Late-Breaking From Austin

Clouds, rain, long lines, Drinking Buddies, hills, Danny Boyle and a portion of Trance (it opens April 5th and Boyle doesn’t want to show the whole thing? What’s up with that?), Al Gore, Mud, parties, Before Midnight (which everyone loves), beefalos, woolly-bully, more lines, Spring Breakers (which I’ll finally see in LA on Tuesday) and yaddah yaddah.

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  • http://nevermindpopfilm.blogspot.com/ Colin “Fitz” Biggs

    Austin, always a party. For the right movie (right now, Trance) I’d be more than willing to wait.

  • PatJim

    Did Wells go? Or is this more lame excuse-making for not going to territory between his vaunted coasts?

    • PatJim

      Not clouds. California never has clouds. All you hear about in Texas is clouds. *murmurgarble*

  • Guest

    He didn’t seem too impressed the last time he visited Austin for SXSW. I guess he posted this as some sort of validation for not going this year, as if lines weren’t an intrinsic element of film festivals.

    • punkedup

      Or fun. Austin is too fun.

  • Biff Wilcox

    Any advance word on which side of Danny Boyle’s wildly erratic track record Trance is going to fall on?

    • Raising_Kaned

      That’s an awfully strange way of putting things — I’d actually describe Boyle as one of the most consistently “good” directors out there.

      I think he often flirts with greatness, but his flicks are sometimes derailed a certain act or twist that demotes them from “potential classic” status down to simply “It was really good, BUT…”.

      I’m curious, though — what do you consider “really bad” in his filmography? Outside of A Life Less Ordinary, which is admittedly kind of a trainwreck (although an interesting one), I don’t see a whole lot of warts there. I personally always found The Beach — while not nearly as good as the book — to be unfairly maligned.

      My favorite is still probably Shallow Grave, though. Nasty little movie complemented by the perfect amount of pitch-black modulated humor.

      It is like the spiritual fraternal twin of Blood Simple.

      • http://twitter.com/Biffwilcox BiffWilcox

        I don’t think any of his films are “really bad”, Kaned (although I’m probably being kind to Life Less Ordinary), but the fact that even in your defense you mention that many of them are derailed by story problems is telling. If it happens to more than half his filmography then it’s a problem.

        He’s great at set up and atmosphere, but has a tendency to try and over- direct his way out of script problems. Best case in point in Sunshine, which couldn’t have started better or ended worse. I love Trainspotting, 28 Days and 127 Hours, but everything else is flawed for me.

        Having said all that, Trance looks it could play to many of his strengths, and the cast is solid, so I’m in.

        • Raising_Kaned

          What is wrong with Shallow Grave, dude?

          Seriously.

          • http://twitter.com/Biffwilcox BiffWilcox

            I hated every single character without finding them interesting in any way. That’s not a good start.

            It is very well shot and paced, but I had such a negative reaction on first seeing it that I then steered clear of Trainspotting until a few months after it first came out. Then I went to see it three times in two weeks. Like I said, Danny Boyle movies bring out different reactions in me. (Trainspotting really worked for me because I was Irish in Boston in 96. Don’t ask why a movie about venal Scottish junkies & psychos should make a middle class boy homesick for Dublin; it just did.)

            I’ve given Grave a shot since, but haven’t warmed to it. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not for me.

          • punkedup

            Glad to see somebody else agrees with me about Shallow Grave – hated Danny Boyle early due this forced self-pleased stupid film.

          • Raising_Kaned

            I suppose I can see that — and there’s certainly no accounting for taste — but I’d be curious if you can express what makes the characters in Trainspotting any more likable than those in SG.

          • http://twitter.com/Biffwilcox BiffWilcox

            There’s a pretty simple distinction for me. They’re less smug and much more fleshed out.

  • merton82

    I don’t fault Jeff for skipping SXSW – it’s always a mess, and the film programming is abysmal. There are really a few types of films that J. Pierson and her team selects: aspiring cult genre films that are invariably too self-conscious or intentionally “cult-y” to be enjoyable, second-rate dramas that didn’t make the Sundance cut, and big Hollywood marketing premieres for films like Burt Wonderstone (that open next month). The only decent films are the docs, particularly the music docs, and even they are mostly films that didn’t make Sundance. SXSW is a fanboy-exploiting new media and advertising mecca. Props to Jeff for staying away.

  • Raising_Kaned

    Isn’t Trance slated to open in GB later this month? That means all the editing had to have been finalized by now, correct?

    Seems a little weird to me that Boyle would show up and NOT show the full film — who really cares about “clips” when the whole world will have had a chance to see it in one month’s time, anyway? It’s not like this is an FX-driven movie (like a LotR or SW), either.

    I guess he could perhaps be concerned about the possibility of spoilers leaking out too early (this is the kind of movie in which the conclusion seems like it could be in doubt within the final five minutes).

    Still…it’s a curious decision. If I were in charge of marketing this sucker for FOX, I’d want to get buzz and word-of-mouth out as soon as possible. I dig the eclectic ensemble, but there’s no way in hell McAvoy (let alone Dawnson or Cassel) is going to open this thing.

    • Guest

      Trance had a press screening in the UK on Thursday. It’s complete.

    • Guy Lodge

      Trance had a press screening in the UK on Thursday. It’s complete. And they’re being super-protective about plot spoilers, which I’m guessing is why they opted not to screen it in full at a festival.

      • http://twitter.com/Biffwilcox BiffWilcox

        When does it come out from under the embargo, Guy?

  • Edward Klein

    I’m a fan of Boyle, so I’d go see anything he does. Such an amazing variety of work. “Sunshine,” “Slumdog,” followed by “127 Hours” and then a theatrical production of “Frankenstein.” Pretty impressive.