There are not a lot of smaller films opening this weekend, but we can easily grant our highest recommendation to Weekend. Also, if reading about Margaret last week piqued your interest, you better make plans to see it by Thursday night. It's already down to two screenings a day at the Regal Arbor and is unlikely to make it to a third weekend in town. more ›

We're still recovering from Fantastic Fest, but Austin screens are filled with some truly original indie films playing this weekend that you should take a chance on. There's a little something for everybody, so check out these descriptions and take your pick! more ›

Six long years after her debut feature, writer/director/artist Miranda July has returned to the big screen with The Future (now playing at the Regal Arbor and Violet Crown Cinema). It's a uniquely heartfelt story about a couple who decide to adopt a cat, not knowing that this very idea will alter the course of their relationship. July presents the story in a delightfully unconventional way by having the adopted cat Paw Paw narrate the story. This choice is likely to endear as many people to the story as it repels, but we loved it. more ›

As we struggle through another summer of record-breaking high temps here in Texas, our local theaters are doing their best to provide a safe haven from the heat. Some of our recent favorites like Attack The Block, Another Earth, Beginners and Tabloid are still playing in Austin and all of those films share something in common with both of this weekend's picks: all of them debuted during the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. Consider this a friendly reminder to start saving your pennies for a SXSW pass in 2012. You could've seen all these great movies (and lots more) six months ago! more ›

The directorial debut of Joe Cornish, this British sci-fi flick already stirred up audiences at South By Southwest earlier this year. In recent weeks, it's seen a series of free promotional screenings in town as well to gauge audience reaction beyond the initial cult fans. It seems as though things are going outrageously well in terms of word of mouth, but Sony's Screen Gems division is also testing the waters very slowly, opening the picture in a mere seven U.S. markets this weekend. more ›

Summer blockbusters are still taking up most of the area's screens, but a handful of micro-indies are hitting town this weekend. We would certainly encourage adventurous film lovers in Austin to give one of these smaller pictures a shot and support the booking of movies that don't have the advantages that promotional budgets can bring. more ›

One week after debuting in New York and Los Angeles, Austin is one of just a handful of markets that The Tree Of Life is expanding to in its second weekend. This makes sense because director Terrence Malick calls Austin home these days and the movie was mostly shot around our area (mostly in Smithville, but Bastrop and Austin too). Last weekend's release in just four theaters broke a box-office record for distributor Fox Searchlight, averaging $88,080 per screen. more ›

Yuen Woo Ping hasn't directed a film since 1996, but his groundbreaking fight choreography has been featured in movies like The Matrix, Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This film was picked up by newcomers Indomina Releasing after Fantastic Fest last year and this weekend it becomes their first theatrical release. more ›

Here we are: the weekend when things get a little bit more interesting for film buffs in Austin. We welcome Violet Crown Cinema to Downtown and are very excited for their upcoming calender. more ›

Austinites often speak of feeling a singular bond with similarly motivated and energized Brooklyn, NY brethren. If you could give that feeling an appealing electronic beat, dance it out with some amusing choreography, and shout-sing about it, you get close to the night Brooklyn Local/Director Kerthy Fix world premiered the surprisingly endearing and oft-hilarious Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour at SXSW. To introduce Bomp, she encouraged the audience to get up and dance since, sadly, it's the closet you'll get to a Le Tigre show these days. In a film where continuity could be thrown out the window since the band's electronic foundations allow separate performances to be synched up, each captured song does send jolts through your sedentary body and—as multiple viewers mused after the screening—an uncontrollable urge to clap like you were actually there for the show. It's exciting. more ›

Relax, film lovers. The tech festivities have ended and the geeks have gone home, but we don't have to return to normal life quite yet. We still have time to enjoy what has turned out to be a truly impressive group of films (not that we had any doubts), so take a look at some of our mini-reviews and plan these last few precious days accordingly. more ›

A biographical look at singer/performer/activist Harry Belafonte, Sing Your Song is the latest film from director and documentarian Susanne Rostock. Throughout his life, Belafonte has overcome racial injustice, worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in the struggle for civil rights, and unabashedly fought for the rights of others. more ›

A special presentation of Buster Keaton's silent classic The Cameraman will take place during SXSW, and the 1928 movie will be accompanied by a live performance of a score by Bee vs. Moth. more ›

Ironic that a documentary about darkness can wake viewers up in what ultimately amounts to "a resetting of your ego," according to astrophysicist and interviewee Neil deGrasse Tyson. An absolutely beautiful film from its quiet, nostalgic beginning to the final rapid-fire revelations from the compelling individuals we meet throughout, Ian Cheney's The City Dark takes on a variety of issues regarding light pollution and what exactly has happened to our night sky. How he neatly fits each niche point-of-view into a sleek, all-inclusive 80-minute film is beyond us. more ›

• A Japanese TV personality who has lived in Austin wants SXSW attendees to help with Japanese disaster relief.
• Takeway from SXSWi: social media is revolutionary…just like rock ‘n’ roll in 1968.
• An infographic of what SXSW brings to the Austin economy.

Legendary UK label Creation Records has had a hell of a history. From 1983 to 1999, it had one of the best rosters in the world, boasting acts like Super Furry Animals, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Oasis. Back in 2000, David Cavanagh wrote "The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize." The paperback edition is a whopping 785 pages. more ›

In 1994, director Alan Berg released a short film called South by Southwest: The Business Of Music. Just in time for the festival's 25th Anniversary, that project has developed into a full-length documentary that is making its World Premiere at the Film festival this year. more ›

How and why was journalist Carlos Berger killed? His son German Berger-Hertz looks further into his father's life and death in 1970's Chile with his film My Life With Carlos. more ›

For better or worse, today’s society is in a unique place our grandparents could never have imagined. So where do we go from here? American Animal addresses that question, taking a few bored twentysomethings as its test subjects. more ›

Morgan Spurlock (the mind behind Super Size Me and 30 Days) decided to make a documentary about product placement/advertising/marketing in film . . . and financed said film by using product placement/advertising/marketing. It must have worked -- the film premiered at Sundance and was quickly grabbed up by Sony Pictures Classics. more ›

In Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner How to Die in Oregon, Director Peter Richardson sets out to document the extremely personal stories of how people's lives were actually affected when Oregon became the first state in the U.S. to pass the "Death with Dignity Act" in 1994 (Washington has since folowed suit). The act makes it possible for terminally ill patients to receive legal aid from physicians in ending their lives with a lethal dose of medication. It is what the director believes could very well be the next major medical/ethical issue we confront as a nation. more ›

We don’t know about you, but what with all the amazing documentaries and intense indie dramas, we thought it might be nice to take a break and get a little Fantastic Fest-y by embracing our inner horror fan with a good old-fashioned werewolf flick. Well, but maybe “old-fashioned” isn’t exactly the right term. It is, after all directed by Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Alexander the Last, who’s been called “one of the leading practitioners of mumblecore” by no less than the New York Times. So chances are, it’s not gonna be your “usual” horror movie. Silver Bullets is the story of Claire and Ethan, a pretty young actress and her filmmaker boyfriend, whose artsy projects get put on hold when Claire accepts a role in a werewolf movie being directed by Ben. Ethan, frustrated by Claire’s new opportunity and threatened by Ben, starts making films with Claire’s best friend Charlie, casting her as his girlfriend in his new opus. As both films continue into production, tension mounts, emotions start to boil over, and things start to get a lot more intense. more ›

Chances are, unless you have an expense account, a verifiable media credential or just buckets of cash lying around, attending the SxSW Conference and Festival is financially out of reach if not completely impossible to attend. Sure, you can get a wristband or a pass, but you better pray to your lucky stars that everybody else went to see that-other-really-awesome-band/film so that you can still get in after all the badges have been scanned. Thankfully, and we're speaking from personal experience here, the SxSW Film crew are super nice people and they have devised what they are calling SXSatellite venues this year, screening films in the far reaches of both North and South Austin. more ›

Miranda July won over audiences with her 2005 debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know. It has felt like an eternity waiting for her to return with a new film, but she's finally done it with The Future. more ›

It's been long lamented that independent record stores (heck, even chain record stores nowadays) are a sort of endangered species. Sound It Out, showing as part of the 24 Beats per Second series at SXSW, documents time in the life of the last vinyl record store in Teesside, England. And lest you get the idea that this shop is on its last legs, Sound It Out (that's the store's name) seems to be thriving despite the economic decline in the surrounding area. more ›