The Hollywood Outsider – Film and Television Podcast | Reviews An award-winning film and television podcast for the fan in all of us
The SXSW Film and TV Festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world. In a typical year, thousands of fans arrive in downtown Austin, TX to partake in a couple of weeks of great music, technology, and film. For this special episode of The Hollywood Outsider, we take you along for our annual deep dive into the heart of the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival portion, and even further into the films themselves.
Over the course of several days, the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival screened numerous features, TV premieres, many from first-time filmmakers (consisting of World Premieres, North American Premieres, and US Premieres), shorts, virtual reality exhibits, AI advancements, and other works. These films were selected from thousands of overall submissions, and – while we can’t see them all – we have a nice sample to share with you of what came out of this stellar lineup of independent and popular films and television series. Over 25 films are on our docket this year, and we review them all (including Death of a Unicorn, Another Simple Favor, Redux Redux, Good Boy, The Rivals of Amziah King, The Studio, Together, Slanted, Shuffle), as well as snippets from panels and a whole lot more!
So sit back and relax. You’re about to experience The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival from the comfort of your own home.
Discussed on this episode of The Hollywood Outsider Movie and TV Podcast:
- Thoughts on the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival
- Reviews of over 25 films, TV episodic premieres, and panels screened at the festival. See titles listed below
- Our personal awards from the festival
- Listen to our true crime podcast, Inspired By A True Story, now available in your favorite podcast feed!
- Please support The Hollywood Outsider and gain immediate access to bonus content, including Patreon exclusive podcast content like our Bad Movie Night by visiting Patreon.com/ TheHollywoodOutsider
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| Title | Description |
| Another Simple Favor | Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) reunite on the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square. Directed by Paul Feig |
| Slanted | As a senior in high school, Joan Huang idolizes winning Prom Queen as the embodiment of popularity, beauty and the ultimate form of acceptance into American life. In her relentless pursuit for the crown, she undergoes an experimental racial transformation to become White and win Prom Queen. However, what she thought was a dream come true soon reveals itself to be an emotional and physical nightmare. “Slanted” offers a searing and unapologetically satirical view on race and the uncomfortable journey of learning to love yourself and your culture. Starring Shirley Chen, McKenna Grace and directed by Amy Wang |
| The Last of Us Panel | The cast and creators behind HBO’s Emmy-winning series THE LAST OF US provide a glimpse into the show’s highly anticipated second season debuting this April. Panelists include Craig Mazin (Co-Showrunner/EP/Writer/Director), Neil Druckmann (Co-Showrunner/EP/Writer/Director), Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, and Young Mazino. |
| The Studio | Seth Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of embattled Continental Studios. As movies struggle to stay alive and relevant, Matt and his core team of infighting executives battle their own insecurities as they wrangle narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords in the ever-elusive pursuit of making great films. With their power suits masking their neverending sense of panic, every party, set visit, casting decision, marketing meeting, and award show presents them with an opportunity for glittering success or career-ending catastrophe. As someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes movies, it’s the job Matt’s been pursuing his whole life, and it may very well destroy him. Created by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg |
| Death of a Unicorn | A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties. Directed by Alex Scharfman |
| Caper | When a friend’s disastrous sext accidentally lands in his boss’ phone, a group of clueless men race against the clock, embarking on an all-night odyssey through New York City’s underbelly to hack, bribe, and bluff their way to deleting the evidence. Over the course of seven hours, this misguided, toxically masculine mission to save a friend from ruin exposes their own fears, flaws, and misconceptions about women. Directed by Dean Imperial |
| Good Boy | Good Boy started with a simple high concept: a haunted house film, where the main character is the family dog–and the only one who can see the forces that haunt us. Our canine hero, Indy, finds himself on a new adventure with his human—and best friend—Todd, leaving city life for a long-vacant family home in the country. After moving in, Indy is immediately vexed by empty corners, tracks an invisible presence, perceives phantasmagoric warnings from a long-dead dog, and is haunted by visions of the previous occupant’s grim death. When Todd begins succumbing to the dark forces swirling around the house, Indy must battle a malevolence intent on destroying their happy life. Directed by Ben Leonburg |
| We Bury the Dead | From acclaimed writer/director Zak Hilditch (1922, These Final Hours), WE BURY THE DEAD is a gripping and emotional thriller set after a military experiment decimates the people of Tasmania. Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) stars as Ava, a desperate woman who joins a “body retrieval unit” in the hopes of finding her husband alive. Ava’s search takes a chilling turn, however, when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life… As she journeys to the south of Tasmania in search of her husband, Ava is forced to confront the undead — and make peace with her own unfinished business. |
| Redux Redux | In an attempt to avenge her daughter’s death, Irene Kelly travels through parallel universes, killing her daughter’s murderer over and over again. She grows addicted to the revenge streak, putting her own humanity in jeopardy. Written and directed by Kevin McManus, Matthew McManus |
| Fucktoys | A lush 16mm fever dream that reimagines The Fool’s Journey of the Tarot through the story of AP- a sanguine young woman seeking salvation from a curse. AP is promised by not one but multiple psychics that -for a cool $1000 and the sacrifice of a baby lamb- it can be lifted. So, she makes money the only way she knows how, scootering her way deeper into the night, into the uncouth underbelly of Trashtown. Dark, irreverent, and sexy, AP stumbles upon new characters and absurd situations, each more unhinged than the last, as she winds her way towards the inevitable. Fucktoys is a campy romp that explores the intersection of intimacy, exploitation, and class in a pre-millenium alternate universe. Written, directed and starring Annapurna Sriram |
| Shuffle | Shot over the course of three years, “Shuffle” follows three individuals whose lives depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive, and in the process, shines a light on the insurance-fueled cycle of addiction treatment fraud spreading across the country. With the filmmaker serving as narrator, using his own experience as a roadmap, these personal stories provide the framework for a more public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia-based treatment facility. “Shuffle” unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. Benjamin Flaherty |
| The Yogurt Shop Murders | The Yogurt Shop Murders explores the tragic murder of 4 teenage girls at an “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” Shop on December 6, 1991 in Austin, TX. This docuseries dives into the immense trauma left by the crime and details the maze of the investigation. Interviews with family members, investigators, and suspects, along with a trove of archival footage, reveal a crime scene ravaged by fire and water, an overwhelmed police department, and a terrified city. Countless twists and turns uncover false confessions, overturned convictions, and endless speculation. The central question of the series revolves around the experience of loss and the ways in which we bear its scars. Created by Margaret Brown |
| Hallow Road | Two parents receive a distressing late-night call from their teenage daughter, who has just accidentally hit a pedestrian. They jump in their car, racing to get there before anyone else stumbles across the scene. As they head deeper into the night, disturbing revelations threaten to tear the family apart as they soon realize they might not be the only ones driving down Hallow Road. Starring Rosamund Pike, Matthew Rhys and directed by Babak Anvari |
| Happy Face | Inspired by a true-life story, “Happy Face” tells the story of Melissa Reed, daughter of Keith Jesperson, aka the Happy Face Killer. After decades of no contact, Keith forces his way back into his daughter’s life, and Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed. In the process, she must face a reckoning of her own identity. Starring Annaleigh Ashford, Dennis Quaid |
| Clown in a Cornfield | Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the clown comes out to play. Directed by Eli Craig |
| American Sweatshop | In a device driven world, “American Sweatshop” takes a searing look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy, who finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the internet. Daisy, and a motley group of coworkers, toil in a cottage industry of agencies that evaluate harmful and offensive pictures and videos uploaded to social media. With detached caution and a deranged sense of humor, they examine the millions of posts that get “flagged for review.” But one particularly violent video grabs hold of Daisy, luring her out of this office, away from the safety of her keyboard and into a dangerous world as she obsessively seeks to hold someone accountable. Lili Reinhart, Daniela Melchior, Jeremy Ang Jones, Josh Whitehouse, Tim Plester, Christiane Paul, Joel Fry Directed by Uta Briesewitz |
| The Rivals of Amziah King | Deep within the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, Amziah leaps at the possibility to renew connection and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built. Directed by Andrew Patterson and starring Matthew McConaughey and Angela LookingGlass |
| The Spies Among Us | “The Spies Among Us” is a rare look into the inner workings of a data-driven surveillance state run by one of the most feared secret police forces the world has ever known – East Germany’s Stasi.
A personal investigation into family secrets by Peter Keup, a Stasi victim-turned-historian, takes a turn when he contacts the men who ran the system. These are the first conversations of their kind between Stasi officers and a victim. Through these meetings a terrifying mosaic is built of the lengths people go to maintain power in a dictatorship, as well as the indomitable human spirit that seeks truth and self-determination. Jamie Coughlin Silverman, Gabriel Silverman |
| The Age of Disclosure | An unprecedented and revelatory documentary –featuring 34 senior members of the U.S. Government, military, and intelligence community– that reveals an 80-year cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life and a secret war amongst major nations to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin. The film exposes the profound impact the situation has on the future of humanity, while providing a look behind-the-scenes with those at the forefront of the bi-partisan disclosure effort.
The timely film comes on the heels of historic bi-partisan Congressional hearings on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP, aka UFOs) and Senate proposed legislation for disclosure. Directed by Dan Farah |
| Odyssey | Odyssey follows Natasha Flynn, a sharp-tongued, coke-fuelled London estate agent, who juggles debts, danger, and deception. Her seemingly glossy life—flashy clothes, posh loft apartment, and endless champagne—hides a spiralling mess of broken dreams, addiction and a business on the brink of collapse. Enter Dan and Will, smooth-talking loan sharks with a sinister edge. Their offer? Easy cash, if she hides a kidnapped fellow estate agent. What follows is a wild, neon-soaked ride through London’s seedy underbelly, as Natasha searches for The Viking, an old ally with violent tendencies. A bloody, chaotic showdown ensues, leaving bodies—and morals—shattered. Directed by Gerald Johnson |
| Friendship | Suburban dad Craig has his life turned upside down by the arrival of a new neighbor. As Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend spiral out of control, their blossoming relationship threatens to ruin both of their lives. Starring Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara and directed by Andrew DeYoung |
| New Jack Fury | It’s the 80s. Dylan Gamble is a straight-edged, undercover police officer working to take down a powerful crime organization called the Styles Syndicate. However, Dylan is fired before doing so. A year passes, Gamble has a new life and a new girlfriend by the name of Tanisha. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped by the Syndicate and Gamble must save her. He reluctantly gets the help of a small time crook named Hendrix Moon & Moon’s arch-rival, a mild-mannered moonwalker named Leslie Kindall. Will Dylan find his sweet thang, Tanisha? Will he be able to also take down the Syndicate? Can Moon & Leslie go the entire length of this film without killing one another? Find out more on New Jack Fury! Directed by Lanfia Wal |
| Cotton Candy Bubblegum | After his mom gets engaged to a vindictive cop, Carter, a 21-year-old mama’s boy still living at home, must secure a paid promotion at his internship by the end of the day or find a new place to live. To land the job, his boss gives him a seemingly impossible list of tasks to complete: get his Jeep detailed (the Jeep gets towed), babysit his teenage son (Carter loses the kid), set up his birthday party (a model ODs on the living room floor), and recover a sex tape (a world-famous rapper kidnaps his best friend after a failed blackmail attempt). If Carter can conquer this wildly chaotic day, he might be ready for the real world after all. Directed by J Pinder |
| It Ends | A group of recent grads head out on a late night drive for grub, hoping to enjoy one final hangout before their paths diverge. Instead, they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cramped together inside a Jeep Cherokee and with the miles stretching infinitely ahead, they face a choice: embrace their new existence or fight to escape it. written and directed by Alexander Ullom |
| Summer of 69 | Abby Flores spends her high school days playing video games and fantasizing about her forever crush Max Warren. When she discovers that Max is finally single in the last week of school, Abby knows she must do whatever it takes to land the guy of her dreams before it’s too late. In talking to her only confidante, the school mascot, Abby finds out Max’s favorite sexual position is 69. In an effort to go from 0 to 69, Abby makes the impulsive decision to enlist the help from a local stripper named Santa Monica. Summer of 69 is a modern day coming of age story about how landing the guy may just be the start of what you’re actually looking for. Starring Chloe Fineman, Sam Morelos, Matt Cornett, Nicole Byer, Liza Koshy, Natalie Morales, Alex Moffat and directed by Jillian Bell |
| Together | Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh. Starring Dave Franco and Allison Brie. Directed by Michael Shanks |