Film and TV Criticism

In 'The Green Knight,' heads roll, especially yours

The lurid, leering disaster of 'The Whale'

Austin American-Statesman: “Where ‘The Whale’ pratfalls into real tragedy is its arrogant belief that it's Doing Something Clever, daring the viewer to gaze upon the abject existence of a depressed, morbidly obese man and not be a little repulsed. ‘You're no better than the society that casts people aside for their differences!’ the film grabs you by the shirt and says, shaking you like a vending machine withholding the last Coke Zero. Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘Barbie’ ensemble

Backstage: “Let’s just get this out of the way: Margot Robbie will forever be Barbie. Not in a typecasting sort of way, hopefully, but because one of Hollywood’s most undeniable modern stars took on a mythic, impenetrable role — that of an 11 ½-inch plastic icon whose name is synonymous with troublesome beauty standards — and breathed pop culture-defining, box office-shattering life into it.” Read the review.

In 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' Michelle Yeoh fights for her lives

Austin American-Statesman: “The smallest decisions ripple across a lifetime. We know this, because of perennial Walmart DVD bin tenants like ‘Sliding Doors’ and ‘The Butterfly Effect.’ Now, thanks to ‘Everything Everywhere All the Time,’ we also know that confessing your love to Jamie Lee Curtis can make you an all-seeing, all-knowing time god.” Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘Only Murders in the Building’ ensemble

Backstage: “Core to the charm of ‘Only Murders’ is the chemistry between Martin Short and Steve Martin — beloved scene partners for decades — and Selena Gomez, the droll complement to her co-stars’ avuncular eccentricities. Season 3 allows for new shades to their dynamic, taking them out of the swanky Arconia apartments and onto the Great White Way. There are surprises, like a hilarious moment of Gomez doing an impression of Short, and reliably outrageous line readings, like Short casually mentioning ‘waking up in Betty Freidan’s waterbed.’” Read the full review.

Ben Affleck celebrates the sole of Michael Jordan at SXSW premiere of 'Air'

Austin American-Statesman: “Once the POV of Deloris Jordan is allowed to shine fully — and the film does gloriously unfurl Deloris' impact, making ‘Air’ so much more complex — it disrobes the narrative the rest of the film sold. ‘Sold’ is the perfect word, because as modern workers each day wake up more and more to the greed and predation of American corporate capitalism, the ick of rooting for executives to close a big-budget merchandise deal creeps in.” Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ ensemble

Backstage: “The Guillermo of early episodes was a simpering, put-upon wannabe serving under the thrall of a doofus. Harvey Guillén’s performance has transformed the role remarkably. Each season, he has layered more confidence into his performance, reflecting Guillermo’s growing agency. This season’s juicy plotline gave the actor more depth to plumb: Sometimes he was gleeful about sneaking around Nandor and receiving his supernatural gift (or curse, rather) from another vamp. Other times he percolated with paranoia over Nandor finding out.” Read the full review.

‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the mother of all horror movies

Austin American-Statesman: “The film will leave audiences thinking about the power of maternal bonds, for good and ill. Also also, they will exit the theater wondering how it would feel to have your scalp ripped off your head. It's like when you go to the bank to open an account and they give you a toaster, too.” Read the full review.

SAG Awards 2023 Voting Guide: ‘I’m a Virgo’ ensemble

Backstage: “For such a large role, Jharrel Jerome also made smart smaller choices. In the first episode, ‘You a Big Mothaf*cka,’ he was literally wide-eyed, a naif wearing a constant expression of wonder. As he learned about the wonders of the world (such as buffets) and its woes (such as vomiting after going too hard at a buffet), his face shifted into self-consciousness. By the finale, a confident voice emerged.” Read the full review.

'Bottoms' is the most unhinged film we've seen at SXSW, and it's gonna change everything

Austin American-Statesman: “‘Bottoms’ verges on dada at times, but like, if Salvador Dali was more interested in the homoeroticism of high school football than melting clocks. Or maybe Jackson Pollock is the fine art bell to ring, so gleefully does the stage blood splatter as nubile young sociopaths wallop each other silly in the name of school spirit.” Read the full review.

'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent': Nicolas goes into his Cage

Austin American-Statesman: “Nicolas Cage is half rocket fuel, half beard, half cosmic being and half dedication to remaking the accepted cadence of American English. The math works out. Sorry if it's too advanced for you. That wasn't meant to be smug — the precise calculus behind Cage's persona and enduring cinematic charm eludes me, too, and I won't try to wrestle with God during South by Southwest.” Read the full review.

'X' brings sex, violence and holy ghosts to the cinema of sin

Austin American-Statesman: Director Ti West transports us to 1979 Houston, a post-‘Debbie Does Dallas’ world where sexual libertines sit under the same oil refinery shadow as holy rollers. Wild child Maxine (Mia Goth) is going to be a star, damn it, by hell or high water. Considering the movie, you get the sense it will be hell.” Read the full review.

'Nomadland' is a film for all of us left out in the cold

Austin American-Statesman: “When you do get the chance to watch this film — at the heart of which beats the thrum of a humanity that capitalism can bruise, but not destroy — I hope you’re able to see it with a new empathy.” Read the full review.

'Godzilla vs. Kong': An ode to a monkey and lizard screaming at each other

Austin American-Statesman: “I want to see the monkey and the lizard scream at each other like they're doing community theater production of ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ I want to see the monkey do sign language and then get into an underwater choreography battle with the lizard, like if Busby Berkeley directed Shark Week.” Read the full review.

Emma Stone rocks the frocks, but the story in ‘Cruella’? Woof

Austin American-Statesman: “Who is ‘Cruella,’ a coming-of-age movie about a woman who grows up to skin Dalmatians, for exactly? I have seen the movie; I have no idea. I do know that stars Emma Stone and Emma Thompson spend 134 minutes chewing on scenery like it’s made of rawhide.” Read the full review.

Space nuns, Shakespearian twinks and sinking sand in ‘Dune’

Austin American-Statesman: “This new ‘Dune’ is different. Its hinges are fully tightened to the door frame. Meticulously stylized and as serious as a prophecy-induced headache, Villeneuve's take on one of the bedrocks of modern space fantasy is a gorgeous, ponderous, multimillion dollar ode to Timothée Chalamet's messianic bone structure.” Read the full review.

Come to ‘Boys State’ for Austin scenery, stay for social horror

Austin American-Statesman: “Watching ‘Boys State,’ it didn’t take me long to think, ‘Boys are a mistake.’ I can say this, as I was once a teenage boy. I am intimately familiar with the genre. … It’s all fun and games and charming Capitol rotunda shots until “Boys State” inevitably mutates into ‘Lord of the Flies’ for the Fox News era. An election season, mock or not, is about both high hopes and crushing crashes back down to terra firma.” Read the full review.

Film Feature Stories

Hyperreal Film Club runs the coolest, weirdest movie night in Austin

Austin American-Statesman: “The creators of Austin’s coolest movie night don’t really do ‘impossible.’ Since 2016, Hyperreal Film Club founders David McMichael, Jenni Kaye and Tanner Hadfield have gone from throwing one scrappy screening in a now-demolished basement downtown to creating a bona fide scene all their own.” Read the full story.

Alamo Drafthouse at 25 years: A history of cult classics and queso

Austin American-Statesman: “Don’t talk. Don’t text. Enjoy this story about how the weirdest little theater in town changed movie history on May 24, 1997.” Read the full story.

As I Luv Video closes, owner tries to keep film library alive

Austin American-Statesman: “As far as Conrad Bejarano knows, I Luv Video was the last of its kind in Austin. On Sept. 1, Bejarano announced that the indie movie rental store at 4803 Airport Blvd. was closing for good, just like several cultural landmarks already claimed by the coronavirus pandemic and its economic pressure. After almost four decades, I Luv Video takes with it a certain Jiffy Pop-friendly avenue of keep-Austin-weird-ism.” Read the full story.

An Austin movie theater owner's family fled Ukraine. Now he's keeping vigil onscreen.

Austin American-Statesman: “When tragedy strikes, some people hold vigil with a candle in their window. Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In owner Josh Frank is keeping a light on for the people of Ukraine. His window just happens to be an outdoor movie screen.” Read the full story.

Celebrity Profiles and Interviews

When Alison Brie and Dave Franco came to Austin

Austin American-Statesman: “In ‘Somebody I Used to Know,’ the audience gets to see Brie’s Ally get in touch with who she really is, or used to be, director Franco says. (See, the movie's title works in a couple ways.)

“‘In these last few years, as I've been writing roles for myself to play, I think I've just enjoyed a push and pull going on in a character, because it's more interesting to watch,’ Brie says. ‘Somebody who's kind of like having an existential crisis. And don't we all kind of go through that a little bit every so often? Checking in with, “Who am I? Who do I want to be?”’” Read the interview.

If there's one thing 'Cocaine Bear' star Margo Martindale misses about Texas, it's peas

Austin American-Statesman: “A few days ago, I saw a movie at Alamo Drafthouse, and before the previews, a couple behind me talked matter-of-factly about the then-upcoming action flick ‘Cocaine Bear.’ Suddenly, one of them said, ‘Ooh, Margo Martindale is in it.’ The change in excitement was palpable. ‘It’s not always like that,’ Martindale demurred humbly when we shared that Drafthouse anecdote with her. ‘I love what I do, and I’m glad that it shows, and I’m glad that it makes people happy.’” Read the interview.

Richard Linklater is back. Next stop: the moon, in 'Apollo 10 1/2'

Austin American-Statesman: “On July 20, 1969, the world gathered around screens for an almost holy communal experience. A man walked on the moon. Thanks to a camera, everyone saw heaven from their seats. There’s a certain satisfying symmetry to Linklater’s ‘Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood’ premiering during SXSW.” Read the interview.

Ethan Hawke on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's heroic love

Austin American-Statesman: “Paul loved Joanne, and Joanne loved Paul. And after a minute of conversation, it’s clear Ethan loves them both. ‘I can't wait for you to see the whole series,’ Ethan Hawke tells us about ‘The Last Movie Stars,’ his new documentary about Hollywood royal couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.” Read the interview.

The many lives of Mehcad Brooks

Austin American-Statesman: “When ‘Mortal Kombat’ star Mehcad Brooks remembers growing up in Austin, his mind goes to the screen. It was like a blend between ‘Stranger Things’ and the ‘It’ movies, he says. Presumably without extradimensional horrors lurking in the shadows, but then again, keep Austin weird and all that.” Read the profile.

Glen Powell is one of the best parts of 'Top Gun: Maverick.' First, Austin helped him soar

Austin American-Statesman: “Two things got Glen Powell to where he is now: Texas and Tom Cruise. Well, the Austin native built an acting career with a few more bricks that that. As his career speeds up thanks to a scene-stealing role in blockbuster hit ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ though, Powell gives a great deal of credit to those two American icons in particular.” Read the interview.

Andrew Ahn and Zane Phillips of 'Fire Island' talk Jane Austen and the straight gaze

Austin American-Statesman: “In the fevered homosexual imagination of one reporter, a question occurs: Would Jane Austen have a good time on Fire Island? ‘I think she would be so amused by it, and it would inspire a whole ‘ ’nother slew of books,’ says Andrew Ahn, the director.” Read the interview.