Even at a safe social distance, through the prism of phone, tablet, and laptop screens, the virtual 2021 edition of the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX provided an impressive digital smörgåsbord of films, music, comedy, panels, and networking — give or take your humble correspondent’s total inability to crack the puzzle box wrapped in an escape room of instructions for getting into the virtual reality closing night party or the fact the cool-looking interactive short (and Episodic Pilot Competition winner) “4 Feet High VR” kept freezing on me.
Yet in true SXSW fashion, when one window freezes, a door opens up — in this case, the door to my front porch as I interacted instead with the Wisconsin Cheese event that’s become one of the top sideshow hits of the festival since its premiere in 2018. This year, Cheeselandia attendees lucky enough to pre-register in time received a variety of cheeses in the mail to sample along with a kazoo to serenade Nick Offerman during a series of Zoom calls featuring fun fromage facts and trivia along with rotating cameos from celebrity cheeseheads like Sean Astin, Kate Flannery, and the Most Interesting Man in the World.
Meanwhile, the official SXSW site featured a full slate of online film screenings as well as musicians, panelists, and comedians beaming in live and pre-taped from around the world (like the Japanese songwriter Haru Nemuri dancing on a rooftop, a chat with the Daily Show writing staff, and Janeane Garafolo workshopping stand-up material from the flatbed of a vintage pickup truck in the parking lot of a comedy club in Queens).
Still, with only four days to access as much content as possible, I focused mostly on films, (including my previously posted Top Five Favorites and Honorable Mentions). I likewise enjoyed Under the Volcano, a compelling documentary about super-producer Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat — until the project’s unusually strict screening interval snapped shut like a peepshow slot midway through, preventing a full viewing.
No such luck with Broadcast Signal Interruption, a disappointing “thriller” I managed to watch in its entirety that somehow wound up on numerous “best of fest” lists, possibly thanks to its moody fin de (20th) siècle style on a budget.
Indeed, the glimpses of retro Geocities websites and clips of a fictional ’80s sitcom about a sexy mechanical “stepbot” named Sal-E Sparx are easily the wittiest parts of the film, while a ghoulish version of the latter character which appears to the movie’s protagonist (Harry Shum, Jr.) via a mysterious pirate TV transmission generated true creepshow chills. But unfortunately, the early promise of the production seeps away over the course of an overlong 104-minute running time as the filmmakers increasingly seem to be making up their story as they go along, en route to an unsatisfying ending that somehow feels rushed and plodding at the same time.
Even more inexplicable was the festival’s Grand Jury prize for Lily Topples the World, a profile of the titular domino artist with just enough dramatic content for a traditional short subject.
Yet stretched out to feature length, Jeremy Workman’s heavily padded documentary may test the limits of your tolerance for shots of people setting up and knocking down endless configurations of small rectangles — especially when the whole thing eventually morphs into an extended informercial for H5 Domino Creations (and accessories).
Another screening that didn’t quite make the cut was How It Ends, an uneven dramedy about a depressed young woman (co-writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones) and a subconscious projection of her even younger self (Cailee Spaeny) on their way to an end-of-the-world party as a meteor streaks towards L.A.
What’s charming about the movie also defines its limitations, since the episodic collection of random conversations seems to be very much what it unquestionably is: namely, a “how I spent my pandemic” creative project shot piecemeal by a bunch of restless actors in and around their homes in the wilds of West Hollywood.
Nevertheless, the virtual 2021 edition of SXSW was an impressive showcase, placeholder, and morale boost promising better days ahead for artists, patrons of the arts, social justice activists, technophiles, and even Sasquatch enthusiasts (thanks to a high-end new guilty pleasure docuseries from Duplass Brothers Productions premiering April 20 on Hulu).
And that positive outlook was likewise present in a recent press release announcing the dates of the next South by Southwest festival, stating in part: “We can’t wait to bring people together once again to meet and share ideas. Austin Public Health’s Interim Authority Dr. Mark Escott recently said, ‘I’m very confident that SXSW will look normal, or near-normal next year.’ We, too, share his optimism that we will be able to hold an in-person event…”
So, fingers crossed (and sleeves rolled up) for 2022!
