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Matthew McConaughey’s first lead role in over five years comes in The Rivals of Amziah King, and the film is earning strong reviews at SXSW. The Rivals of Amziah King follows Amziah (McConaughey), a foster parent who takes in Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass) after she loses her mother. The film has earned a strong 95% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, signaling a strong return to form for McConaughey, who has been absent from major roles since starring in The Gentlemen for Guy Ritchie. In addition to McConaughey, The Rivals of Amziah King also stars Kurt Russell (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) and Owen Teague (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), and the film was written by James Montague and Andrew Patterson with Patterson also directing.

Matthew McConaughey’s latest film, The Rivals of Amziah King, received a standing ovation during its world premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin. The western-musical-drama, directed by Andrew Patterson, played to an engaged audience with its mix of humor, emotion, and music, standing out among the SXSW screenings.

The film follows Amziah King, a musically gifted beekeeper in rural Oklahoma who leads a bluegrass band of misfits while overseeing the town’s most successful honey-making operation. When his estranged foster daughter returns, he sees an opportunity to rebuild their relationship and turn their business into a family enterprise. However, his ambitions are threatened by rivals determined to undermine everything he has built.

McConaughey introduced the film at the premiere, reflecting on what drew him to the project. “It’s been six years since I did a film or was onscreen. Why did I come to this film? Not often...

Standing ovations are rare at SXSW, but the Matthew McConaughey starring western/musical/drama The Rivals of Amziah King was far more than all right, all right, all right, earning one from the Paramount Theatre crowd in Austin on Monday.

On a sleepy night when all the big studio movies already have played, from out of the blue comes this heartwarming, unconventional feature from filmmaker Andrew Patterson. SXSW launched an Oscar Best Picture winner three years ago in A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, and it could have another one on their hands if a buyer gets off their butt and takes this WME sales title. There’s been some deliberation and waiting by buyers when it comes to acquiring movies. No need to wait on this one, studios or streamers: This played in the heartland to rolling laughs, tears and cheers tonight.

Not only is the pic another...

In 2020 I reviewed a film premiering on Amazon called The Vast of Night, a small southwestern town drama that felt part Twilight Zone, part Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Its debuting filmmaker was Andrew Patterson, and I started my review predicting that based on that movie he was destined to become a very big thing.

Now five years later he has delivered his second film The Rivals of Amziah King, premiering Monday at SXSW, and he is working with much bigger name actors like Matthew McConaughey and Kurt Russell in a larger-scale crime drama/beekeeping/musical/character study, but still keeping it rural and real. Structurally, The Rivals of Amziah King seems to be two or three movie ideas rolled into one (at one point he was planning it as a seven-part limited TV series), which relies on the audience to follow the unfolding saga wherever it wants to take us.

It’s that time year again—when one might, upon their daily neighborhood perambulation, casually stumble upon a man dressed in a blood-splattered full-body jumpsuit and think to themself, this is perfectly fine and normal. But that’s the Halloween season for you, when the ghosts and goblins and AMC-obsessed Nicole Kidmans are out in full force for their yearly Halloween rituals.

Aside from meticulously inserting razor blades into the apples we all intend to hand out to local children, everyone’s favorite part of the Halloween season is—of course—the excuse to binge-watch our favorite horror movies, from the silly-scary (Hocus Pocus), to the fun-scary (Trick R Treat), to the scary-scary (The Evil Dead) or the really scary-scary (any news channel). In fact, horror movies have long been an integral part of the indie film ecosystem—turning minuscule budgets into huge box office numbers and launching the...