Last week, I had the honour of representing JoBlo once again at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. This was my second year covering the festival, and I have to say, going to Austin has always been special to me. I remember, as a film fan in the ’90s and 2000s, reading the early days of film news coverage on the original websites and always being impressed by how many of my favorite writers came from Austin. It seemed like the film nerd capital of the world, yet I never actually made it out to Austin until relatively late in my career. Of course, the town never disappoints, as it’s a party-hardy city if ever there was one (I ate lots of BBQ and drank lots of whiskey, that’s for sure).

Another thing about Austin is how hardcore the movie fans are, with the screenings I attended at SXSW being some of the more raucous in recent memory. I still have a few reviews to catch up on, but I managed to catch most of the big titles (read my reviews HERE), and I wanted to highlight five of my favourites from the fest.

Monitor:

I’m actually surprised no distributor has picked this one up yet, as it feels like the kind of horror flick that could turn into a big franchise for an upstart distributor. It’s a slasher movie for the digital age, with a group of streaming video moderators who find themselves targeted by a malevolent presence that travels via streaming video. It’s produced by the people behind the Smile franchise, and I still think it’s only a matter of time before someone picks this up for theaters.

Hokum:

This is Neon’s big horror movie for the summer, with it directed by acclaimed Irish helmer Damian McCarthy. While I don’t think I would call this one really scary, it’s still a beautifully crafted ghost story, anchored by a superb performance by the great Adam Scott, who’s having a much-deserved moment in the sun with Severance.

Obsession:

Of all the movies I caught at SXSW, this feels like the one that has the most potential to become a major hit. Focus is giving it a wide release in May, and it absolutely slayed the audience I saw it with. It’s the story of a lovestruck lad who makes a wish that proves to be a nightmare for everyone it touches. Obsession has loads of gore, some pitch-black dark comedy, but also a provocative storyline that will no doubt prompt much discussion.

Power Ballad:

A few of my fellow critics at SXSW were ribbing me a bit for my love of John Carney’s Power Ballad, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for Carney’s movies (Once and Sing Street are my favourites), and to me this is one of his best. Paul Rudd is at his absolute best as a singer who finds one of his compositions stolen by a pop star. It comes out this summer from Lionsgate, and I hope it’s a hit.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice:

I saved the best for last. I’m a sucker for action movies, and director BenDavid Grabinski made a great one, with James Marsden showing serious action chops opposite Vince Vaughn in a double role. This actually hits Hulu on Friday, which is a shame, as it’s the kind of movie that deserves to make $100 million in theaters. Such is our time, I guess.

Which one of these movies are you most hyped to see? Let us know in the comments.

The post SXSW: What Were The Best Movies We Saw At The Fest? appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: Mike (James Marsden) is a low-level enforcer for a crime syndicate who wants to run away with his lover, Alice (Eiza Gonzalez), but he has a problem. She’s married to his former friend, a vengeful gangster named Nick (Vince Vaughn), who, when he learns of the affair, sets Mike up as a rat in his organization, with him being marked for death. But a remorseful Nick from the future unexpectedly shows up, having somehow gained access to a time machine, hoping to undo the damage he’s caused to Mike and Alice’s lives.

REVIEW: Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is a movie that badly deserves a theatrical run but, for one reason or another, will be heading straight to streaming, premiering on Hulu on March 27th. It’s the highest-end movie to premiere on the service and is such a blast that one figures it would have done really well in theaters, but such is the state of the business nowadays that this high-concept action-comedy will never be seen that way. I saw it here at SXSW in a packed theater, and it rocked the house. It slaps and marks the arrival of BenDavid Grabinski (who wrote Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) as a major talent.

While some won’t be able to take the movie seriously because it uses a time machine, despite not being a science-fiction movie, it doesn’t really ask you to. The whole film adopts a kind of cartoonish anarchy that totally works thanks to the quality of the action and the committed performances by all three leads.

Vince Vaughn makes a welcome return to action as Nick, who, in the present, is a vengeful, cold-blooded gangster, but in the future is a man somewhat haunted by his own misdeeds, bitterly regretting setting up his friend to be killed. As future Nick, he has to not only win over Mike to make his plan work, but also somehow convince the mean-spirited present Nick to participate, and Vaughn expertly plays off both Marsden and himself. Vaughn gets to show off the comedy chops that made him one of the biggest stars of the 2000s, while also digging back into action for the first time since his two S. Craig Zahler films, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete, with the movie loaded with some major gunfights and violent scraps.

Yet, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice also marks a huge change of pace for James Marsden, who makes for a terrific action hero. His fight scenes are even better than Vaughn’s, with him really nailing the choreography while also not departing too much from the likable, easygoing presence he’s shown in his comedies. His Mike is a nice guy, with him convincing as a romantic lead opposite Eiza Gonzalez (who’s arguably never been this loose and seems to be having a blast), or a comic foil for the sharp-tongued Nick (both versions).

The film is set in a kind of heightened underworld, where a kingpin named Sosa (Keith David) is the boss and is celebrating the return of his beloved son, Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro—who steals a lot of scenes as his amusingly moronic character), from prison. The cast is peppered with all kinds of recognizable names thrown into the fray, including Lewis Tan as an amusingly dumb muscle man appropriately named Road Rage Ryan (while Arturo Castro is funny as the aptly named Dumbass Tony). The film has to walk a thin line, as the tone has to remain comic but also set up real stakes, with Sosa being a legitimate threat—he’s so evil his favorite hitman is a cannibal who likes to eat his still-living victims (the ultimate identity of this killer, named The Barron, is too good to spoil).

Through it all, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’s pace never lags, with Grabinski contributing some witty asides, such as repeated deep dives into the leads’ shared love of Gilmore Girls. The film is also packed with eighties and nineties needle drops, which—for once—aren’t the obvious, lazy choices. It’s also gleefully R-rated, with tons of gory carnage, especially in the final battle royale, which even has a few nods to John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow with how weapons are hidden for our heroes. It’s a rollicking good time and is easily the best action comedy I’ve seen in the last couple of years. And really, how can you not love a movie that starts with a Billy Joel song from Oliver and Company?

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

AMAZING

9

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It’s time for SXSW! Once again, film fans will be gathering in Austin, Texas, for a week of cool, largely genre-focused movies looking to build a bit of buzz before many of them come out over the next few months. SXSW has steadily been rising in reputation, with it perhaps most famous for being the place where eventual Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All at Once had its world premiere. This will be JoBlo’s second time covering the fest, as we attended last year, where we caught the world premieres of The Accountant 2, Another Simple Favor, Death of a Unicorn, and more.

SXSW is interesting in that it seems to be a better place for studios to launch crowd-pleasers than a high-end indie market, with last year’s probably best film at the festival, The Rivals of Amziah King, yet unreleased. Yet genre indies do get sold there, with Good Boy having been a pretty big acquisition last year, and it did solid box office when it came out last summer. With that in mind, here are some of the movies we’re most eager to see this year.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

Radio Silence returns with a sequel to their survival horror flick, with Samara Weaving reprising her star-making role as a young woman marked for death by a family who wanted to use her as a satanic sacrifice. Fresh off killing her way out of that situation, her character is forced to participate in another “kill or be killed” game by another clan, which includes such genre stalwarts as Elijah Wood, David Cronenberg, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Plus, Kathryn Newton co-stars as Weaving’s sister, who is forced to join the hunt. The last one was a blast, so here’s hoping the sequel is just as good.

They Will Kill You: 

Oddly, this seems to have the same premise as Ready or Not, in which a young woman (in this case, Zazie Beetz) is hunted by a satanic cult that lives in the high-end hotel she’s just been hired at. Patricia Arquette co-stars. This comes from WB/New Line, who have had a strong run of horror movies as of late, so this might be another crowd-pleaser, although it’s odd that this and Ready or Not 2 are opening so close to each other (they hit theaters only one week apart).

Over Your Dead Body: 

Samara Weaving seems to be the MVP of this year’s SXSW, with her showing up in not one, but two movies. This one pairs her with Jason Segel in a remake of the Norwegian action-comedy-horror flick The Trip. In it, Segel and Weaving play a couple who are each planning to murder the other on a weekend trip to the country, only to join forces against a bigger threat. This has action scenes by 87North and is directed by The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, who also helmed MacGruber.

Pretty Lethal: 

Another 87North production, this one focuses on a troupe of ballerinas forced to rely on years of brutal training to survive a team of armed men. Maude Apatow, Lana Condor, and Uma Thurman star.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice: 

Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, and Eiza Gonzalez star in this buddy action movie about two hitmen, the woman they both love, and… a time machine? The trailer for this one looked like a lot of fun, and it’s nice to see Vaughn return to action, having slayed in the now-classic Brawl in Cell Block 99.

Power Ballad: 

One of my favorite directors, John Carney (Sing Street, Once), returns with another music-driven comedy in which Paul Rudd plays a frustrated singer-songwriter whose composition is stolen by a pop star (Nick Jonas). I love Carney, and I love Rudd, so this one is an easy must-see and may well end up as my favorite of the fest (there’s never been a Carney movie I didn’t love).

Hokum: 

Adam Scott stars in this Neon-distributed horror film about an author (played by the great Adam Scott) staying in a hotel in Ireland that might be haunted. Scott is having a much-deserved moment in the spotlight thanks to Severance, so I’m eager to see him stretch. Also, Neon has become a trusted name in horror.

Obsession: 

Curry Barker’s film was a sensation at TIFF’s Midnight Madness, where I (regrettably) missed out on seeing it. I’m looking to remedy that, and Focus is using SXSW as a platform to launch a movie they surely hope will become the next indie horror smash, with it getting a prime summer release date.

Normal: 

Bob Odenkirk makes a welcome return to action in Ben Wheatley’s small-town-set shoot-’em-up. Odenkirk plays a temporary sheriff who discovers the town he’s posted in harbors a deadly secret. I actually caught this one at TIFF (read my review), so this will be a repeat viewing for me — albeit a welcome one. It’s even showing on 35mm film!

I Love Boosters: 

Boots Riley returns with his much-anticipated follow-up to his indie hit Sorry to Bother You. Not much is known about this one, but it stars Keke Palmer and Demi Moore, and is being positioned as a huge release by Neon.

Which movie are you most eager to see? Let us know in the comments!

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Riddle me this! What’s better than one Vince Vaughn? Give up? How about two Vince Vaughns! Okay, so maybe that wasn’t a riddle exactly, but you know what I’m getting at. Today, 20th Century Studios debuted a trailer for Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, an upcoming action comedy starring Vince Vaughn as a time-traveling gangster trying to right one of his most heinous wrongs.

Who Stars in the New Action-Comedy Alongside Vince Vaughn?

Starring Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Stephen Root, Lewis Tan, Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, and Arturo Castro, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, produced by Andrew Lazar, p.g.a., and executive produced by Richard Middleton and Vanessa Humphrey. The film is a hilarious, stylized, R-rated action-comedy about two gangsters and the woman they love trying to survive the most dangerous night of their lives. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s one wild ingredient added to the mix: a time machine.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice will receive its world premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026 on March 14. The film will screen at the historic Paramount Theatre in Austin as part of the festival’s official line-up. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray will attend SXSW this year, so be sure to look for our review during the festival window.

More Time-Traveling Comedies, Please

It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve had a great time-traveling comedy, especially one that looks as action-packed as Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. I’m enjoying the dry comedy and over-the-top action in today’s trailer, and it’s nice to see James Marsden in something outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. I’m aware that he stars in Hulu’s thriller series Paradise, but I only watched one episode before getting distracted by something shiny. I do plan to go back to it at some point, but my list of to-be-watched movies and TV series is crazy long. At any rate, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice looks like an excellent setup for Vaughn, Marsden, and González to play off each other’s comedic chops. Plus, Stephen Root plays a cannibal? I’m in!

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice premieres on Hulu on March 27, 2026.

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