SXSW Film Review: Gracie Otto’s ‘Seriously Red’

much of a movie, but it’s a movie nonetheless.Leto does indeed star as Michael Morbius, a world-renowned physician — talented enough to invent an artificial blood substitute, iconoclastic enough to turn down the Nobel Prize he won for the invention — who has grappled with blood-borne disease since childhood. With the financial support of lifelong friend and fellow patient Milo (Matt Smith), Michael has become a leader in his field, even as he branches out into morally questionable territory, exploring the possibility of grafting vampire-bat DNA with human DNA.Like “The Wasp Woman” and countless other cinematic mad scientists who tampered in God’s domain, Michael tries the experiment on himself, discovering both a cure (he’s strong, buff and can hang from the ceiling) and a curse (he transforms into a fanged creature starved for human blood).

Phil Connell’s Jump, Darling (★★★☆☆) is perhaps most notable for featuring one of the last performances of Cloris Leachman’s career.The legendary actress, who passed away at the age of 94 in January 2021, offers a quietly profound, poignant look at Margaret, an elderly woman for whom life no longer has a discernible point. Lonely and isolated in her spacious home in Prince Edward, Canada, Margaret is more than ready to leave these corporeal confines for what lies beyond.When her 30-year-old grandson Russell (Thomas Duplessie) arrives on her doorstep, following a breakup with his boyfriend (the narrative’s weakest storyline), she finds temporary reprieve from her pain.Russell, however, has his own agenda, and as loving as he is, he can be curt and dismissive.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor 20 years, ever since Gilbert Gottfried made the tasteless crack that inspired it just a few weeks after 9/11, “Too soon” has been the mantra we use to jokingly suggest someone is making a joke before the time is ripe for it. But the phrase could also be applied to certain music documentaries.

X directed by Ti West, is a new love letter to the slasher film genre. This movie within a movie that aims to tackle the strict relationship between sex, violence, desire, and the rage that manifests when one’s life lacks all of those things. West employs all the tropes involved with pornography and horror and tries to inject personal hints of creativity and originality into the narrative. Will it age well if I watch it again in five years? Probably not. But it provides enough fun and excitement in the current moment to keep audiences engaged.

Taking inspiration from the Dolly Parton quote, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” the Australian comedy “Seriously Red” features the most Dolly Parton paraphernalia you’ll ever see outside of Dollywood itself. Directed by Gracie Otto (“Under The Volcano”) and written by its star Krew Boylan, the film is as bold, brash, and heartfelt as the icon herself, although not entirely as original as it could be.

young Houstonians with aspirations of fame, fortune, and artistry decide to have a go at making “The Farmer’s Daughter,” a low-budget dirty movie aimed at boosting the cast and crew’s dreams of fame and fortune.Maxine (Mia Goth), a coked-up stripper working at Bayou Burlesque, thinks this is just the ticket to international stardom. Her boyfriend, Wayne (Martin Henderson, “The Gloaming”), acts as the archetypically gung-ho executive producer who talks a great game.

Richard Linklater’s periodic forays into animation (Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly) have been distinctively imaginative, and that goes double for Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood. A nostalgic but not in the least sentimental look at Texas life when the American space program was at full thrust, this highly personal but entirely accessible account of growing up in a culture both historically momentous and banal has something to offer all audiences in terms of its vivid portrait of a very specific place and time. But most receptive of all will be viewers in their 60s and beyond who have personal memories of the July 20, 1969 moon landing and a of milieu both memorable and banal.

The Cow is a film about a mystery that comes with many mysteries of its own, chief among them being the question of why Winona Ryder’s career is so shaped by her past. Stranger Things may have brought her back to the public eye, but it seemed to claim her as an ’80s icon when Ryder only had a walk-on part in that decade’s final reel. Her role in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 ballet psychodrama Black Swan likewise came with a sting in the casting, pitting Ryder as the outgoing grand dame against Natalie Portman as an ingenue snapping at her heels. And here again, much mention is made of her age when Sandra Bullock—seven years her senior—could lead a bigger movie without a peep.

Presidential Fitness Challenge certificate) to go to the moon before Neil Armstrong to test out a capsule that has accidentally been made too small for adult astronauts. But no sooner does Stan upchuck during his first G-force simulation than adult Stan (Jack Black) hijacks the narration and takes a long detour into the sights and sounds and memories of growing up as a youngest child in late-’60s suburbia.This charming walk down memory lane — which includes everything from “Dark Shadows” to grandparents who remember the Depression to riding to the beach on the back of pick-up trucks and using gasoline-soaked rags to wipe the tar off your feet — is the heart of “Apollo 10 1/2,” and it’s an exhilarating, Proustian wave of reminiscences.

Racial divides, mistrust and misunderstandings get a rambunctious, if understandably inconclusive workout in A Lot of Nothing, a dynamic and agitating feature debut by Mo McRae that had its world premiere at South by Southwest in the Narrative Feature Competition section. Layers of suspicions, animosity and aggressive feelings ebb and flow as an upscale Los Angeles black couple plays host to another couple and, unexpectedly, to a lower-class white cop who’s paying a price for what he did the night before. After a powerful first act, this turbulent work is obliged to downshift somewhat as it seeks some kind of conclusion that won’t be too pat or simplistic given the complex dynamics at hand. While it doesn’t end on a satisfying note, this is nonetheless an excitingly combustible piece that announces a vibrant talent unafraid to confront thorny issues head-on.