Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Powerful Women Who Ruled SXSW 2019

Japanese Breakfast and the Women Who Rock

Over 2,000 musical acts descended on Austin, Texas, for SXSW, with some performing up to a dozen gigs over a week-long span at various brand-sponsored musical showcases. There’s a rich history of acts breaking out at the fest—particularly female ones, from M.I.A. and Amy Winehouse to Katy Perry and Billie Eilish. And while I didn’t come close to taking in all that South-By had to offer musically, of the many showcases I did attend, the overarching theme was: 2019 is all about the ladies. Japanese Breakfast, a Philly-based indie rock outfit, produces dreamy, effervescent pop music, and wowed the crowd at the Dr. Martens stage with their cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams”—and frontwoman Michelle Zauner’s infectious joy.

Likewise, Clementine Creevy and her noise rock trio Cherry Glazerr absolutely shredded things up; New Zealand’s The Beths, led by Elizabeth Stokes, charmed with their collection of sunny, harmonizing, hook-heavy tunes; and Detroit’s Stef Chura proved that the wave of positive buzz is no mistake with a set of rockin’, oft-distorted tunes that recalled The Breeders crossed with Liz Phair. On the hip-hop side of things, Brooklyn-born Rico Nasty blew the lid off the Fader Fort and Mohawk stages, sauntering about in a pink cowboy hat, cradling a huge joint, and whipping the crowds into a frenzy—replete with mosh pits, stage-diving, twerking girls, and a pair of jeans that somehow made their way onstage (the pants-less culprit was never found).  —Marlow Stern

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

It takes balls to come to SXSW—a festival of sponsored content, tech world meetups, and branded activations, buzzing with billionaires and big money—and publicly decry capitalism. But that’s exactly what congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did, to a standing ovation. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez pulled zero punches during her packed event, saying that the prioritization of profit over people “is not sustainable and cannot be redeemed…There’s all this fear-mongering that government is going to take over every corporation and government is going to take over every business or every form of production. We should be scared right now because corporations have taken over our government.”

Her wide-ranging conversation with The Intercept’s Briahna Gray covered cries to abolish ICE and critiques of her own party. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who has often been accused of being overly radical or unrealistic, reserved the bulk of her ire for cowardice and incrementalism. “A year ago CNN had reports of ICE agents pinning down children and forcibly injecting them with antipsychotic drugs,” she told a rapt crowd. “And the thing that makes me furious is this idea of like, let’s just cage a few less. Let’s just inject a few less. ‘It’s too politically complicated.’ And for me, what is just so upsetting and heartbreaking about this moment is like, since when did it become the moderate position in America to continue caging children?” The enthusiastic response that the congresswoman received was rivaled only by the crowd’s reaction to Bill Nye, who made a surprise appearance to close out the Q&A. —Amy Zimmerman

The Cast of Booksmart

There’s a line reading that Beanie Feldstein does of the word “butthole” in Booksmart that had me howling. Kaitlyn Dever’s ability to cycle through about 40 different anxieties in the span of four seconds just through her facial expressions rattled me. Noah Galvin performs a karaoke number to Alanis Morissette that I may never stop thinking about. Billie Lourd haunts the movie like this weirdo, unsettling jack-in-the-box that I can’t wait to go to theaters in May and wind the crank of again. What I’m saying is the cast of Booksmart, Olivia Wilde’s glorious coming-of-age film, is across-the-board stunning. Each, along with the rest of their castmates, bring a tenderness to the high school experience and complications of friendship that is rarely seen in a movie this down-and-out hilarious. They’ve all been remarkable in projects before, but Booksmart elevates them to another level. —Kevin Fallon

Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Is Going to Be a Huge, Terrifying HitKIND OF A BIG DEAL

Kevin Fallon, Marlow Stern

Sam Jay

I saw a lot of stand-up comedy at SXSW this year. Fresh off the plane from Australia, The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng delivered a hilarious set that made the case for an Asian-American president. Jena Friedman, who hosts Adult Swim’s Soft Focus, gleefully made tech bros uncomfortable with her no-holds-barred jokes. Six months after becoming a father, Ricky Velez worried that he might be terrible at it. But no one I saw this week killed harder than Saturday Night Live writer Sam Jay. Strolling on stage with a confidence that out-paces her mere handful of years in the stand-up game, the Atlanta-born, Boston-raised Jay absolutely slayed SXSW crowds on two consecutive nights with bits that included an extended riff on why women should start to pee standing up if they want equal pay. Hard to imagine a male comic getting away with a joke like that, but this future superstar had the audience howling. —Matt Wilstein

Lupita Nyong’o in Us

Us isn’t exactly the social-horror masterpiece that Jordan Peele’s Get Out was. But his follow-up is still pretty damn good, and we’d venture that a lion’s share of that damn goodness is owed to the film’s star, Lupita Nyong’o. The Oscar-winner navigates a role that should be impossible. She’s a modern-day Ellen Ripley, working so hard to kick ass and keep her family alive that there’s not a bead of sweat to spare, a survivalist performance that stands up to the cinema greats. But then there’s her work as her “Untethered,” the doppelganger who arrives at her vacation house to terrorize her. She contorts her body and her voice in ways that render her almost recognizable, so terrifying she practically implants on your nightmares. It’s the showcase the phenomenal actress deserves. —Kevin Fallon

Her Smell

Her Smell is just as rank and foul as it sets out to be. Taking place over the course of five extended scenes, Alex Ross Perry’s latest offering is all about unpleasant sensory overload. The camera loops through labyrinthine backstage setups, following Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) and her bandmates deeper and deeper into their own dysfunction. Their Riot Grrrl-style band, Something She, is being blown up from the inside by its unhinged front woman. The party’s gone on for way too long, but Becky refuses to cut the crap, terrorizing everyone around her until there’s no one left. For over two hours, she teeters on the edge of total catastrophe, screaming, vomiting, bleeding, and shaking. When Becky becomes convinced that she won’t survive the next show, the audience believes it. Up until the final shots, viewers won’t know if they’re bearing witness to a comeback story or watching a woman kill herself on stage. A charismatic narcissist who can’t stop hurting the people she loves the most, Elisabeth Moss’s Becky Something is one of the truest female monsters who’s ever been caught on film, daring you not to look away. —Amy Zimmerman

The Austin Potluck

We have Uber Eats to thank for getting celebrated chef and Ugly Delicious host David Chang, who welcomed his first baby into the world about two weeks ago, down to SXSW to curate The Austin Potluck, a 10-course meal cooked by five different female chefs from around the country. Deb Keetch, the executive sous chef at Chang’s first L.A. restaurant Majordōmo, may have won the non-competition in my mind with her crispy butterball potatoes and short rib ssam lettuce wraps. But other highlights came from Jessica Koslow, who delivered a version of Sqirl’s refreshing crispy rice salad and North Carolina-based chef Ashley Christensen, who had the most talked-about dish of the night in her Macaroni au Gratin Frittatine—essentially a delicious fried ball of macaroni and cheese sitting on top of a bright roasted tomato relish. Who could ask for better fuel before heading back out into the SXSW night? —Matt Wilstein

Richard Pryor’s Widow on Brando Sex: ‘He Wasn’t Ashamed!’‘RIDE OR DIE BITCH’

Matt Wilstein, Marlow Stern

Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin was in Austin with the concert film she financed herself, documenting her Laugh Your Head Off world tour, in which she discusses the fallout—and attacks on her life, liberty, and Constitutional rights—following her notorious Trump decapitated-head photo shoot. One major takeaway is that Hollywood has still blacklisted Griffin. No one would fund the film, or greenlight a pitch for a docuseries about the experience, or hire her for a TV guest spot. It’s surprising. No matter how you feel about what she did or what your politics are, there is something important and fascinating about what happened to her, and so much drama in her story that it should be ratings catnip to Hollywood execs. Griffin’s Hell of a Story admirably proves that she will tell her own story, if no one else will. —Kevin Fallon

Sword of Trust

There’s a scene about midway through Lynn Shelton’s new film Sword of Trust in which the four main characters find themselves locked in the back of a carpeted van for an extended period of time as they are driven through the backwoods of rural Alabama. Marc Maron, who plays an aging pawnshop owner, proceeds to deliver a monologue about love and addiction and letting go that absolutely floored me. The WTF podcast host and stand-up comic has shown that he can act on Netflix’s GLOW. But this performance is on another level. The plot of the film, involving an antique sword that supposedly proves the South won the Civil War, seems pretty silly at first. But Maron, along with co-stars Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins and Jon Bass, helps elevate it into something not only quite funny but surprisingly deep. —Matt Wilstein

Combo Chimbita

Playing to a packed inner room during The Onion & A.V. Club’s “Just Another Manic Monday” at Austin’s Mohawk, Combo Chimbita accessed a higher plane. The quartet, fronted by lead singer Carolina Oliveros, puts on a transcendent, incredibly fun show. Oliveros, energetic and unstoppable, alternately belts and chants, displaying a full range from priestess to hype woman. Combo Chimbita are self-described “tropical futurists”; for Oliveros’ charisma and vocal power alone, they deserve to be listened to live, in a sweaty back room of believers. —Amy Zimmerman