There may be no better combination of words in the English language than "Breakfast" and "Taco," at least, to hear my friends and colleagues who routinely visit Austin tell it. I have heard mouthwatering descriptions of these delectable sounding creations for years as people have traveled to and from the area, often for the fabled South By Southwest (SXSW) festival, where such things are, apparently, in great and delicious abundance.
Begun primarily as a music festival in 1987, the festival has expanded to include film, technology and discourse, and become one of the annual go-to events for artists, cultural mavens, technocrats, political philosophers and the media. Naturally, this year, they have been forced to condense the week-long festival into three action-packed days, and shift to a mostly virtual format, which, alas, dispenses with my breakfast taco dreams, but does allow many more people from across the globe to attend the festival, which I would have to allow is more important.
So the tacos might have to wait until next year, but the films can be enjoyed right now. Here are 10 we are most looking forward to over the next few days.
"Alien on Stage": Not the first film you would think of adapting to the stage, Ridley Scott's masterpiece of horror and psycho-sexual drama has nonetheless become a peculiar go-to for disparate theater groups, including a New Jersey high school, and now a group of bus drivers in Dorset, England, whose sincere attempt at Xenomorph theatrics soon becomes a tongue-in-cheek homage to silliness -- and whose subsequent rise in popularity brings the players and their mitigated production to London's West End theater for a chance at the big time.
"Broadcast Signal Intrusion": Jacob Gentry's horror film is set in the go-go '90s, where a video archivist becomes obsessed with a series of pirate broadcasts that portend to some sort of evil conspiracy he can't quite discern. We're suckers for paranoia thrillers, and the early buzz on the film suggests it might offer genuine creeps.
"The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson": Whilst the men are out doing their cattle rustlin' and punching them doggies, the women are left to fend for themselves when trouble starts. At least, that's the contention in Aussie writer/director Leah Purcell's updated Western, in which she stars as a frontierswoman who is driven to extremes trying to protect her family from the dangers of the outback.
"Here Before": A psychological thriller set in Northern Ireland starring the sublime Andrea Riseborough as a fragile, grief-stricken mother, whose new neighbors may or may not be what they seem. Yes, please. Riseborough specializes in portraying women on the edge of sanity -- see her fantastic turn in 2018's Nancy for a sense of her impressive range -- and the film promises some taut emotional twistiness.
"The Lost Sons": How's this as a premise for a documentary? Sometime in the early '60s, a newborn baby is kidnapped from a Chicago hospital; about a year later, a toddler is abandoned. Believing them possibly to be the same child is a man named Paul Franczak, who may or may not have been the child in question. Ursula Macfarlane's doc has echoes of both "Three Identical Strangers" and Ireland's "Lost Babies," at least from the sound of it, and we're definitely here for the twists and turns of self-discovery.
"Ninjababy": A comedy from Yngvild Sve Flikke that knocked 'em dead at this year's Berlinale, Kristine Kujath Thorp stars as a feckless young stoner who somehow discovers she's pregnant several months after the sexual encounter. Described as a consummate crowd-pleaser in Berlin, offbeat comedies can serve as a valuable palette cleansers amid the searing dramas and depressing docs, so we have, er, high hopes for this one.
"Offseason": A woman receives a mysterious letter that leads her to a remote island, where she finds a nightmare from which she can't escape. We know next to nothing else about this creepy-sounding thriller from Mickey Keating, but the young director has specialized in such twisty, low-fi fare in his career ("Carnage Park," "Psychopaths") so we'll go ahead and take a flier on this one. Vive la chance!
"The Spine of Night": On the heels of the surprisingly effective 2D animation of Sundance hit "Cryptozoo," Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen's animated fantasy epic should nestle in pretty well to the festival vibe. The story involves dark magic falling into the wrong hands and the band of heroes that comes together to try and stop it. Standard-sounding stuff, but the vocal talent, which includes Richard E. Grant, Patton Oswalt, Larry Fessenden and Lucy Lawless, is intriguing.
"Under the Volcano:" One of the heavy-hitters at this year's SXSW, Gracie Otto's doc covers former Beatles' producer George Martin's legendary AIR Studios Montserrat, which opened in 1979, and played host to a who's who of '70s and '80s-era rock royalty, including Dire Straits, Elton John, the Police, and the Stones before being essentially washed out to sea by a hurricane (So rock 'n' roll!). Should be a hoot.
"Violet": One of the more coveted tickets so far, Justine Bateman's feature directorial debut stars Olivia Munn as a music executive who's following of her inner voice has led to her success, only to discover that the voice she's been hearing has been lying to her the entire time, and the life she has doesn't bring her any real joy. Bateman, who began her career as a celebrated actress ("Family Ties") before her career abruptly shut down in her mid-20s, would seem to know a thing or two about finding your true bliss outside a glitzy facade.