It’s that time of year again: South By Southwest Film and TV Festival is back, turning downtown Austin into a hotspot for film buffs, music lovers and tech fanatics. In recent years, SXSW has hosted the premieres of several beloved Asian projects, including “Joy Ride,” “BEEF” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” to name a few. This year has been no different, with the highly-anticipated “3 Body Problem,” “Monkey Man” and “Y2K” all seeing their world premieres in Austin. CM was on-location covering the festival’s first weekend; here are some of our favorites.
‘The Queen of My Dreams’
This feature film, directed by Fawzia Mirza, is a vibrant coming-of-age story that focuses on Toronto-based grad student Azra (Amrit Kaur) and the strained relationship she has with her religious mother Mariam (Nimra Bucha). It’s only when she receives news that her father Hassan (Hamza Haq) has suffered a fatal heart attack while on a trip back to Karachi, Pakistan, that she and her mother must confront their rocky relationship. The film shines a light on both women’s lives, cleverly bouncing from current-day 1999 to the days of Mariam’s youth (who Kaur plays in a shining double role) in 1960s Karachi and to Azra’s own childhood in rural Canada, providing depth to the mother-daughter relationship. Despite this, the film never feels preachy; the vibrant color palette, fitting soundtrack and Mirza’s direction make it an entertaining watch for viewers. “The Queen of My Dreams” is a heartwarming film that pays homage to beloved Bollywood films like “Aradhana” to tell an intimate story, asking viewers to look deeper at their parents’ history and make a path to more understanding.
‘We Strangers’
How far can one lie take you? Anu Valia’s directorial debut explores this question. “We Strangers” drops viewers into the life of Ray (Kirby), a contract cleaner living in Gary, Indiana. One day, she is hired by therapist Dr. Neeraj Patel (Hari Dhillon) to clean his mistress Jean’s (Maria Dizzia) home. After observing both households, she finds herself telling Jean she can see ghosts — a lie that catapults her into a new position of power and sends her life into disarray. Valia’s morbidly funny script explores the ever-tricky world of assimilation, race and class dynamics and shines through Kirby’s performance, as she plays the mischievous and strong-willed cleaner with ease. It’s hard not to root for Ray, who is a character that will leave audiences wanting her to succeed (because who doesn’t wish they could stand up against snotty employers and rude teenagers?) ”We Strangers” is a film that will stay with viewers for a long time, even if there aren’t supernatural forces at play.
‘Monkey Man’
To put it simply, Dev Patel was born to take on the action genre. There’s no doubt about it, and Patel’s full-feature directorial debut “Monkey Man” is proof. The film centers around Kid, a man who watched his mother die before his eyes and now, years later, has set on a path of vengeance. Patel has taken a plot the genre has seen before and masterfully made it his own, from adding Hindu myths and traditions to playing Kid not as some invincible man but as a real person with flaws and weaknesses. But, that doesn’t mean Kid doesn’t kick ass; throughout the film, he uses any tools at his disposal — even if it means he has to fight dirty. Patel’s unique directing style is evident in the film, and the passion he feels for the genre is palpable, especially in his willingness to move outside of the box. In our opinion, “Monkey Man” is an instant classic within the action genre and will be for many years to come.
‘We Were Dangerous’
Made by filmmakers hailing from Aotearoa (the Māori-language name for New Zealand), “We Were Dangerous” takes place in 1954 and follows a trio of friends, Nellie (Erana James), Daisy (Manaia Hall) and Lou (Nathalie Morris), who attend a school for troubled girls run by an intensely strict matron (Rima Te Wiata). The film explores the cruelty of the colonialist institution, from the reasoning behind the girls’ admittance to the school’s geographic location on an isolated island for maximum separation from society to the unvetted medical experiments they perform on the students. But, overall, director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu makes sure the three girls’ joyous friendship is the focal point of the tale, including many scenes of adolescent curiosity: smoking a cigarette, having a sip of alcohol, making sure the steely adults don’t catch them. Part drama, part comedy and part adventure, “We Were Dangerous” showcases the power of female friendships in the face of suppression and how our lives have value even during the most traumatic of times.
‘Y2K’
From “Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney comes his directorial debut “Y2K” — a disaster-comedy which boldly asks the question, “What would have happened if machines went bonkers the moment the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000?” The story follows besties Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), both of whom are played by actors of API descent (Martell is a quarter Korean, and Dennison is Māori), who want to break out of their dorky exteriors and make New Years Eve their night. Rounding out the cast of characters is the gorgeous and popular Laura (Rachel Zegler), outcasts Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri) and Garrett, the white video store clerk with dreads (Mooney, himself). The film is full of ridiculousness and laughs — something to be expected if one is familiar with Mooney’s humor — but it also has a lot of heart. There, of course, are the ghosts of the 90s past — the classic 90s boombox, dial-up internet, chunky camcorders, cardio aerobics workouts and callbacks to Limp Bizkit — all underlined by themes of self-discovery, confidence building and coming-of-age. (This writer even shed a few tears during the 93-minute runtime.) So, if you’re wanting a bit of everything, “Y2K” is made for you.
‘We’re All Gonna Die’
Rom-com meets sci-fi in “We’re All Gonna Die,” from directing team Matthew Arnold and Freddie Wong, the latter most well-known for his YouTube career. The movie follows beekeeper Thalia (Ashly Burch) and ex-EMT Kai (Jordan Rodrigues) who, by serendipitous circumstance, must accompany each other on a cross-country roadtrip to retrieve their lost belongings — Thalia’s being her beehives and Kai’s being his dead best friend’s car. Readers might wonder, “How do you lose these much-bigger-than-a-breadbox items?” Well, when a mysterious 10,000-mile alien tentacle materializes in the sky and has the ability to teleport, move at any time and sometimes destroy whatever land it displaces, the answer becomes clear. “We’re All Gonna Die” explores themes of grief, existentialism and loneliness, while also making room for some raucous laughs along the way, thanks to Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Beth May’s witty script. Also, Burch and Rodrigues’ will-they-won’t-they chemistry is compelling and fuels the entire 110-minute runtime, perfectly balancing the film’s sci-fi adventures with some well-needed tenderness. “We’re All Gonna Die” is perfect for those in need of a date-night film that satisfies the needs of both sci-fi heads and rom-com enthusiasts. Happy viewing!
Further Recommendations
While we didn’t catch every single API project at SXSW, there are many more making waves this year. Take a look at some of the other selections hitting the festival’s screens.
- ‘Black Box Diaries’: “Black Box Diaries” is a documentary that follows a Japanese journalist’s fight to have her sexual assailant held accountable in a court of law.
- ‘Babes’: In the narrative feature “Babes,” Eden (Ilana Glazer) becomes pregnant from a one-night stand and leans on her best friend Dawn (Michelle Buteau) to get by. Hasan Minhaj also stars.
- ‘Dìdi (弟弟)‘: Premiering earlier this year at Sundance, “Dìdi (弟弟)” shows adolescence as seen through the lens of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy living in the Bay Area (Izaac Wang). This film is directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sean Wang.
- ‘Doin’ It’: Starring laugh-out-loud YouTube alum Lilly Singh, “Doin’ It” is a coming-of-age comedy that follows the story of an Indian American virgin who gets a job teaching high school sex ed.
- ‘3 Body Problem’: And for all the TV lovers, “3 Body Problem” is for you. Premiering on March 21, 2024, on Netflix, the series features aliens, time travel and more for all sci-fi fans out there.
