it was.
What it is is a well done documentary showing the struggle of young Tara Neil trying to make her place in the world of wrestling while being ridiculed and picked on unfairly. The film really does what a documentary should do well; it makes you really feel for Tara. You understand her pain and you feel terrible for her as you watch her starve herself to make her weight class.
I enjoyed this one a lot, it was a well made documentary, and it’s currently trying to find its way out in to distribution, so I wish the filmmaker good luck.
To close out my SXSW experience I caught A Midsummer Nights Rave. Wow. I’m really glad I chose this film to end the week on because it was quite a good movie. This is an adaptation of the classic “Dream” set to the rave scene in present time.
This movie rocks. The music is excellent and the story is great; to see Puck as an ecstasy selling fruit-cake and O.B. John (Oberon) as the Jesus of the rave scene is wonderful. All of the characters are a lot of fun and well played. The music really pushes this film forward at a brisk pace and keeps the action moving exceptionally well.
I can’t imagine this one not getting picked up, so definitely see this one in your local theatre.
So that’s it for me, unless something drops in my lap somehow, you won’t be hearing from me again until next SXSW, or maybe even Sundance if I can get enough for a plane ticket. Until then, thanks for the memories.
-Monki
Way to go, man. Thanks, as always, for writing in for us.
"Moriarty" out.
