SXSW 2024 Festival Diary Day 1: A Welsh Comedy, the best BBQ in Texas, and Conor McGregor's Booty Cheeks

It’s hard to describe what the SXSW Film Festival means to me. The festival is where I learned that the movie industry is not a brick wall for me to beat my head against until I knock myself out. It is where I decided to take my writing career seriously. It is where I was when I lost my Grandmother and where my family insisted I return to because she would have yelled at me if I didn’t. I’ve seen Oscar winners, Cult Classics, and movies that made me question if MTV’s Punked was still on air and if I was a part of it. Austin was my home, where I was born and raised, but I have since moved to Los Angeles to follow my dreams as a screenwriter. I had more or less retired from the review scene but when FilmSpeak reached out to me asked me to return home and attend one of the most important events in my life I said: I need to open a new credit card to afford it, but yes, yes I will.

My day began a little worse for wear, as there were many celebratory beverages the evening before. Nobody is perfect. I visited my favorite coffee shop Medici for a double-shot latte and a blueberry muffin. It did nothing for my hangover but oh well. From there I went to a Film Industry meet and greet with two casting executives from Netflix. I schmoozed and connected and networked and synergy and other business-centric buzz words but most importantly I found a connection that could be very important to me as a filmmaker. From there I was off to the most important spot of any festival: the merch table. I bought a unicorn t-shirt and plastic festival sunglasses that could pass for expensive if you don’t look too hard. Then I was off to my first movie of the festival.

The screening was for a Welsh comedy by the name of Timestalker. Written, Directed and Starring Alice Lowe, it was the perfect amuse bouche for the weirdness to come from SXSW. The film is a very 80’s coded comedy about love, reincarnation and toxic obsession. There was nothing wrong with the film, the acting was great, the writing snappy and funny, the vision was clear and the editing language gave the film a very palpable personality. And yet, it didn’t blow me out of the water either. It is hard to describe what is missing from the film because on paper there wasn’t anything missing. The problem with the film is that it is good, not great, not bad, not spectacular… just good. Would I watch it again? Absolutely. Is it my favorite movie of the year? Are you kidding, Dune Part 2 just came out.

I had some time before the year’s “opening” headliner so I decided to hit up the best BBQ joint in Austin: Terry Black’s BBQ. For those of you who do not know, BBQ is taken rather seriously in Texas, Brisket a food group on Texas’s food pyramid, and Black’s is considered one of if not the best in the state. It is so good that people line up for hours before it opens to guarantee they get Brisket before they run out. I purchased 1/4 lbs of Brisket, 1/4 lbs of Sausage, a Beef Rib that weighed 1.35 lbs, Mac and Cheese, Corn Bread, and Vanilla Pudding. For those of you keeping track, I ate the beef equivalent of a healthy 2 year old. But what you have to understand is that there are literally no good BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles. Even the “best” Texas BBQ in LA fails to meet the requirements to be considered Texas BBQ. Note, if the Brisket comes out wet, not juicy, but wet, then you have failed. After I ate so much beef it could be considered self-harm, it was time to slowly and sluggishly roll myself to the Paramount Theater for the headliner.

This year’s Festival opener was Doug Liman’s Roadhouse. Now, the full review will be posted in the movie reviews section here at FilmSpeak but briefly the film was bottom heavy but entertaining in the end and by end I mean the very end. The highlight of the first two Acts was when I ate the Corn Bread I stashed away in my pocket at Black’s which is a totally normal thing to do in the state of Texas and how dare you judge me. However, the movie changed dramatically when a bottomless Conor McGregor appeared on screen. The chaos that his character created made up for not only his lack of acting skill but for meandering quality leading up to it. After the film was the Q&A and it was one of the most entertaining Q&A’s I’ve ever been a part of. First of all, it was moderated by Dax Shepard who is a Road House fanatic and a pleasant surprise. Second, Conor McGregor came in to the screening with a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey that mysteriously disappeared by the end of the movie so he was rather sauced by the Q&A and hijacked the entire thing. He would not stop talking. I don’t think he was asked any actual questions, yet he yelled into the microphone for the entirety of the segment to the point where Dax Shepard offered the question sheet to Conor so he could moderate. The only person enjoying it more than me was Billy Magnussen who egged Conor on and was having a hell of a good time. Alas, this train wreck concluded my Day 1 so this is where I leave you so I can get 5 hours of sleep and do it all again tomorrow.