All Of Deadline’s Opinions From The Pageant

The 2025 SXSW Movie & TV Pageant kicked off Friday, March 7 in Austin with world and North American premieres of films in 11 sections, TV exhibits in three sections and several other brief movie and digital actuality applications.

This yr’s pageant kicks off with opening-night movie One other Easy Favor reteaming Paul Feig, Blake Vigorous and Anna Kendrick, with different notable world premiere titles together with Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome, Kate Mara‘s two entries The Astronaut and The Dutchman (the latter additionally starring André Holland), the Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal sequel The Accountant 2, the Nicole Kidman-starring Holland and Demise of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.

Take a look at Deadline’s opinions recaps beneath as movies premiere on the fest, which runs by March 15, and click on on the titles for the complete opinions.

Part: Headliner
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Solid: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, J.Ok. Simmons
Deadline’s takeaway: Practically a decade after The Accountant, the sequel stands completely by itself whereas delving additional into the dynamics that felt halfheartedly launched the primary time round, like Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal hitting good comedic chemistry as estranged brothers who nonetheless know easy methods to push one another’s buttons. — GG

Part: Headliner
Director: Paul Feig
Solid: Anna Kendrick, Blake Vigorous, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Henry Golding, Allison Janney 
Deadline’s takeaway: Whereas some would possibly argue that Feig and writers Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis are too reliant on apparent nods to the unique movie — bringing again acquainted plot gadgets just like the mommy vlog teaser opening and an act-three twist that felt slightly too recycled — the references finally add a playful wink to a enjoyable and thrilling movie that stands by itself. — GG

Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Jess Varley
Solid: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, Macy Grey
Deadline’s takeaway: Finally, The Astronaut doesn’t soar fairly as excessive as a number of the higher entries on this universe, notably Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which I stored occupied with watching this unfold. Its climax simply feels a bit rushed and slightly incomplete for this to be greater than a minor addition to a very ripe style. — PH

Part: Headliner
Director: Alex Scharfman
Solid: Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Carrigan, Téa Leoni, Jessica Hynes, Sunita Mani, Stephen Park
Deadline’s takeaway: And whereas the movie touches on some critical points by a humorous lens — like habit, price-gouging and science deniers — the message felt uneven, hidden beneath a comedy horror that struggles to search out its footing, regardless of its star-studded roster. — GG

Part: Headliner
Director: Christopher Landon
Solid: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Ed Weeks
Deadline’s takeaway: With Christopher Landon’s visually putting Hitchcock-ian path, screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach present a enjoyable, tech-driven replace on the city legend that spawned 1979’s When a Stranger Calls (and its enjoyable 2006 remake). — GG

Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Andre Positive factors
Solid: André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Aldis Hodge, Lauren E. Banks
Deadline’s takeaway: Though the symbolism is powerful and the underlying themes might sound slightly heavy-handed at occasions, on condition that the supply materials was initially written for the stage throughout an entirely troubling period not in contrast to our personal, that’s forgivable. The movie is a dialogue-driven character examine that presents as a journey of self-reflection as a nightmarish fever dream. — GG

Part: Narrative Characteristic
Director: Matthew Shear
Solid: Amanda Peet, Matthew Shear, Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, Sheng Wang
Deadline’s takeaway: Shear has crafted a traditional form of household dynamic for this sort of sensible, dialogue-driven comedy however he exhibits quite a lot of promise in rigorously preserving the inherent drama beneath the floor, significantly involving psychological sickness and despair, with out utilizing any of it because the butt of a joke. These characters and their deep anxieties and life issues really feel very actual. — PH

Part: Headliner
Director: Mimi Cave
Solid: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Jude Hill, Gael García Bernal
Deadline’s takeaway: In Holland, a fantastically composed portrait of the claustrophobia of suburbia and the darkness simmering beneath the niceties of the Midwest, the witty and manic efficiency by Nicole Kidman makes it look like a non secular sequel to Gus Van Sant’s To Die For. — GG

Part: Midnighter
Director-screenwriter: Julia Max
Solid: Colby Minifie, Kate Burton, Neil Sandilands, Vaughn Armstrong
Deadline’s takeaway: Notionally, The Give up is a movie about grief and the way the dying of a father reverberates round a tight-knit household that has drifted aside. However the true meat is within the story of a mom and daughter who discover that his sudden absence opens up a complete different can of worms. — DW

Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Chad Hartigan
Solid: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Younger-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, Julia Sweeney
Deadline’s takeaway: The soap-opera turns The Threesome takes are within the fingers of gifted indie filmmakers who devise a fancy story of three younger singles merely on the lookout for love however discover issues pulling them aside and preserving them collectively in methods they by no means might have imagined. — PH