SXSW 2025 Critic’s Notebook

My name is Rendy Jones (they/he) and I am / we are an independent film critic from Brooklyn, New York. My experience at this year’s SXSW was vastly different from my other years in attendance. This year I got that top-tier Platinum credential for the first time in my five years of attending the festival in person. What made it special was that I was invited to speak on a panel, which for me was a first. I spoke on a GLAAD-produced panel titled, “The Influence of Critics on an LGBTQ Film’s Life and Impact.” Of course, I was still there to watch and cover movies as a critic. While I saw plenty of films, the greatest pleasures of SXSW were found in hanging with friends, exploring activations, and attending post-screening parties.

On the morning of March 6, I flew out from NYC to Austin via, fittingly, Southwest airlines. I arrived in Dallas around noon then took a connection to Austin 40 minutes later. I worked on my laptop while waiting for my friend, director Daisy Fieldman, who had her short Unholy playing at SXSW. It’s an emotional and very authentically Jewish short about a girl with a gastronomical disorder attending a Passover dinner post surgery. It was her first SXSW and her flight was delayed. At first, she was like, “I don’t want you to wait for me, go to your Airbnb.” Meanwhile, I was thinking, “Nah, I need a friend to split the Uber to the convention center.” She landed and we went to the convention center where we picked up our badges. I tell you, nothing hits better than getting your SXSW Platinum badge on Day 1! My first film was a press screening of the entertaining but overlong action flick Novocaine, and afterwards I got dinner with my Uncle Martin.

My first public screening was The Threesome, Chad Hartigan’s (Little Fish) new romantic comedy starring Jonah Hauer-King, Zoey Deutch, and Ruby Cruz. The film follows a young man named Connor who is absolutely down bad for his friend Olivia (Deutch). Olivia however is an enigma, and an opportunist. At a bar their friend (Jaboukie Young-White) works at, Olivia and Connor meet Jenny, a young woman who was stood up on a date. They take her out on a night on the town which results in a threesome. Six weeks later, two unexpected events happen, leaving Connor having to step up in more ways than he ever anticipated. For a premise full of heterosexual messiness, The Threesome is an earnest and heartwarming rom-com that thrives on sidestepping clichés. It may be a touch too tame, but darn is the writing charming. Zoey Deutch often steals the show as Olivia, an indecisive millennial character who you can’t help but love, just like Connor does.

I tried running from The Threesome screening to Another Simple Favor, which I had a ticket to see, but couldn’t get there in time. Can’t wait to tell my Amazon reps the bad news about that. So instead, I went to The Threesome’s afterparty instead. Funnily enough, there I saw an old friend from high school who was at the fest showing off his VR project.

From there, I went to the midnight showing of Neon’s recent acquisition Together. The movie started a half hour late and had an introduction featuring an entire interpretive dance routine. I already saw it and loved it at Sundance, and didn’t want to pass up a second viewing with a SXSW audience. I was exhausted and had to wake up early the next day, and I realized I had misjudged the logic of watching a midnight movie the night before my panel. So I made the prudent decision to dip, making it back to my Airbnb around 1am, instead of what would’ve been closer to 3am.

The next morning was my panel, and I was relieved to see that we had a sizeable audience. I think I sounded eloquent. I hope I did. From there, I went to a Rotten Tomatoes mixer and hung out with my friend AmandatheJedi who was on another panel that started at the same time as mine. Me, her, Zach Shevich, Murjani Rawls, and Caitlin Wiederkehr wandered around and went to a few activations. Then it was time for A24’s Death of A Unicorn. It was fine. Here’s my full review.

Rendy, celebrating THE DEATH OF A UNICORN

From there I ran to American Sweatshop, a character study thriller starring Lili Reinhart as an employee of a video agency that has to watch many messed up videos to deem them acceptable to post online or not. Meaning she and all her co-workers have to watch the most depraved things seen before the human eye. One video of a woman getting abused graphically throws her for a loop and she takes it upon herself to investigate the happenings. Reinhart is exceptional as Daisy, making every aspect of her deteriorating mental health harrowing. Daisy actively makes some questionable (dumb) choices, on an Emerald Fennell level, that negatively affect the picture, but Reinhart kept me invested.

The next day I watched my screener of She’s The He on my laptop because I had to interview co-lead Nico Carney for Autostraddle. That morning started with a nice breakfast hosted by the Fantastic Fest folks. Then I got a ride to the JW Marriot from Uncle Martin, and there, I hung around the Den of Geek studio to pass the time until the She’s The He post-screening lunch, then interview. I was really in my freelancer bag this festival.

That evening was a party double header:

A24’s Friendship

then Fons PR’s Fucktoys. I was well fed and well drunk.

I went back to my aArbnb to watch the alien documentary The Age of Disclosure so I could interview the filmmaker on camera for Den of Geek the next morning. I’d never done an on-camera interview before but wasn’t necessarily nervous because I am a performer of sorts. Granted, I retired from stand-up, but I consider myself a personality. The next morning, I also watched New Jack Fury (silly & fun) for another Den of Geek interview. I arrived on set to do my thing, and according to the Den of Geek crew, I did good. Maybe I’ll do more video interviews this year.

From there, I went to The Surfer pre-party at this nice burger place called ‘Pool Burger’ and god, was the food immaculate. Nothing says SXSW like a new Nic Cage movie. The Surfer stars Cage as a man who just wants to take his son out surfing in the beachside town he grew up in. Unfortunately, he’s bullied and gaslit by Australian locals, preventing him from going to the beach. It’s a sun-drenched nightmare that is entertaining from the guise of seeing Nic Cage going on a slow descent into madness. It takes some weird turns, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Afterwards, I took some personal time hanging out with a new friend and enjoying the Austin night.

The next day, my final day, I met up with my childhood friend Cosette Rinab, who was on an advertising panel. I felt nothing but pride hearing her talk and be so eloquent about marketing to Gen Z. I very much had a, “you’re doing amazing sweetie” moment.

Then I ran from that to It Ends, Alexander Ullom’s stellar horror debut about four friends driving from college back to their hometown. That’s until they learn their road is endless. As a city kid, this is a top ten personal nightmare for me. The film gets great mileage from its premise, offering a dreadful atmosphere, narrative turns that speak to Gen Z’s handling of terrible situations, and strong performances from its cast.

Then my final movie of the fest was Matt Johnson’s Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie which proved the validity of the phrase, ‘saving the best for last’. It’s a hilarious sci-fi romp that takes the roots of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s indie web-series and spins it on its head with a Back to the Future twist. It’s a grand love letter to the duo’s friendship, the fans that have been there through all its iterations, and otherwise a hilarious comedy with stellar commentary about the culture of humor in 2008 as opposed to now. It’s so damn funny as every other joke had me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.

And with that concludes my SXSW ‘25 adventure. Until next year!

– Rendy Jones (@Rendy_Jones)

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