Another awesome day at SXSW. Yes, it is cold, wet, and rainy, but some good Texas barbecue, a couple of good films, and some awesome interactive panels kept me a happy camper.
I was in line for the “Super Secret Screening” at the Alamo Drafthouse at midnight, but word leaked out it was the film “Sinister” so I bounced. I have 9:30am interactive panels I want to be at, and we lose an hour to daylight savings, so screw that. I also wanted to write these things up for you, dear readers, as tomorrow is going to be a busy, busy day.
Marvel Comics Announcement Preview and Speculation
At 1pm CT Marvel will be making a super big super-secret announcement. . . and also showing footage from their Ultimate Spiderman Cartoon set to air April 1st on Disney XD. There will also be an exclusive Avengers vs X-men lithograph. . . so looking forward to that. But what could the announcement be? Speculation zone:
1- A Marvel MMO. Rationale: They’re announcing this at the Screenburn Arcade at the Interactive Festival, which is all about online, social media, gaming, tech, etc. So, a good fit. Likelihood: Low – If this was happened we’d probably have heard of it already, and the MMO world is kinda crowded these days, and DC Universe Online didn’t exactly blow everyone’s skirts up.
2- Amazing event in an upcoming issue/arc. Rationale: They’re teasing A v X– it’s gonna be huge. So give us a picture of a half dozen Avengers and X-men and says “At least two of these will die, and you won’t see them again in comics for quite a long time.” Likelihood: Medium – Marvel is good about promo-ing these things in advance, this is the last big Con before A v X hits shelves, but. . .I’d think for something like this they’d have brought more creative talent. Bendis would be coming, etc.
3- Some sort of cross-platform integration. Rationale: SXSW interactive is all about cross-platform, and Marvel is uniquely able to leverage something like this with some of the world’s best known and most popular intellectual properties on the planet. Plus, now with the Disney merger, they have access to several cable channels, and oh, that whole movie studio thing. So, a comic tie-in to a recurring tv show that also you can log into the web and play a game? TV, web, and comic tie- ins to upcoming movies like The Avengers? A media utility like “HBO GO” where you can get all Marvel movies, cartoons, and digital comics in a handy mobile format? Likelihood – high If anyone was going to do it, Marvel would do it. It would give them a platform they own, and therefore get all the revenue from and have creative control over, rather than using Amazon, Netflix, iTunes store, etc. On the downside, it’s ballsy. Not sure it would do much in terms of actually creating profit for them. Since they’d be the first ones to do it, they’d more likely fail than succeed.
4- Avengers movie. Rationale: Well, Joss Whedon is here. And everybody certainly wants to see some footage and hear something cool. Likelihood: We should be so lucky. I’m doubtful, plus, Marvel said their announcement would radically change the way we think about and read comics. Which leads me to believe it is most likely:
5 – Announcement about Web and Mobile digital comics distribution. Rationale: Marvel just announced last week that they would give away a free digital copy of their comics to anyone buying any of their major titles in stores. So, buy Amazing Spider-man, get the digital version. Buy New Avengers, Astonishing X-men, Deadpool? Ditto. So why not go even further? Marvel has been slow to really making their offerings for iPad, Android tablets, Kindle Fire, and B&N Nook really hum. None of them have integration with the normal Marvel Digital Unlimited Comics subscription. With the exception of running Comixology, you don’t really have a good digital collection manager out there. And if Marvel announces their digital comics are going to be cloud-based instead of saved to your local device, this would save them from piracy as well as ensure that consumers can collect to their heart’s content even with limited capacity for large, dense picture-heavy files like comics have the tendency to be. With the new iPad being announced, having it ready for launch sounds like a good idea. (also remember that Disney and Apple have ties to one another vis a vis Pixar, so this could be a nice form of corporate footsie- the kind that goes well for consumers). Likelihood: Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I want this to be the case. It fits SXSW the best, the time is right, it’s bold, but not too bold, and also enhances their business model by bolstering digital comics, but NOT at the expense of hard-copies and their brick and mortar stores.
And now onto the movie reviews!
Nature Calls
Patton Oswalt is an assistant scoutmaster whose father was the greatest scoutmaster of all. His brother Johnny Knoxville is a douche who hates scouts, the outdoors, etc. So what happens when the boys cancel a campout to go to a sleepover at Knoxville’s McMansion, only to be Shanghai’d while there to go out to a restricted area of a state park for the greatest campout ever? Hijinks ensue. And so Rob Riggle, the head of corporate security, and Patrice O’Neal, father of one of the scouts who is seeking revenge, go along to try to find the lost boys. . .and run into a skeevy park ranger played by Darryl Hammond. Oh, and there’s a naked chick on a motorcycle.
The film was written and directed by Todd Rohal, who did last year’s Catechism Cataclysm. Like that, this movie is drenched in religious (ok, blasphemous) imagery and overtones. . .and also quite funny. But it’s a different kind of funny than you’d expect– this is much more character-driven humor. While there is a lot of humorous banter, it’s funny in the “Oh my #@$% I can’t believe they actually just said that,” vein.
This film was dedicated to Patrice O’Neal, and it was his final film. He gives possibly the best performance in the movie, and the crowd I saw it with at The Paramount cheered for him specifically when his name came up in the credits, and applauded his work during the Q&A afterwards. A fitting tribute to man whose talent is sorely missed.
There are things that are shocking in this movie. But they’re also hilarious. Johnny Knoxville does something in this movie that he told Rahall that, even given all the stuff he’s done, this was the only time he was worried what his parents might think. *****MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT**** Mouse over for inviso-text: And the scene where the scoutmaster father dies is one of the most awful and hilarious things ever, and it made me feel guilty for laughing at it.
Also, Maura Tierney puts in an awesome performance as Knoxville’s long-suffering wife. Emphasis on suffering. She’s also constantly followed by one of the creepier scouts who is just as in love with her as I was when she was on Newsradio. Creepy, and hilarious.
This film was fun. I’m not sure it will connect with mainstream audiences, as it might be too quirky for them. More mainstream than a Wes Anderson movie, but less broad than a Will Ferrell flick. . . somewhere in that quirky, uncomfortable middle you will find Nature Calls.
2 1/2 stars
LCD Soundsystem: Shut Up and Play the Hits!
Why would one of the top up and coming bands call it quits right as they were peaking? This is the question we try to answer with this amazing rock documentary about the week surrounding April 22, 2011, the date of LCD Soundsystem’s final show at Madison Square Garden. The film mostly follows James Murphy, their frontman, and tries to get in his head and answer this question. It was a question by the end of the doc I was ultimately unsatisfied by the answer to– not because of the filmmaking, which is par excellence– but because I don’t think Murphy really had a clue.
We got into a secret screening at the old Spaghetti Warehouse downtown, which had been converted for just this and a few other unofficial screenings. The film actually opens the festival in a few days when the music fest starts, but this was a nice treat brought to us by the folks at Nike, who also gave me a free t-shirt.
Let me begin by saying I am not a rabid fan of LCD Soundsystem. It always seemed to me to be music that people much cooler than me would listen to– people who listen to NPR’s All Songs Considered, or shop at record stores and listen to things on vinyl. Not that I hate it, either– it’s just not music that I’d ever play in my car and turn up when it came on, singing along to it at the top of my lungs. The good news is, my view of their music did not change from the film.
Which makes my next statement even more important: the filmmaking craft and the narrative of this film blew me away. This is a beautiful, intimate, telling portrait of an incredibly complex person. We see him going through various emotional ups and downs during the film, as the feelings about the choices he’s making as an artist to just quit seem to leave him almost as confused and emotional as his fans.
You also got a lot of pretense out of him, which I think is what he’s going for. LCD Soundsystem’s music is a little pretentious. Which isn’t to say it isn’t good– pretense can be useful in rock music. You think Ziggy Stardust wasn’t a little pretentious? Mick Jagger? Michael Jackson? The Beatles and their matching outfits on The Ed Sullivan Show or on the cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Pink Floyd? Peter Frampton? Led Zeppelin? The Darkness? Queen? Talking Heads? Because rock and pop music are performance art, pretense is almost a natural outgrowth. James Murphy just takes it to a different level.
Early in the film they scan Murphy’s apartment, going over the stacks of records he has and the books on his bookshelf, one of which was Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. I think the filmmakers make a concerted effort to compare Murphy to Pynchon, including asking a question during the film that includes a reference to Gravity’s Rainbow. In this case, I think the comparison is apt: an artiest who doesn’t want to be a celebrity or to be defined by the works he has already made, who wants to make his own way.
Did I mention how much heart there was in this film? From scenes of Murphy and his little dog, to an emotional scene in a warehouse. . . I won’t say any more.
And on top of that, it’s a great concert film! The concert footage was shot just amazingly well. One big reason was Spike Jonze, who operated one of the cameras during the concert. It gave a lot of life to the performances. The directors also promise an extended version of just the concert. But considering it was almost 4 hours long, they’re still editing it and probably will be for a while. They teased that they’d like to take the completed concert film on tour the same way the band would’ve toured, which sounds just amazing. If it does come to a city near you– see it in the best theater you possibly can. The sound mix on this film blew me away. Absolutely amazing. The bass literally shook me at times.
But i think the best thing about this movie is the conversation it’s likely to start. My brother and I spent the next half hour debating and discussing it. It was the best discussion I’ve had over a film in a long time.
Needless to say, if you’re at SXSW, do yourself a favor and see this at one of it’s official screenings in the coming week. If you’re not, look for it coming to DVD soon.
3 stars – 3 1/2 if you’re a fan of the band.
Oh, yeah, and Joss Whedon had a panel this morning. Best way to sum it up? Avengers is going to kick ass. No Skrulls, No Kree. Unnamed villains. And go see Cabin in the Woods.