Photo courtesy of Allyson Riggs/SXSW.

Check the hashtags #SXSW #SXSW2022 and #SXSW22 to see what kinds of things have been going on at the first week of a massive cultural event we know as SXSW. It just wrapped, and the remaining three days are expected to be chock full of world premieres for all kinds of films. 

2022 has had people waiting for the return of SXSW with bated breath after being shut down in 2020 and only online in 2021. I am lucky enough to be a participant in it all. Hollywood’s biggest movie stars have converged upon the Lone Star State for these ten days of movie-going, concert ho-downs, comfort food dining and networking until the cows come home.

The opening night film on Friday at Downtown Austin’s Paramount Theatre was A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. The absurdist masterpiece featured a family made up of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and James Wong. Jamie Lee Curtis also plays a pivotal role. The movie was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and was produced by Jonathan Wang. The “Daniels”—as they go by—started writing the screenplay in 2016, they told a packed house. They said it took them almost four years to complete it. It took them six years to bring this story to life and have it play before a live audience. 

Having this film open the festival is is beyond important because it centers the narrative of Asian women and screened nearly one year after the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting where eight people were murdered, six of whom were Asian women.

With no Asian actors nominated at the Oscars again in 2022—and no Asian writers in the Original Screenplay category this year either—major festivals that aren’t solely Asian-specific can help amplify much needed Asian voices. 

Kwan told the audience that it’s a story of coaxing us all back to empathy. A Nigerian American immigrant stood up during the Q&A and said that though the story has a majority Asian/Asian American cast, the story about stopping inter-generational trauma resonated with her, proving the extent of the film’s impact.

It’s the story of a Chinese American woman who gets a glimpse of the multi-verse, i.e.. how other versions of her get to live vastly different lives. It’s the portrait of an Asian American family that experiences joy and the battling of personal demons—all in front of the backdrop of wild set-pieces, insane costumes, out-there stunts and all kinds of things from the dark corners of the imaginations of Daniels.

Kwan’s main screenwriting advice was to “write something you’ll grow from.”

Not a dry eye was in the movie theater. It was the first time Jamie Lee Curtis had seen the completed movie at all. She noted that face masks are great for wiping away tears.

Everything Everywhere All At Once Trailer

Saturday night was a double feature of Paramount’s The Lost City and of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent from Lionsgate. Sandra Bullock literally sparkled as a romance novelist named Loretta Sage in The Lost City (directed by brothers Aaron and Adam Nee). Channing Tatum charmed as her Fabio-esque book cover model Dash, whose real name is Allen. Brad Pitt put in a hilarious cameo as Jack Trainer, who’s a trained operative acquaintance of Allen’s and comes to rescue Loretta after she’s kidnapped by an evil villain played by Danielle Radcliffe. He wants Loretta to translate an ancient language for him so he can find a treasure. Hilarity ensues when Allen must extract Loretta from the bad guys himself. 

I had the good fortune of being a part of a punch-up writer roundtable for the project. It’s been used at other studios before, and this was Bullock’s first project developed as a punch-up. The group of writers was led by one of the original screenplay writers, Dana Fox. It operated very much like a TV writers’ room where suggestions for alternate lines are pitched and rolled into new drafts. The result is a rom-com that got big laughs from the live viewing audience.

Similarly, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent  made the audience howl. It’s a beyond clever self-referencing and self-deprecating piece of art. Nicolas Cage showed up in person in a plaid suit that he told everyone reminded him of a shortbread tin—he really loves shortbread. The movie is a meta bromance between Cage (as himself) and Pedro Pascal’s character Javi, who’s the ultimate Nic Cage fan that lures the actor to Spain with a million dollars. It appears that in real life, Cage and Pascal are very enamored with each other, allowing amor to ooze off the theater stage when they spoke. They indeed have some sort of chemistry not often seen with many Hollywood pairs. Their two on-screen characters end up writing a screenplay about events that happen to them, blending previous Cage flicks and poking fun at modern-day action movies. The whole thing turns out very Pee Wee’s Great Adventure-esque. You’ll see why… The bizarre and special movie was written and directed by Tom Gormican and co-written by Kevin Etten. 

Photo by Thuc Doan Nguyen

Nicolas Cage arrives at The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent World Premiere

Cold Iron Pictures headed by Miranda Bailey has two entries in the film portion of South by Southwest this year. One is the incredible documentary feature called Split at the Root about mothers and children torn apart at the U.S. Border, and a group that tries to reunite them. The film is co-produced by Rosario Dawson and Lana Parilla. 

Bailey’s second film as a producer this year is director Morrissa Maltz’s The Unknown Country starring Lily Gladstone. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Richard Ray Whitman who plays Grandpa August. He lives in Oklahoma and can also be seen in the show Reservation Dogs. He’s lived a rich and interesting life that brings a gravitas to his role. In the movie, Gladstone’s character Tana takes a road trip to meet her estranged Oglala Lakota family. Already heralded as a “stunning spiritual companion to Terrence Malick and Nomadland” by Indiewire, this film needs to be on your radar. It’s also produced by the prolific polymath and all-around good guy, Gill Holland, who is a fellow Tar Heel. 

Photo by Thuc Doan Nguyen

Richard Ray Whitman on the right, with SXSW filmmaker Mario Furloni at the Cold Iron Pictures Party

The much-anticipated supernatural-thriller, Jethica, was co-written by Ashley Denise Robinson—who also stars in it— and directed by Pete Ohs. Co-stars include Callie Hernandez and Andy Faulkner. Other writers on the project include Hernandez, Faulkner and Will Madden. Robinson said the premiere “ was such a cool, surreal experience hearing other people live and in person react to the film for the first time.”

“Very grateful to be here to witness it,” she continued. “They laughed in the right spots so that was a relief!”

Robinson told me that Ohs edited the film in real-time on Twitch to six loyal viewers. She also shared that the cast lived in a trailer together and got their own costumes from a local thrift store in a small New Mexico town near Estancia, NM, where they shot the film. Their DIY efforts paid off with two sold-out showings of the film, in addition to attention from big Hollywood names.

Photo by Kelley Kali

Kelley Kali left, Ashley Denise Robinson, Capella Fahoome right

Robinson recalled how she became involved in the film, and about their pre-production and production processes. 

“Danny Madden, a SXSW alum filmmaker who also did sound on this project recommended me to the director, Pete Ohs, Robinson said. “I met Danny through working with the L.A.-based production company, Vanishing Angle. I was the lead in VA’s web series Taking Stock and also had a role in Jim Cumming’s and PJ McCabe’s The Beta Test and I met Danny on set.”

More proof that it’s a tiny world.

The team for Jethica made this film in an interesting manner. Robinson said that “Ohs’ vision for this project, as was his vision for his previous out-of-town film, Youngstown, was to bring his cast to a small city or town outside of Los Angeles and all of us would write the script together. Pete had a solid outline of the film and when we got to set (aka the trailer where we lived for two weeks in New Mexico) we wrote the film as we shot it.”

Another spooky movie for your radar is The Cow starring Winona Ryder, written and directed by Eli Horowitz and co-written by Mattew Derby. It’s a mystery and I will say no more, as to not spoil it. It’s fantastic to see another woman over age 40 besides Bullock still out there on the big screen.

As for television, I went to a fireside chat for Amazon’s hit show Upload created by Greg Daniels. In the Upload world, people can pay to have their consciousnesses continue to live in places like deluxe hotels or in a “heaven” of their own choosing. Those who can’t afford to upload themselves don’t exist in a digital world or have to continue you on at a lower bandwidth because, if they can’t pay their bills, they remain in a sort of digital purgatory. The show addresses live human concerns like healthcare, income disparity and more.

Upload is an extremely smart take on how even in the afterlife, humans have to be capitalistic, and one-up each other. As Daniels reminded us, it’s also a love story about a real-life human who works for the tech company who uploads people and a deceased, now digital person—played by Andy Allo and Robbie Amell, respectively.

Daniels also talked with futurist Amy Webb. They discussed how the show was supposed to debut at SXSW during the pandemic but didn’t get the chance to. They talked about how life has imitated art, particularly about how some facets of the show have started to manifest in our world. You’ll have to find out more by tuning into Season 2.

The film and television offerings of Weekend One of SXSW begs the question, “What version of yourself do you want to be? And will it make you happy?” In real life, being around ultra-smart and creative people at the festival made me happy. It was great to see movies in a theater and hear crowd reactions again. It was a similar sentiment shared by the SXSW’s Vice President and Director of Film, Janet Pierson, and many of the filmmakers as they took the stage. 

It was awesome to meet new folks and build comraderies and bridges in the film world in real life. All of us leaving to go back to our respective homes felt like the end of summer camp. We’ll always have the memories. 

In a few months, it’ll be time for the fest’s famous Panel Picker again when sharp minds once more begin to ponder some of life’s biggest questions and pitch them for events in next year’s fest. Let’s get ready and let’s start thinking about SXSW 2023!