[SXSW Interview] Adam Riegler and Alan Tudyk (Premature)
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
Dan Beers' (FCU: Fact Checkers Unit) feature-length directorial debut, Premature, put a spin on the typical raunchy high school sex comedy. Equal parts Groundhog Day and American Pie, the comedy was about a high school Senior having to re-live the most important day of his life until he ultimately gets it right. If a misstep is taken, all he needs to do to escape is a trigger in the form of physical stimulation... I think we all know what that means.
During SXSW this year, I was able to sit down with some of the cast and Beers himself to discuss Premature. In this first part of a two-part feature, you can read my interviews with actors Adam Riegler and Alan Tudyk (Firefly) as we separately discussed their roles in the film, interactions with the rest of the cast, and in the case of Tudyk, the outstanding mustache he himself (!!!) grew for the role. Enjoy, and keep an eye out for the second part with lead actor John Karna and writer/director Dan Beers later this week!
[SXSW Interview] Emmy Rossum and Fatima Ptacek (Before I Disappear)
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
Before I Disappear was a huge hit at SXSW 2014, winning the SXSW Film 2014 Audience Award in the Narrative Feature Competition category. This doesn't come as a huge surprise, considering the film is based on the short film Curfew, which itself won the Academy Award for Best Short Film - Live Action in 2013.
Returning for the feature-length film was Curfew actress Fatima Ptacek. Joining her this time around is Shameless star Emmy Rossum. During SXSW, we had the chance to interview the duo about their roles in the film, as well as what it was like to adapt such a successful short into an equally successful feature length film.
Watch the full video interview with Emmy Rossum and Fatima Ptacek below, and expect more from Before I Disappear later this week. Enjoy!
[SXSW Interview] Hannah Marshall and Hugh Sullivan (The Infinite Man)
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
The Infinite Man was one of the first films I watched as part of this year's SXSW, jumpstarting my film experience for 2014 on a very high note. The Australian film, which you can read more about in detail in my review, is about one inventor's scheme to salvage a romantic weekend after his thorough plans fall apart. Of course, when time travel is involved, things can get a little out of hand.
In my interview with director Hugh Sullivan and actress Hannah Marshall, we discussed the nature of time travel films, how relationships are kind of like their own sci-fi stories, and some specific details behind The Infinite Man itself. Be warned: there are some spoilers in the interview, so please proceed with caution. I hope you enjoy this truncated version of the interview below. We'll be sure to include some of the more explicit spoiler stuff when The Infinite Man is fully released.
[SXSW Interview] Cheers Elephant, SXSW Veterans
Photography by Andrew Zeiter
Watch Cheers Elephant for even a fraction of a sogn and you can tell they've been doing this for awhile. The majority of the upbeat, indie rock from Los Angeles by way of Philadelphia has been playing together since grade school, plenty of time to get to know one another and smooth out the rough spots in any performance piece. Unlike most somewhat-traditional four piece bands I caught throughout the whirlwind that was SXSW, Cheers Elephant (which may have one of the best band name-backstories there are) had life, excitement and personality lost amongst many 'rock' bands today. Frontman Derek Krzywicki, who has a name only I can truly appreciate, is a breath of fresh air onstage, playfully moving his hips in a faux Elvis impression, gliding across the stage, managing to not interrupt a guitar solo while carefully executing yoga-like moves. If he is the hook then the music is the sinker as the rest of the band backs up his front-of-stage heroics with a general aesthetic that perfectly lent itself to a mid-afternoon day in Austin, Texas. Before they got onstage I was able to link up with the guys from Cheers Elephant and chop it up about their packed schedule of twelve shows in a week, how the world has treated them and everything in between just before they took the stage at the Big Picture Media showcase at the Thirsty Nickel on Wednesday March 12. Read the full conversation here.
[SXSW Interview] The Tontons, Well on Their Way
Photography by Andrew Zeiter
Back in November I was in Austin for a different festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, where I first met Asli Omar and the guys from The Tontons. At the time, the four piece blues-y rock group from Houston was riding a wave of publicity en route to their breakthrough project, Make Out King and Other Love Stories, a harrowing 11-song project that puts forward the young band's strengths both vocally and in building complex, attention-grabbing tracks that have launched them from their native Houston and brought them back to the annual business card emporium that is South By Southwest. Back in November the squad of Omar, Tom Nguyen and Justin and Adam Martinez were hungry, eagerly anticipating the release of their project, Make Out King which dropped soon afterwards on February 18 of this year. Anticipating a big jump in notoriety, the world offered up some obstacles after their drummer, Justin, fell ill with a bad appendix that landed him in the hospital for two weeks, arriving in Austin straight from his stay there, a literal hole still in his side. Rock N' Roll. Anyway, it's obvious the music world has taken The Tontons in directions they would have never expected, and a bit of the frustration was evident in talking to them this time around. Through it all though, The Tontons have an innately upbeat spirit that makes even them jokingly talking about being jaded seem like being on the outside of an inside joke. They play great and make music that transcends radio trends or falsified public relations campaigns. The Tontons are the band you come to SXSW to see, and I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of their time before they played the Big Picture Media Showcase at The Thirsty Nickel to see how everyone was doing and where the ship is headed in 2014.
[SXSW Interview] Bishop Nehru Embodies 'The Twenty Year Loop'
Photography by Asia Ashley
For the length of my career covering music, one theory has always stayed planted firmly in the back of my mind. Explained to me in one of my first interviews, with 9th Wonder in 2009, the 'Twenty Year Loop' has shaped much of the way I have consumed and understood music, culture and art since. The idea is somewhat simple, that every two decades, themes, aesthetics and ideas will re-emerge and manifest themselves once again in popular culture. It can explain the current 90s trend we're enjoying, the bell bottom craze of the late 90s and even bridge to presidents No. 41 and 43. I've never been more eager to sit down with an artist to discuss this phenomena than I was last week in Austin as I arrived at The Omni Hotel to talk to 17-year-old NYC phenom Bishop Nehru. The young artist from Rockland County, NY has a distinctly Nas-like flow that is easily recognizable throughout his breakout project, Nehruvia which was released last year. If we're following the Twenty Year Loop to a t, then that would put us in 1994. On April 19 of that year, Nas released a little project by the name of Illmatic, which can be fully felt on every rhyme Nehru spits. In essence, Bishop Nehru is the Twenty Year Loop personified. This is not to say he is a carbon copy of Nasir Jones, far from it. Instead, the point is to draw a map of the way influences work and how they manifest in music today. To be sure, Nehru has set himself up for a productive career in hip-hop, having been tapped by WorldStarHipHop as their 'Rap Act of the Week' in July 2012 at age 15 for an 8-bar freestyle over Mos Def's "Mathematics". Since then he has garnered co-signs from his idol, Nas, opened for Wu Tang Clan on their 20th Anniversary Tour and positioned himself as the true boom-bap artist to be reckoned with. Currently working on his MF Doom-produced project which he calls 'the first project he's been proud off all the way through,' epect to hear Bishop Nehru's name talked about a couple decades from now when influences get brought up. Check out my Q+A with the budding east coast MC.
[SXSW Interview] The Radkey Brothers Are Bringing Punk Back
Photography by Ra Ra Photography
By the time I had gotten to The Hangar on 4th and Colorado, SXSW had begun to weigh on me. In what is easily evident from the journals throughout the week, this year's South By was filled a bit more to the brim with corporate positioning and exclusive shows than actually enjoying new, fresh music on the cusp. These three brothers from St. Joseph, Missouri, however changed all that pretty quickly. I jogged up the last step to the rooftop of The Hangar with my photographer, Asia Ashley, right on my heels as Radkey tore into the beginning of their set. As a decent crowd stood back, drinks in hand, smug looks in place watching the three young artists it became readily obvious these guys were a little different. With powerful chord progressions and vocals that stack beautifully and play well to the ear melodically, Dee Solomon and Isaiah pulled the crowd toward them one by one. As if in a trance, couples began gyrating towards each other, older men nodded their heads and stomped their feet and some stood open-mouthed. It seems somewhat uncomfortable, if only because it had been awhile since anyone had heard an act like this in today's electronically-saturated music climate. Isaiah rolled on the floor furiously tearing away at his white guitar as Dee handled the vocals and stood, power-stanced at the mic. As calm as could be, the youngest brother Solomon kept pace on the drums. The three brothers stand out in punk rock, a genre that has been largely out of the spotlight for the better part of a decade, both for their smooth playing and their age. As part of a new resurgence in the genre that is led by both them and The Orwells, these three brothers from a little town in Missouri are ready to take the music to the forefront once again, with true punk grit to match. While their live show may be a frenetic, in your face experience, Dee, Isaiah and Solomon may be the nicest bunch I've had the chance to interview. The next few months will find them across the country and in Japan, the mecca of some of their favorite pastimes: Anime and video games. Check out my candid Q+A with the next big thing out of St. Joseph, Missouri.
[SXSW Review] Space Station 76
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
Space Station 76
Director: Jack Plotnick
Rating: N/A
Release Date: March 9, 2014 (SXSW)
In Space Station 76's alternate universe, space travel was already established and a common thing by the 1970s. Of course, despite advancements in technology, the same problems that plague us still exist: frosty interactions with others, identity crises, and just general human drama. Space Station 76 uses the framework of an alternate '70s space station to craft a story that is universal (pun intended), albeit with its own quirks. However, does it benefit from its setting, or is that nothing more than a gimmick that ultimately doesn't pan out to much? Read on and find out.
When assistant captain Jessica (Liv Tyler) joins the crew of Space Station 76, all of the simmering emotions the pre-existing crew felt comes to a head. Captain Glenn (Patrick Wilson) struggles with both his secret homosexual affair with an ex-crew member and sharing duties with Jessica, Misty (Marisa Coughlan) is in a loveless marriage with Ted (Matt Bomer) while ignoring their young daughter, Sunshine (Kylie Rogers). Donna (Kali Rocha) dreams of joining a more upscale space station with her newborn and husband, Steve (Jerry O'Connell), who is conveniently enough having an affair with Misty. Space age drama? Check.
Space Station 76 uses the space station setting to put all of these fractured people into a closed setting to drive the conflict, but it doesn't actually employ much from the space setting. In a way, I love that it doesn't lean heavily on this admittedly one-off joke, but at the same time, I would have loved to see more of the space station elements to play into the plot. A few jokes do play off of some of the space station tech, but more would have definitely helped. The time setting, however, is apparent from not only some of the aforementioned tech (such as a R.O.B.-esque robot psychiatrist) to the crew's lingo and clothes. It's a bit cheesy, but writer/director Jack Plotnick plays up the cheese effectively.
The issue with Space Station 76 is that it isn't very compelling. The film plays as a space opera, which in and of itself allows the film to be over-the-top and extravagant, yet Space Station 76 doesn't take advantage of it. It's as if Plotnick attempted to keep the film light and grounded within the confines of its setting instead of letting it float freely. Because of this, the film suffers from a lot of missed opportunities at the cost of dramatic and comedic progression. If played off as a straight satire on the '70s space setting, Space Station 76 could have been better. Instead, the film feels like an elongated sketch that never found itself.