I have a love/hate relationship with Joe Swanberg movies but here’s to hoping that this one puts me firmly in the love category. In this film Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde play two people whose friendship will be tested over the course of one weekend.

 

If “New Girl” is any indication I look forward to the sweet and funny side of Johnson who also can show some nice dramatic range in films like last years hit, “Safety Not Guaranteed.”

 

Also an interesting point, Anna Kendrick is in this and she has been killing it lately in films as varied as “Pitch Perfect,” “Paranorman” and “End of Watch.”

 

Olivia Wilde is the real wild card here, she plays the co-lead and her track record is a bit spotty. Will this movie be more like the awesome and underrated “Tron:Legacy” or a celebrity centric disaster like “Butter“?

 

This did not play at Sundance but methinks that the film wanted to make a bigger splash by having its world premiere here as opposed to being lost in the shuffle in Park City.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Speaking of Olivia Wilde, her other film having its world premiere in Austin is the magic-show comedy “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.”

 

In grand tradition amidst all the mumblecore films and music docs, SXSW usually holds one big Hollywood tent pole as the opening night film and this year is certainly no exception.

 

Opening several weekends’ later, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” centers around a magician whose career is slowly fading into obscurity when a new hot magician comes roaring into town played by Jim Carrey.

 

Steve Carell plays the eponymous hero and his is a career that has wildly varying degrees of critical success.

 

Personally I enjoy when his films lean toward more dramatic, or rather less eccentric and overacted comic fare, and less showy roles, “Dan in Real Life,” “Crazy Stupid Love,” and “Hope Springs” come to mind.

 

This movie is a complete 180 of that and looks to be Carell doing his best Siegfried and Roy meets David Copperfield routine and Jim Carrey trying to make us all forgive him for the “Number 23,” which I still refuse to.  

 

All the talk from people I have spoken to leads me to believe that Warner’s is pretty confident in the comedy they have in their hands and I can’t see how this won’t end up a big hit.

The Spectacular Now

I am cheating on this one because if you even heard a peep that came out of Park City you will have heard two things: Harvey Weinstein kills it again and will campaign hard come Oscar season for “Fruitvale,” and the other being the best film to come out of Sundance was the teenage love story “The Spectacular Now.”

 

“The Spectacular Now” stars, in my opinion, the current “it” boy (take that Nicholas Hoult) Miles Teller who gives one of the most talked about performances of the year about a boy who falls in love with a girl played by Shailene Woodley.

 

Woodley, who earned some serious notice after playing George Clooney’s daughter in “The Descendants,” is a rising star and in my opinion is on to Jennifer Lawrence after “Winter’s Bone” track, someone who is on the cusp of A-list status with upcoming roles in the “Amazing Spider-Man 2” and a starring role in a hot YA property called “Divergent.”

 

It is hard not to buy too much into what other bloggers say because hyperbole is all the rage but if this many people are saying it is good well then consider my interest piqued.