SXSW 2024 Festival Diary Day 6: Hot-Lanta, Alex Garland, and Sublimely Simon Barret

Day 6 of the 2024 SXSW festival and hallucinations have overcome my reality. So after a brief conversation with Abe Lincoln and El Chupacabra I attended a movie that felt too familiar to stand on its own two feet. The Uninvited, is a relationship drama about a Hollywood couple, stop if you’ve heard this before, who is forced to confront their ailing relationship as a few unexpected house guests up end their dinner party. The production and cast were great. The film had all the cinematography, lighting and sound benefits from a studio product and with a cast with such names as Elizabeth Reaser, Walton Goggins, Rufus Sewell, and America’s Daddy Pedro Pascal it makes you wonder why was this such a draw when the story is so unoriginal and played out. It’s hard to not compare this immediately to Marriage Story and immediately this film pales in comparison. Yes the story is not one to one but the wrench thrown into the works, an elderly woman who has confused their house with hers is not interesting enough to really draw you into the situation. There are small hints at a larger drama outside of the couples mutual infidelity but it’s hard to feel for the couple when it never feels like they actually are in or have ever been in love. At one moment one of them calls their marriage a publicity experiment. It could have salvaged itself as a romance but the couple seems even closer to a breakup than when the movie began. Overall it feels like another gross overestimation of the relatability of a rich hollywood couple who doesn’t even like each other let alone love each other.

The next film was a documentary called Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told. This film is unfortunately another classic tale of events from the 90’s. Well meaning individuals set up a celebration of music and culture that gets hijacked and devolves into drugs violence and sexual assault. The story of Freaknik begins in Atlanta where organizers from prominent HBCs organize a celebration of their culture and music as an alternative to modern spring break. By the early 90’s, Freaknik has taken over Atlanta and mutated into somthing unrecognizable to the original organizers. The film is inspiring and tragic and anyone familiar with Woodstock ‘99 an unfortunate hallmark of the 1990’s. One issue I had was the stark differences in the opinions of the original organizers and those looking to revive the Freaknik as something different in the modern era. Rapper 21 Savage has led the charge to revive Freaknik as a music festival but the original organizers seem to resent the idea of it. They reiterate that Freaknik should not be revived unless it is in the same spirit as it was before but not only did that original plan fail, it led to a lifetime of trauma to dozens maybe even hundreds of women who were assaulted during that time. The documentary will be receiving a Hulu release so decide for yourself.

My third film of the day was the much anticipated Alex Garland film Civil War. The full review will be coming to FilmSpeak soon but for those looking for a film that heavily explores how America devolved into a civil war or any real political commentary this is not that film. The cast is led by Kirsten Dunst who absolutely puts her all into the role. Her character has depth and nuance and a deathwish. She plays a war photographer who roadtrips to the front line with colleagues in hopes to photograph the reclusive president. That’s all the film is, a road trip thriller that acts as a love letter to journalism. The film is great but there were a few leaving the film that were noticeably disappointed by film’s lack of political commentary. This will surely be a polarizing film but it needs to be seen so you can judge for yourself.

The last film I watched on this day was the movie Azrael. The film stars Samara Weaving and is about a mute woman chased through a post rapture world by a ravenous cult. This is how it begins… By the end it is a bloody action revenge thriller. I was not ready for this film to escalate the way it did, that is until I saw that the writer was one Simon Barrett. Barrett wrote such classics as The Guest, You’re Next and V/H/S. If you have ever seen a Barrett film you would notice that he likes to switch genres early in the film then escalate the genre without any subtlety. Knowing this would have prepared me for the extreme shift in genre as well as the crazy escalation but luckily, not knowing the genre didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the film. There is a noticeable lack of english dialogue in the film which mixed with most characters lack of the ability to speak felt a tad too gimmicky but the non-verbal communication was done well enough that it was a non-issue. Azrael is one of the better films I’ve seen over the week but unfortunately does not crack my top 5. Two more days of festival madness, my mind is willing but my body is sore and bruised.