The second annual Cinema Columbus Film Festival opens April 26 and continues across the city through April 30 at various screening venues. Filmmaker Dutch Southern thinks you should go.
“If you’re lucky enough to live in a town with a film festival – especially one that has a theater named Studio 35, I love that title – you should trust that these people that have put this together are giving you something you wouldn’t get normally,” Southern says. “And that’s not against Netflix. That’s not against Marvel movies. I go see every Marvel movie, but those you will be able to see anytime. A festival is a special experience and they show you special stuff.”
Southern’s feature debut as writer/director, Only the Good Survive, had the stuff to be included in this year’s Cinema Columbus schedule, with a 9 p.m. screening April 29 at, yes, Studio 35. A twisty, stylish and violent tale of a heist gone way, way, wrong, the film follows Brea’s (Sidney Flanagan) recounting of events to a Texas sheriff.
Southern and his talented ensemble craft a Scott Pilgrim meets Wicker Man meets Keyser Söze vibe that’s full of color, action and attitude.
“I wanted this to be a fast movie,” Southern recalls. “I did not want to get stuck.
“I told a lot of people before we made it that we were going to get into the cringe, we were going to get out of our comfort zones. And everyone committed to it. And then, even myself, when we were cutting the film, I was like, ‘Oh wow, is this too far?’ But it was a commitment I made at the very beginning. And luckily, there’s been people who’ve seen it that totally dig the vibe. I dig the vibe. It’s a very strange tone, but it works if you stay till the end.”
It works as a bloody blast of genre fun, and Southern anchors it all with snarky humor (one joke about liking The Clash made me laugh out loud) and a self-aware confidence that prompts the sheriff himself to ask Brea if her story is horror or comedy.
“It’s both,” she says, channeling Southern.
”I consider this, first and foremost, like a lo-fi DIY punk rock fever dream,” Southern elaborates. “So, structurally, the first act is a heist. The second act is more of a horror-like thriller. And then the third act is, you know, when it looks like things couldn’t get any worse, it becomes sort of a Hercule Poirot summation gathering. It’s got those elements, but they are compartmentalized in a way that I think gradually pulls you in and takes you out as opposed to ping-ponging between all of them.”
As Brea, Flanagan delivers another impressive turn, in only her second role since that tremendous debut in 2020’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
“Oh, she’s incredible, she’s the real deal,” Southern confirms.
And while two of Flanagan’s talented co-stars (Darius Fraser and Will Ropp) will be here for the screening, Flanagan’s visit to Columbus will have to wait a few months.
“She’s in a band, Starjuice. Their song plays at the very end,” Southern says. “She’s going on tour and I think they end up in Columbus. (Editor’s Note: September 1 at Spacebar) They’re amazing live.”
But until then, Southern promises a unique experience of his own at Cinema Columbus.
“Most of the films (at festivals) are chosen by people who love cinema, and this one’s no different,” he says. “So you’re going to go in there and you’re going to see something that most people won’t be able to see.
“It’s going to be weird. It’s going to be wild, and it’s also going to be an experience that you will be one of the few rarefied people to have.”
Get weird with Only the Good Survive April 29, 9 p.m. at Studio 35, 3055 Indianola Ave. in Clintonville. Tickets and info at CinemaColumbus.com. Learn more about the film at onlythegoodsurvive.com.
