SXSW 2022 Film Review: Festival Dispatch

CAPSULE REVIEWS FROM THIS YEAR’S SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s SXSW Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of notable films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for SXSW: The Lost City, Deadstream, Jethica, and The Cellar. Minor spoilers ahead…

The Lost City

Precisely what’s labeled on its tin, Adam and Aaron Nee’s The Lost City is the type of mid-budget romcom romp that’s been absent from our screens for much too long. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum star as a romance novelist and her cover model, who must escape a billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) and find the lost ancient city described in one of her books. The Lost City hits every genre trope in the book while enacting an inoffensive pastiche of adventure films such as Romancing the Stone, but Bullock and Tatum’s uproarious chemistry buoys it above standard fare. The perfect WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) movie. B-

Deadstream

SXSW 2022’s resident found footage horror flick, Joseph and Vanessa Winters’ Deadstream delivers its splatstick through thin layers of commentary upon parasitic influencer culture. Disgraced Internet personality Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winters himself) is planning his comeback: He will livestream a late-night tour of a supposedly haunted house. It isn’t long before he realizes that the haunting is more than just local legend, and that the ghoulies are looking to bury him in buckets of blood and gore. With tinges of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and The Evil Dead, Deadstream overcomes its paint-by-numbers plot and obnoxious protagonist with some great effects work and low-fi gumption. A midnight palate cleanser that goes down easy. B-

The Cellar

It’s great to see Elisha Cuthbert back on the big screen, it’s just a shame that it had to be in Brendan Muldowney’s tepid, incoherent The Cellar. When Keira Woods’ (Cuthbert) daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity within the walls. Padded, listless, and bland, The Cellar squanders its interesting shades of folk horror with a laundry list of tropes that offer nothing new, even passing off some worn-out ground it thinks we’ve never tread upon before. An astoundingly frustrating experience. C-

Jethica

The most pleasant surprise out of SXSW this year, Pete Ohs’ bite-sized ghost story Jethica is a fleet breath of fresh air. Hiding out in New Mexico after a freak accident, Elena (Callie Hernandez) runs into Jessica (Ashley Denise Robinson), an old friend from high school. When Jessica's stalker suddenly shows up at their door, they must seek help from beyond the grave to get rid of him, for good. Living proof that more movies should be 70 minutes long, there isn’t an ounce of fat on this clever, inventive ghost story. A quiet but witty, lean but contemplative metaphor for the horrors of stalking, Jethica mines brilliance out of its simple premise. A minimalist gem. B+