Robogeek passed along a review from a friend of his named Flash that seemed to shine on to this SXSW film... I haven't seen it... and won't be able to, but if you get the chance... don't pass it up... Sounds like it's worthy of a look or two...
This is a shameless plug for a film I saw yesterday, "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole". Despite the horrid title and bland description in the SXSW program guide, this film has the real stuff. If you're doing a festival wrap for the site, I hope you'll mention it, because I think it's getting overlooked. I'm not hearing any buzz about it and the crowd last night was puny.
"Sebastian Cole" was written and directed by Tod Williams. He and his crew pulled off the period (early '80s) passably and the direction and editing is crisp. No languorous landscapes here. It looks and sounds great. The performances are strong and the leads personable. The soundtrack is snappy and got a few laughs. Some moments (an over-the-top karate demonstration) are bust-a-gut. Williams gets all the details of living a wastrel's life in a nowhere town, from the beer-buyer that cheats you on the back-end to the sweet caprice of a high school girl. I'll allow that the transsexual subplot is bizarre, but it says more about the sorry state of the indie scene than about this film in particular. Old, lame, minority, or otherwise damaged characters (read: the marginalized) have come to equal big-screen gravitas. "Henrietta" could have stayed "Henry" without damaging the story, but there she is. Oh well. Henrietta is mostly a source of (affectionate) comic relief in the film, but I can't tell you how impressed I was when she suddenly became the emotional pivot-point in the third act and it worked perfectly. We realize, just in time, that she's the only "adult" Sebastian has ever known, and that includes his creepy grandparents. And that's not about gender, it's just about life.
Sorry to ramble on, but I love to be surprised by a movie and I've found that surprises like "Sebastian Cole" are rare, even at a great festival like SXSW.
Ciao,
Flash
