The Year the Nuns and the Gays Took Over SXSW

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My Favorite Movies and Shows at SXSW

“The nuns will likely wrap karaoke at 7:30.”

It’s certainly one of the cooler emails to receive while you’re scheduling your itinerary at a film festival. The TV series Mrs. Davis, which premieres next month on Peacock, was one of many series launching promotional stunts in Austin during the SXSW festival.

The show, from co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez, had its premiere in Texas, and, while reviews are embargoed, let me say that it is gonzo, timely, and definitely one to watch. It is absolutely the best TV series that I have ever watched about a nun who wants to take down an AI robot that the world has started to treat like God, all while fighting Nazis in her search for the literal Holy Grail.

Should I have needed extra convincing to watch outside of that outrageous logline, the nuns were out in full force in Austin. They were eating barbecue. They were handing out donuts. They were at the record store. And, yes, a mini convent took the stage at Darwin’s Piano Bar, performing karaoke for thrilled and slightly bewildered patrons. “I heard one is going to be in a canoe,” Hernandez told me while I interviewed her and Lindelof at the festival. “I need to see that.”

Both the show and these stunts encapsulated what truly felt like the spirit of this year’s SXSW. After several COVID-impacted years—while in-person last year, the festival felt muted—everything seemed bigger, from the crowd to the stacked lineup. There also seemed to be a cravenness for going wild, which was also reflected in the major projects that premiered there. We came to see nuns running amok, and we came to enjoy it.

SXSW premieres are fun because they’re so loose. The movies are great, but they’re also, often, sillier and more crowd-pleasing than the fare that’s usually associated with film festivals like Sundance, Cannes, or Toronto. SXSW is where Bridesmaids, Trainwreck, and Spydebuted. Last year, the Bodies Bodies Bodiespremiere nearly catapulted the roof off the Paramount Theater.

It’s not every festival that would launch a movie in which a Chinese-American immigrant who must save humankind by traveling through multiple universes that involve racoons that sit on people’s heads, buttplugs, and hot dog fingers. But there was something fitting about watching Everything Everywhere All at Once win Best Picture at the Oscars while at the festival where it premiered, kicking off a run that proved how much of an appetite there is for audacious content that challenges the conventions of filmmaking and what “great” cinema might be.

While I’d never say never, I don’t think the big releases at this year’s SXSW will end up on any Oscars lineup. But they overwhelmingly represented an arguably more important mission: Having fun at the movies, together and in-person. The new Dungeons & Dragons movie launched this year’s festival. And you know what? People enjoyed it! It was fun! Fun is finally back.

That’s certainly true of Bottoms, a movie that lives up to its cheeky (heh) title. It stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as queer high schoolers who are unpopular not because of their sexuality, but because they are untalented and unattractive. In order to impress their crushes, they start a fight club at school—excuse me, a female-empowering self-defense group (it’s a fight club)—that escalates in bloody ways that are as nonsensical as they are a blast. The movie is absurd, very funny, and—here’s that word again—fun!

Often at the festival, I was reminded of how important the communal movie-watching experience is. The premiere screening of Down Low was a riot. The movie stars Lukas Gage as a masseuse who gives a happy ending to a newly out client, played by Zachary Quinto, that turns into a bonkers murder coverup. At one point, Simon Rex shows up as a crack-smoking necrophiliac. It is wild. I truly can’t imagine having watched the movie alone on my couch through some streaming service. The experience of an audience guffawing in disbelief—the collective what?!?—is as crucial as the movie itself.

Being able to be in the audience for the premiere of a movie like Problemista just felt…special. The film is written and directed by Julio Torres, who also stars in it with Tilda Swinton. The movie is like being invited to set up camp inside of Torres’ brain, where absurdity and profundity tangle into a beautiful knot. Torres is a former Saturday Night Live writer and the mastermind of the HBO comedy Los Espookys. His is a very modern, off-kilter, and observationally shrewd kind of humor. In Problemista, he applies that perspective to a story about loss, moving on, and the horrific nature of citizenship issues in the United States—all themes that are as grounded and relatable as the film is ludicrous.

It’s not just Mrs. Davis that had a buzzy TV premiere. The new series Swarm also launched at the festival. It’s a show about a pop star’s superfan whose obsession turns lethal. It’s definitely not (as in 100 percent is) inspired by the Beyoncé fan army, the Beyhive. (Get it, swarm, like a swarm of bees?) The show is from Donald Glover, who is taking big, provocative swings here, to the point that my first question was “how is this legal?” So congrats to him—and his lawyer—on what will surely be one of the most talked about shows of the year.

The food-and-travel docuseries Restaurants at the End of the World also had its premiere in Austin, where its host, Top Chef-winner Kristen Kish, has her restaurant Arlo Grey. The series has Kish traveling to extreme locales to learn how chefs there source and prepare their food. To celebrate its launch, Kish hosted a dinner at Arlo Grey. It was a fitting bookend to my SXSW experience. While no nuns took the microphone, suffice it to say that the meal was its own religious experience.

Give Nancy Meyers What She Wants!

It’s rare, and perhaps even a little nonsensical, to be angry about not getting to see a movie that never even existed. But I’m harboring an intense, unhealthy rage about this Nancy Meyers/Netflix news—particularly about what it reflects upon the state of the industry and what Hollywood execs think is worthwhile entertainment.

The news broke this week that Netflix canceled the new rom-com from the queen of the genre, Meyers, whose library of work includes The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, and It’s Complicated; in other words, she’s made a slate of films that accounts for roughly 70 percent of the total running time of movies that Kevin Fallon rewatches over and over again. No Sunday activity is more rewarding or healing than spending the afternoon nestled on your couch watching Meryl Streep and Steve Martin fall in love in It’s Complicated. (Sorry to, uh…church and God.)

Apparently, Meyers wanted a budget of $150 million for the film, which was tentatively titled Paris Paramount. It was set to follow two filmmakers, who used to be in love and reunite on a set; stars included Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Michael Fassbender. While I would argue that no amount of money is too much money for a Nancy Meyers movie, Netflix outlandishly felt the opposite. All hope is not lost, however, as Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. is circling the movie, now that Netflix is no longer involved—though it’s unclear if the cast or price tag will remain intact.

Some might say that $150 million is a ludicrous amount of money to request for a romantic comedy. Those people are rude and have terrible opinions. I can’t think of a better use of money than backing up a dump truck full of cash to Meyers’ home and saying to her, “Go wild!” Imagine the stunning kitchen sets we would get. The thought alone of the jaw-dropping open-concept living space is giving me chills. I just thought of Penélope Cruz wearing the world’s most expensive cream-colored cashmere sweater and shed a single tear. We need this movie. Lives will be changed. Hearts will be full. We’d finally have world peace.

The truth is that, as an adult in New York City, I have never lived in a space that is more than 700 square feet, and even those tiny, barely livable apartments are hardly affordable. So if you told me that Meyers needed $150 million to, like, have a dining room in the apartment where the characters live, I’d believe you. I have no concept anymore of what normal things should cost. New York has broken me.

But beyond that, studios and streamers have been escalating film budgets like they’re using Monopoly money. Netflix spent $200 million on The Gray Man, a Ryan Gosling action movie that I forgot existed. It’s not outrageous to point out the glaring difference between that film and Paris Paramount: the supposed demographic their genres appeal to. Romantic comedies and the largely female audience who love them aren’t taken seriously by the industry, in spite of the fact that I predict most film fans—of any kind—would move mountains for the chance to see Meyers in her element, with an ungodly amount of money.

I’m so annoyed that the only thing that will calm me down at this point, ironically, is putting on a Nancy Meyers movie to comfort-watch. Makes you think!

People Have Never Been So Horny for a Movie

Earlier this week, a tweet went out with an update to the new film from Andrew Haigh, Strangers, which has the helmer of the achingly beautiful gay romantic drama Weekend directing heartthrobs/reigning Internet Boyfriends Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal.

The tweet from @FilmUpdates featured photos of Scott and Mescal brooding at a camera, while wearing white tank tops. People were beside themselves. I’ve never seen the internet hornier for a movie. Just take a look at how thirsty these quote tweets are. Is it possible to throw all of Twitter into a cold shower?

“Paul Mescal could burn my house down and run me over with an 18 wheeler &I’d thank him.” “Gonna be in my silk robe with candles lit for this.” “I’m a screenwriter. Puncture me.” “People died (me).” “Babe wake up new white men kissing in a cinematic way just dropped.” ““Horny people won today.” “I apologize in advance for the person I become after I see this movie.” “I’m not strong enough.” “This is far too much for me and my mental sanity.”

There are so many more. These are just the ones I could share without blushing.

One of the Best Shows Is Finally Coming Back

Months after A League of Their Ownpremiered on Amazon’s Prime Video, there’s finally a Season 2 renewal—but only for four last episodes. They gave us morsels, but we’re going to make a goddamn feast out of it.

Why is this so frustrating? First of all, because the show is so good. Co-creators Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham found a way to pay homage to Penny Marshall’s perfect film, while expanding its universe to tell nuanced stories about the queer and Black women whose experiences are often cast aside in stories like this. And that leads to the second reason to be annoyed: Once again, a TV series that does beautiful work depicting the lives of marginalized people, particularly within the LGBT+ community, is slighted.

There’s a glass-half-full way of looking at this. For a while, it looked like the show wasn’t going to be renewed; at least we’re getting more, even if it’s just four episodes. But also, I’m tired of settling for minor victories like this.

Ben Affleck’s Most Genius Observation

This whole interview with Ben Affleck in The Hollywood Reporter is fantastic. But it’s the way that he describes people who golf that I’ll be thinking about until my dying days: “I look at golf like meth. They have better teeth, but it doesn’t seem like people ever come out of that. Once they start golfing, you just don’t ever see them again.”

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

I still can’t believe that a series like Swarm, which so clearly references Beyoncé, exists. Here’s how the creators got away with it. Read more.

Julio Torres and Tilda Swinton starred in Problemista, the best movie shown at SXSW. It’s a film that is simultaneously wacky, profound, and hilarious. Read more.

Journalism at its finest: Here is a very thorough, extremely important investigation into Penn Badgely’s facial hair on You. Read more.

Swarm: People will be buzzing. Get it?! (Now on Prime Video)

Lucky Hank: Bob Odenkirk on our TVs is always a good thing. (Sun. on AMC)

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: I will be savoring every last second of this new season. (Thurs. on Peacock)

Boston Strangler: A fascinating story about journalism; a not-so fascinating movie. (Now on Hulu)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods: Another failure from the DC cinematic universe. (Now in theaters)

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