In the bleak, jagged dysfunction of our modern era it feels like things slip through the cracks of my mind almost immediately after experiencing them so here I am, attempting a running public journal for myself– a “live” journal, if you will. Maybe some of this will turn into longer form writing but I mainly […]
Jack Goes Home is a Thrilling Work by a Bold New Director
Thomas Dekker’s impressive psychological thriller Jack Goes Home is the latest in a new wave of American horror films that get much of their tension from questioning the reliability of their protagonist’s view. Like Jacob’s Ladder before it, Jack Goes Home is an exploration of trauma that utilizes horror tropes and imagery to bring viewers closer to its protagonist’s headspace. But Jack […]
The Invitation is a Horror Work That Lingers Long After Seeing It
Often, the best thing you can say about a horror film is that it lingered, refusing to leave your brain after you saw it, maybe popping up in the background of your vision as you’re out at night, perhaps framing your dreams for the next little while. Even bad horror can provide an immediate visceral […]
SXSW Film 2016 Day Four: Preacher, Death by Audio and Jack Goes Home
SXSW generally has a great slate of TV premieres but most of the shows they lined up this year didn’t stir my interest one way or another. The big exception was Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s adaptation of Preacher, set to air on AMC this summer, which I was interested in not because I thought it would be […]
SXSW Film 2016 Day 3 Part 2- Accidental Courtesy and Don’t Think Twice
Movies are the best, you guys. Sunday was the strongest set of films we’ve seen at the festival so far, and the two we caught, documentary Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America and Mike Birbiglia’s feature Don’t Think Twice, provided excellent tonal and thematic variety. After seeing a handful of okay-but-not-life-changing documentaries, I went […]
SXSW Film 2016 Day 3 Part 1- Accidental Courtesy and Don’t Think Twice
It’s always great when you get a day of SXSW where everything basically goes right. Despite daylight savings time interfering with a decent amount of sleep, day three of SXSW was unquestionably the best day of the festival so far. Two of the picks Kayleigh and I made in our preview guide surpassed even our high […]
SXSW Film 2016 Day 2: The Dwarvenaut and Baby Bump
Fuck whoever decided daylight savings time should fall in the middle of SXSW. Or maybe just fuck daylight savings time in general. Either way, there’s nothing quite like going out after a day of watching films in the darkness and then stumbling home and watching the clock tick forth an hour, mocking you. It’s early […]
SXSW Film 2016 Day 1 Pt. 2- Cameraperson and Beware the Slenderman
As we all know, jumping into the Interactive portion of SXSW is the best possible way to get your festival bearings because, for a myriad of reasons, pretty much every official and unofficial event of Interactive is low-risk, high-reward. It doesn’t have the public caché of Music but it’s also way more social (interactive?) than […]
SXSW Film 2016: Day 1- Silicon Cowboys and Beware the Slenderman
The first day of SXSW is always pretty slack but this year’s festivities felt unusually quiet. Part of that was likely due to the weather, which fortunately shifted away from the monsoon that preceded SXSW and merely became “Seattle in the spring” greyness. But the fact that Obama was the keynote speaker this year and […]
Top 10 Films to Catch at SXSW 2016
Loser City continues its tradition of gonzo SXSW reporting with a preview of our most anticipated films at this year’s SXSW Film festival. The selections run the gamut from magical realist Polish films to documentaries on tech pirates and KKK-befriending black musicians. In a Valley of Violence What It Is: Minimalist horror auteur Ti West […]