SXSW is always a rush of people, bikes, buses, events, panels, discussions, and yes, some film. Day 1 started off with sliding in by the skin of my teeth to a panel discussion between Guillermo Del Toro(master of the macabre, director of Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth) and Ryan Gosling(The Notebook, Drive). They were discussing Ryan Gosling's first feature directed film, "Lost River". One of the most interesting facts from the panel is that Del Toro and Gosling's friendship blossomed over a deep love for Disneyland. Also, if Gosling is telling the truth, Del Toro has a room in his home with animatronic terrors, digital secrets, and indoor rain? Gosling has been working on Lost River for quite some time and it springs from a very real and bleak Detroit with a fairy tale story(his description) starring Matt Smith(Dr. Who) as a man who wants to be the king of a forgotten city, and a boy who scavenges through old homes looking for valuables. It seems interesting, but the conversation pivoted around the idea that Gosling had a burning desire to make this movie and spent years going to Detroit for research and test footage(some of which made it into the film). He created his film through still images, written narratives, character traits and ideas taken from the real people living in desolated neighborhoods throughout Detroit. While the film probably would have gotten made one way or another, I mean it is Ryan Gosling, the moral of the story is when you have a creative burn to make a film, don't stop. Make it, in your head, on paper, with any camera you can find and that will either be its creative outlet or you will eventually get it made. Really great stuff.
After the panel discussion it was off to catch the HBO Sports Mockumentary 7 Days In Hell starring Kit Harington, Andy Samberg, Will Forte and whole host of other characters. It was written by Girls producer Murray Miller and Directed by SNL writing stalwart Jake Szymanski. The film centers around a fictional tennis match between Aaron Williams and Charles Poole, Samberg and Harington, and is done in a 30 for 30 documentary style. It is hilarious, crude, offensive, and terribly funny. The greatest moment comes in what is dubbed as "the greatest point ever scored" it had the audience roaring with laughter. Overall though the film is uneven and relies heavily on Samberg as most moments when he is not on screen aren't really that funny. Luckily he's in almost every scene, which drives the one-hour film to it's conclusion. They shot the film over 4 days on a tennis court in Palm Springs that was literally closed because it was too hot, and they filmed there 12 hours a day. Andy Samberg FaceTimed in through the director's phone and I asked him what it feels like to perform these really long jokes that you never know if they will hit right, if they go too long, and if you can fix it in the edit. They mostly laughed at that question, not sure why, but then answered it exactly how I imagined. You write the joke, you think it's funny, when you edit it the first time you laugh, then it becomes unfunny, then you hope to God audiences laugh. Check out 7 Days in Hell this June on HBO.
Finally I wrapped up the night with Western, a documentary about the tenuous border relationship between Eagle Pass, TX and Piedras Negras Mexico. The film volleys between small time cattleman Martin Wall and Eagle Pass mayor Chad Foster. The film is slow, methodical, and in the end very rewarding as a tears away the layers of the violence and terror always lurking underneath the surface of the Mexican American border. The film is shot mostly in a cinema verite style but the way they intercut and layer the sound of the people of Eagle Pass(parades, streets, radio, coffee shop banter) with the natural surroundings of grackles, wind, rain storms the film builds to its conclusion which is basically, if you can get out alive, you should. There's more to this film and I'm still unpacking it in my mind, directed by the Brothers Ross, Turner and Bill, who have made a name for themselves as powerful nonfiction filmmakers, Western hit me so strangely, at times feeling like a weird mash up of The Godfather and Jean Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows? That doesn't make sense, but those were the tonal cues firing away in my brain. The heart of the film is between Martin and his daughter Brylyn who goes about her business with childlike innocence as the world around her begins to collapse. Check out Western if you ever get the chance.
