SXSW 2023 Dispatch: “Molli and Max in the Future,” “Until Branches Bend,” “Tobacco Barns”

For the dispatch from the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, I’m tackling three films that made their world, international, and U.S. premieres in the festival’s Visions section. Read my reviews of Until Branches Bend, Tobacco Barns, and Molli and Max in the Future below. UNTIL BRANCHES BEND dir. Sophie Jarvis At the start of Until Branches […]

SXSW Review: “Bottoms”

We love a good double-entendre, and clearly, so does director Emma Seligman. Seligman’s sophomore feature following her fantastic 2020 film Shiva Baby reunites her with star and co-writer Rachel Sennott. Whereas Shiva Baby was simultaneously funny and anxiety-inducing, Bottoms—which centers around two lesbian high-schoolers who start a fight club as a means to get close […]

SXSW Review: “Flamin’ Hot”

Even the most mundane projects can have interesting stories behind them. And even the most interesting stories can make for the blandest movies. Eva Longoria’s directorial debut Flamin’ Hot draws from the memoirs of Richard Montañez, the uneducated Mexican American janitor who worked his way through the ranks of Frito Lay to become an executive, […]

SXSW Review: “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”

I’ve never played the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons once in my life. And yet when Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—the feature film from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley that’s inspired by the game—opened with Chris Pine laconically knitting behind bars, I knew I would enjoy it to some extent. The […]