conference

It’s been exhausting! I’ve been able to attend a few panels and go to a few parties, but let’s focus on the films for now:

Some Assembly Required

Documentary about several teams of kids from around the country competing in Sally Ride’s Toy Challenge. The kids constantly impress with their ingenuity and teamwork, and the Saturday Night Fever kid is the funniest of the bunch. (Sorry, I’ve forgotten his name, and it doesn’t seem to be in any of the three thousand synopses out there.)

What I learned: Most kids have no idea they can actually design and build the games and toys that they’d like to have. Given the challenge and the resources to pull it off, these kids were up to the task. Up with science and engineering!

Also, don’t sit way the hell in the back corner if you go to see something at the ACC. The surround speakers were all out of whack when I went there, and I couldn’t hear the dialogue over the blaring right rear channel half the time.

Flawless

Heist movie set at LON DI in 1960. Demi Moore plays the American low-level manager at the diamond giant to Michael Caine’s crafy cleaning man. As pointed out to me at the ‘Bama Girl dinner later, it certainly has a few plot holes and annoyances, but none of them were big enough to be more than a momentary distraction during the screening.

Except maybe the age makeup on Demi for the bookend scenes. That was a little creepy.

Nerdcore Rising

Documentary about the first nerdcore rapper world tour, featuring MC Frontalot. I… didn’t actually see it, because the cab from my hotel was late, and the moment I walked up to the front door of the Alamo Drafthouse, a lady from the theater was running out to tell us, “It’s completely sold out! Don’t let your cabs leave!” I will see it Tuesday night.

Instead, I had the opportunity to run over early to the place where the after-party was being held, and got front row floorspace to watch The Front himself perform for an energetic 45 minutes. I stood in line, I laughed, I danced, I got shorted ten bucks by the bartendress, but it was all worth it. Dancing with geeks FTW!

Incidentally, the Alamo Drafthouse cinema experience is awesome: rows of theater seats interspersed with rows of diner counter-style bars where you can place your order and get food and drink delivered to your seat throughout the movie. Why this perfect combination of service and entertainment is not duplicated around the country, I don’t know. Also, I really appreciated the zombie movie montage at the top where they informed the patrons, “DON’T TALK DURING THE MOVIE, OR WE’LL THROW YOUR ASS OUT” and, “TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE, OR WE’LL BITE YOUR LEG OFF AND HANG YOU”. Yay!

PS: You can see some SXSW photos that I’ve taken and a little survival guide movie [no longer online — Ed. 2015-08-13] I was inspired to make. Thanks, Bre!