The 25 Most Anticipated Movies Of The SXSW 2012 Film Festival

For the next two weeks, the city of Austin, Texas, already a renown party locale, is not going to sleep. Kicking off tomorrow, Austin’s duo of SXSW Festivals are set to offer the most exciting and revelatory lineup of independent movies, soon-to-be genre film breakouts, and unsigned musical acts. And, as of tomorrow evening, the Complex Pop Culture team will be in the trenches, indulging in, and reporting around, all of the SXSW 2012 Film Festival’s movie screenings, celebrity panels, and irresistible BBQ over the course of an eight-day stretch.

Around these parts, we’re rather vocal about our appreciation for below-the-radar DIY films, as evidenced by our recent countdown of 25 Independent Movies You Should Be Excited About, a few of which will greet our eyes within the next few days. So, expectedly, we’re extremely amped to step foot into Austin, and it’s a good thing that we’ve already seen the fest’s bigger inclusions (we cosign them all): the Joss Whedon-backed meta-horror film The Cabin In The Woods, the gleefully cartoonish 21 Jump Street, and the balls-out action extravaganza The Raid.

With those three crowd-pleasers excluded, here are the main reasons why the following week should be a film aficionado’s dream come true, better known as The 25 Most Anticipated Movies Of The SXSW 2012 Film Festival.

Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

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Director: Jordan Roberts
Stars: Lizzy Caplan, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam, Chris O’Dowd, Whitney Cummings, Chris Noth, Adam Pally, Nora Dunn

On FX’s seething biker drama Sons Of Anarchy, underrated actor Charlie Hunnam does a lot of things: He shoots automatic weapons, gets into physical altercations on a routine basis, pisses off rival gang members, and goes head-to-head against the intimidating Ron Perlman. One thing he rarely ever does, however, is tell a joke, let alone deliver a goofy performance. Which is why he must’ve had a blast making the delightfully silly-sounding frankie go boom.

In the lo-fi comedy, Hunnam loses the tough guy exterior to play a dude who’s long been bullied by his douchebag older brother (Bridesmaids’ co-star Chris O’Dowd), and when the older sibling secretly videotapes the younger guy’s one-night-stand with an emotionally damaged chick (the hormonally pleasing Lizzy Caplan), the two bros wage an unfriendly war against one another. Physical humor, wisecracks about sex tapes, and, supposedly, a pig all follow, in what should be a nice dose of escapist laughs to offset the SXSW Film Festival’s predominantly bleak slate.

Director: Rebecca Thomas
Stars: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Bill Sage, Cynthia Watros, Billy Zane

Behold the world’s oddest example of “baby-making music.” In Elecktrick Children, written and directed by first-timer Rebecca Thomas, a 15-year-old girl (Julia Garner) from a devoutly Mormon family suddenly becomes pregnant, and, naturally, she immediately credits the unborn child to immaculate conception via songs; after all, she hasn’t had sex with anyone. Her fam, though, accuses her of sleeping around and going against their religion.

That’s definitely not a plot we’ve ever heard before; knock on wood that Elecktrick Children follows through on its synopsis’ potential.

Director: Patrick Forbes

Having originally aired on small screens, courtesy of Oxford Film and Television company, the barely-80-minute documentary Wikileaks: Secrets & Lies enters SXSW with awards under its imaginary belt and the hook of featuring controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s first TV interview.

The surprisingly stylish Assange, for those who haven’t opened a newspaper or surfed the Internet in three years, spearheaded the international, non-profit organization that recklessly published all kinds of classified documents online. Director Patrick Forbes’ exposé, with its all-access look at one of the cyber world’s most alarming events, feels like essential viewing in this digital age.

Director: Matthew A. Cherry
Stars: Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Harry Lennix, Keith David

No film festival would be complete without the prerequisite, tried-and-true “inspirational sports drama”; fortunately, though, this year’s SXSW has The Last Fall as its token athletic tale, and it sounds quite good. Director Matthew A. Cherry’s seemingly formulaic pic focuses on what happens after the games are over, showing how an ex-NFL player (Lance Gross) who never achieved superstardom on the field copes with the real world once his career is a wrap.

Routine, right? We agree, but The Last Fall has a secret weapon that could raise its quality immensely: co-star Nicole Beharie, the beautiful scene-stealer who performed impeccably alongside Michael Fassbender in the excellent sexual addiction drama Shame. She’s an actress to watch, and one who deserves a breakthrough project. Could The Last Fall be the one?

Director: Joko Anwar
Stars: Rio Dewanto, Hannah Al Rashid, Aridh Tritama, Izzi Isman

Slowly but surely, filmmakers hailing from Indonesia are establishing their native land as a formidable genre movie supplier. The lucky few who’ve had the chance to see the Mo Brothers’ Macabre (available on DVD overseas, but still inching toward an official U.S. release), with its extreme gore and increasingly out-of-control violence, know that there’s something brewing there. Modus Anomali, which is hitting SXSW amidst positive word, could very well elevate the chatter from selective mouths to widely read bloggers and talking heads.

The plot sounds familiar enough: A loving father, on vacation in the woods with his wife and child, wakes up, sees that his family is missing, and races against time (counted down by alarm clocks that are curiously placed throughout the terrain) to find them and survive extreme tortures. Being that it was made in a foreign country, though, Modus Anomali's somewhat recognizable concept will no doubt roar with the kind of viciousness that Hollywood rarely executes. Meaning, do your best to catch it before big studio execs produce a neutered remake.

Directors: Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe
Stars: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Will Sharpe, Anna O’Grady, Helen Cripps

Over in England, the BAFTA awards (given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) are similar to America’s Golden Globes, though they’re slightly more prestigious. So the fact that Black Pond, a supposedly funny and disturbing black comedy, was recently nominated for Outstanding Debut at the BAFTAs is justification enough for us to give a damn. But then we read the plot summary, and now we’re dying to see it.

Directors Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe set their sights on the fictional Thompson family, a.k.a. the “Family of Killers,” a nickname given to them after a stranger croaks at their dinner table and the local townsfolk draw damning conclusions. It figures that Britain, home of widely downbeat films that critics both affectionately and meanly dub “misery porn,” would mine laughs from a cadaver.

Director: Austin Chick
Stars: Danielle Panabaker, Liam Aiken, Andrew Howard, Michael Stahl-David, Caroline Lagerfelt, Nicole LaLiberte

Ever since our red-hot photoshoot with Danielle Panabaker last year, for the still yet-to-be-released Piranha 3DD (damn those sudden release date push-backs!), we’ve been sprung on her. True, we were fans prior to her shoot and quick-witted, joyful interview, but the affinity level has reached gargantuan heights. So imagine our frustrations due to the lack of Panabaker on any silver screens in the months since our October/November 2011 issue.

The SXSW gods have the remedy, thankfully. And, oddly enough, it’s an independent flick that’s flown completely under our radar. In the psychological thriller Girls Against Boys, Panabaker goes to never-before-seen, darker places to play a world-weary woman on a random killing spree in New York City. It’s not exactly bikinis and killer fish, but we’ll gladly take it.

Director: Katie Dellamaggiore

More often than not, the best documentaries tell the authentic stories of regular people, subjects who don’t come with any controversial, fame-packed, or history textbook baggage. Think back to Dear Zachary, or, more recently, the Academy Award-winning Undefeated. At the SXSW Film Festival, the strongest candidate for such everyday appeal and unaffected pathos is Brooklyn Castle, which looks at the NYC borough’s I.S. 318 school, the home of the nation’s best junior high chess team.

The antagonist here: Budget cuts brought on by the recession. We’re anticipating feelings of furious anger, helpless outrage, and, one can hope, optimistic tears. Hey, real men aren’t afraid to cry. At least not in a darkly lit movie theater, where no one can see you and a film’s end credits afford you enough time to dry those cheeks.

Director: Craig Zobel
Stars: Dreama Walker, Ann Dowd, Pat Healy, James McCaffrey, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger

After seeing Compliance recently, we asked ourselves, “Can people really be that dumb?” Which was immediately followed up by, “And can they really be that vile?” Those are the kinds of questions that writer-director Craig Zobel hopes to inspire within those who see his powerfully divisive and squirm-inducing film, a polarizer that caused an uproar at Sundance, with some heated audience members even yelling at Zobel and labeling him a misogynist.

If you ask us, his Compliance is actually a thought-provoking look at the incapacitating effects of authority’s fear-inducing influence. The button-cute Dreama Walker fearlessly plays a fast food employee who has the worst day ever: As a detestable prank caller (Pat Healy) pretends to be a cop, and accuses Walker of stealing money from a customer, the restaurant’s manager (Ann Dowd), who fears losing her job, does everything that the phony officer says, as do several others who watch over a naked and humiliated Walker.

And things only get worse as Zobel’s characters sink deeper and deeper into an abyss of perversion, unlawful violations, and things we dare not mention here. Just know that Compliance will sicken you in more ways than one.

Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Stars: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith, Melinda Page Hamilton, Rich McDonald

God Bless America, the latest super-dark comedy from actor-turned-director Bobcat Goldthwait, might sound like an absurdist good time, in the vein of, say, Hobo With A Shotgun, but there’s an uncomfortably nihilistic feeling about the whole thing. Which, of course, makes it all the more fascinating.

Try this set-up on for size: An angry, out-of-work and terminally ill man (Joel Murray) can’t take the reality-TV-obsessed, materialistic, and heartless world he’s living in anymore, so, with the help of a pissed-off 16-year-old girl (Tara Lynne Barr), he grabs some automatic weapons and opens fire on any and everyone in sight. Played for sick laughs, God Bless America has both a one-note premise and a possibly loathsome world view at its core, yet so did the aforementioned Hobo With A Shotgun, for that matter, and we loved that shit. Thus, the jury is all the way out.

Director: Steven C. Miller
Stars: Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, Derek Mears, Jacob Reynolds, Boyd Kestner, Lisa Rotondi, Joseph McKelheer, Fabiana Therese

If this list proves one thing, it’s that the SXSW 2012 Film Festival is far from a happy-go-lucky batch of uplifting movies and feel-good stories—let’s have a round of applause for that. One of the many hardcore thrillers gracing the movie lineup is The Aggression Scale, indie director Steven C. Miller’s left-turn of a follow-up to his ambitious yet problematic 2006 zombie flick Automaton Transfusion. Just off its narrative basis alone, The Aggression Scale appears to be a step in the right director for Miller.

The blood, empty shells, and corpses should be abound as four hitmen, equipped with an excessive amount of weaponry, go shot-for-shot against a couple of teenagers who also hope to walk away with $500,000 of stolen scratch. The best thing about Automaton Transfusion is its breathless, no-holds-barred spirit; assuming that Miller has upped that here, The Aggression Scale has the potential to be one of the festival’s most pleasant surprises.

Director: Kristen Sheridan
Stars: Seana Kerslake, Johnny Ward, Kate Stanley Brennan, Shane Curry, Ciaran McCabe, Jack Reynor

There’s nothing like a bunch of teenage criminals to provide some emotional catharsis. Straight from the seediest area of Dublin, Ireland, comes writer-director Kristen Sheridan’s Dollhouse, a film that has all the makings of an unconventional coming-of-age drama with oomph.

In Sheridan's film, three young delinquents break into an upper-class suburban home and run amok while the owners are nowhere to be seen, and, as the good and lawless times roll, the kids’ learn things about each other that surely require multiple glasses of Irish whiskey and a green-clad psychiatrist. Erin go emo!

Director: Megan Griffiths
Stars: Jamie Chung, Beau Bridges, Scott Mechlowicz, Matt O’Leary, Mariana Klaveno

Considering that she appeared on our February/March 2011 cover, it should come as no surprise that we’re pro-Jamie Chung around here—and, really, who shouldn’t be? Aside from those killer looks, there’s been a dynamic acting talent lurking beneath the mostly thankless roles that she’s taken on in recent years, so it’s exciting to hear that she’s been given a gritty leading role in the new, low-budget thriller Eden. And the plot sounds like quite intense.

Chung stars as an unlucky girl who gets kidnapped by human traffickers and forced to sell her body for dirty money. Sounds like the kind of role that will either solidify her as one of the game’s most underrated young actresses, or, like her Sucker Punch co-star Emily Browning’s turn in last year’s interminable and perverted snoozer Sleeping Beauty, frustrate us to no end if the film itself lacks. Like the name of De La Soul’s slept-on album, the stakes are high.

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Stars: Olivia Munn, Aisha Tyler, Paul Schneider, Jay Chandrasekhar, Noureen DeWulf, M.C. Gainey, Miles Fisher

When director Jay Chandrasekhar burst onto the comedy scene with 2001’s Super Troopers, it seemed as if the funny movie game had met a new, fresh-voiced filmmaker with great potential. Unfortunately, though, he hasn’t been able to match his debut’s hilarious nature ever since, following Super Troopers up with a trio of inferior efforts: Club Dread, The Dukes Of Hazzard, and Beerfest.

But will his fifth time be the charm? We’ll soon find out, with the unveiling of his high-concept flick, The Babymakers, at SXSW in the next few days. The film has two major things going for it, too: Olivia Munn, who’s never hard on the eyes, and a ridiculously absurd plot about a husband (Paul Schneider, from Parks And Recreation’s first season) who tries to rob a sperm bank after numerous failed attempts to impregnate his wife (Munn). Not being able to satisfy Munn in bed? Sounds more like a horror movie.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey

His brief appearance as himself in The Muppets aside, Jack Black’s last three live-action films—Year One, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Big Year—sadly form an unholy trinity of cinematic embarrassment. Yet, as cable airings of The School Of Rock often remind us, the livewire funnyman has the ability to give charismatic and endearing performances when he’s not bogged down by lame scripts and altogether lifeless movie enterprises.

Bernie, Black’s reunion with The School Of Rock director Richard Linklater, is already superior by leaps and bounds to those films, and we haven’t even seen the damn thing yet. Credit the premature praise to Bernie’s heavy and unpleasant story, about a loveable funeral director who murders a crotchety elder lady (Shirley MacLaine) he’s been taking care of out of the sheer kindness of his heart. Our guess: There won’t be any of Black’s trademark, and often obnoxious, loud yelling, manic wig-outs, and energetic air guitar plucking. Amen to that.

Director: Daniel Nettheim
Stars: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O’Connor, Sullivan Stapleton, Jacek Koman, Callan Mulvey

There are very few currently working actors we’d pay to see occupy the majority of a film’s duration all by themselves. When Tom Hanks did so in Cast Away, and Will Smith tried the me-me-me approach in I Am Legend, the results were positive, but we’re talking about Tom Hanks and Will Smith here—that’s to be expected.

In the same breath, casting a movie like The Hunter, which focuses solely on a mercenary who’s dispatched into the Tasmanian jungle to find a rare tiger, is risky business. You couldn’t do much better than Willem Dafoe, however, so it’s no leap of faith to say that Australian director Daniel Nettheim’s atmospheric and nuanced thriller will not disappoint. Put it this way: We’d voluntarily watch the great Mr. Dafoe read from a cookbook for 90 minutes.

Director: Timo Vuorensola
Stars: Udo Kier, Julia Dietze, Kym Jackson, Peta Sergeant, Gotz Otto, Stephanie Paul, Christopher Kirby

Iron Sky takes the prize for “Most Batshit Plot Of The Year,” and it’s only March. Here’s why: A mixture of sci-fi, action, and ludicrous comedy, director Timo Vuorensola’s bizarre flick presents a revisionist history in which the Nazis actually retreated to the moon and formed a spacebound colony, rather than getting defeated to end World War II. Oh, and in the year 2018, Hitler’s troops fire up their ships, load their weapons, and get ready to head back to Earth to finish what they started 70-some-odd years back.

Are you sold yet? We sure as hell are, especially because Iron Sky’s attention-grabbing first trailer sports the gloss and impressive pyrotechnics of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster (the kind that often rank high up on our list of the best sci-fi films). All signs point to Vuorensola’s nutty film being one of the festival’s most talked-about genre pics.

Director: Kristy Guevara-Flangan

One of these days, Hollywood is going to figure out a way to make a Wonder Woman movie work—might we suggest casting Megan Fox and going the Halle Berry/Catwoman route with the costume? Just as long as the actual flick doesn’t suck as badly as Berry’s disaster, of course.

If you’re looking to point fingers, blame the awesomely bad Catwoman, amongst other gender-based issues, for depriving superhero fans of any cinematic options about female crime-fighters. Until one comes our way, we’ll happily settle for the documentary WONDER WOMEN!, which goes in-depth to trace the long, storied history of DC Comics’ Wonder Woman character, leading into an exploration of real-life ladies who perform heroics without any fancy get-ups. It’s the best you can do until our Megan Fox pitch becomes a reality.

Director: Adam Leon
Stars: Tysheeb Hickson, Zoe Lescaze, Joshua Rivera, Tashiana R. Washington

Last year at the SXSW Film Festival, a little urban-set alien invasion blast called Attack The Block came out of nowhere to blow audiences away and earn an overwhelmingly positive amount of buzz. Though there’s no intergalactic villains on hand, first-time director Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot feels interestingly reminiscent of director Joe Cornish’s cult classic in the making, with its hard-rock city setting and high-octane, youth-driven plot. So, could it be this year’s Attack The Block?

Leon and his collaborators must certainly hope so. Instead of London, Gimme The Loot takes places in New York City, and follows a pair of teenage graffiti artists over the course of two summer days as they seek out paint-can revenge on a rival gang of wall-taggers. Extra bonus points are awarded for Leon’s decision to name the film after one of the Notorious B.I.G.’s best songs. Here’s to Gimme The Loot bringing another classic Biggie tune to mind: “Unbelievable.”

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Going against our stubborn resolve, we’re willing to forgive director Kevin Macdonald for the horribly miscast, irritably generic sword-and-sandal dud The Eagle (the one with Channing Tatum), and he has the positive buzz surrounding his documentary Marley to thank. It’s crazy to think that a definitive film about reggae legend Bob Marley has yet to be made, but it seems that Macdonald has done just that; comprised of previously unseen footage from both on the stage and off, as well as close and personal interviews, Marley should fill his fans (who may still be working their way through our countdown of his 100 greatest songs) with one love.

Director: Paco Plaza
Stars: Leticia Dolera, Javier Botet, Diego Martin, Ismael Martinez, Mireia Rios, Carla Nieto

Of all the recent found-footage horror films, the 2009 Spanish rollercoaster ride known as [REC] (impressively remade in the states as Quarantine) remains the unquestionable best of the lot. Set inside a locked-down apartment building in Barcelona, the Paco Plaza- and Jaume Baluegero-directed fan favorite centered on a mysterious outbreak that turned all of the residents, firemen, and cops trapped inside into rabid, bloodthirsty killing machines.

And in a rare case of a genre sequel not dropping the ball, 2010’s even more turbocharged [REC]2 proved that the Plaza/Baluegero brainchild has what it takes to become an ass-kicking franchise.

Now, the plan is for the two directors to helm another sequel each; first up is Plaza’s [REC]3: Genesis, which will make its worldwide premiere at SXSW and promises to switch away from the found-footage conceit. The outbreak of gory, zombie-movie-inspired violence takes place at a wedding, and, as footage and stills display, things get so out of hand that the bride grabs a chainsaw. It doesn’t take a scary movie historian to figure out what happens after that; hopefully, though, it’ll require a strong stomach for gore.

Director: Pascal Laugier
Stars: Jessica Biel, Jodelle Ferland, Stephen McHattie, William B. Davis, Samantha Ferris, Katherine Ramdeen

A ballsy French horror filmmaker whose debut flick remains one of the genre’s rawest efforts of the last 10 years, teaming up with…sexy Jessica Biel? It’s certainly one of the oddest pairings in recent memory, and, yes, that’s one of the many reasons why Pascal Laugier’s long-awaited The Tall Man, his follow-up to the gruesome and daring 2008 knockout Martyrs, has been on our radar for over a year now.

The biggest thing that’s given The Tall Man such pre-screening hype is its simplistic, supernatural premise, one that’s a far cry from the homicidal, torturous, and existential vibes of Martyrs. Biel, certainly playing against type, stars as a mother on a desperate search for her young daughter, who’s believed to have been abducted by a local urban legend of a ghoul known as “the Tall Man.”

That’s all we know so far, and, frankly, that’s plenty. Can Laugier avoid the sophomore slump? And can Biel, who we haven't thought much about recently aside from when we've ogled at her nude scene breakthrough, pull off a front-and-center, sympathetic heroine role? Our fingers are optimistically crossed.

Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church

It really is great to have Matthew McConaughey back in fine form. After last year’s unexpectedly terrific legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, the once-formidable actor (and always formidable ladykiller) set himself on the fast track to comeback glory, signing onto higher-quality projects than past time-wasters like Fool’s Gold and Surfer, Dude. At the top of McConaughey’s promising slate of forthcoming movies has been Killer Joe, a pitch-black drama about a murderous con man (McConaughey) who befriends a troubled teen (Emile Hirsch) and entertains the kid’s offer to kill his mother for cold cash.

As if the fact that the great William Friedkin (The Exorcist and The French Connection, amongst other winners) directed it wasn’t enticing enough, Killer Joe recently obtainted an NC-17 rating for “graphic aberrant content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality,” the “brutality” reportedly referring to a hard-to-watch scene alongside co-star Gina Gershon. Yeah, Matthew McConaughey doesn’t play around anymore. You’ve been warned.

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Jake M. Johnson, Mark Duplass, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Bell, Lynn Shelton, Mary Lynn Rajskub

Safety Not Guaranteed, one of the most heavily praised films at January’s Sundance Film Festival, boasts a premise that April Ludgate, star Aubrey Plaza’s droll and emotion-less character from the standout comedy series Parks And Recreation, would definitely roll her eyes over; we, on the other hand, think it’s ripe for intelligent and quirky humor.

Based on a true story, the film, which also stars Jake M. Johnson (New Girl) and Mark Duplass (The League), shows what happens when a magazine reporter (Johnson) and his two interns (Plaza and Karan Soni) investigate a story about a supermarket worker who believes he can travel through time. One can easily imagine April’s Parks And Rec lovably dim-witted hubby Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) telling her the same exact thing in a future episode.

Directors: Adam Wingard, Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence
Stars: Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Joe Swanberg, Sophia Takal, Kate Lyn Sheil, Joe Sykes, Hannah Fierman, Mike Donlan, Drew Sawyer, Drew Moerlein, Jason Yachanin, Helen Rogers

Since its triumphant premiere at the Sundance Film Festival two months ago, the found-footage horror anthology V/H/S has been the talk of the genre community, and it’s easy to understand why. For starters, the filmmakers behind the five-segment omnibus are a who’s who of horror’s hottest up-and-coming directors, such as Ti West (The House Of The Devil, The Innkeepers) and Adam Wingard (You’re Next, set for release later this year amidst deafening post-festival buzz). And then there’s the included stories’ actual plots, which all sound rather badass.

The framing device that wraps around V/H/S involves a group of obnoxious pranksters who get hired to break into a house and retrieve a set of old-school video cassettes; naturally, they watch them all first, and the tapes show them a couple’s road trip gone terribly awry, a Skype exchange between two young love-birds that gets an unexpected third party, a first-person tweaking of the old killer-in-the-woods set-up, a very haunted house, and a bunch of horny teenagers who pick up the wrong chicks.

If you’re as big on horror anthologies as we are (think Creepshow and the older British, Amicus-backed gems like Asylum), then that should all sound extremely intriguing. Now, let’s just hope this one lives up to all the hype.