SXSW 2020: Virtual Edition
As an Austin resident and film fan, I’ve made a habit of attending South by Southwest each March and watching as many movies as my schedule will allow. This spring, I was looking forward to taking a much needed weeklong break from work to watch movies from exciting new filmmakers in crowded theaters across the city.
As we all know, that did not happen. A week before the festival was scheduled to begin, Austin mayor Steve Adler declared COVID-19 a local emergency and cancelled SXSW. This decision was frustrating to me and seemed a bit premature at the time, but in hindsight, it was obviously the right move.
Festival or no, I still needed a break, so I decided to go ahead and take what I hope will go down as the weirdest vacation of my life. I ended up working more than one should on vacation as my company closed its offices and mandated that all employees work from home. This involved a lot of coordination, and I wasn’t able to unplug to the degree that I would have liked.
When I wasn’t working, I was watching movies at home or walking around empty streets, gazing at the ghosts of restaurants and bars that were brimming with customers just days earlier. A normally vibrant city that should have been in the midst of its busiest week of the year was reduced to a silent, dystopian husk, unrecognizable to its own residents.
Theaters were empty. Films went unwatched. Bands went unheard. Scooters went unscooted. Vain tech bros with vapid, useless buzzwords to say were left with no one to say them to. SXSW, with all its highs and lows, is part of what makes Austin Austin, and losing it makes this city feel a little less like the place I’ve come to know and love.
As the days and weeks pass, sometimes I feel like I’m growing accustomed to our new reality. Other times, I feel cabin fever slowly chipping away at my sanity. My main escape from the banalities of life is film, just as it was before the pandemic changed everything, and SXSW is coming back from the dead at the perfect time.
The virtual version of the festival is nowhere close to the real thing. Amazon is streaming 7 of the 129 feature films and 29 of the 97 short films that were scheduled to screen in Austin some seven weeks ago. It’s not much, but in these trying times, I’ll take what I can get. I watched all of them. Here is my ranking and analysis of all seven feature films and my favorite shorts of the 2020 virtual edition of SXSW.
Best Narrative Short: Figurant
According to the closing credits, a figurant is a stage performer having no speaking part. Fittingly, the film’s lead character is an older man playing an extra in a war movie who doesn’t utter a single word. The film compares the experience of an extra to that of livestock being herded from place to place or a soldier receiving vague orders barked by an angry general.
Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Beau Travail) gives an incredible performance as the silent hero, confused at every turn and upset by the fast pace of the production around him. The close-up cinematography and intense orchestral score create a visceral experience unlike anything else at the festival.
Best Documentary Short: Mizuko
I’m a sucker for animated shorts, so it’s no surprise that the only animated short of the festival was my favorite by a long shot. Mizuko is a Japanese word for a fetus that doesn’t survive to birth. Writer/director Kira Dane narrates the film and tells the story of her abortion, comparing the experience to a fleeting childhood memory of a monthlong vacation on the beach.
It’s an odd comparison, but it works. It’s a stunningly beautiful, hypnotic film, animated with water colors and photographs, interspersed with pieces of video footage. It’s a personal story of memory and grief that sticks with the audience long after its fifteen-minute runtime comes to a close.
Feature Film Rankings
7. TFW NO GF
I’m pretty disappointed in SXSW for programming this piece of shit movie. TFW NO GF is a popular meme in the online incel community that stands for “that feel when no girlfriend.” The documentary profiles several prominent members of this community and tries to paint them as misunderstood young loners that are just trying to make it in life like anyone else. Their bigoted comments on Twitter and 4chan are just a way to identify with other lonely white men and forge online friendships that they’re unable to find in the real world.
What the film neglects to ask is whether their hateful attitudes are the cause of their isolation rather than merely a way of dealing with it. Even if the latter is true, tweeting that you want to punch a woman in the face is not an acceptable coping mechanism. These men view themselves as innocent victims of a society that has left them behind in favor of a politicly correct culture that can’t take a joke and won’t let men be men. In reality, they have an advantage over every other demographic group in the country and have failed to capitalize on it.
The movie does raise a good point about the cruelty of the American economic system and the inability of millennials to generate the same wealth as their parents. However, it quickly loses interest in this dynamic and dives headfirst back into the culture wars. It also fails to examine how these economic factors impact people outside of the white male incel community.
The filmmaker repeatedly states that something is happening to make young American white men feel isolated and impotent but fails to identify what that something is. Maybe this is just the first generation that refuses to put up with their bigoted bullshit.
6. Cat in the Wall
Cat in the Wall is a story of a Bulgarian family living in an apartment building in a working class neighborhood in London. The family takes in a seemingly stray cat, and conflict arises when a neighbor claims to be the owner. The film discusses important issues such as poverty, gentrification, racism, and xenophobia that would normally interest me.
However, it does so in a cold manner that keeps the audience at a distance. The filmmakers don’t allow viewers to really get to know the characters, and I struggled to care about their problems. If these themes interest you, check out my favorite fiction film from 2019, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
5. Gunpowder Heart
Gunpowder Heart is a Guatemalan film about two young women in a romantic relationship who are raped by a group of men while on a date at an amusement park. The experience puts a strain on their relationship as one of them wants to move on from the assault while the other seeks revenge, becoming obsessed with her grandfather’s pistol.
The concept is interesting, but I wanted a little more out of the film. The characters are a bit flat, and another ten minutes exploring their relationship before the assault would have gone a long way. It comes to an abrupt end with a climactic scene that leaves a lot of questions. An epilogue would have been helpful to wrap things up and complete the character arc.
4. My Darling Vivian
Director Matt Riddlehoover chronicles the life of Vivian Liberto, the first wife of country music legend Johnny Cash. It’s a straightforward documentary filled with talking heads and old photos, but it provides a unique perspective on a misunderstood person. Vivian was painted in a negative light by the media in news articles at the time and in posthumous art such as the 2005 movie Walk the Line.
The film seeks to humanize Vivian and tell her story through the eyes of her four daughters. Detailed interviews with the Cash children reveal the toll that fame and drugs can have on a young family and the lasting effects that remain well into adulthood. I’m a bit on the fence about this film, but its personal nature overcame its mundane structure and won me over.
3. Le Choc du Futur
Translated as The Shock of the Future, this film follows an eventful day in the life of a Parisian musician on the forefront of the electronic music scene in the late 1970s. For a movie that takes place almost exclusively in a studio apartment, it’s surprisingly engaging. There are some hokey lines about the future of music that sound like they were pulled straight out of an Oscar bait biopic, but overall this thing is pretty entertaining.
The music is catchy, and lead actress Alma Jodorowsky, who’s also in my number one film below, is incredibly charming. At a brisk seventy-nine minutes long, it’s a fun watch that’s well worth the investment.
2. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me documents the unusual life of Brian Belovitch, who transitioned to a woman and performed in the New York club scene for fifteen years before transitioning back to a man. It follows his journey to find happiness and meaning in a world that doesn’t know what to make of him.
While Brian’s specific experiences are very unique, his quest for love and fulfillment is universal. Everyone knows what it’s like to feel lost in the world as you struggle to find who you are and what brings you joy. This film captures the human experience incredibly well and reminds us that although we may not find it in the same place, we’re all searching for the same thing.
1. Selfie: On the Influence of New Media on Good People
I had high hopes for this film when I read the title, and I was not disappointed. Selfie is a French anthology film composed of five interwoven comedic short stories about humanity’s addiction to social media. The stories feature a vlogging family with declining views, a romance born from a Twitter roast, a dating app that lets people rate their partners, and targeted advertising that controls a man’s every decision.
All of these stories are filled with wit and insight about the human condition in the age of social media, but the final segment really stands out. It takes place at a wedding on a small island where the only cell reception exists at a single point on the beach. Shortly before the festivities begin, a large social media company is hacked, and everyone’s personal information is released for the world to see. Hilarity ensues as the tide rises, and attendees begin swimming offshore to find reception and uncover dirt on their romantic partners.
Selfie is the smartest comedy I’ve seen in a while. It forces viewers to consider their own relationships with the internet, and it does so without sacrificing laughs. It’s incredibly accessible and a really fun watch. Don’t let the subtitles scare you away.
Conclusion
Festivals are always a bit of a crapshoot, and this was no exception. Nothing reached the highs of For Sama, the best film of last year’s festival and my favorite film of 2019, but the top four movies on this list are all engaging in different ways.
I highly recommend Selfie and I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, which both explore the pursuit of happiness through different lenses and give the audience an appreciation of what it means to be human. Le Choc du Futur and My Darling Vivian are enjoyable films that shed light into different aspects of the music world in the twentieth century. Maybe skip the other three movies. That’s how festivals go. You take the good with the bad in the hope of finding something great.
This virtual festival was nothing like experiencing the real thing, but it was a welcome respite from the daily monotony into which my quarantined life has devolved. I can’t wait to get back into a movie theater, whenever that day may come.
Michael Dixon is a mild mannered accountant by day and a mild mannered movie watcher by night, but the days and nights are beginning to blur together. Time is a construct that has become all but irrelevant in our current fractured dystopia. He will not do your taxes for you. He lives in the ghost town formerly known as Austin, Texas with his lovely television and collection of fine whiskies, slowly sinking into a profound loneliness that only worsens as he tries to fight it, like a pool of quicksand in a shitty children’s movie desperately searching for cheap suspense. You can’t purchase his book anywhere because it doesn’t exist.
