SXSW: Day Six – 'American Born Chinese,' 'Tetris,' and Breakout Queer Hit 'Bottoms'

Approaching the sixth day of South by Southwest, Austin is buzzing around music events mixed with the festival's ongoing film and television offerings. Last year's breakout hit "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is being touted at every screening for winning Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. The movie looms large on a day like today when "American Born Chinese" premiered at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin.

"American Born Chinese"

"American Born Chinese" is the newest series from Disney+ that happens to costar some of the biggest names of "Everything Everywhere All at Once," including Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and James Hong. Created by Kelvin Yu, the premiere included the first two episodes, soon to be available to the general public on the streamer on May 24, 2023.

As a sophomore in high school, student Jin Wang (actor Ben Wang) wants to earn a spot on the soccer team and improve his social standing. He has a crush on a girl in school but is constantly aware of the Asian stereotypes his white classmates hurl his way daily. Many of his teenage plans are thrown off track when he is assigned a Chinese exchange student named Wei-Chen Sun (Jim Liu) as his shadow. Jin's parents constantly fight about his father's employment status. Meanwhile, the Gods of Chinese mythology appear while searching for a stolen magical Iron Staff.

While many of us who attended the premiere of "American Born Chinese" had high hopes of recently crowned Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh making a surprise appearance at the debut, the actor could not attend. On deck was series director and executive producer Destin Daniel Cretton, notable for his entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." It was a lively discussion about the moment that Asian representation is currently having in film and television, breaking barriers by having a predominantly Asian cast featured heavily in this new Disney show.

"American Born Chinese" is a delightfully fun action comedy that is fit for any family to enjoy. There are no queer elements to the story, at least not in the first two episodes. But the show features themes of belonging, family, societal norms, and connection to one's roots that cannot be denied. Michelle Yeoh is radiant as ever, fresh off an awards season that will undoubtedly bring viewers to this new series. Born from the graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, "American Born Chinese" has clear messages for his audience of inclusion and understanding, which are sorely needed in this current climate.

"Tetris"

Next up was "Tetris," a new AppleTV+ film that will premiere on the streaming platform later this month. The film is based on the true story of the heroic efforts by video game programmer Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) and Russian inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov) to bring the classic game "Tetris" out of the Soviet Union and into the hands of the world. What transpired were risky legal negotiations to secure the rights to the game, setting up an epic battle between the former USSR, minor software companies, Nintendo, Atari, and Mirrorsoft, all at the tail-end of the Cold War.

Before the film debuted at the Paramount Theatre, I got to jump on the red carpet to discuss the game and the movie with lead star Taron Egerton. I asked the Welsh native about his experiences with "Tetris" as a kid, knowing that he was born one year after the events depicted in the film he is starring in.

He noted, "I was born the day after the last scene of the movie on the 10th of November. I got a Gameboy when I was 10 and 'Tetris' was one of the games I received. I don't play that much to be honest...I was more of a Pokémon guy. But I did like Tetris."

Even though Egerton is a Pokéman fan, that fact didn't stop him from excelling in the role of Henk Rogers. With the real Henk and Alexey on hand at the film's world premiere, Egerton was likely nervous about unveiling such a personal story for these two men. But the film is quite a success, as it bills itself as "a thriller on steroids," as Rogers himself told me on the red carpet.

"Tetris" gracefully touches on Cold War tensions, pitting expanding software companies against one another in an internal war to own the rights to a game that would become a global handheld favorite. Egerton takes on the difficult task of playing Rogers, a Dutch man who grew up in New York and lives in Japan with his wife and daughter. His daughter, Maya, is now the CEO of Tetris, so clearly, Henk Rogers was successful in his endeavors against the Russians. But the film does a fantastic job of introducing every act as an 8-bit "Level" for Henk to get to, as many of us have experienced while playing the game itself.

But even if you know that Tetris would become a sensation outside of its Russian origins, the story of the men who brought the game out of Communist hands and into American pockets is a supercharged one. Family, profits, corporate greed, and futuristic ideas are all in focus in this film, and Taron Egerton carries the project with ease and charm.

"Bottoms"

Finally, I had the distinct pleasure of catching the second screening of "Bottoms," the newest entry into the teen comedy space by cowriters Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman of "Shiva Baby" notoriety. Directed by Seligman and costarring Sennott, "Bottoms" takes a page out of the books of "Not Another Teen Movie," "American Pie," and "Superbad" to share in satire and laugh at the awkwardness of being a teenager in high school.

Rachel Sennott plays PJ alongside Ayo Edebiri as Josie, two queer students in a high school devoted to making their lives miserable. Not-so-subtly nicknamed "Faggot 1" and "Faggot 2" by their classmates, PJ and Ayo choose to live out their senior year by starting a fight club with the sole intention of hooking up with cheerleaders that each of them has a crush on. Blissfully over-the-top in every proper way, this queer high school sex comedy lives in an alternate reality where there are no rules, teachers condone violence, and "The Big Game" is all anyone can think about.

"Bottoms" leans heavily on its political incorrectness and delivers satire on a silver platter. With a lack of female solidarity in a male-dominated school, PJ and Ayo take advantage of their nerdom in order to score with the female student body... so to speak. The movie lives in a universe akin to "Election," outlandish and extra in every way imaginable. It's a new queer classic produced by Elizabeth Banks and her husband, Max Handelman, and scored by Charli XCX and Leo Birenberg.

I didn't get the chance to attend the premiere of "Bottoms" and almost didn't make it into the other film screening, largely due to the unbelievable word of mouth coming out of the festival. The screening I did squeeze into was filled with fans that came to watch the movie a second time, a rarity at a festival with huge world premieres and star-studded red carpets. Volunteers from SXSW lined the steps of the Zach Theater to catch a glimpse of what will certainly become a financially successful movie. Much of the popularity of "Bottoms" is due to the quick-witted characters and idiosyncratic dialogue provided by Sennott and Seligman. The supporting cast lifts the 90-minute queer comedy to new heights by introducing audiences to the comedic stylings of model Kaia Gerber, Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, Nicholas Galitzine, and NFL star Marshawn Lynch.

"Bottoms" is a hit, and audiences will want to see this one when it's released theatrically later this summer.