As the dust settles on last week’s festivities in Austin, Texas, we can celebrate two films from our directors that headlined the SXSW Film Festival.
Let’s start with Free Fire, directed by Ben Wheatley. The film is already drawing praise from critics like Ryan Scott of MovieWeb, who describes “the most fun you’ll have at a gunfight.” Starring Academy Award winner Brie Larson, The Social Network’s Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copey, and Cillian Murphy, Free Fire is a movie about survival, when two groups of people meet in a warehouse to exchange guns for money and, as is the case with such a shady circumstance, things go haywire. Scott sums up the film perfectly, “What Free Fire managed to deliver is a ton of fun and a super unique action movie, which is saying something in 2017.”
Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) made his much-anticipated cinematic return this year with the Audience Award-winning Baby Driver starring Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and Lily James. The movie follows Elgort, a getaway driver, whose unique soundtrack provides the beat to his masterful driving. It’s an action, adventure, and comedy in the way that only Wright knows how, written perfectly for the music included within. As Vanity Fair notes, Wright described his process in a Q&A following the film’s premiere screening, “I wouldn’t write the scene until I found the right track.”
Both films are set to premiere later this year. Watch this space for updates.