SXSW Film Festival Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The "New Girl" star tells a wildly goofy story with the right mixture of silliness and sweetness.

The SXSW Conference and Festivals, which runs March 10-19, 2023, just announced the second wave of the 2023 Film & TV Festival Lineup, including all Visions, Global presented by MUBI, 24 Beats, and Festival Favorites, plus numerous additions to Headliners, TV Premieres, Narrative and Documentary Spotlight, and other sections. The Festival also announced that Janine Nabers and Donald Glover‘s “Swarm” and Lee Sung Jin’s “Beef” will be the Opening and Closing Night TV premieres.

The figures that directors Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari assemble as talking heads for their documentary assault the viewer Greek Chorus-style, outlining a compelling, smothering, and effective picture of amateur investors stumbling upon the stock market as one might a church or guru. “Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets” spends just 84 minutes telling a tight and surprisingly nuanced story that never veers into outright mythmaking — despite several of its subjects’ best efforts — pulling up just short of a more interesting examination of a much larger system.

Where does a person go when fiction outstrips reality, and the wildest fantasies of even the most bombastic writer can’t hold a candle to what’s found at a dusty estate sale around the corner? Apparently, one dives right back into fiction, or at least the semi-autobiographical kind that a real-life super thief leaves behind as a pseudo confession — that is, if such a thing is to be believed. These are interesting questions, yet director Allison Otto wisely sidesteps any attempt at finding a definitive answer to them in her new doc, “The Thief Collector.” Instead, she focuses on the fascinating-yet-tangled web of deceit, charity, grace, and delicious mystery born out of it.

Fifty years into her career, Tanya Tucker hates the word “comeback.” With over 20 studio albums and a roguish outlaw image to her name, Tucker’s carefree, defiant spirit continues to inspire musicians both within and outside the country music scene. Kathlyn Horan’s documentary captures this influence only in the most surface-level fashion.

When it comes to the world of social media stars, well, it’s all happened so suddenly. Fifteen years ago, talk of influencers, vlogging, and the concept of “instafamous” would have raised eyebrows.

The opening credit sequence of Michael Morris’ “To Leslie” is a real roller coaster ride, and thus appropriate preparation for the emotional turmoil to follow. We meet the title character (Andrea Riseborough) via a series of photos, mostly family snapshots: happy memories, a young woman coming of age, getting married, having a baby.

Colin West’s “Linoleum” is the kind of movie that’s all but impossible to review with any specificity, because so much of its achievement lies in its surprises – how it seems to be doing one thing while slyly doing another, without deception, and then revealing its ultimate intentions with grace and style. This is the writer/director’s second film, and he displays a confidence and storytelling acumen that’s frankly inspiring.

In 2011, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords survived an assassination attempt that left her partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Tracing her recovery and activism, the title of Julie Cohen and Betsy West‘s documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” pretty much says it all.

Roger Ebert used to say it’s not what a movie’s about but how it’s about it. I found that thought inescapable throughout the entirety of “I Love My Dad,” a comedy about a desperate father who reconnects with his estranged son by catfishing him, pretending to be a hot girl who the young man comes to believe to be his girlfriend.

For the skateboarding illiterate, there is perhaps no more famous name than Tony Hawk. Even those who cannot differentiate a kickflip from a heelflip can probably tell you something about the most popular skateboarder of all time: the video games that bear his name, his appearances in “Jackass,” or even his 900 at the 1999 X-Games.

Beginning as a cultural and religious exploration of the Japanese Monks that reside on the top of Mount Hiei near Kyoto, then transforming into a profoundly personal reflection on director Ahsen Nadeem’s own life, “Crows Are White” is an acute meditation on the powers, and limitations, of religious fervor. The film begins in the fog of the mountains, as Nadeem — and his small band of filmmakers — are finally given access to the monastery after years of asking.

Want a little preview of our soon-to-publish Most Anticipated Films Of 2022 list? Well, let’s just say the upcoming film is going to be on it. Remember Daniels? aka directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known for their hilarious absurdist film “Swiss Army Man” (aka the farting dead Daniel Radcliffe movie)? Well, they’re back with a new movie starring Michelle Yeoh (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Shang Chi“) and it’s going to be the opening night of the SXSW Film Festival.

It’s nothing new to know that a filmmaker was planning on debuting a feature at a festival before it was completely finished. We see it quite often, in fact.

Though adult animation has made huge progress in earning critical and commercial acclaim in the West the past couple of decades, it is still mostly associated with comedies like “South Park” and “Rick and Morty.” Rest assured, you won’t mistake “The Spine of Night” for a comedy.