Back in 2011, I caught You’re Next at the Toronto International Film Festival.  I really dug the film, and I’m glad that it will finally hit theaters later this year.  The plot centers on a family reunion that turns deadly when the family becomes targeted by masked murderers.  Their only hope is Erin (Sharni Vinson), a girlfriend of one of the family members.  The film also stars AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Barbara Crampton, Wendy Glenn, Margaret Laney, Rob Moran, Joe Swanberg, Nicholas Tucci, and Ti West.

The movie recently played to an enthusiastic crowd at SXSW 2013, and I got the chance to sit down with Vinson and talk about the flick.  We discussed how festival audiences have responded to the film, turning the “survival girl” into “survivalist girl”, her eagerness to do her own stunts, and more.  Hit the jump to check out the interview.  You’re Next opens August 23rd.

Back in 2011, I caught You’re Next at the Toronto International Film Festival.  I really dug the film, and I’m glad that it will finally hit theaters later this year.  The plot centers on a family reunion that turns deadly when the family becomes targeted by masked murderers.  Their only hope is Erin (Sharni Vinson), a girlfriend of one of the family members.  The film also stars AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Barbara Crampton, Wendy Glenn, Margaret Laney, Rob Moran, Joe Swanberg, Nicholas Tucci, and Ti West.

The film recently played to an enthusiastic crowd at SXSW 2013, and I got the chance to sit down and discuss the movie with director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett.  We talked about writing a strong female character from the inside-out, designing the creepy and iconic masks worn by the killers, shooting carefully inside of a historic mansion, and more.  Hit the jump to check out the interview.  You’re Next opens August 23rd.

I’ve patiently waited for the opportunity to include Veronica Mars in the Top 5. As one of my favorite pop culture artifacts, I’m thrilled that this past week has finally afforded me the chance. That said, I’ll reserve any and all debate regarding the impact and merit of its now famed Kickstarter campaign for after the jump. For now, I’ll just say that, as much as I loved the show, I didn’t feel shortchanged by its somewhat abrupt finale. Moreover, I never felt like I needed a movie to bring some sort of closure to that world and its characters. Don’t get me wrong, by series end I wanted more VM in my life. But maybe that’s a good thing. Looking back I’d much prefer a series leave me wanting more than continually ask me back every week when it can barely muster even a shadow of its former self (cough…The Office…cough).

In addition to more Mars talk, this week’s collection also includes our G.I. Joe: Retaliation set visit, the first red-band trailer for Kick-Ass 2, Jurassic Park 4 naming its director, and all of our SXSW 2013 coverage to date. Keep reading for a brief recap and link to each.

History is written by the winners, and in Indonesia in 1965, the winners were killers.  In Joshua Oppenheimer‘s shocking and thought-provoking documentary The Act of Killing, we bear witness to a nation transformed by its past into a sick, twisted culture that seems like an alternate reality created by a science-fiction writer.  It’s a horrifying “What if?” where killers are revered as celebrities, smile about their mass executions, and barely wrestle with any question of remorse.  The Act of Killing brilliantly uses the power of media to ask if a monster was created by violent entertainment, can then he be aware of his monstrosities through the same medium?  Smashing together perception and reflection, Oppenheimer has created a mind-bending picture that’s deeply disturbing, darkly comic, and endlessly fascinating.

Earlier this week, I wrote in my review of Kelly + Victor about how love couldn’t always overcome past abuse.  The film makes a fine presentation of its theme, but it left me feeling empty all the same.  I want love to triumph, and I want characters to cope with emotional trauma.  Most importantly, I want that that sentiment to be earned.  Anything less is a corny and condescending.  A film has to go to the dangerous places in order to earn the emotionally powerful crescendo it hopes to achieve.  Destin Daniel Cretton‘s Short Term 12 goes to those dangerous places, and delivers that emotional powerhouse through the confidence of its direction, the thoughtful and surprisingly funny script, and the tremendous performances from its cast led by a breakthrough turn from star Brie Larson.

Nostalgia and entertainment technology go hand-in-hand.  We spend so much time with a physical device that we develop a personal bond with the joy it brings us (talk to any fan of the Sega Dreamcast, and they’ll talk about it like it was a dead child; “Gone before its time!” they’ll cry).  VHS holds not only a special place in the hearts of movie fans, but it was a game-changer in the production, distribution, and viewing of entertainment.  In his documentary Rewind This!, director Josh Johnson takes a fun, insightful, and exhaustive look at the history of VHS and the sub-culture that remains devoted to the format.  However, even at 90 minutes, the documentary feels like it’s searching for more material, and it grasps at finding a conclusion to its thoughtful examination of VHS’ lasting impact.

Writer-director John Milius is too colorful of a filmmaker not to have his own documentary.  Ironically, the man who wrote Apocalypse Now and Dirty Harry as well as writing and directing Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn has now faded into semi-obscurity behind contemporaries and colleagues such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.  While Spielberg and Lucas rode to fame on cutting-edge special effects paired with an appreciation of the sci-fi and adventure genres, Milius came from a completely different place that earned him the admiration of his peers, but also turned him into an outsider and eventually a pariah in Hollywood.  In Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson‘s documentary Milius, his friends and family come to speak about the greatness about the controversial filmmaker, and how his personality brought him to success, but also may have been part of his professional downfall.

Dan Mazer‘s I Give It a Year is the rom-com in reverse and two rom-coms in one.  Mazer takes the difficult task of showing a marriage fall apart, and turns it into a surprisingly funny and witty comedy that never feels cynical.  And it’s absolutely easy to be cynical when it comes to marriage because of the 50% divorce rate.  But like any good comic writer, Mazer finds the humor in an unlikely topic, and succeeds with sharp dialogue, talented actors, and wisely keeping the tone of the film the same as an average romantic comedy.

Love cannot conquer all.  I would like to believe it could.  I like movies where love can overcome misunderstandings, doubt, and various illnesses.  Kieran Evans‘ Kelly + Victor is an anti-love story.  It doesn’t argue that love is false or it can’t exist.  But it presents love as something that’s powerless to penetrate the damage done by physical and emotional abuse.  Love becomes not an affliction or a panacea, but perhaps something far worse: an illusion. However, as the film slowly pushes us to its painful and powerful conclusion, we’re left with a sentiment that’s not only bitter but hollow as well.

There are two ways to go about creating a movie that’s so-bad-it’s-good (or “good-bad” as I’ll refer to them from here on).  In its pure form, a filmmaker lacks the competence, awareness, and funds to create a good movie.  A good-bad movie can also be created if the filmmaker knowingly sets out to create schlock but has the talent and ambition to surprise the audience with the outlandishness of the premise despite the limited resources.  Big Ass Spider! attempts to be the latter, but director Mike Mendez lacks the requisite ability and drive to push his movie past the promise of its B-movie title.  The result is the worst kind of good-bad movie where the filmmaker cynically creates a proposition where he thinks he can’t lose.

One of the great joys of the documentary form is the unpredictability of the narrative.  Fictional narratives can indulge us, but a documentary must be rooted in some perception of a hard fact.  It’s up to the documentary filmmaker to craft that perception, and more importantly, adjust his or her perception when the facts no longer fit pre-conceived notions.  Director Timothy Wheeler sets out to create an inspirational tale of success with his film The Other Shore, but reality didn’t go the way he or his subject, marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, expected.  Rather than find a new theme for his movie, Wheeler remains committed to an approach that no longer works and the result is a vapid, unfulfilling ending to his picture.  [Warning: Spoilers follow after the jump.]

When I was a kid, I stuck a plunger on my brother’s face.  Another time, he hit me in the back of the head with a hockey stick.  Brothers fight, and some of the time they grow out of it.  Todd Sklar‘s Awful Nice focuses on Jim (James Pumphrey) and Dave (Alex Rennie), brothers who have kept their sibling rivalry alive and immature as possible.  The movie begins by exaggerating the conflict while still making it relatable, but eventually, Awful Nice doesn’t know how to progress beyond the brothers beating each other up and Dave being disgusting and idiotic.  The film has some wonderful moments of strange comedy, and Sklar and co-writer Rennie clearly have some talent, but Awful Nice has trouble moving past its solid premise.

Jacob Vaughan‘s Milo is revelatory in multiple ways.  It’s a sly comment on our culture’s obsession with stress and how to relieve it.  It’s an intimate family drama about a man afraid of becoming a father when he was abandoned by his own.  Most of all, Milo proves you can get a surprising amount of comic mileage from an anal demon.  Vaughan’s comedy is one of the most juvenile films I’ve ever seen, but works because of its completely sincerity rather than celebrating its own sense of humor.  As silly as Milo gets, Vaughan and his actors play the proceedings completely straight-faced, and let the comedy shine through where the sun don’t shine.

The small factory town is dead, and it’s not coming back.  We can talk about the heartland with nostalgic fondness, but it’s almost become meaningless since we know that these are the ghost towns of the 21st century.  Medora puts a human face not on an issue or a political argument but simply presents of a reality of impoverish people who could drown in despair, and decide to proudly fight for a win.  Any victory will do, and Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart‘s documentary celebrates perseverance without ever reducing the concept down to a motivational poster.

Ghosts aren’t all bad.  Some of the time, they’re just depressed, and you would be too if you had to float around for the rest of whatever.  There’s monotony, but the desire to reach out, whether you’re alive or dead, remains.  In haunted house movies with a benevolent/misunderstood specter, that need for connection becomes essential, and Vincenzo Natali‘s Haunter uses an intriguing premise to show ghosts reaching out across the ether to either save or condemn.  Unfortunately, a slow start eventually dooms the film as the mystery overshadows the characters, and what should be a tense, puzzling picture becomes a convoluted and corny mess.