The Great SXSW 2010 Preview Dump: Narrative Features Competition

What’s a film festival without a few gongs? Last year, the winner of the SXSW Narrative Features Competition was Made in China, directed by Judi Krant. You’re probably thinking, “When is that coming to my local multiplex, then?” Judi is probably thinking, “When is my agent going to return my calls?” But for a few weeks in March, she and her movie were the future of film. Among those hoping to bask in similar white-hot glory are the tipped David Robert Mitchell and a drama starring indie darlings Carrie Brownstein and James Mercer. Click on the titles to watch trailers.

Read our SXSW Headliners Preview.
Read the first part of our SXSW Spotlight Premieres preview.
Read the second part of our SXSW Spotlight Premieres preview.

Brotherhood

For his first feature, Texas director Will Canon decided to play with the notion of a fraternity initiation that gets way out of hand. Jon Foster is the pledge coerced into robbing a convenience store to prove his loyalty to the Delta Phi Nitwit. Nerves and coincidence work to thoroughly f*ck up the rest of the poor guy’s evening, leaving one to believe this wasn’t exactly the smartest idea these keg-lovers ever came up with.

Dance With the One

Squally has always wanted to use the line “Dance with the one that brought ya,” but the situation has never really presented itself. The closest we’re going to get is appraising this Texas-set thriller, where a young teenager must protect his family from a homicidal drug-runner. The line “no country for young folks,” also springs to mind. Mike Dolan helms a script by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith.

The Great SXSW 2010 Preview Dump: Spotlight Premieres, Part 2

The film fiend stalking the streets of Austin has many questions. How does an episode of Saturday Night Live come together? How can I blast off into space? Was Thomas Wolfe right when he said you can’t go home again? What does Lemmy’s carpet smell like? Unlike anybody outside Austin City Limits from March 12 to March 20, the fiend has the answers within reach. They’re among the topics tackled head-on a series of features and documentaries getting their premiere at the SXSW Film Festival this year.

Read our SXSW Film Festival: Headliners preview here.
Read our SXSW Film Festival: Spotlight Premieres, Part 1 preview here.

Leaves of Grass

At long last, this adaptation of Walt Whitman’s … [please read the IMDB synopses you’re meant to be ripping off first – Ed.] Oh. Ed Norton follows in the footsteps of Jeremy Irons, Christian Bale and Nicholas Cage, playing identical twins in a thriller written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson (O). Keri Russell and Melanie Lynskey are the lovelies who we hope get into the bed with the right Ed.

Lebanon, Pa.

The Pennsylvania town inspired the Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Red-headed League” and is the home of some legendary bologna. But it takes a funeral to lure big city ad executive Josh Hopkins (Cougar Town) back to his hometown. There he bonds with his teenage cousin and has the plastic scales lifted from his bourgeois eyes in writer-director Ben Hickernell’s film. With Mary Beth Hurt.

Trailerama: Helena from the Wedding

Cabin holidays usually portend no good. Cabin holidays that are also New Year’s Eve parties should also be a no-go area. In Joseph Infantolino’s adult get-together, there are the expected uncomfortable hugs, verbal slip-ups, afternoon quickies, social pitfalls, secrets, lies, misogynist talk among sensitive men, alluring ingenue, silly hats and the general air that there’s probably more to life but nobody has worked out what it is yet. Screening at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. With Lee Tergeson and Melanie Lynskey.