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"First time at SXSW (also Austin, not to mention Texas), I can\u2019t help but note that the fabled film/music/\u201Cinteractive\u201D media festival has a demographic suggesting a shaggier version of the L train on a Saturday night.I know I\u2019ll never be 30 again but did experience something of a flashback after being loudly threatened with arrest and forcibly escorted by two cops back to the sidewalk after trying to jaywalk across Congress Street to get around the crowd cordoned off in advance of the&amp;nbsp;\u201C21 Jump Street\u201D&amp;nbsp;world premiere. Why were these cops making like&amp;nbsp;Jonah Hill&amp;nbsp;in the movie? Just a case of mutual dissing \u2014 the reason I ignored you, officer, was because you ignored my explanation that I had to get by because was late for my next film and I was A Member of the Jury!A guy in a passing pedi-cab advised me to \u201Cjust relax, dude.\u201D If only someone in the crowd tweeted the altercation, I would have been fully living, as well as screening, the SXSW life. There were eight movies in the narrative competition \u2014 all world premieres. Two road movies, plenty of dope, some music, and occasional violence including a pair of graphic castrations \u2014 one in a Mexican stab at early&amp;nbsp;John Waters. Guys, like the anti-heroes of \u201CBooster,\u201D \u201CLos Chidos,\u201D \u201CPilgrim Song,\u201D and \u201CThe Taiwan Oyster,\u201D looking for, or fleeing from, family responsibility and generally wondering what the fuck to do. Cool chicks in supporting roles. Female protagonists who were virtually all sex-workers \u2014 even the independent woman looking to get pregnant \u201Cthe old fashioned way\u201D in \u201CGayby,\u201D although she was self-employed. Universally, professional production values \u2026The audience voted for Megan Griffith\u2019s slick, overemphatic \u201CEden,\u201D a third feature based on the true story of an abducted Korean-American forced into sex slavery; the jury prize, determined by Esquire editor Lisa Hintelmann, Toronto programmer Jane Schoettle, and myself, went to Adam Leon\u2019s&amp;nbsp;\u201CGimme the Loot,\u201D&amp;nbsp;a funny, smart-mouthed, high-energy comedy in the doomed caper tradition of&amp;nbsp;\u201CBig Deal on Madonna Street.\u201D There\u2019s an undeniable fairytale quality to the imaginary New York City of Leon\u2019s well-orchestrated first feature, but although this borderline pass\u00E9 tale of two ambitious, endearingly hapless graffiti writers (Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson) down from the Bronx flirted with minstrelsy, it transcended stereotype thanks to the wit and infectious self-enjoyment of its ensemble cast. One of the few movies in the competition that didn\u2019t feel 15 minutes too long, \u201CLoot\u201D is scheduled for its hometown premiere March 23 at the Museum of Modern Art/Film Society of Lincoln Center-collaboration \u201CNew Directors/New Films.\u201D\u201CGimme the Loot\u201D was the most enjoyable, but the least predictable and most haunting movie I saw in competition was Sean Baker\u2019s character-driven second feature \u201CStarlet,\u201D&amp;nbsp;described in the catalog as recounting \u201Cthe unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane and 85-year-old Sadie.\u201D Jane is model Dree Hemingway of the Hemingway Hemingways; Sadie is octogenarian Besedka Johnson, discovered, according the director, exercising in a Los Angeles gym. It\u2019s a Hollywood story, albeit one that Hollywood would not be likely to produce. Hate to give away the movie\u2019s surprises \u2014 suffice to say that the improbable friendship is not only miraculously unsentimental but played out in a show biz context, namely the San Fernando Valley porn film industry.Given my jury duties and the time spent drinking with colleagues, enjoying the local cuisine, and gawking at the Texas state capitol building, I was only able to catch one more movie, namely&amp;nbsp;\u201CThe Do-Deca Pentathon\u201D&amp;nbsp;by Jay and Mark Duplass. Despite the conspicuous absence of sex, drugs and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, this deadpan farce of insane sibling rivalry seemed hardly foreign to SXSW\u2019s guy-land ethos. Moreover, the movie\u2019s small (yet cosmic) theme, \u201Cinvisible\u201D acting, observational style, and artfully choppy montage offered a sort of tacit reproach to the new professionalism. Apparently made before the brothers\u2019 big budget&amp;nbsp;\u201CCyrus\u201D&amp;nbsp;but, only now having its world premiere, \u201CThe Do-Deca Pentathon\u201D was something new \u2014 mumblecorestalgia.Read more J. Hoberman in Movie Journal[content:advertisement-center]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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