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SXSW Highs and Lows: Matthew McConaughey Singing, Nicole Kidman’s ‘Holland’ Fizzling Out, Time-Traveling Pranksters and More
What rose to the top and what failed to take flight at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival, including movies with Matthew McConaughey and Nicole Kidman.
This year, only one Headliner fully fit the bill: The gory horror comedy “Death of a Unicorn,” starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, had the audience laughing, screaming and cheering along with its story of a pair of homicidal fantasy creatures dispatching a über-wealthy family in the Canadian wilderness. Meanwhile, “The Studio,” Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s satiric TV series about Hollywood, captivated fans with a two-episode premiere on opening night featuring cameos from Greta Lee, Sarah Polley, Paul Dano, Steve Buscemi, Charlize Theron and Martin Scorsese, all playing versions of themselves. The movie’s joyously idiosyncratic story of a beekeeper and his foster daughter (newcomer Angelina LookingGlass) won over the audience so utterly — thanks in part to several exuberant musical performances, often led by McConaughey — that they leapt to their feet for a sustained standing ovation when writer-director Andrew Patterson stepped to the stage.
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