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The 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicked disconnected March 7, successful Austin and features 49 world premieres among debuts. It’s nan first clip nan arena has launched connected a Thursday.
Boots Riley’s sci-fi drama I Love Boosters was the opening-night film, and different anticipated films see Searchlight’s Radio Silence sequel Ready aliases Not 2: Here I Come, New Line’s Samara Weaving-Zazie Beetz scary action comedy They Will Kill You, Lionsgate’s John Carney-directed euphony movie Power Ballad starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, nan Vince Vaughn gangster pic Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice and Jorma Taccone’s couples-trying-to-kill-each-other pic Over Your Dead Body.
Here is simply a compilation of Deadline’s movie reviews from nan 33rd day fest, which runs done March 18 successful nan Texas capital.
Family Movie
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Directors: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, Liza Koshy, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley, Andrea Savage, Austin Amelio, Scoot McNairy, Nathaniel Woolsey
Deadline’s takeaway: There tin beryllium nary mobility nan Bacons are having a hellhole of a bully clip sending up this well-traveled genre. The premise whitethorn sound for illustration a riff, but it works. — PH
Forbidden Fruits
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director: Meredith Alloway
Cast: Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain, Gabrielle Union
Deadline’s takeaway: Director Meredith Alloway‘s unhinged campy characteristic debut has each nan makings of an instant cult classic. It is simply a worthy introduction to nan drama scary genre that explores toxic feminism done nan female gaze. — GG
Grind
Section: Narrative Feature Competition
Directors: Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, Chelsea Stardust
Cast: Barbara Crampton, Rob Huebel, Christopher Marquette, Jessika Van, Vinny Thomas, Mercedes Mason, Matt Mercer, Aubrey Shea
Deadline’s takeaway: The ingenious horror-comedy anthology achieves nan almost unthinkable: while it delivers nan requisite laughs and shocks — ne'er an easy equilibrium to strike, moreover astatine nan champion of times — it is conscionable arsenic effective successful its jabs astatine nan gig system arsenic thing by Britain’s Ken Loach aliases immoderate different head from nan schoolhouse of societal realism. — DW
I Love Boosters
Section: Headliner
Director-screenwriter: Boots Riley
Cast: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi Moore
Deadline’s takeaway: Boots Riley’s sophomore characteristic is simply a surreal, hyperpop emotion missive to creatives surviving nether capitalism that successfully captures nan hopelessness of our existent dystopia. The campy facet is evident successful each frame. — GG
Love Language
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director-screenwriter: Joey Power
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos, Manny Jacinto, Isabel May, Lukas Gage, Billie Lourd, Chloe Fineman, Zach Zucker, Morgan Jay, Bobbi Althoff, Marchánt Davis, Dan Perrault
Deadline’s takeaway: Love Language is a return to classical rom-com form, pinch bosom and humor, arsenic good arsenic a talented ensemble formed that beautifully brings Joey Power’s book to life against a dreamy Chicago backdrop. — GG
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Section: Headliner
Director-screenwriter: BenDavid Grabinski
Cast: Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, Arturo Castro
Deadline’s takeaway: Fans of Vince Vaughn mightiness bask nan movie’s double dose of nan actor, but it’s nan supporting formed of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice that makes it great. And while nan time-travel crippled is admittedly a small predictable, it’s nosy to watch nan dots link and guidelines for nan bully guys to get their happy ever after. — GG
My Brother’s Killer
Section: Documentary Spotlight
Director: Rachel Mason
Deadline’s takeaway: My Brother’s Killer is an overdue valediction for nan unfortunate of a gruesome, long-unsolved L.A. murder, a romanticist loner whose haunting and horribly prophetic poem “A Piece of Me” bookends nan film, offering a poignant glimpse of a early that mightiness person been but ne'er was. — DW
Over Your Dead Body
Section: Headliner
Director: Jorma Taccone
Cast: Samara Weaving, Jason Segel, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, Keith Jardine
Deadline’s takeaway: With ample amounts of gore that someway feels earned, Jorma Taccone weaves a fun, tense drama thriller, pinch thief from Jason Segel and Samara Weaving’s unhinged onscreen chemistry and a talented ensemble cast. — GG
Power Ballad
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director: John Carney
Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor
Deadline’s takeaway: Despite Power Ballad‘s comedic shortcomings, nan movie has nan imaginable to service arsenic a feel-good movie for a day nighttime aliases possibly moreover a comfortableness watch for artists who want to consciousness weighted successful an oversaturated imaginative landscape. — GG
Pretty Lethal
Section: Headliner
Director: Vicky Jewson
Cast: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Uma Thurman
Deadline’s takeaway: In Pretty Lethal, Jewson manages to locomotion that statement of gritty acheronian action, a la John Wick and Tarantino’s full toxically masculine oeuvre, balanced pinch unapologetic laughs and an emotionally satisfying communicative of sisterhood. — GG
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Section: Headliner
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Cast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood
Deadline’s takeaway: This action-packed, blood-soaked sequel is conscionable what fans person been waiting for nan past 7 years, hopefully paving nan measurement for a trilogy successful this sinister world Radio Silence has created. — GG
The Saviors
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director: Kevin Hamedani
Cast: Adam Scott, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Kate Berlant, Nazanin Boniadi, Daveed Diggs,
Ron Perlman, Colleen Camp, Greg Kinnear
Deadline’s takeaway: The Saviors is firmly planted successful nan benignant of paranoid-thriller format celebrated successful specified ’70s classics arsenic The Parallax View and The Conversation but besides adds immoderate satirical comedic touches that activity nicely — until they don’t. But I was ne'er judge if it’s meant to beryllium much comedic than thriller. — PH
Seekers of Infinite Love
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director-screenwriter: Victoria Strouse
Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Justin Theroux, John Reynolds, Griffin Gluck, Justine Lupe, Greg Kinnear, David Ury, Michelle Johnston, Andrea Pyle
Deadline’s takeaway: Smart, sharply written and directed comedies are a uncommon vertebrate these days, but Victoria Strouse takes a business that easy could person sailed complete nan top, formed it intelligently and created immoderate outrageously funny situations. — PH
Sender
Section: Narrative Feature Competition
Director-screenwriter: Russell Goldman
Cast: Britt Lower, Rhea Seehorn, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anna Baryshnikov, David Dastmalchian, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Mike Mitchell
Deadline’s takeaway: Taken connected its ain terms, Sender is a complete original, expanded from Russell Goldman’s short movie and fixed truthful overmuch extent and rate by Britt Lower that you whitethorn beryllium reasoning astir this 1 for days aft experiencing it. — PH
We Are The Shaggs
Section: 24 Beats Per Minute
Director: Ken Kwapis
Deadline’s takeaway: This charming documentary sees nan strange, one-album set of sisters known arsenic The Shaggs for who they really and were, pushing past nan “outsider art” explanation to get astatine thing overmuch much dignified, individual and, ultimately, moving. — DW
Wishful Thinking
Section: Narrative Feature Competition
Writer-director: Graham Parkes
Cast: Lewis Pullman, Maya Hawke, Randall Park, Jake Shane, Kate Berlant, Amita Rao, Eric Rahill
Deadline’s takeaway: Wishful Thinking is yet a dreamy romanticist drama astir nan lengths group will spell for nan ones they love, arsenic good arsenic nan realization that they request soul harmony to foster a harmonious narration pinch others. — GG
