Thursday, March 15, 2007

My SXSW Movies, Part 6

Our idea was to see a movie about Roller Derby at 4:30 (yes, another doc.) and then go straight to the Paramount for a narrative feature.

Parking wasn't that easy. We decided to pay $10 for a place two blocks from where we will live some day.

So while things were blooming in my backyard (see picture) only the dog was enjoying it. She was banished to the outdoors so we could stay downtown a long time.

We were in plenty of time to queue for the movie Hell on Wheels. Our friend Jette and locally famous film dude Bryan Poyser sat by us. Actually, maybe Jette is locally famous and Bryan is nationally famous. Anyway, it was interesting hearing about their festival. Jette is writing for Cinematical and so has to scribble notes while eating her pizza. The movie is about the resurgence of Roller Derby in Austin. It was a pretty good film. There were lots of tattoos, lots of fake violence, lots of ego and then a suppression of ego. And the movie contains one of those moments when you see an injury on the screen that makes your stomach do flips. (Nothing fake about that injury.) I didn't lose my Asian chicken salad, though. We slipped out before the Q&A and got to the Paramount to queue up for the next movie.

FFP chose a narrative feature called Bella and he made an excellent choice. The acting, cinematography and set dressing was wonderful. The story was a little sappy but the other things were so good that all was forgiven. Basically the premise is that two damaged people can make something complete.

We decided to have a snack afterward and we slid into 219 West for some decent wine and apps. Not an SXSW venue they weren't terribly crowded. A strange little trio called Accoustic Jungle played innocuous instrumentals.

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