While I didn’t get to dig into as many as I wanted, there were still a few that caught my attention. Funny enough, they were mostly in the horror genre… not exactly my cup of tea most of the time, but they were quirky and fun and I happily hopped out of my comfort zone. Check out my reviews below!
Dead Enders (2023 | USA | 12 minutes | Fidel Ruiz-Healy)
A quick and effective alien movie a la The Stuff (one of my all-time favorites) or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Dead Enders is the best kind of B Horror but wrapped up in a neat little twelve minute bundle. There are a few moments of sober angst but for the most part it was ridiculousness and laughs.
Eyestring (2023 | USA, Argentina | 8 minutes | Javier Devitt)
Anxiety is the word of the day in Eyestring, but for the main character and the viewer. Veronica (Alena Chinault) is stressed out beyond belief and to make matters worse, a thin thread begins “leaking” out of the corner of her eye. Stalking people who seem to have the same malady, she doesn’t seem to find any solutions and instead takes things into her own hands. A delicious metaphoric psychological thriller.
Deliver Me (2023 | USA | 15 minutes | Joecar Hanna-Zhang)
What an unexpected delight and possibly one of my favorite films of SXSW. Delving into the ethics, dangers and wish fulfillment of cloning, Deliver Me challenges you to think of a replicated person not as a simple copy but as a human; flesh and blood, thoughts of their own, feelings of their own. They aren’t playthings or subjects to be studied. Even though it hasn’t exactly been in the media since Dolly nuzzled her way into our hearts, it’s still a murky, messy subject to contemplate.