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MY TOP 5: Best Movies of SXSW 2013

As we all know, South By Southwest started off as a music festival, only adding the film nearly 10 years after they started.

So, it’s fitting that most of what I tend to see at the festival are great music docs.

This year, though, it seemed like that’s ALL they were showing.

I would actually recommend just about all of the movies that I saw, but these were the five best.

Only one is a narrative.

WE CAUSE SCENES
Directed by: Matt Adams

Chances are, you’ve all seen Improv Everywhere’s work, but you may not know them by name.

They’re basically Charlie Todd’s mailing list. He sends out an e-mail to hundreds of people saying, “Meet me here at this time.” They show up. He gives them instructions. A good time is had by all. It’s improv theatre for the masses and, for the most part, it give everyone a good laugh. They do things like standing still in Grand Central Station for 5 minutes or dancing with flashlights against a dark background or treating the beach like a black tie affair.

We Cause Scenes is Charlie’s story and, against all odds, it’s strangely inspirational. The guy as basically made a living off of bringing a smile and a memorable experience to people mostly in NYC, but really all over the world. His work fulfills him in ways that I will never know. This guy’s life makes him happy and that’s all that anyone can really ask. Not only that, but it makes other people happy. When it doesn’t, Charlie is genuinely upset and wants to know how to fix it.

This was one of those movies that I went into thinking I was going to see one thing (a bunch of really fun pranks) and ended up seeing something much better. I’m really glad that it was the first movie that I saw at the festival.

GOOD OL’ FREDA
Directed by Ryan White

The phrase “Good ol’ Freda” is really only known by a pretty small group of people, but that small group happened to be a part of an incredibly large group. These were members of the Beatles Fan Club in the 60s. Freda Kelly happened to be the secretary who answered their mail and sent them the Christmas singles every year (which is where the phrase originated).

Freda also happens to be an honest, forthright and very private person. For the last fifty years, she has kept that part of her life generally to herself. No matter how much was offered, she never opened her mouth about any of it…until now. But she still doesn’t dish the dirt.

She only tells the proper stories because there’s one more thing that she is: loyal.

Anyone who watches this documentary will fall instantly in love with Freda.  She is such an integral part of the Beatles’ story, but she is so unassuming that you might never know it. Ryan White gets this and makes the movie feel just as honest and loyal as Freda. Anyone who has even a passing interest in The Beatles should see this movie, if only to see how the boys treated the “little” people in their inner circle.


THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC
Directed by Chris Simon/Maureen Gosling

Chris Strachwitz is also famous to a small number of people, but he should be known by anyone with an interest in music. He is the man behind Arhoolie Records, a label that has brought tons of great blues, country, Tejano and bluegrass music to the masses. He’s also the man who found many blues legends (including Lightnin’ Hopkins) toiling away in New Orleans. He brought these great men the recognition that they deserved and helped to make their final years just a bit brighter.

All of this with a huge smile on his face and an ear for what is important.

Chris is a bit of a crusty old man now, but he’s still in love with his work and treats music as a sacred text. The “mouse music” of the title is basically anything that Chris doesn’t like. It’s the crap on the radio. Music without balls.

Simon and Gosling are old friends of Chris’s and they followed him around for years making a film that shows us not just the man, but the music behind the man. It’s a great film that shows us a hero who saved music that, otherwise, might have been lost to time. And that would have been a crime against humanity.

MILIUS
Directed by Joey Figueroa/Zak Knutson

You may not know the name John Milius, but if you like movies at all, you definitely know his work.

He wrote a little movie called Apocalypse Now. You might have heard of it.

Besides that giant of a movie, he also wrote and/or directed a few other small films here and there: Conan The Barbarian, Dirty Harry (uncredited), Rome (the tv show), Big Wednesday (if you haven’t seen this one, see it now) and Red Dawn.

Ok. Sorry about Red Dawn. But it was popular, even if it was awful.

Milius is quite the outsider in Hollywood, seeing as how he is a fairly right wing dude in a town full of left-wingers. He loves guns and wanted to go to Vietnam. He’s basically Walter from The Big Lebowski. (In fact, Walter was loosely based on him.) And yet, he counts as some of his best friends men like Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola, who all say that he’s one of the nicest men they’ve ever known. How can you hate the guy?

Milius, the movie, is just as awesome as the man. By the end of it, you just want to give John a big hug and tell him that everything’s going to be alright and that he WILL get Genghis Khan made!

It also did the impossible: it almost made me want to actually see Red Dawn.

Almost.

CHEAP THRILLS
Directed by E L Katz
Written by David Chirchirillo/Trent Haaga

Cheap Thrills is my one narrative, but it’s not because it’s the only good one I saw. The docs just edged the rest out. (See also Good Vibrations, Scenic Route and, surprisingly, the new Evil Dead remake.) What makes Cheap Thrills special is its absolute pitch black darkness.

Craig (Pat Healy) is a working stiff who just lost his job. He runs into an old friend (Ethan Embry) at a bar. Soon enough, both men are entwined with Colin and Violet (David Koechner and Sara Paxton), a couple with more money than sense. To give much more away would be a disservice to you and the movie. Let’s just say, What would YOU do for money?

The movie takes a rather typical formula and goes down some dark paths that most wouldn’t dare. No one goes unscathed and our hero has to make some pretty tough decisions. Strangely, the movie remains funny up until the very end. Then it becomes a movie that you might never forget. It’s not for everyone, but for the people that it’s for, it’s awesome.

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