SXSW in 60 Seconds: Saturday, March 14, 2009

The day was overcast but the rain stayed away in Austin on Saturday, which was good timing for the first full day of screenings and panels. I bounced around from the Austin Convention Center to the Paramount Theater to the Alamo Ritz to the Alamo South Lamer, and the panels and films I sampled all had good to overflowing attendance.

News: B-Side Entertainment officially kicked off its new distribution division, first revealed at Sundance, and announced it has acquired Brett Gaylor's "open source documentary" RiP! A Remix Manifesto. indieWIRE has the details on the company's release strategy for the film, which "essentially explores the legal and artistic ramifications of the mash-up."

Reviews: As we noted yesterday, John Hamburg's I Love You, Man opened the film fest, and Eugene Novikov posted his review; he found it to be a "sweet, amusing, and perfectly acceptable comedy all around, but it's exciting because it marks the point where [Paul] Rudd finally begins to stake out his territory as a comedian and a leading man." Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, and Andy Samberg are also featured.

First Impressions: Andrew Bujalski's narrative feature Beeswax is a tasty slice-of-life comedy/drama, Jessica Oreck's "bug doc" Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is an intriguing look at the Japanese fascination with insects, and Michael Paul Stephenson's doc Best Worst Movie is a very funny, warm and poignant in ways that are totally unexpected. And Pierre Laffargue's Black is completely, off-the-charts lunatic in its approach to action, an audacious collision of Shaft in Africa, Sssssss, and Cat People. More on that one later.

Critics Panel: I admit to having little objectivity, but I thought Cinematical Managing Editor Scott Weinberg did a great job on a panel chaired by longtime film critic Gerald Peary, "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession." The other participants -- Karina Longworth (Spout), Marjorie Baumgarten (Austin Chronicle), Shawn Levy (The Oregonian) -- also provided very good insights about the responsibility of critics, print vs. online, the influence of box office and big studios, supporting independent film, and dealing with space constraints. I'll say it again: I enjoyed the discussion much more than I thought I would.

Blog Talk. My Internet access was limited on Saturday, so I am far behind on reading everyone else's coverage, so just time for a couple of quick tidbits.

• The aforementioned Shawn Levy shared his initial impressions on the festival, including the critics panel on which he shared.
• Film School Rejects has published several reviews and Neil Miller posted a dispatch on Day 1: "The highlight of the night was undoubtedly Ong Bak 2," which reminds me that the film will be getting a theatrical release from Magnet Releasing, Magnolia Pictures' genre arm, though the dates have not yet been announced.
• Wiley Wiggins, "in his first leading role in eight years, gives a minor miracle of a comic performance" in Dia Sokol's Sorry, Thanks, according to the aforementioned Karina Longworth.