SXSW 2015 Preview

It’s less than two weeks now until South by South West kicks off in Austin Texas. We’re so excited about our trip to the festival, we’ve already started packing our bags!

The festival has an awesome programme this year, with a number of world premieres and a lot of big names heading to Texas for the festivities. It was a hard job to do, but here are some of our suggestions of what to look out for in the SXSW programme. Tell us what you think and let us know what else we should be checking out in between our mandatory taco pit-stops.

Love & Mercy
The long awaited Brian Wilson biopic, starring Paul Dano (12 Years A Slave, Looper) and John Cusack (Maps to The Stars, The Paperboy) respectively as the young and old Beach Boy. I’m a massive Beach Boys fan so I’m excited and also a bit cautious about this film, in part because well, biopics can be a bit ropey, watch Stoned (or actually don’t) if you want an example of when musical biopics go wrong. With the band so close to my heart, I just don’t want it to be bad! It’s looking positive though, as the film has been received well at both Toronto and Berlin film festivals. And even if it is bad or Cusack is an odd visual choice to be playing Wilson (I have to say I’m not sold by the trailer) at least we have the opportunity to watch Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, The Lego Movie) looking fabulous as ever.

Trainwreck
This is of course the new Judd Apatow (This is 40, Knocked Up) comedy starring funny woman Amy Schumer (Girls, Louie). I’ve been a fan of Amy’s ever since discovering her hilarious Inside Amy Schumer TV show last year, if you’ve not seen it watch some sketches here and the show is currently showing on Comedy Central Mondays at 10pm. Her “Two Girls One Cup” audition sketch is surreally brilliant!

With Schumer also writing the film, this is the first film in a while that director Apatow didn’t pen himself.  It will be interesting how the film turns out, maybe his wife and kids were a bit bored of being in all his movies? Maybe Paul Rudd was busy? Anyway, we’re excited to see the film and extremely happy that Apatow is bringing another awesome lady to more people’s attention. Bill Hader (The To Do List, Super Bad) is no stranger to our screens and after his awesome performance in last year’s The Skeleton Twins, we’re looking forward to seeing him as Amy’s leading man.

Manson Family Vacation
This is one of the many films at the festival with a Duplass brothers connection, what with their production company and Executive Producer credits, they have four films at the festival and younger brother Mark Duplass is also giving a key note speech at the festival conference. SXSW 2015 should be unofficially known as the Duplass brothers film festival, I’m calling it Dupe by Duplass.

Sadly as I’m sure the brothers are very busy with their HBO show Togetherness there’s none of their own creations at the festival this year. However the production company has supported some of the best, funny and moving indie comedies from the last few years’ (eg. Safety Not Guaranteed, Bad Milo, The Skeleton Twins) so we know we’re totally in for a treat this year.

The film premise is two brothers tour Charles Manson murder sites. One is a devoted family man (Jay Duplass, Transparent, The Mindy Project). One is devoted to The Family (Linas Phillips, True Adolescents, Togetherness). During the visit to the sites of these horrific murder the two brothers connect and learn to understand each other despite their differences. In some ways it sounds a bit similar in themes to the brother’s previous film Jeff, Who Lives at Home. I guess it’s understandable (and also super cute) that they like films about brotherly relationships.

There’s no trailer yet, but check out this rather bizarre video of Linas Phillips pretending to be Werner Herzog giving a commentary for Tango and Cash.

Adult Beginners
“A young, narcissistic entrepreneur crashes and burns on the eve of his company’s big launch. With his entire life in total disarray, he leaves Manhattan to move in with his estranged pregnant sister, brother-in-law and 3-year-old nephew in the suburbs – only to become their nanny.”

The film is written by and stars Nick Kroll (Kroll Show, Parks and Recreation) who’s Kroll Show has been one of the funniest and consistently good TV shows of the last few years. With additional star turns from Joel McHale (Community, The Soup) and Rose Byrne (Bad Neighbours, The Internship) this is sure to be entertaining. This is Ross Katz’s feature film directorial debut, though he previously worked as a producer on films such as Lost in Translation. Watch a video below of them goofing around and talking about the film.

Ned Rifle
Hal Hartley’s (Trust, Fay Grim) number three in the Henry Fool trilogy. Anything with Parker Posey (Best in Show, Party Girl) in is generally tremendous and with added Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Safety Not Guaranteed) we’re a little bit excited about this.

Knock Knock it’s Tig Notaro
Stand up comedian Tig Notaro made waves a few years ago when she announced on stage during a comedy set that she had cancer. Thanks to Louis C.K. posting a recording on his website, the set went viral and propelled Tig into wider conscious. Moving on, she’s had the all clear and this film shows her embarking on a tour on a tour playing at fans houses. Expect surly, smart and awarely awesome comedy.

They Will Have to Kill Us First
Imagine if Footloose was real, well in Mali in 2012 it sorta was when jihadists took control of Northern Mali. They imposed one of the strictest interpretations of sharia law in history, they banned music – radio stations destroyed, instruments burned and musicians facing torture, even death. The documentary film tells the extraordinary story of the musicians keeping music alive whilst facing extreme conditions.

The Look of Silence
One of the best and also quite disturbing documentaries from the last few years was The Act of Killing. This is Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow up to the movie where a family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.

Hello, My Name is Doris
Michael Showalter is an all round awesome funny guy, star of TV sketch comedy shows The State and Stella and also one half of the writing team that brought us Wet Hot American Summer and They Came Together. He directed and co-wrote the film with Laura Terruso (Appropriate Behaviour, The Slope).

“Doris (Sally Field; Forrest Gump, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde), an isolated 60-year-old woman, becomes motivated by a self-help seminar to romantically pursue a younger coworker (Max Greenfield; Veronica Mars, New Girl) at a hip Brooklyn clothing company. As she finds ways to connect with John (going to an electronica concert, hanging out in hipster coffee shops..), her authentic retro style thrusts her into the spotlight of the local hipster social scene and she soon gets caught up in the world of chocolate bar haikus and rooftop knitting clubs.”

That sounds like genius to me, and also indicates the distinct possibility that we’re going to see Max Greenfield and Sally Field make out! Again no trailer, so here’s the original short by Terruso the film by was based on.

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Film Festival runs from the 12^th – 21^st March in Austin Texas. More information about the festival at www.sxsw.com.