Image Credit: Diyah Pera; Jojo Whilden/HBO
Part musical festival, part film festival, part tech-head confab, SXSW is a unique event in the pop-culture firmament, bringing massive stars and indie up-and-comers in music, movies, and tech together in the Texas hill country of Austin. Running from March 9-17, the film festival has especially expanded its profile in the last few years: The 2011 SXSW fest featured premieres of Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, the doc Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Source Code, the sci-fi comedy Paul, and the eventually Oscar-winning feature documentary Undefeated.
My colleague Karen Valby and I will be on the scene for this year’s fest, which definitely looks to have its share of major highlights. Here’s what’s catching the biggest buzz heading into this year’s SXSW: READ FULL STORY »
'Big Fan': Patton Oswalt and Kevin Corrigan fans unite!
I’m late to the game on Big Fan, I know–Robert Siegel’s tough, warm, up-close, compassionate, merciless little drama about the big football passions of a little shmo came and mostly went in early September. (Owen gave it love on the page.) Me, I didn’t see the movie until just the other week, and I was knocked out by the utterly honest performances of Oswalt (a great comedian playing nakedly serious) and Corrigan (a great character actor throwing himself into the part with typical ferocity).
See it, is what I’m saying; I guarantee you’ll be hearing more about Big Fan on year-end best lists. Meanwhile, I’ve gotten to thinking about the wonderful, hype-free experience of coming to a movie in my own good time and becoming…a fan. The other day in a supermarket, I overheard a lady talking to a friend about this great little movie she just Netflixed, called Lymelife, and weren’t Kieran and Rory Culkin terrific and how about that Alec Baldwin and…I almost forgot I needed to buy orange juice, I was so intent on eavesdropping. The movie, by the way, had come and gone from most movie theaters in early Spring.
So this has led me to wondering: What have you discovered on your own this past year long after the publicity parade has passed by? What have you loved without benefit of current movie ads, and recommended to friends? Share.