South By Southwest was a blur for me this year.
I need to figure out some foolproof way to stay healthy on the road. I’m going to guess that packing on a trip to Area 51 right before I head to Austin for a week of sleepless nights isn’t the best plan I’ve ever had, because holy cow did I get sick at the end of the festival.
Thankfully I was still in good shape when I joined Rainn Wilson and James Gunn onstage to moderate the panel on their new film “Super.” And with those two, “moderate” really just means, “Ask a few questions that aren’t totally stupid, then get out of the way.” They’re both very entertaining guys, and together, they’ve got a really fun energy. It’s obvious they enjoyed working together, and that they’re both proud of the film they’ve made.
I saw and reviewed the film out of last year’s Toronto Film Festival, and the more I’ve thought about it, the more the things I like outweigh the things I didn’t. It’s so crazy, and it has such a strong sense of voice, and it features some remarkably devoted performances by Wilson, Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon, and more. Sitting down with them after our panel, we had a half-hour conversation that featured a great round of Movie God.
At the start of the week, I had Scott Swan over, and we sat down to talk about this week in home video and to introduce the Wilson/Gunn interview, and it was a great, loose chat. When I’m on the road, I don’t talk to Scott often, so it’s nice that we have this excuse to catch up on the air.
Here’s a breakdown for this episode, in case you want to fast-forward right to something:
00:00 – 7:15: Introduction
7:15 – 15:15: Does Brian De Palma need his own Leonardo Di Caprio?
15:15 – 18:55 : What is James Gunn’s “Super”?
18:55 – 47:45 : James Gunn and Rainn Wilson interview at SXSW
47:45 – 1:07:00: This week in DVD and Blu-ray, featuring “The Tourist,” “Yogi Bear,” “How Do You Know,” “The Venture Brothers Season 4,” “Stand By Me,” and more.
1:07:00 – 1:10:48 – Wrapping it up
By Drew McWeeny – A round of Movie God with our guests gets very, very interesting