Kid-Thing: Zellner-ific

If you're paying attention, you know that Austin Texas is currently a couple days into the annual South By Southwest Festival. 10 days where tons of people in the Film/Music/"Interactive" businesses drop in on the town to do whatever it is they do while here (schmooze, network, bum around town, see movies, see music...etc...).

Until more recently I rarely took part in any of the festivities. A few years ago I was taught the glory that is the Free-Day-Show. Since then I've seen some bands I really love, and have lucked into finding bands that I had never heard of before and ended up loving (Valient Thorr and Nico Vega to name two). Not attending films during the festival has also been my M.O., horror stories of long lines and badges being necessary have kept me away. Before yesterday I had only ever been to two screenings, Hannah Takes the Stairs and Melvin Goes to Dinner. Yesterday I was poking around the schedule and realized that they were holding screenings a block from my house at the Alamo Drafthouse Village and that a film I had heard good things about was playing in about an hour. I phoned Valerie to see if she would be interested in partaking and several minutes later (she lives just about as close to the Drafthouse Village as I do) we were in line waiting for the film.

I had been exposed (which is the perfect word to describe watching the Zellner Brothers' work) to some of the Zellners' work previously. The brothers were the guest speakers at a recent Cinema Club screening of Comanche Station (which I wrote up here). What I have seen felt very much in the vein of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job in its inclusion of the absurd so I wasn't sure what to expect. The film was introduced by the Brothers as a coming-of-age tale combined with a fable. Kid-Thing is the story of a young girl dealing with her life, and it's not necessarily the most accessible movie I've seen recently. The girls life can be a bit off-putting, as it doesn't necessarily paint the rosiest picture of Annie's life. The film is very sparse and has many long-take scenes. Young Sydney Aguirre turns in a great performance as 10 year old Annie. This film isn't for everyone, but if you're up to a confusing/confounding/absurd film, try to check this one out of the Festival Circuit.