SXSW 2025 Served Wildly Unapologetic Progressive Film & TV, Bold Ideas, and Endless Breakfast Tacos
Issue No. 42: The first SXSW that made me feel my age.
On March 9, 2025, it was the start of Daylight Saving Time and we lost an hour of sleep. This happened while I was in Austin for SXSW, one of the most lively major festivals with an overwhelming amount of screenings, panels, Q&As, parties, concerts, speaker sessions, and activations happening simultaneously.
When it turned 2 a.m. in Texas it was actually 3 a.m.
And after nearly two decades of attending the tech, film & TV, and music confab it was the first time I actually felt my age — but I am brave and persevered.
SXSW is coming to an end and it is my favorite festival because it’s not just film & TV (read the 2025 jury winners here). It’s everything under the pop culture umbrella and you not only get film & TV weirdos like myself, but you also get other kinds of weirdos that you can build community with. It’s a landscape of interesting people, ideas — and breakfast tacos and queso as far as the eye can see.
One of my first SXSW screenings was when I was still living in Austin and it was Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy. Since 2004, I have been going to the fest on and off and although a lot has changed with the festival, the film & TV portion manages to maintain its spirit of creators who are willing to swing for the fences with the thought-provoking and bizarre cinema that makes you laugh, cry, scream, cackle, feel all the emotions, and have a good ass time. The pressure and business of other film & TV festivals get in the way of just enjoying a festival — and that’s where SXSW comes in. The festival is part of the reason why the city’s motto is “Keep Austin Weird”
For Sundance, TIFF, and other film fests, I have the opportunity to watch so many fantastic films. I look forward to it — but I’m not necessarily curious. SXSW is a festival where I am genuinely excited and curious to watch a lot of films that big studios won’t touch — and they are missing out.
Here are my thoughts on the many films I saw at SXSW:
A meta take on the titular play written by Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman aggressively explores Black identity and white woman nonsense. Filmmaker Andre Gaines (who co-wrote with Qasim Basir) paints a story of silencing our inner saboteur and standing firm in our authenticity. It’s more stage than cinema – but that is perfectly fine thanks to Andre Holland, who puts in work to carry this movie.
If I were to program a triple feature, I would play Siobhan McCarthy’s SXSW’s She’s the He with Bottoms and Dicks: The Musical. Balancing silliness with heart, She’s the He uses potent – and delightfully nasty – comedy to help navigate the journey of coming into one’s queerness. Misha Osherovich effortlessly grounds the movie while Nico Carney plays the unhinged BFF. A wild, satirical take on gender, sexuality, and identity, She’s the He adds to the flourish of cinematic John Waters-level absurdity that the world so desperately needs right now.
In the 10-minute pilot for Denim, series creator Tedra Wilson follows the incredible journey of three LGBTQ creatives: queer rapper Kidd Kenn, Project Runway All Stars winner Bishme Cromartie, and Deniim, a Baltimore creative who shares her story of sexual reassignment surgery. 10 minutes wasn’t enough. But in a short amount of time, the Special Jury Award winner in the Independent TV competition gives us a taste and leaves us wanting more.
The documentary Assembly is what happens when you let queer folks… specifically, queer people of color… even more specifically, queer Black folks harness AI, create art with unapologetic authenticity and queerness. Assembly is a study on the power of modern art and how it impacts storytelling, conjures empathy, and celebrates identity when done with intention. It’s giving all the gives.
Asia Kate Dillon leads with confidence in Outerlands, a chosen family drama that is modest and quiet, but has a considerable emotional impact. San Francisco-based, queer, and exploring the themes of loneliness and survival in the margins makes Outerlands reminiscent of classic indie filmmaking.
Part The Substance and part Soul Man (yes, that Soul Man), filmmaker Amy Wang throws caution to the wind with Slanted, a story that perhaps many folks of color have grappled with: the allure of whiteness. Wang presents a lot of ideas unapologetically with moments that can trigger emotions and ponder the meaning of identity. The movie lives in limbo between a body horror and a satire, pushing the envelope – but a little more push would have knocked this out of the park.
A remix of Entourage, Project Greenlight, and a generous helping of cutting, no-bullshit humor of VEEP, the Seth Rogen-fronted comedy series The Studio fits the mold of a traditional modern workplace comedy. It is inside baseball enough for Hollywood folks to relate with tears and laughter – but hopefully, it doesn’t become too inside baseball to alienate audiences.
Another Simple Favor isn’t getting a theatrical release. It made its world premiere at SXSW and would probably make tons of money and help the livelihood of the cinema-going experience – but it’s a mess of a sequel that happens to have some moments of fun. It also has nuances of tropes that may raise eyebrows. That said, bless this mess.
Many ideas about love, sex work, connection, being queer, being a woman, being cursed, and living your best life are explored in the SXSW Special Jury Award winner Fucktoys, an off-center surrealist tarot-infused comedy fantasy, Director, writer, and star Annapurna Sriram throws a lot against the wall. Some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t but Sriram commits and goes all out —but it could have been 15 minutes shorter.
Not everyone is going to understand The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick. Hell, I don’t know if I understand it. Filmmaker Pete Ohs gives us Yorgos Lanthimos energy with a heartfelt, sinister smirk. With an ensemble that feels like a theatre collective, stars Zoë Chao, Callie Hernandez, James Cusati-Moyer, and Jeremy O. Harris wax poetic about escaping the insanity of the “big city” to find peace. The genreless project is chilling, mindful, and uncomfortable as much as it is wacky, awkward, and absurd. It’s a very SXSW film.
Sadie Sink singing in Geremy Jasper’s rock opera O’Dessa was one of the most calming moments during my SXSW journey this year. A follow-up to Jasper’s 2017 charming Patti Cake$, O’Dessa breaks The Who’s Tommy mold with mid-80s Solarbabies sci-fi flair and Mad Max apocalyptic grit. I just wish the entire movie was as strong as its music — and the fact that it’s going straight to Hulu and not getting a theatrical is a shame. It may not be a blockbuster smash, but it is a visual journey.
Ever since Lili Reinhart was in Hustlers, I appreciate the choices she has made with her acting career. After starring in Hal & Harper at Sundance earlier this year, she continues her indie darling journey with American Sweatshop. Reinhart commits and hones her acting chops as she leads the tech thriller about an internet content moderator who gets in too deep when she watches a wildly disturbing video. American Sweatshop overflows with hints of unsavory imagery but the snuff of it all seemed to overpower the entire movie.
For Worse speaks to growing old. It speaks to finding connection. It speaks to my mid-life crisis and shows that coming-of-age movies don’t have to be fronted by a teen or a twentysomething. There’s something comforting about For Worse because it told me: you are a mess and that’s perfectly fine… but get your shit together.
The Tallest Dwarf follows the journey of a woman exploring her identity in the little people community, but it is also a thoughtful film about an often overlooked community and the pressure of looking “normal”.
I never thought I’d be rooting for a douchebag, but here we are. The four-part docuseries Spy High explores the story of 15-year-old Blake Robbins who is accused of selling drugs at his affluent high school -- and the evidence was from a video cam screenshot from a laptop given to the students by the aforementioned affluent high school. This turns into a textbook docuseries about privacy that we probably already knew but is still jaw-dropping.
ASCO: Without Permission introduces audiences to the titular revolutionary Chicano art group who that hit the scene in the 70s in Los Angeles with unapologetic radicalism and push for change. With a title that translates to "disgust", the film honors the the overlooked art collective that made waves in art and cinema, but the documentary needed to dive deeper into the lives of these amazing trailblazers. Appreciated the use of today's artists to use ASCO techniques in telling their story, but something more straight-forward was needed here. If anything, I'm waiting for the feature narrative about ASCO.
Reza Dahya’s Boxcutter illustrates the grind of an aspiring rapper Rome (Ashton James) as he attempts to get his album into a big-time producer — but the only copy of his album has been stolen. A fine movie, with another familiar storyline that needed to turn up the volume.
I’m a fan of screenlife movies – if done well. Lifehack doesn’t do anything brand new with screenlife storytelling, but it stays the course and evolves with elements of screen technology. It’s a fun attempt to create a theater-going experience that is giving Ocean’s 11 for the TikTok/Instagram story generation.
I love stories about siblings — especially when it’s about a brother and sister. In the comedy pilot R&R from JJ Herz, we follow codependent twins. Rachel (Herz) is a gay mess while Robbie (Kevin Iannucci) is the more responsible one. Both are neurotic. The show needs more runway to explore this story because there are plenty of stories to be unlocked in a series that bolsters queer and disability representation.
I Really Love My Husband tells a familiar story of a couple at a crossroads looking to spice things up in the bedroom. Stretches of admirable comedic performances are interrupted by the occasional tonal and narrative speedbumps, but I appreciate how the dramedy attempts to tinker with traditional romantic dramedy and tell it through a modern-day lens with flecks of queerness.
New Jack Fury is stylistically satisfying and brings eye-popping DIY energy with full force — but unfortunately, the movie leans on the novelty too much and the performances and narrative gets lost. It’s a good look and vibe, though.
Reeling is a bummer — and I say that in the nicest way possible. After Ryan (Ryan Brown) is in a life-altering accident, he struggles to fit in with old friends and family at a birthday luau. With little levity and a whole lot of empathy, Reeling makes you do exactly that as we are put in the shoes of Ryan and struggle alongside him.
The corpse-loving Dead Lover is the epitome of a low-budget indie film from filmmakers who want to have a good time. I was not totally invested in this wacky grave-digging romance, but it’s totally on brand for SXSW and the fantastical absurdity of it all.