by Christopher James
Lily Topples the World won the juried Documentary Feature prize at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival.We are far enough into the 2021 SXSW Film Festival that the Jury awards have been handed out. There were a variety of awards handed out. The Narrative Feature Competition went to The Fallout, and Documentary Feature Competition went to Lily Topples the World. As premieres were lighter in these final days of the festival, today felt like the right day to give both of these winners a chance. Add in a dash of pandemic comedy, in the form of The End of Us, and you have my Day Four at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival...
The Fallout
The narrative feature competition winner at SXSW this year, The Fallout, earns points for resonance. It deals with the aftermath of a high school shooting, as teenagers grapple with taking care of their own mental health, getting political involved or just simply lashing out. Unfortunately, school shootings have become an epidemic in this country. This startling fact provides The Fallout with a final gut punch that is incredibly effective. However, large stretches of the drama go in very expected places. With so much art around trauma and death, The Fallout features little that makes it distinct, even if individual elements are really strong.
Our story centers around Vada (Jenna Ortega), a teenage girl who gets a call during class from her sister, Amelia (Lumi Pollack), that she got her first period. Vada goes into the bathroom to help her, only to hear gunshots echoing from the hall. Vada hides in a stall with Mia (Maddie Ziegler), an aspiring YouTuber, as they wait for the gunshots to stop. Quinto (Niles Fitch) joins them in the stall, covered in blood after his brother was shot.
Obviously nothing goes back to normal after the school shooting. Vada strays from her best friend, Nick (Will Ropp), who has been on the news pushing for gun reform. Instead, she develops a friendship with Mia, whom she had snarkily mocked in the past. Mia’s Dads travel often, so Vada luxuriates in Mia’s lavish house, getting drunk and high just to cope with someone who was with her on that traumatic day. This worries Vada’s parents (Julie Bowen, John Ortiz), who push her to see a counselor (Shailene Woodley).
Jenna Ortega gives a fantastic performance as Vada. She never plays the expected notes as Vada deals with the post-traumatic stress of the shooting. If anything, she conveys various levels of discomfort as Vada keeps trying to retreat inward rather than process her feelings. It’s an impressive feat. Unfortunately, it’s not one that innately has a ton of engine to drive a plot forward. Megan Park’s direction does a great job of unearthing these complicated feelings. Yet, her script shortchanges the supporting characters, giving us expected scenes and plot details to prop up this interesting, central performance. The Fallout has a unique perspective on school shootings and that deserves commendation. Yet, there could’ve been more workshopping on the script to taken the film to the next level. B-
The Fallout made its world premiere at SXSW.
Lily Topples the World
The documentary feature competition jury winner, Lily Topples the World, deserves to wear its esteemed crown. Director Jeremy Workman has created an affectionate and positive look at an incredible domino toppling artist, Lily Hevesh. However, in exploring Hevesh’s work, Workman carefully constructs a film that illustrates how honing one’s passion and diving into a niche can help you find community, stability and purpose.
When Lily Hevesh started her YouTube channel, Hevesh5, during her teenage years, she never could’ve predicted where it would take her. Adopted from China, Hevesh found herself an outsider in a mostly white suburb. While she tried to fit in, she often found herself turning to dominio building, which combined her artistic side with her love of engineering and geometry. Her YouTube channel gained steam, earning her millions of subscribers. However, it became quickly apparent that even in the small world of domino toppling, she was the only women in a group of teenage boys. Her unique skill has taken her to the Tonight Show, onto the set of Collateral Beauty and allowed her to drop out of college and start her own line of dominos for Spinmaster.
Like any good documentary, what you think the documentary is about is broader than you could’ve initially imagined. Lily’s domino toppling empire is incredibly impressive and cool. Yet, her rise to fame and success speaks to a changing rubric and framework for fame. Domino toppling is an incredibly niche community that has been allowed to thrive thanks to YouTube. As a platform, YouTube has connected these niche communities and created these global niche celebrities, known wildly in one community but unknown in a dorm of college freshmen. What makes someone unique and weird is most likely what will be your ticket to success. Lily’s greatest success isn’t her impressive pieces of domino art. It is her determination to spend time cultivating a very specific interest, turning it into a can’t miss sensation. A-
Lily Topples the World made its world premiere at SXSW. You can find out more about this film on its website.
The End of Us
Is anyone anxious to return to the early days of the pandemic? The End of Us hopes so, as it structures an anti-romantic comedy around the first sixty days of the 2020 COVID lockdown. This feels simultaneously tone deaf and too soon on first blush. The first act in particular feels especially grating as it foolheartedly tries to poke fun at a wound that still hasn’t healed (as it stands only 20% of people are vaccinated). Yet, something strange happens somewhere along the second act. The movie’s charms kick in much like symptoms for COVID-19 five days after exposure. In the end, The End of Us isn’t good, but it’s relatable enough to be supremely watchable.
Type A Leah (Ali Vingiano) works in the travel industry and is pushing for the next step in her career. Meanwhile, her lackadaisical actor boyfriend, Nick (Ben Coleman), just can’t seem to get his act together or get a paying job. Their break-up is inevitable and happens in the first scene of the movie. The next morning, Nick wakes up to find a new place to live, only to realize California has gone into lockdown. Without money or anyone to take him in, Nick is stuck in Leah’s house for the lockdown.
Should Leah and Nick have seen the lockdown coming when they broke up the night before? Absolutely. Are they a good fit for each other? Not at all. So what makes the film watchable? There’s a lot of comedy in the constantly shifting social norms around COVID. Leah loses her job and dives headfirst into the internet, her COVID paranoia intensifying. This causes even more friction in their living situation, as Nick plays it a bit more loosey goosey with mask wearing. When Leah starts falling for her ex-coworker, Tim (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis), she wonders how she can move her COVID tolerance line. These are more interesting and fun conflicts than watching two people who hate each other argue during a pandemic. In a few years, we’ll likely get more movies made about the early pandemic. Maybe then it will be a bit more fun to laugh at. After all, comedy is tragedy plus time. C
The End of Us made its world premiere at SXSW. You can find out more about this film on its website.