SXSW Do's and Don'ts

Your cheat sheet to South by Southwest: Do walk, don't make fun of the hipsters

Austin will be overflowing with people during SXSW. You don't want to bring yourcar anywhere near downtown.
You do want to find a way to hang around with the band after the games.

So what exactly is South by Southwest? Here’s a brief overview if you haven’t been, followed by some simple DOs and DON'Ts.

When people ask if you’re going to “South by” or “SX,” they probably mean the music portion of the festival. However, South by Southwest includes separate film, interactive and music conferences that take place every March in Austin. The “week” of SXSW is actually 10 days long, spanning from March 11-20 this year

Interactive: March 11-15

Film: March 11-19

Music: March 15-20

We’ll focus on the music portion. SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the nation, with over 2,000 performers playing in more than 90 venues around Austin. Although it’s officially centered around the Austin Convention Center downtown, most of the bands play in bars and clubs downtown and around the University of Texas campus.

Anyone can go to SXSW, but some enjoy a more elite status: badge or wristband holders.

Badges:
Badges — which get you into the most things — run from $595 (if you bought early) to $1250. Badges provide free entrance and first dibs to any showcase and also allow access to really boring but really important conferences about the music industry and what not.

Wristbands:
Fans can also purchase wristbands, which run from $150-300. A wristband grants entrance to any showcase (which cost $8-25 for individual tickets depending on the venue), but you have to wait in line behind badge holders if the show is especially crowded.

A few aspects set SXSW apart from other indie music festivals like Bonnaroo, Coachella and Austin City Limits:

1. Shows at small venues
Bands perform in bars and clubs rather than giant stages in open fields.

2. Up-and-coming bands
You won’t find the Eagles playing here, but you may discover the next Sleigh Bells before your friends do. (Tell me you’ve heard of them?)

If you’re not obnoxious about it, you might be able to party with your favorite band. Most of them are crashing at hospitable Austinites’ homes or cheap hotels and don't have any airs about sharing a pitcher with strangers.

3. International acts

4. All day and all night
Outdoor music festivals often shut it down early (9 or 10) due to city noise ordinances. SXSW’s day parties span from around noon till 5 or 6, and the official showcases last until 2 a.m., followed by after-parties.

5. Free stuff
You're not trapped on festival grounds with watery $8 beer. In fact, during the day a lot of the beer and food is free. More on that later.

DOs and DON’Ts for SXSW beginners:

DON’T buy a badge.
They average $700 and simply aren’t worth it unless you're interested in attending the lectures and workshops. If you can obtain a badge for free because your cousin owns Sub Pop! records or something, then, by all means, get one.

DO consider a wristband.
Depending on how many and which showcases you attend, you may end up dishing out around $200 on admission anyway. Also, you won’t have to wait in line and almost always get in (unless the venue is full). If you’re paying cash you’ll need to get in line at least 20 minutes before a showcase starts.

DO RSVP to the unofficial day shows.
The day shows and parties, though not officially part of SXSW, are just as good as the night showcases. Admission is free, and there’s often free food and booze.

Although it’s tedious, most of these parties require that you RSVP with an e-mail address. It gets tricky to keep track of them, as there are 15-20 parties per day. As the music part of SXSW nears on March 15, CultureMap promises keep you posted on the best day parties and how to send your RSVP.

DO have a game plan.
Scribble down the names and addresses of a few of your favorite day parties and official showcases.

DON’T set your plans in stone.
If they run out of free Flying Dog beer or it rains at Cedar Street Courtyard, you’ve got to have a backup plan. (This is where sending RSVPs to multiple day parties comes in handy.)

DON’T drive anywhere near downtown.
If you must drive, park at 8th just east of I-35 and walk downtown from there. You're unlikely to get much closer.

DO walk, ride a bike or take a bus.

DO bring comfortable shoes and a warm coat.
Even the cutest flats will kill your feet when you’re walking five miles a day. And although Austin is usually as hot as Houston, last year a cold front blew in, sending temperatures down to 32 degrees with wind chill.

Bassists played from sleeping bags, girls wrapped blankets around their heads. It was madness.

DON'T complain about hipsters.
When you go to a golf tournament you don't complain about the preps in polos and golf shoes. So when attending SXSW refrain from rolling your eyes at the tattoos and unkempt hair.

You're in hipster turf now, and when in Rome bring your skinny jeans.

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Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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