by Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer and Associate Editor

This week I took a pen to paper and scribbled down which films that were a part of this year’s SXSW Film Festival I wanted to watch and review. I grew excited - a film of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On? X, Ti West’s first film in 11 years? I narrowed it down to six films which I could review as long as I manage my time correctly (read: take PTO).

Then I reviewed the lineup as to what is actually available virtually, and I had to “X” out (ha! Get it?) five of the six films on that list. And, I get it. They want to keep these movies from being pirated, because some of them - The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Everything Everywhere All At Once - are slated for wide release. And we do need to get butts in seats, because we can, I think, restore, or resurrect, in part, the traditional filmgoing experience. Sit in your seat. Turn off the lights. Put away your phone, except to slyly check it under the cover of your jacket to see how the babysitter is doing and/or to look up who the actor on screen is.

Sigh. And I had thought of traveling to Austin for the festival, too. But I sat on it, waited and waited until it was too late. Because the whole ordeal seemed like a lot of planning and I just didn’t want to do that. The moral of the story: just take the damn trip.

But, this means that I’ll get to discover some unknown films and new directors, as well as Cooper Raiff’s follow up to his charming and sincere 2020 film Shithouse, so that’s cool, too.

Slash/Back (dir. Nyla Innuksuk)

An alien invasion disrupts a small, sleepy Inuit hamlet in Pangnirtung, Canada. An original setting for a sci-fi/horror film is always a draw for me. Slash/Back centers around a group of 14 year old Inuit girls and was shot on location.

Cha Cha Real Smooth (dir. Cooper Raiff)

I simply loved Shithouse, writer/director/actor Cooper Raiff’s first film about a kid who isn’t having the best time in his first year of college. It was funny and sincere and shows a strong influence from Linklater films like Before Sunrise and Dazed and Confused. All I know about his second film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, is that it stars him opposite Dakota Johnson so I am fucking in.

Spin Me Round (dir. Jeff Baena)

I don’t know much about this one either, only that it’s directed by Jeff Baena and stars Aubrey Plaza. Baena previously directed Plaza in the charming Life After Beth, as well as The Little Hours (they’re also married). Spin Me Round is about a young woman (presumably Plaza), who wins a trip to Italy, and… ?  I don’t know, but she shares a Vespa with Alison Brie. Mamma mia! (ugh I’m so  sorry, I really am, but I had to)

I Love My Dad (dir. James Morosini)

I Love My Dad stars an aptly-cast Patton Oswalt as a father who tries to connect with his distant son (writer/director James Morosini) by catfishing him. I’m drawn to this because I really feel like that is something I could potentially do. I mean I won’t, but you get it.

The Cow (directed by Eli Horowitz)

Details about The Cow have been largely kept under wraps, but we know that it stars Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney as a couple who go to a rental cabin for vacation to find it is double booked and there is already a couple there, and… weird things ensue! Perhaps with cows, or, a cow.