Yes! MoviesandShakers’ Linda and Al Lerner are going back to Austin again to cover SXSW 2025 in person and we’ll be adding capsule reviews as we see films. We’ll be putting up capsule reviews as we screen and do video Red Carpet and one-on-one interviews for our You Tube channel. Get our take and a heads up on what Studio, Indie and Documentary feature films will be coming to a theater near you. Plus TV movies and episodics coming soon this year on the big screen and streaming from wherever you watch. Photos courtesy of SXSW.
ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR – Opening Night. Expect murder and betrayal when Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick as Emily and Stephanie star as friends at Emily’s posh wedding in Capri to a rich Italian. What could possibly go wrong? Director Paul Feig has them navigate plenty of twists and turns.
HOLLAND –Nicole Kidman stars in as teacher, homemaker whose perfect life living in tulip filled Holland, Michigan. Nicole Kidman is Nancy, the meticulous Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher and homemaker whose picture-perfect life with her community pillar husband and son in tulip-filled Holland, Michigan. She and a friendly colleague find out their lives may not be exactly as they seem when they come across what may be a very unexpected, juicy secret.
THE ACCOUNTANT 2 – Ben Affleck stars with Jon Bernthal and J.K. Simmons this murder mystery directed by Gavin O’Connor. Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina is forced to contact Christian Wolff to solve the murder when someone close to her is found dead. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax, Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle which appears to have been executed by the most ruthless killers.
THE STUDIO – Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are creating again with Seth in the lead as a Studio Head in Hollywood guiding and sometimes misguiding his staff which includes cast Ike Barinholtz, Catherine O’Hara, and Kathryn Hahn. Each episode takes on a different genre. Some are hilarious, others ridiculous, frustrating but thoroughly entertaining. Many guest stars including Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Greta Gerwig, Nicholas Stoller and more. Streaming on Apple TV+
ARE WE GOOD? – We look forward to seeing this documentary about comedian and podcaster, Marc Maron. It’s about developing as a comic, his popular podcast WTF, but also the deep depression from grief during the year after the sudden passing of his partner and filmmaker Lynn Shelton. We interviewed Marc and Lynn together about their film Sword of Trust at the Austin Film Society’s kick off for SXSW in 2018. A piece of that interview appears in the film. Marc is also bringing his comedy to SXSW in live stand up. Check the schedule.
THE RIVALS OF AMZIAH KING – Matthew McConaughey comes back to Austin in a film also starring Kurt Russell and Cole Sprouse. Music, family and the family business in the backwoods of rural Oklahoma come to fore in this film. Charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits running the premier honey-making operation in town. Will things change when Amziah’s estranged foster daughter shows up unexpectedly? He wants to bring her in, but Amziah’s competitors have something else in mind.
BROTHER VERSES BROTHER – Combative twin musicians hunt for their dying poet father in an improvisation performed by the director’s own family. One single unbroken shot through the streets of San Francisco inspired by Francis Coppola’s concept of Live Cinema. One brother seeks love and excitement. The other is big into his music. With Dad still missing, they find secret haunts of Beat poets that speak to the power of music, brotherhood, and life of that city in real time.
