SXSW 2012: Micah Magee, "Heimkommen"

Micah Magee, originally from San Antonio, Texas, got started as a filmmaker relatively late in life, at age 19. “People nowadays start making films when they’re four with their phones,” she jokes.

One of her first projects as a UT-Austin student, shot on Hi8, was screened at South By Southwest years ago. Now based out of Germany, Magee is back at SXSW with “Heimkommen (Coming Home),” a story about two siblings dealing with grief and loss in very different ways.

Magee says she and her writing partner, Magdalena Grazewicz, “both had experiences of losing people... and not necessarily coping with it in a way that was appropriate.” They drew upon themselves for the character of Robert, who blames his younger sister for the death of his girlfriend, Jo.

“Filmmaking is a lot like writing, and it just happens to be how I write best,” Magee says. “Because you can use images, and feelings... in a direct way.”

To carry that across, Magee shot her short film “Heimkommen” in 35mm, rather than the digital format that is so popular among independent filmmakers these days. “I like the discipline of shooting on film,” she begins, adding that “because the film is about relationships between people, it was important for me to be able to have a long or short focus and be very specific about that.”

Her first trip as a student filmmaker at SXSW was a whirlwind, and a bit overwhelming. “I’m looking forward to seeing what [the festival] is like now that I’m more adult. [Back then], I just wanted to run away because there were so many people, and everybody was like ‘Do you want to sell your film online?’ and I didn’t know what to do!” she laughs. “So I just sort of watched movies, but I didn’t talk to anyone then. It’ll be nice to be a little more self-confident and try talking to people about my film.”

Magee plans to move back to San Antonio in 2012 and shoot her next film, a hybrid documentary and narrative, in the Alamo City.

“Heimkommen” screens on Monday, March 12 at 1:45pm (Alamo Drafthouse Lamar) and Wednesday, March 14 at 3:00 pm (Alamo Drafthouse Ritz) as part of the Narrative Shorts program at SXSW 2012.

You can hear my full interview with Micah Magee here: http://audio.tpr.org/sxsw12-micah.mp3

Movie Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen plays the titular character in the new cult thriller, “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” The middle two names are given to her by Patrick (John Hawkes, “Winter’s Bone”), a cult leader that seduces Martha with songs and sweet talk about how society and her family has let her down. The movie uses a flashback technique to show Martha’s entry into the rural cult, and her present-day attempts to escape its influence after running back into the arms of her sister.

No attempt is made to explain why Martha first left home in search of a new life; it’s hinted that her parents have died, and that she may have had problems with a boyfriend. But the nameless rural group that brings Martha into their fold does so with a tried and true technique. Young men and women of the cult shower new recruits with praise, build up expectations that the newbie is destined for greatness, and then pummel them with rape and physical abuse, then the threat of such, to keep them in line. What starts as an alternative lifestyle devolves into a worldview where intimacy and life is debased. The cult serves mainly to provide the male members with fresh young females to screw. Eventually, Marcy May begins to see the holes in cult leader Patrick’s philosophy, and she flees into the not-so-open arms of her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson).

Lucy and her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), take Martha in to stay with them in their spacious lake house. Having just liberated herself from a place where a handful of girls sleep half naked in a room while awaiting their turn to do dishes or service another member of the cult, Martha thinks nothing of stripping down starkers to go swimming, or walk in on Ted and Lucy as they're trying for a baby. She also berates her sister for their opulent lifestyle. Neither Lucy nor Ted know where Martha has been, and strangely, Martha's bizarre, obviously depressed and disturbed behavior annoys rather than concerns them.

This movie had my stomach in knots for most of its running time. It’s creepy, and disturbing in its depiction of how easy it is to take an impressionable youth and change them into a completely different person. It flashes back between the two halves of its narrative, disorienting the viewer. But I eventually got frustrated with Lucy and Ted, who seem so self-absorbed as to completely ignore the warning signs that there is something very, very wrong with Martha. In some ways, that makes the point that ol’ Patrick was making to little Marcy May when he told her again and again about how her family had let her down. That’s disturbing in itself.

Several scenes are underlit, and I had a hard time making out shapes and characters from time to time. And the film does not build upon itself enough to deserve the open-ended cut to black that closes the movie. But “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is certainly well-acted, especially by Elizabeth Olsen, who has to put herself through a ringer of emotions, all without devolving into parody. And John Hawkes, all sinewy and popping veins, is brilliant as cult leader Patrick. It’s a hard film to recommend, but for those that enjoy a glimpse of the darker side of human nature, there may be illumination here.

--Nathan Cone

Hill Country Film Festival

Fledgling film festivals are a dime a dozen, but Hill Country Film Festival Director Chad Mathews may be onto something when he says the best film festivals use their location well. Fredericksburg is already one of Texas’ most charming small towns, a major destination for weekend travelers and shoppers, as well as campers and hikers eager to experience the massive granite dome Enchanted Rock north of town.

With a state-of-the-art venue in the Stagecoach Theater, and several high-quality films, Mathews has a great base to build on for future festivals (this is only

the HCFF’s second year).

The two-and-a-half day festival began on Thursday night; I drove up Friday morning to catch the first film panel, featuring five Texas filmmakers and educators. The discussion included plenty of guerrilla filmmaking stories, of filming sans permits, and asking forgiveness rather than permission. Some advised aspiring filmmakers to just start shooting, but as UT lecturer Kat Candler adeptly pointed out that when on a budget, you’ll save a lot more in production costs if your script is tight, so spend time working on that. A local from Fredericksburg asked about his town as a possible location for films. Frankly, I don’t understand why it hasn’t been used more often; Smithville, a city half the size of Fredericksburg, has done a bang-up job of luring productions. Fredericksburg could do the same, I reckon. And while it may involve contracting with the state of Texas, Chet Garner (host of the PBS program “The Daytripper”) remarked that “the first Western that uses Enchanted Rock in some way...is going to drop people’s jaws.”

From the Hampton Inn it was off to the Stagecoach Theater, a still-new facility on the southern edge of town. I’ve always wanted to visit the theater, but never had the time, so it was great to get an inside view of the facilities. The concession stand was standard movie-theater fare, but the decor inside the Stagecoach is western-style homey, with plenty of old movie posters and photos on the walls.

The 11:00 screening featured nine short films, led by the Austin-based documentary “Ghost Mall.” Nathan Duncan’s film about the decline of Highland Mall featured beautiful images, and some wistful narration about past good times, but no real look at why mall culture has left the building.

Ronny Cox’s appearance in a ridiculously bad sci-fi short had many in the audience murmuring, “Is that Ronny Cox?” But then the mood lightened with the quite literal “30 Second Romantic Comedy” that had the audience in stitches at its audacity. http://30films.com/

The other highlights of the shorts program included the UK short “All the Way Up,” about a man on his way to an affair, but stuck in a lift with the bellboy. Two very good performances made this one a standout. Perhaps the most controversial inclusion on the program was “Animal Control.” This nearly wordless short featured several graphic scenes of taxidermy and animal surgery, but was nonetheless a strangely moving story about a lonely man that learns to surround himself with life instead of death.

There was pleasant discussion in the lobby with locals and visitors alike. Jack Swanzy, a retired physician living in Fredericksburg, said he's loved movies all his life. He remembered seeing "Gone With the Wind" on the big screen as a young man. He was volunteering at the festival, and excited to see emerging talent on the big screen.

The afternoon brought the Texas premiere of the UK comedy “The Drummond Will.” Two brothers argue their way into deep trouble after their father passes away in a small rural village, leaving behind a sack of unclaimed money. Dry British humor piles on as the body count in the village rises, and they find themselves having to invent wilder and wilder stories to explain their actions. Brit thesp Johnathan Hansler gives a terrific supporting performance as a nosy constable; he reminds me a little of John Cleese, when he was younger.

The San Antonio-produced drama “Cooper” also screened late in the afternoon on Friday. In the film, a stray dog helps a father heal after his terrible loss. There’s a romantic subplot in the film that made me a little uncomfortable at first, because I really didn’t feel it was appropriate. But ultimately, the movie succeeds with its inspirational tale, as we learn that Cooper is no ordinary pup. Incidentally, I was impressed with the dog’s “performance,” and also with the simple fact that anyone would be willing to challenge W.C. Fields’ old edict about never working with animals or children. San Antonio director Robin Nations made it happen.

Following that, it was back home to San Antonio, though I was sorry to miss what looks to be a terrific documentary about Austin's music scene, "Echotone," Friday evening. There’s another full day of screenings on Saturday, and some fun evening soirees lined up. More information about the Hill Country Film Fest is online at http://www.hillcountryff.com.

--Nathan Cone

SXSW Wrap-Up, Part 2

Here's the second of two entries reviewing films from the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

--Nathan Cone

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Small, Beautifully Moving Parts

A technologically-obsessed young woman has to deal with decidedly analog feelings in “Small, Beautifully Moving Parts,” a wonderfully acted film, led by Austin resident Anna Margaret Hollyman as Sarah Sparks.

Spun off from a Sundance Channel web series, “Small, Beautifully Moving Parts” finds techno-geek Sarah Sparks pregnant and in a loving relationship, but unsure of how she feels about her impending motherhood. “We wanted the humor of her being more excited about the ultrasound machinery than the actual thing being ultrasounded,” director Lisa Robinson told me.

A baby shower in the film becomes emotionally overwhelming; I’m a man, and even I could relate to that scene. Afterward, Sarah goes searching for a mother who she’s been estranged from for years. That’s the plot in a nutshell, but the film is full of quietly beautiful moments, such as Sarah visiting her father, who’s also somewhat humorously using technology to help his own love life. “Small, Beautifully Moving Parts” is a good film with great empathy for its characters.

Win Win Director Todd McCarthy’s third film, following “The Station Agent” and the brilliant “The Visitor,” is a sneaky little film that only later leaves you realizing how talented its stars are. Paul Giamatti plays a small-town lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach that finds himself in a position one day to make a decision that may not be ethically right, but will ultimately benefit him and those around him. But the repercussions of that choice come back to bite him later.

Amy Ryan is in the supporting role of Giamatti’s wife, and Jeffrey Tambor gets laughs with just a look. “Win Win” is an actor’s picture, and it’s a joy to watch these folks in action; they make what would normally be an uneventful plot into something special.

Beats of Freedom The more I learn about Poland, the more it seems that you can point to that much-abused Eastern bloc country as an important catalyst in the fall of Communism. The documentary “Beats of Freedom” recounts the Polish rock scene from the 1970s and 1980s, its relationship to the Solidarity movement, and its role in taking down the establishment. Groups profiled include Manaam, Brygada Kryzys (Crisis Brigade), and Tilt. Highlights include the story of how the establishment tacitly condoned the Jarocin Music Festival for years, because it supposedly kept youth happy and out of trouble. The thing is, no one over the age of 30 understood the subversive lyrics that the bands were singing, but the kids knew. This documentary is a fascinating look at recent rock history, and even better, the music is really, really good. If you love rock music, find “Beats of Freedom” and see it. This was one of my favorite films at the festival.

Five Time Champion

Shot on a small budget in Smithville, Texas, “Five Time Champion” is about young scientist Julius (Ryan Akin) and his tentative experiments with love and sex. Simultaneously, the film follows several adults as they embark on the same quest, and it’s interesting to see how director Berndt Mader shows how the concept of love evolves over the course of our lives.

Jon Gries is terrific in the film as a high school coach wooing Julius’s mother. He’s set up to be the antagonist in the film, but I left the movie feeling some sympathy for his character. It’s a terrific part, written well, and Gries delivers.

Something Ventured

Co-directors Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (“Ballets Russes”) chronicle the early history of companies like Apple, Intel, Cisco, and Genentech in their documentary “Something Ventured.” The movie has little narrative arc to it, focusing instead on telling each company’s story, but tying the film together are the half dozen or so venture capitalists interviewed for the picture, all of whom not only had the business acumen to get these start-up companies off the ground, but to groom their often untrained founders and entrepreneurs into successful businessmen and women of their own. As a fan of Atari since childhood, I geeked out at seeing Nolan Bushnell on screen, and marveled at how he struggled to sell the arcade game concept to investors. Even if the film seems somewhat devoid of conflicting views (save for the story of Cisco Systems), it’s a fascinating document of recent tech history.

Taken By Storm

If you own albums by Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Montrose, UFO, the Mars Volta, or… or… the list goes on and on, chances are you’re familiar with the photography and design of Storm Thorgerson, and, working with his partner Aubrey Powell, the design firm Hipgnosis. Early on in “Taken By Storm,” a documentary about Thorgerson and his work, he’s called one of the “last great surrealists.” Certainly much of Thorgerson’s work falls into that category; his images are often characterized by ordinary people placed in unusual settings, such as the famous “burning handshake” cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” or the smiling family adoring a miniature monolith on the cover or Led Zeppelin’s “Presence.”

Thorgerson himself seems a genial old man in the documentary “Taken By Storm,” one who pours his heart and money into his work. Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Peter Gabriel, and members of the Mars Volta and the Cranberries all describe their experience working with the perfectionist in a bemused but admiring manner. Mr. Thorgerson shares his inspiration for some of his most iconic images, but I kept wanting to learn a little more about the ideas that drive him to create such memorable images. And though I suspect it’s probably a money issue (i.e. not enough funds for an independent film to license), I wanted to hear more music by the bands that Thorgerson designed album covers for.

--Nathan Cone

SXSW Film Wrap-Up, Part 1

After taking the fire-hose of film that is the South by Southwest Film Festival in mid-March, I like to wait a few weeks before writing down thoughts about the movies I've seen. At a festival, it's easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of the event; sometimes the critical mind gets dialed back a bit. Here are some of my thoughts on the films I saw at this year's SXSW Film Festival. Enjoy!

Natural Selection

The audience and critics’ favorite at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival, “Natural Selection” is a dark comedy about a woman, Linda, (Rachael Harris) who goes searching for answers when she finds her husband's been keeping secrets from her — including fathering a son, Raymond (Matt O’Leary).

Since much of the plot is given over to Raymond and Linda’s road trip back to Texas from Florida, Harris and O’Leary have to carry the film on their shoulders. They do so with two terrific performances. O’Leary, as Raymond, has to first break through the junkie stereotype character, and then make us care about his personal growth. And as Linda, Rachael Harris uses her character's guilt as a motivating factor, carrying us through all manner of implausible predicaments to some sense of peace.

As a side note, “Natural Selection” features characters who are very religious. There’s some humor in the movie that stems from religion, but I found it refreshing that their beliefs were truly taken seriously by the film.

Kumaré

A few years ago, Vikram Gandhi began work on a documentary about the yoga industry, but the more he learned, the more interested he became in the gurus that people follow. Gandhi began to wonder just what people believed in, and decided to find out from the inside. Gandhi grew out his hair and beard, dressed in flowing robes, moved to Phoenix, and added an “e” to his middle name to become “Kumaré.”

After a few weeks in Phoenix, Kumaré develops a core group of followers, who begin to open up their lives to him. When Kumaré finally “unveils” to them his true identity, the results are surprisingly emotional.

Although Kumaré won an audience award as Best Documentary at this year’s South by Southwest festival, and I loved the film, buzz I’ve read online since, and the questions it raised at screenings during the festival, demonstrated its very premise to be quite polarizing. Some folks felt Gandhi was cheating or hurting the people that followed “Kumaré,” and others have said it was downright dangerous for him to play with these poor souls’ heads.

Gandhi may or may not have realized what he was getting into when he began his experiment, but I think by the end of the film, it’s clear that the whole Kumaré persona has become very important to him, and he’s developed a real attachment to Kumaré’s followers. Some have written that Gandhi had no training to be a counselor. But isn’t that one of the points of this film? Regardless of whether he’s a licensed counselor, it’s clear that as Kumaré -- and as Vikram Gandhi -- he did his best to be a good friend.

F#$k My Life The unfortunately titled Chilean film “F#$k My Life” stars Ariel Levy as Javier, a party guy that falls in love with Sofia, a beautiful singer who’s normally way out of his league. The two date for a while, and then Javier inexplicably breaks it off with Sophia, then spends months and months trying to get her back in ways that would normally lead to a restraining order in the United States. Plus, Javier is a major jerk. He makes sexist remarks, he drinks too much, he doesn’t really care about anyone other than himself, and he’s about as deep as a kiddie pool. It’s a wonder his childhood friend, Angela, even continues to hang out with him. And when, at the end of the film, the two of them get together after Javier’s spent the entire film chasing other skirts in front of her, I wondered what planet these folks live on. The film tries to make some sort of statement about love in the digital age, and the impossibility of separating yourself from an ex when they're all over Facebook, Twitter, etc., but all of that is overshadowed by Javier's unlikeability. I will say that the film is nicely photographed, though. Santiago, Chile, looks great.

Hesher

Star Rainn Wilson described “Hesher” to me as a “dark comedy, with less emphasis on the comedy.” That’s pretty apt, I’d say, but it makes what I think should be funny moments in the film less funny, and more just... uncomfortable. Young Devin Brochu stars as T.J., who, along with his father, is dealing with the recent death of his mother. Dad (Wilson) does so by popping pills and lazing about on the couch for most of the picture. T.J. is a good kid, but he’s getting picked on by a bully at school, and that’s been getting him into trouble.

From out of a haze of smoke one day comes Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who drives around all day in his good times van blasting Metallica and smoking like a chimney. Hesher takes it upon himself to mentor T.J. in the ways of breaking and entering, vandalism, and blowing up the local bully’s convertible. When young T.J. finally takes a pair of garden shears and threatens to cut off the bully’s toe, I wondered if I just wasn’t getting it. It sounds like a hopelessly square thing to say, but Hesher is a bad influence on T.J. He needed to kick his dad’s ass in gear, not the kid’s.

Natalie Portman has a role in the film as T.J.’s prepubescent crush, and does well with what she’s been given. She goes frump for the part, wearing oversize glasses and a low-rent grocery clerk’s outfit.

After premiering at Sundance in early 2010, “Hesher” will finally see wide release in May, 2011.

Inside America

I don’t feel quite right giving this film a review since I had to duck out about 15 minutes before its conclusion to get to a scheduled interview. But I was interested in seeing "Inside America" because its director, Barbara Eder, was born in Austria and spent much of 1994 as an exchange student in Brownsville, Texas. She based much of "Inside America" on her observations of Rio Grande Valley life, and the film was shot on location at Hanna High School.

There’s some nice cinema verité slice-of-life filmmaking going on here, but "Inside America" brings little new to the table dramatically. At the high school, there are the rival gangs, the ROTC kids, the popular girl that hides a drug problem, the good girl mixed up with the wrong group that we’re supposed to identify with, the meek white kid that buys a gun one day...

Like I said, I had to leave the film early. I hope it turned a corner in the last 15 minutes, but for the most part, "Inside America" feels like something we've seen before.

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More to come!

--Nathan Cone