Predestination is one of those festival films that you have no idea exists but, when you finally see it, you wonder where it's been your entire life. I'm not the biggest time travel movie fan, nor do I really enjoy science fiction in genera...
Open Windows was the first film I saw during SXSW 2014. I've never covered the festival before, so I had no idea what kind of features I'd end up exposing myself to. Going in I was awkward, tense, but mostly curious. As the film went on to ...
12 years of shooting, watching every actor grow older and change along with the times and the styles. That's how long it took for Richard Linklater to create a film about life (a boy's life to be precise). Many films have of course be...
Before attending this year's SXSW, I had no idea Jon Favreau's Chef even existed. Given the nature of my job (as I constantly write about films months, and even years before their official release), it's rare that film goes under my radar. ...
I had completely written off Neighbors. Coming off of Seth Rogen's last starring role in This is the End, the first trailer for Neighbors underwhelmed me. I've gotten used to Rogen acting, writing, and directing his own films so I was a lit...
My final interview of SXSW was a three on one with Michael Pena, America Ferrera, and Gabriel Mann. I had just seen the screening for Cesar Chavez the night before, and we were all kind of pumped to talk about the movie. Just by talking to ...
There is a lot riding on Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez to succeed. Latinos aren't exactly given a lot of representation in fiction, and if there's one man, one figurehead we can rally behind, it's the activist Cesar Chavez. As other biopics for...
Bad Words is Jason Bateman's directorial feature (although he's technically been directing television for years now), so there's plenty riding on the film to see if Bateman's truly got the chops to make a future out of it. While Bateman dir...
My final roundtable interview of SXSW was with Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Since it was my first true Anderson film experience (which I loved), I had plenty of questions for him. But since I had to compete with a few oth...
Taking place after the roundtable interview with Kathryn Hahn, Jason Bateman strolled in immediately grabbing the room's attention. Good thing I was no longer too nervous to speak as Bateman had plenty of knowledge stored away about his dir...
This was my first time covering the SXSW festival, so I was very nervous. My first big press job was to sit in a roundtable interview (where a bunch of press folks get to interview an actor/actress) with Kathryn Hahn for her film, Bad Words...
At this year's SXSW, Mondo - the collectible poster and merchandise division of Austin's Alamo Drafthouse - did something pretty special: they partnered with legendary animation powerhouse Disney to commission new works based off of Disney...
For those of you who don't know Tom Savini, he's a big idol of mine. A special effect mastermind who's created some of the best creatures in the business. You might remember him from his stints in Knightriders, From Dusk Till Dawn, or even ...
SXSW wrapped up last week and now that we've had a chance to reflect and take it all in we're here with the best of the best from the festival. Nick and I awarding the best six films with a coveted spot on our list. It's coveted because fil...
If you've been keeping up with SXSW coverage, you'll know that Jason Schwartzman was recently in Austin, Texas for the SXSW screening of Wes Anderson's newest movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. Apparently while he was in town, he was "kind en...
Growing up as a young Latino boy in San Antonio, Texas, I've had quite a few experiences with Mariachi groups. There was a Mariachi club in my high school, and on several occasions, my great uncle would hire groups to sing at his parties. W...
Zombies are some of the most divisive creatures in the horror genre. They've become such a big entity, the zombie film has grown into a genre all its own complete with multiple variations, multiple looks, and multiple medias. Their influenc...
Before my screening of Joe, I wondered what kind of Nicolas Cage I'd be subject to for its duration. As good of an actor as he is, he has had a varied career. From "the bees" to voodoo make up in Ghost Rider, you never quite know what you'r...
Coming out of the still ongoing SXSW film festival The Infinite Man was easily the biggest surprise. I expected very little and got a whole lot, including what's probably the best comedy of the festival. I was intrigued to learn that t...
Let me be frank. Since this was going to eventually come to light, I may as well admit I've only seen one Wes Anderson film. When I was tasked with the review for Anderson's latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, I was anxious because Anderson m...
Space Station 76 is a bit of an odd duck. It's outward appearance of a riff on 1970s science fiction makes it appear to be an oddball comedy full of visual puns and hilarious jokes at the expense of dated future technology. The truth of the...
I'm going to open this with one thing: the Veronica Mars movie was a triumph before it debuted today at SXSW. A historic film that showed that crowdfunding can launch a movie and that film distribution can be done in a different way. I...
The Desert is a strange beast. A low-budget Argentinian zombie film where the main way money was saved was by having almost no zombies in the film at all. In fact the camera almost never leaves the house the three protagonists are living in...
Wetlands came out of Sundance with plenty of buzz for being shocking for its disturbing sexual content and brazen display of sexual acts. It was that movie every year that someone got up and walked out of because they were just so disg...
13 Sins was the headliner for SXSW's midnight screeners. Those are the late night horror/thriller films that everyone stays up late to check out. As such I figured it was going to be something a bit special. Hell, it had Ron Perlman in...
Usually the first movie you watch for a festival is a bit of a let down. You're super excited for the festival to kick off and you've hyped yourself up so much that almost nothing is going to stand up to your expectations of what that first...
Hey Flixistentialists, it's your friendly neighborhood News Editor, Nick Valdez! Over the next week, Matthew Razak and I are going to be providing lots of interesting coverage for this year's SXSW festival in Austin, TX! Although Matt has a...
Now that the Sundance Film Festival is over, then next wave of festivals are going to kick in, starting with South By Southwest. As last year, your friendly neighborhood Flixist will be among those in attendance (including myself, so WOO) a...
