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“Most Beautiful Island”

A short, stressful, and utterly spellbinding debut that transforms the immigrant experience into the stuff of an early Polanski psychodrama, “Most Beautiful Island” was a worthy winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature, and might prove to be a breakthrough moment for a major new talent: Spanish actress Ana Asensio not only wrote, directed, and produced this fraught metropolitan thriller, she also appears in just about every frame.

It would be criminal to reveal too much about what happens to her character, a Manhattan immigrant who’s struggling to make a life for herself in the big city and in for the longest night of her life, but it’s thrilling to watch the anxiety of neo-realism as it slowly bleeds into something that resembles the suspense of the orgy sequence from “Eyes Wide Shut.” Creating a lucid sense of reality only so...

Brace yourself. The annual multi-pronged South By Southwest Conferences and Festivals — SXSW, of course — is hitting Austin, Texas later this week for days and days of fresh film offerings (and music and interactive stuff, too, but we can only do so much here). With it comes the promise of a brand new season of festival-going, along with a slew of films to get excited about finally checking out (and, because it’s Austin, lots of tasty barbecue to enjoy).

From SXSW regulars like Bob Byington and Joe Swanberg to rising stars like Nanfu Wang and Laura Terruso to marquee names like Terrence Malick and Edgar Wright — and just about everything in between — this year’s SXSW Film Festival is offering up its most robust slate yet. We’ve picked out a baker’s dozen of worthy new features to add to your SXSW schedule.

Check out 13 new films from this...

Megan Mullally is known for her award-winning acting roles but the star insists singing is her first true love.

“People are always flabbergasted, like ‘You sing?’” Mullally tells People in this week’s issue. “Nobody knows I sing. Even though I’ve done Broadway musicals. I would only pick it over acting because it’s such a pure form of emotional expression.”

Now Mullally, 58, has a new album with her band, Nancy and Beth, that she formed with actress/writer Stephanie Hunt. The women sing every song in harmony and their sound is “punk vaudeville,” Mullally adds. “It’s everything...

With Sundance behind us, the next major American festival is waiting in the wings. The SXSW Film Festival lineup has landed, and there’s a lot to dig through.

Read More: SXSW 2017 Episodic Lineup to Include ‘Dear White People,’ ‘American Gods’

Unlike Sundance, which attracts a lot of industry attention around a handful of high-profile titles, SXSW is more about discovery. As usual, there are a lot of compelling possibilities in the program, from the newcomers in its competition sections through the more peculiar and surprising offerings in the Visions section. IndieWire got a few tips from SXSW Film director Janet Pierson and extracted these promising possibilities.

Small Stories, Big Steps

The festival’s narrative feature competition is often the place where filmmakers on their first or second feature get a sudden boost. It was there that Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture” and Destin Cretton’s “Short Term 12” both took off.

“Lace Crater” follows twenty-something Ruth (Lindsay Burdge) who’s just getting over a breakup as she and her friends head to the Hamptons for a weekend of mild debauchery at their friend Andrew’s parents’ summer home. With all the bedrooms in the main house taken, Ruth agrees to sleep in the guest house that is supposedly haunted. One night while everyone is having a good time, Ruth stumbles to her bed and ends up encountering a mysterious figure – a burlap sack-wearing, light-sensitive otherworldly entity, Michael (Peter Vack). Ruth and Michael have a one-night stand, but when she returns home, she develop a ghostly Std, with symptoms that include frequent vomiting, light sensitivity, and spewing black ooze. When her friends all but abandon her, she’s left in isolation to deal with her problems and must decide on her own whether she wants to return to normal society. The film...

It isn’t often that a movie remotely related to Jeff Nichols‘ Midnight Special will actually offer you insight from a set of pictures, but this quirky, sci-fi effort gives you a lot to think about with this set of images.

If you aren’t familiar with Nichols, the writer/director of the underappreciated Mud and Take Shelter is quickly proving himself one of the best storytellers in the game.

If you aren’t familiar with Midnight Special, the film stars Michael Shannon as a father who is on the run with his son Alton (Jaeden Lieberher). Alton has mysterious powers, and his father just wants to keep him away from people, but that turns into an escalating chase as more an more people get involved in the hunt.

That opens a lot of doors, and at the same time doesn’t tell you much, but the images offer a bit more.

Lest the title of “7 Chinese Brothers” inspire visions of the next ensemble crime drama from Johnnie To, the film in question is a quietly acerbic, absurdist oddity featuring Jason Schwartzman and his bulldog Arrow. The two are co-stars and compatriots driving around Austin, Texas in a filthy car having one-sided conversations while the rest of the world belittles and bypasses them both. This could change, but Schwartzman’s character Larry might need more than the film’s brisk 76-minute runtime to convince him of such a possibility. Directed by Bob Byington (“Somebody Up There Likes Me”), the film is a symbiotic roll calls of the current independent film scene: Alex Karpovsky (“Girls”), Stephen Root, Jennifer Prediger and Alex Ross Perry all show up in supporting and cameo roles. In terms of tone, the picture shares the briefest of crossovers with Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” casting Schwartzman in a role defined by selfish rage.

Exclusive: Spotlight Pictures has added 7 Chinese Brothers to its Cannes sales slate. The comedy from writer-director Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me) debuted at SXSW in March and will have a U.S. day-and-date release through Screen Media Films in August. Jason Schwartzman, Tunde Adebimpe, Eleanore Pienta, Stephen Root and Olympia Dukakis star. Producers are Seana Flanagan, Molly Christie Benson, and Nancy Schafer with executive producer Christos V…...

Lest the title of “7 Chinese Brothers” inspire visions of the next ensemble crime drama from Johnnie To, the film in question is a quietly acerbic, absurdist oddity featuring Jason Schwartzman and his bulldog Arrow. The two are co-stars and compatriots driving around Austin, Texas in a filthy car having one-sided conversations while the rest of the world belittles and bypasses them both. This could change, but Schwartzman’s character Larry might need more than the film’s brisk 76-minute runtime to convince him of such a possibility. Directing by Bob Byington (“Somebody Up There Likes Me”), the film is a symbiotic roll calls of the current independent film scene: Alex Karpovsky (“Girls”), Stephen Root, Jennifer Prediger and Alex Ross Perry all show up in supporting and cameo roles. In terms of tone, the picture shares the briefest of crossovers with Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” casting Schwartzman in a role defined by selfish rage.

If one were to head on over to my most anticipated films of SXSW list, one would see the inclusion of Bob Byington's latest film 7 Chinese Brothers, which stars Jason Schwartzman. I did not wholly love Byington's previous film Somebody Up There Likes Me, but I saw a lot of promise there and was eager to see what he had next. The man has a very unique comic voice, which I think deserves to be noticed. That said, if you'd like further introduction, I have five clips from the movie (h/t The Playlist) for you all to watch. Considering the film is only 75 minutes long, I will not be watching them as they could possibly take up a significant portion of the runtime. But for those of you who do not know what this film is, which may be a good portion of you, give them a watch below.

Read More: SXSW Review: Bob Byington's Moving and Surreal 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' Is His Most Accessible Film to Date If you've ever wanted to watch a movie in which Jason Schwartzman confides in, yells at and gets lost with his dog, "Seven Chinese Brothers" is definitely for you. "Seven Chinese Brothers," set for a SXSW premiere next week, stars Schwartzman as Larry, a down-on-his-luck sad-sack balancing a lot: His affinity for booze, his affection for his boss (Eleanore Pienta), his irritation with his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) and, most importantly, his dedication to his dog (Arrow, Schwartzman's real-life french bulldog). The loose and funny slice-of-life comes from director Bob Byington, whose recent credits include "Harmony and Me" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me." In the three exclusive clips of the film posted below, Larry gets lost on the road, goes for a walk and admits a...

The number of features and documentaries with Austin and/or Texas connections at SXSW Film Festival, which takes place from March 13-21, is staggering this year. As in the past, many familiar local filmmakers and cast have multiple movies with which they're associated. Here's this year's slate:

Headliners:

Manglehorn (pictured at top) -- During my interview with director David Gordon Green at Dallas Iff last year, he described this film starring Al Pacino as an urban movie "looking through the face of characters, three wandering souls looking for their place on a magical journey. Melancholy but full of hope and life and love." (screening times)

Narrative Spotlight:

7 Chinese Brothers -- Written and directed by Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me), this film features Jason Schwartzman as despondent and drunk Larry, whose only true companion is his French bulldog, as he pines for his Quick-Lube boss Lupe (Eleanore Pienta...

The South by Southwest Film Festival is starting up this Friday, and I could not be more excited. This is my fourth year of attending the fest, and each year brings about a couple of films I love. What is also great about SXSW is, unlike Toronto or Cannes, there is plenty of room for discovery. Many films are making their world premieres here from lesser known filmmakers. SXSW also brings together an eclectic assortment of genres for the program, from indie dramas to horror films to science-fiction to you name it. I think going to those aforementioned festivals and just seeing "prestige pictures" continuously could get a bit boring. Sure, SXSW has a higher risk for a terrible movie, but the risk is exciting. Consequently, making a most anticipated list for a festival offering a lot of discoveries seems like a contradiction. But, of course, if you look through the program,...

If there is a little Listen Up Philip in the cocktail that will be known as 7 Chinese Brothers, it may have been due to cosmic fate, a lark, creative confidence, or a little of everything. Stars aligned for this trio in a rather convenient way; unbeknownst to Bob Byington, his sixth feature managed to lasso Jason Schwartzman prior to Alex Ross Perry grabbing the Rushmore star for his definitive breakout moment in Park City this past January. It is after those playdates, when production began in February in Austin, and if it has legs like Somebody Up There Likes Me did back in 2012 with a showing at SXSW and at Locarno (was a winner of the Special Jury Prize), then there might be a collective sense of deja vu for Park City patrons. Look for Schwartzman to play off thesps such as Stephen Root, Olympia Dukakis and Tunde Adebimpe, with Perry making another Byington-film appearance.

Satirize This: Bilandic’s Scruffy Send-up of NYC Art Scene

Though starting off on a stronger note than where it eventually ends up, Michael M. Bilandic’s sophomore feature, Hellaware is an entertaining satire of the ultra-pretentious art scene in New York. Filled with sharp one liners and skewering observations of the self-important hipster scene, it’s a group that’s easy to target, which may explain why it eventually feels a bit inconsequential once it fosters its full circle treatment. But Bilandic’s acerbic, hilarious wit is often more than enough to carry the narrative through a slim manifestation.

While at a ridiculous and utterly pretentious art gallery of what looks like a variety of depraved children’s’ paintings, jaded struggling artist Nate (Keith Poulson) miserably shares his critical hatred for such types with tagalong friends Bernadette (Sophia Takal) and Gauguin (Duane C. Wallace), apparently taking the name of the famed artist.

Making it a double casting mention type of day in the trades, after being added to Reed Morano’s Meadowland, Elisabeth Moss will also be reuniting with Alex Ross Perry on a project that harkens to the tune of mid-sixties Roman Polanski. While we await the mention of a female co-lead, Queen of Earth is being described as a psychological thriller a la Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby and according to THR has Joe Swanberg on board to produce. Perry is currently on the fest circuit with Listen Up Philip — showings in Locarno and Next Fest are set for August.

Gist: This centers on two women who retreat to a beach house to get a break from the pressures of the outside world, only to realize how disconnected from each other they have become, allowing their suspicions to bleed into reality.

Worth Noting: Perry recently reteamed with helmer Bob Byington on 7 Chinese Brothers.

Nearly a year ago, I devoted the Fund This Film column to an indie feature called Funny Bunny in part because it was to star Kate Lyn Sheil, one of the most interesting young actresses working today. You should know her from such movies as The Comedy, The Color Wheel, V/H/S, Sun Don’t Shine, Somebody Up There Likes Me and maybe Listen Up Philip if you were at Sundance this year. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of Funny Bunny (which was funded and then made, and we’re still looking forward to it), and now here I am to spotlight another Kickstarter project with Sheil’s name attached. I can guarantee she’ll be in this one, as it’s already been shot and is set to debut in competition at SXSW next month. It’s called The Heart Machine. Co-starring with Sheil in this romance thriller is Short Term 12‘s John Gallagher...

When he's away from his day job at Parks and Rec, Nick Offerman often finds himself in indie movies. And last night on Conan he sung about the secret to getting those movies into Sundance: pussy and weed. The song is essentially a folk-country sequel to the "Pussy and Weed" song he, Megan Mullally, and Alison Brie sang as a promo for Somebody Up There Likes Me. It appears the real secret is that weed rhymes with a lot of stuff.

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Austin filmmaker and Hammer to Nail editor Michael Tully is joining with Ion Cinema founder Eric Lavallee to found the American Independent Film Awards, which will honor "micro-budget" indies starting in 2015. Local filmmaker Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me) is planning to shoot his feature Seven Chinese Brothers in Austin in the next couple of months, according to The Austin Chronicle. The cast will include Jason Schwartzman, Tunde Adebimpe and Olympia Dukakis -- no word yet on whether Bob Schneider will play a wedding singer (as in Byington's previous two movies). Byington says he wrote the script in 2001, and received an Austin Film Society Grant in 2010 for the film.Louis Black, co-founder of SXSW and The Austin Chronicle, will serve as executive producer on Django Lives!, the sequel to the original Spaghetti Western Django. The star of the original film,...

The label "supporting actor" shouldn't only describe actors in secondary roles. All actors support the movies they're in (or, at least, they should). Nevertheless, the best kind of supporting actors aren't positioned at the center of a movie's plot but end up defining it anyway. It's not just about stealing the scene -- it's about complimenting it so the entire picture makes sense. Here are 10 unsung heroes who epitomized the art of the supporting role in movies released this year. Some of them are more familiar than others, but in each case, their prominence in the projects they appeared in rank among the best discoveries of 2013. Nick Offerman, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" Bob Byington's alternately touching and surreal comedy covers 35 years in the life of a man named Max (Byington regular Keith Poulson) as he falls in love with waitress Lyla (Jess Weixler) and starts a family with her.

Written and directed by University of Texas graduate Michael Bilandic (who we interviewed before Austin Film Festival began), Hellaware is a playful modern morality tale that explores the ups and downs a young photographer experiences while trying to make himself a part of the New York art scene.

Hellaware stars Keith Poulson (Somebody Up There Likes Me) as Nate, a slacker with abstract dreams of fame and just a few vague ideas about how to actually achieve it. After his girlfriend (Kate Lyn Sheil) dumps him to be with the pigtail-wearing Brooklyn artist of the moment, he descends into a downward spiral of self-pity and complaints. One night while attempting to mute his sorrows with booze, drugs and the internet, Nate and his friends (played by Sophia Takal and Duane C. Wallace) stumble across something on YouTube that is mesmerizing in its repulsiveness.

An absurd rap/rock video made by...

Austin Film Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, features an eight-day program of panels and films specifically focused on screenwriters. Along with a handful of highly anticipated festival favorites bolstering the lineup (among them 12 Years a Slave and Inside Llewyn Davis), the film schedule contains dozens of features, documentaries and shorts chosen for their original points of view and creative storytelling techniques. Of course several of these have Austin or Texas ties -- they were either made by local filmmakers or were filmed in the state.

Here are a few potential gems found on this year's Aff Features lineup that happen to have strong Texas connections:

All of Me (Documentary Feature Competition) -- This documentary was filmed here in town and features a group of friends who met through Austin's Big Beautiful Women community. The dynamic of their social club begins to change when many of the women choose to undergo weight loss surgery,...

What is it about Nick Offerman that you find so damned alluring? Is it his droll portrayal of Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation? Perhaps it's the bristly manliness of his mustache? Offerman himself has a theory about his own appeal, and he'll share it with you in this exclusive Vulture video: It all has to do with the Golden Ratio, obviously. Not sure what that means? Press play and let Offerman explain it to you, but be aware that this theory involves both his giant cranium and his nicely shaped posterior, the latter of which is on display in Offerman's comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me, out on DVD today. If you've ever hoped to hear Offerman wax rhapsodic about his own ass at length ... well, we at Vulture are in the dreams-come-true business. Cheers!

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"The Bling Ring"

What's It About? Based on the real-life Bling Ring crew, Sofia Coppola's film tells the story of the Los Angeles teens whose claim to infamy was robbing the homes of celebrities. The teens who used the internet to track the whereabouts of rich celebs are portrayed by Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, and Claire Julien.

Watch: Go behind-the-scenes with Taissa Farmiga (Video)

Why We're In: Coppola's approach to the tabloid-heavy story is one of the most compelling aspects of "The Bling Ring"," as she neither praises the characters, criticizes, or satirizes them. We get to watch the teens from an honest perspective and arrive at our own deduction of how technology and youth obsession with fame impact contemporary culture. "The Bling Ring" was also one of Moviefone's Best Movies of 2013 (So Far).

Rt & Follow to win #TheBlingRing...

Some filmmakers know how to make the most of an opportunity. The group behind "Hellaware," an independent comedy set to premiere at the BAMcinemafest on June 22, has released a YouTube video to promote their film. While not a revolutionary act per se, the execution has left many confused internet viewers wondering what, if anything, the video is about. Let's start at the beginning. The film itself focuses on an "aspiring but less than ambitious" New York City photographer who discovers the Young Torture Killaz — an extremely vulgar band sporting excess amounts of clown makeup — on YouTube. He becomes fascinated with them and hopes they'll prove to be his big break. Starring Keith Poulson ("Somebody Up There Likes Me") and directed by Michael M. Bilandic ("Happy Life"), "Hellaware" is meant to be a satirical take of New York City's underground art world. Meanwhile, in the real world, the fictional Young Torture...

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Directed by Bob Byington

Written by Bob Byington

USA, 2012

It may seem like a fool’s errand to ascribe deeper meaning to a 75-minute lark of a movie, but it’s not terribly difficult to spot a theme recurring throughout Somebody Up There Likes Me, specific to the very meaning of life. Of course, because this comedy (closer to an anti-comedy, really) is content staying in the lowest possible key throughout its brief running time, the analysis of what it is to be an adult in the modern world isn’t too incisive. Still, Somebody Up There Likes Me is consistently entertaining enough to get by.

Keith Poulson plays Max, an aimless young waiter in Los Angeles who’s given a mysterious briefcase one day, which he’s instructed not to open. So, of course, he opens it as soon as he has a chance.

Summer in suburbia is what you make of it. For some, it’s a parent-controlled prison. For Joe Toy, it’s an opportunity for freedom.

In the trailer for The Kings of Summer (which premiered at Sundance as Toy’s House), we meet Joe (Nick Robinson), a not-completely-gawky teenage boy, delivering a shoddy-looking project to his teacher, who casually informs him that his final was due a week earlier and that school is in fact over for the year. Who is this kid who doesn’t realize it’s summer?

At home, Joe is at the disposal of his father,...

Thirteen years ago, Louis C.K. was not a name everyone knew. And even fewer people knew Nick Offerman. This provided them an opportunity to star in extremely indie movies like 2000's Tuna. What's Tuna? A movie written by Adam DeCoster (who by day is a successful Foley artist) and directed by Bob Byington (director of Offerman-featuring movies like Harmony and Me and Somebody Up There Likes Me) about people talking in their cars while driving around Los Angeles. DeCoster put the full film up on YouTube earlier this week. Watch a bleached-blond, fresh-faced Offerman, youngish C.K., and a cast that also features Kevin Corrigan, David Krumholtz, Jon Glaser, and a 4-year-old Angus T. Jones. Just to reiterate, before you complain about the production values, the thing is super-extremely indie.

There are some pretty sexy GIFs of Alison Brie floating around the internet (GIFs that I feel too dirty even to link to), so a super dapper Paul F. Tompkins gave Brie a chance to create some moments that could be made into unsexy GIFs. Tompkins had Brie do things like check for bugs in a used wig, ask a shrunken witch head for advice, and debate whether or not to purchase Selena on VHS.”I hope you’re ready for that to be turned into absolute filth,” Tompkins joked at the end. Brie laughed, ”I always forget not to open my mouth.

Evil Dead. This week, these two words are all that matter to horror fans, as the long-awaited reworking of the cult classic The Evil Dead hits theaters. (Actually, two other words matter just as much: Bruce Campbell. I'm not into horror flicks, but yeah, he is the coolest.)

For the rest of us, there is the homegrown comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me (pictured above). Fellow River City film fans, I beg, urge and implore you to see this terrific Austin movie. Sadly (and unsurprisingly), the Friday night show with director Bob Byington and star Nick Offerman in attendance is sold out. But worry not -- there are plenty of other screenings. You also might like the Slamdance 2012 awardwinning feature Welcome to Pine Hill, screening at 9 pm Monday at Stateside.

True cinephiles won't want to miss this week's Austin Film Society Essential Cinema Plus series, which presents four recent films...

Newsflash: There was more to yesterday’s episode of Parks and Recreation than Ron getting sued and guest appearances by Annabeth Gish and J.K. Simmons. As USC doctoral candidate George Carstocea points out on his blog, the whole half-hour was one long homage to David Foster Wallace’s massive novel Infinite Jest — the number one book you pretend to have read in college.

Parks and Rec showrunner Michael Schur — a.k.a. the guy who occasionally plays Mose on The Office — is an admitted Dfw-phile. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on Wallace, directed a Decemberists video based on Wallace’s 1,079-page opus,...

I've seen Somebody Up There Likes Me twice now -- once at SXSW 2012 with a lively local-heavy audience, once via screener with no one else but the cat -- and found the movie terribly funny both times. In fact, after I watched it the second time, I restarted the film so I could to see how the beginning tied into the end (it does, so pay attention) ... then had to stop myself from watching it a third time. The movie opens Friday at Violet Crown Cinema and I'm sorely tempted to go.

I liked it a lot, obviously. But I don't know whether you'd like it. Local filmmaker Bob Byington's universe is not for everyone.

Somebody Up There Likes Me is a comedy, but not in a broad sense -- its humor is very specific. I don't mean that it's full of obscure pop-culture references, either, because the movie...

It’s rare to come across a film that genuinely feels “different,” but Bob Byington’s Somebody Up There Likes Me is one of those films. Byington is an Austin-based writer/director and has worked (on both sides of the camera) with a number of mumblecore and post-mumblecore figures, directing Justin Rice and Alex Karpovsky in his 2009 feature Harmony and Me while also cameoing in Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax and Alex Ross Perry’s The Color Wheel. His recent films, the gleefully edgy Rso [Registered Sex Offender] and the charming, sweet Harmony, were quirky indie comedies but definitely felt like they fit within a …...

Of course you do! You may not even have a mustache, but why would you pass up the opportunity to win a mustache comb made from the Offerman Woodshop? The Parks and Recreation star is making the offer ( … man) in conjunction with this weekend's release of his comedy, Somebody Up There Likes Me: In addition to Offerman-hosted Q&A sessions today and tomorrow at Bam Cinematek, fans can enter a "Combing Attractions" contest where they vote on their favorite Offerman mustache in the hopes of winning that comb. Retail value is $75, but the chance to possess it is priceless. Watch the video below, enter the contest, and then reread our history of Offerman's marvelous marriage to Megan Mullally, because why not?...

Nick Offerman has become famous to millions of Parks & Recreation fans as the imperious and eternally cranky Ron Swanson, which is why you might be surprised by the version of him you see in Somebody Up There Likes Me. As you can see in the exclusive clip above, Offerman plays a guy who works at a restaurant, and has been doing so for a long, long time-- way too long, in fact. Fresh off the dissolution of his marriage to a woman (Jess Weixler) who is also his buddy's (Keith Poulson) ex-wife, he's clearly looking for a new start-- and as we all know, the only safe investment in this world is in pizza and ice cream. An indie comedy currently available on VOD, Somebody Up There Likes Me is also playing at Brooklyn's Bam Cinematek throughout the weekend, with live Q&As from Offerman himself on Friday and Saturday...

At a time when celebrity marriages are crumbling at a speed that makes us question our core assumptions that star love is the greatest kind of love, we can always make ourselves feel better by looking at the union of Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. They've been very together for the last thirteen years, working and spending time together, sharing one e-mail address, and exuding a palpable sense that they really enjoy each other's company and silliness. So with the couple co-starring in the comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me, which opens in theaters today and is available on VOD, we thought it the perfect opportunity to look at the history of Earth's greatest love.1985 Megan Mullally moves to Los Angeles after years in the Chicago theater scene. 1997 Nick Offerman moves to Los Angeles after years in the Chicago theater scene. Nick's reason for moving: "I had a girlfriend at...

At first blush, Bob Byington's Somebody Up There Likes Me goes down like early Wes Anderson: tableaux that pass for scenes, a delicate pointillism in the soundtrack, and a shot at redemption among characters suffering from the unbearable rudderlessness of twee. The plot is fairly Andersonian, too, following the tragically impassive Max (Keith Poulson) as he lapses from one picturesque and well-scored marriage to another over the course of 25 years. The only fixture in Max's life is Sal (Nick Offerman, of Parks & Recreation immortality), a bearded would-be sage who serves alongside Max as a waiter at a steak house. Intermittent animations that recall Richard Linklater's Waking Life demarcate the five-year increments by which Byington works his time-lapse magic. A mag...

Title: Somebody Up There Likes Me Director: Bob Byington Starring: Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, Jess Weixler, Kevin Corrigan, Kate Lyn Sheil, Stephanie Hunt, Marshall Bell, Jonathan Togo, Megan Mullally A delightfully deadpan relationship comedy that plays like a cross between something from Quentin Dupieux and Jared and Jerusha Hess, “Somebody Up There Likes Me” is an imaginative paean to world-weary nonchalance. Directed by Bob Byington, this subversive little treat flirts with absurdism but never tips over into hipster posturing in chronicling a bunch of domestic ennui and professional unhappiness that its characters pretty much seem to all shruggingly accept. After listless waiter Max Youngman (Keith Poulson, looking like a cousin [ Read More ]

The post Somebody Up There Likes Me Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Note: Tribeca Film has just added an additional week-long run of the film in Los Angeles beginning on March 22 at the Sundance Sunset Cinema (8000 Sunset Blvd). Nick Offerman can add “theater usher” to his official resume. The heavily-mustached “Parks and Recreation” star literally held the door for me as I stepped into a screening of his latest film - writer/director Bob Byington’s indie comedy “Somebody Up There Likes Me” - at the Silent Movie Theater on L.A.’s Fairfax Avenue yesterday evening. Dressed casually in a beanie, jeans and cowboy boots, Offerman was on hand for a post-screening Q&A with special...

Anything that Nick Offerman has done or will ever do is funny in some fashion. Pretty much everyone agrees with this, including, apparently, Nick Offerman.

As if specifically putting that theory to the test, the promo for Offerman's latest film, "Somebody Up There Likes Me," first presented by our fraternal twins at Cinemablend, is bizarre on a level that makes a David Lynch movie seem like the gag reel of Adam Sandler's "Grown Ups" by comparison.

Graced with more celebrities per capita than your everyday disaster relief telethon, the promo starts with Offerman's "Parks & Recreation" co-star Adam Scott confronting Offerman in his wood shop about not showing up to the P&R set for work that day.

Things get decidedly Nsfw from there.

Then the video spirals in an equally ridiculous and entertaining direction. Megan Mullally (Offerman's real-life wife) and Alison Brie take turns calmly calling Scott various iterations...

If you’re a fan of NBC sitcoms, then you’ll definitely want to watch the promo for Nick Offerman’s movie Somebody Up There Likes Me, which features Community’s Alison Brie, Parks & Recreation’s Adam Scott and Amy Poehler, and Offerman’s Parks & Rec ex-wife/real-world still-wife Megan Mullally. And they’re all doing terrible, weird, wild things. What things you ask? Let’s just say it involves a folksy ode to marijuana, lady parts, and maybe John Cassavetes. Why not? Also, they turn Nick Offerman into a bong. Watch the video below (then take a shower).

Somebody Up There Likes Me...

Nick Offerman returned to Reddit on Wednesday, dispensing to his flock many life lessons, woodworking tips, fond recollections and an instant classic viral video. The Parks and Recreation star, who is equal parts sturdy, wise and deadpan, signed on for an Ama (ask me anything) session to promote his new indie film, Somebody Up There Likes Me. In the Bob Byington-directed comedy, Offerman co-stars as the older pal of a waiter named Keith Poulson, who travels through life's ups and downs in an idiosyncratic and detached manner. Offerman, who plays a meat-lover once again in this role,

read more...

Who is the real Nick Offerman? You know him as mustachioed TV icon Ron Swanson from NBC's "Parks and Recreation," but how do you separate the man from the legend — or, more importantly, the man from the mustache?

Easy: You don't.

Meeting Offerman to talk about his new movie, "Somebody Up There Likes Me," a dark comedy about a self-centered narcissist (Keith Poulson) and his only friend (Offerman), he was everything we hoped he'd be, with facial hair in full bloom and the deadpan delivery that's made "Parks and Rec" devotees of us all.

We discussed the many mysteries of "Somebody Up There" and the secret to working (and not working) with his wife, Megan Mullally. We waxed rhapsodic about childhood pets. But when we touched on his deep-seated fear of tofu, we were really getting somewhere.

The movie is delightful and peculiar.

Thank you.

There's a lot of symbolism going on: The main character,...

By Joel Hanek

Much like Clark Kent and Superman, there's not much of a difference between Nick Offerman and his internet demi-god alter-ego Ron Swanson — in fact, the "Parks and Rec" star owns and operates his very own successful woodworking shop.

With the 2013 MTV Movie Awards only a month away, we'd be remiss if we didn't get the expert consultation on the signature Golden Popcorn trophy from the mustachioed dead-pan craftsman. Offerman, who swung by the MTV Studios promoting his new indie flick "Somebody Up There Likes Me", had some first impressions:

"It feels like my jeans are growing uncomfortably tight — woah, that is turgid."

An excellent euphemism and vocabulary word all rolled into one. Upon further examination, Offerman analyzed the make-up of the Movie Awards trophy. "It doesn't really have a scent. It's made of a metal and probably some sort of plastic composite that looks like porcelin... I...

At first glance, Somebody Up There Likes Me might be mistaken for a debut film from a recent graduate of the Wes Anderson School of Offbeat Filmmaking, but the pedigree of its director is concurrent with that of Anderson. The film, which premiered at last year’s SXSW, is director Bob Byington’s fifth writing/directing effort. His first was 1996’s Shameless, which, ironically enough, is the same year Anderson came along with his debut feature, Bottle Rocket....

The Bradford International Film Festival is typically an underground-friendly fest. This year appears to be no exception with two very special experimental film retrospectives, as well as a few modern underground-type flicks.

The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.

Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.

From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...

Chicago's Nick Offerman, producer and star of the indie film "Somebody Up There Likes Me," is a local hero, at least at the box office. The bittersweet comedy, written and directed by Bob Byington, stars Offerman, from the NBC TV sitcom "Parks and Recreation," and Keith Poulson as best buddies who fall in love with the same girl, played by Jess Weixler. Also read: Independent Box Office: 'Emperor' Accomplishes Demo Mission Tribeca chose Chicago's 700-seat Music Box Theater to debut the film and – with Chicago native Offerman in attendance at many of...

Exactly year after debuted at SXSW, Bob Byington's "Somebody Up There Likes Me" scored a huge exclusive debut at Chicago's Music Box Theater. The film -- which stars and was co-produced by Chicago native Nick Offerman -- grossed an estimated $38,495. The 700 seat theater featured multiple sold out shows with Nick Offerman in attendance, delivering the second highest opening weekend in the last 6 years at the theater, trailing only "Sleepwalk With Me", and the third highest since Rentrak began tracking numbers 10 years ago. To put that into further perspective, Tribeca Films current all-time top theatrical grosser -- 2011's "Last Night" -- grossed $98,986 in its run. Clearly this weekend's numbers are difficult to use to predict how the film will expand, but It seems all but certain "Somebody Up There Likes Me" will top "Last Night" by next weekend and become the distributor's first $100,000 grosser. "We all love this film and...

Chicago – At the start, I’ll admit to kind of hating Bob Byington’s truly unusual “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” playing this weekend at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago with local actor and “Parks and Recreation” scene-stealer Nick Offerman in attendance. It’s such a mannered, unique piece that it verges on grating. However, it slowly worked on me with its quirky sensibility to the point that some of it worked. The film never quite comes together enough to get over the sense that it’s a comedy made by people who think they’re too cool to laugh but it comes close.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The abrasive Max (Keith Poulson) works at a steakhouse with Sal (Offerman) and approaches the world with the kind of deep, hipster detachment that would make Wes Anderson call him pretentious. He kind of bobs and weaves through life, barely registering any sort of...

Bob Byington’s "Somebody Up There Likes Me" is about a guy who doesn’t grow up. In fact, he doesn’t even age over the film’s three-decade span of his life. It may have something to do with a mysterious briefcase, the origins of which are only ever suggested by animated cloud interludes and the ethereal implications of the title itself. But that hardly matters, so long as Max (Keith Poulson) keeps bumbling through marriage, money and mortality. Max is, at first, a disgruntled waiter at a generic steakhouse alongside best friend/only friend Sal (Nick Offerman). Over time, each man will have affections for new girl Lyla (Jess Weixler), but the freshly divorced Max gets there first – in fact, he impulsively proposes to the mealy-mouthed breadstick-muncher not long after they meet and she nonchalantly accepts. Writer-director Byington then takes one of several five-year leaps forward into the narrative.