Six More Marquee Screenings Announced For Your Viewing Pleasure [Austin Film Festival]

Another coming of age story, An Education, is set in 1961 London, where a bright and attractive16-year-old girl named Jenny (Carey Mulligan) has grown weary of the adolescent tedium she finds herself in. Her conservative suburbanite parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) just want her to get into Oxford and then get into marriage. But one day, on a water logged afternoon, a handsome stranger named David (Peter Sarsgaard) pulls up beside her in his roadster and offers her cello, and her, a ride. Jenny is taken with this much older man (30, but who's counting) and his worldliness and sees him as a verifiable alternative to university life. David charms Jenny's parents and takes her to Oxford to meet some of his equally worldly friends and then, after gaining entree to her life, whisks her away to Paris for her 17th birthday, whereupon she surrenders her virginity, but gains perspective on her future and what it really means to get an education. With a cast bursting with talent (we could watch Emma Thompson, who plays one of Jenny's teachers, in pretty much anything) and a script adapted by Nick Nornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) from the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber, director Lone Scherfig has the raw material here to create a masterpiece. [An Education screens at the Alamo Drafthouse Riz on Saturday, October 24th at 12:15 p.m.]

His mamma name him Clay? Imma call him Clay. But whatever you call him, there is no question that Muhammad Ali is not only one of the most celebrated athletes of all time, but also one of the most revered men of the 20th century. In Facing Ali, 10 of the men he went toe-to-toe with in the ring drop their gloves and recount their experience of throwing blows with the man who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. From civil rights activist to charismatic showman, director Pete McCormack pieces together vintage footage and interviews from Ali's storied career, painting a vivid picture of the man who will forevermore be known as The Greatest. [Facing Ali screens at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz on Sunday, October 25th at 5:15pm. Facing Ali replaces Why We Laugh in the AFF schedule.]

You've all seen Paranormal Activity already right? You know how it is a home video that was supposedly found after the events in the movie took place? Well imagine if that film was about alien abduction as opposed to some pansy demon haunting. Now imagine that the story was based on "actual case studies" post-abduction. Sound creepy enough for you? Well, The Fourth Kind may be right up your alley then. Granted, the stories told in The Fourth Kind have no explanation in the real world; sure, there is a high rate of people disappearing from the actual town of Nome, Alaska, but there is nothing to prove that the people who went missing weren't just some drunks who stumbled out into the rugged terrain, never to be seen again (not that we want to be insensitive to the families of those who have gone missing, but this seems to be the most widely accepted theory right before serial killer). Still, it's an intriguing plot and we can't quite tell what is truth and what is fiction from the description. Supposedly the film presents real archival footage from interviews with those who claim they had a close encounter of the fourth kind, and that psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler ("portrayed" by Milla Jovovich) is playing the doctor who recorded these findings. We did some google-ing, and there is wide speculation by skeptics that this is a complete hoax, but there is also the voice of those who believe that these events actually happened and that *insert establishment-that-you-don't-like's name here* is covering up what really happened. All we know is that the trailer will freak you the eff out. Can't. Wait. [The Fourth Kind screens at the Texas Spirit Theater on Sunday, October 26th at 9 p.m.]

Most people who have read Cormac McCarthy's chapter-less mind scraper The Road were terrified when they heard it was going to be made into a feature film. How on earth could anyone portray such a dark and seemingly hopeless (though filled with love) story on the silver screen and actually expect the general public to pay money to see it? Are we masochists? People, if you haven't read it, The Road rips your heart out and while it is still beating stomps on it in, covers it in the ashes of your burning-former-world and smashes it back into the cavity from whence it came. This literary gut-puncher won the Pulitzer, for Pete's sake. Let's not ruin the almost permanently tear-stained cheeks of the reading public with the possibility of a less-than-brilliant adaptation. Perhaps we are all just cowards, and the brave screenwriter Joe Penhall is here to toughen us up with his characterization of the beloved book. Not to be left in the shadows, Director John Hillcoat is tasked with creating the bleak landscape and capturing the sallow faces of a father, played by esteemed badass Viggo Mortensen, and son, the newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee, who just need to keep trekking across the barren land, towards the coast, in order to stay alive. They will struggle and they will hurt and they will sometimes wish for death, but they will never stop moving. If you're looking for a feel good flick, you've come to the wrong place. [The Road screens at the Paramount Theater on Wednesday, October 28th at 9:30 p.m.]

And last but not least, is The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, which stirred up plenty of controversy at the Tribecca Film Festival, where this documentary about the family White, made up of true-life characters Bertie Mae, Jesco, Mamie, Sue Bob, Kirk, Mousey and a whole gaggle of other backwoods barnstormers, was described as an "exploitative, disgusting piece of shit." Sounds awesome, right?! TWaWWoWV follows a year in the life of the White's drug-addled debauchery, including a stabbing, criminal sentencing, attempted murder, death and birth. Brought to you by the MTV pockets of Executive Producer Johnny Knoxville and Julien Nitzberg, the director of another Boone County cult-favorite—PBS documentary Dancing Outlaw—this film is sure to raise some heckles and deliver plenty of oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-I'm-laughing-at-this hilarity. [The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia screens at the Texas Spirit Theater on Tuesday, October 27th at 10 p.m.]

The full AFF schedule can be seen here.