March 12, 2006
We drove straight from Dallas to the Alamo Drafthouse, making it into the theater just as the lights were dimming for the screening of Kelley Reichardt's Old Joy, which, five films later, remains the high point of the first two days of SXSW. Reichardt's film goes in one ear and out the other, but it leaves in one's brain a self-sustaining memory that seems to expand with time. I hesitate to compare it to Gerry - the parallels are both too obvious and not exactly accurate - but as a sensitive examination of the male mythos, it certainly could be categorized alongside Van Sant's film.
Whereas a mere three years ago Gerry could play at Sundance and snag a distributor, Old Joy, despite the acclaim it received there and at Rotterdam, has thus far been left high and dry. It joins the ranks of Mutual Appreciation and all the other amazing films that just "don't quite fit" with most distributors. Later in the evening, Yen and I were talking about how the gap between a film's quality and its chances of distribution is growing ever wider - and how perhaps that's not such a bad thing. For a certain type of film, like this one, it could actually be a badge of honor.
Ah, If only idealism and finances weren't at such odds with each other!
Posted by David Lowery at March 12, 2006 02:28 AM