After cutting my teeth on two out-of-town film festivals, I’m now covering one in my own back yard. The 17th Dallas International Film Festival opened last night and will run through the fifth of May. Centered in Dallas’s West Village, in the heart of Uptown’s entertainment district, the lion’s share of screenings will be hosted at Violet Crown Cinema’s brand-spanking new Dallas location. A handful of screenings for DIFF 2023 will also be held at the historic Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, aka my friendly neighborhood art house cinema.

I was able to catch two films on opening night. The first was a bit of a disappointment, which is a bummer, because it was home-grown here in Texas. Match Me If You Can is one of those movies you feel hesitant to badmouth because it’s entirely inoffensive and has a good heart. Unfortunately, it’s also a bland and predictable romcom lacking much in the way of cinematic flair. You can see every dramatic beat coming from several miles away. The com part of the romcom is also fairly underwhelming; I think I chuckled audibly three times during the picture.

The story centers on Kip Parsons, a young, female programmer who, in a state of drunken confusion, registers one night on a new dating app called I Promise. When she receives an email notification that she has zero matches and should perhaps consider getting a dog instead of trying to find a boyfriend, Kip begins blogging about her terrible experience.

Her posts go viral, throwing the mom-and-pop dating app startup into crisis mode. The driving force behind I Promise, Riley Detamore, is also a lovable nerd who can’t get a date to save his life. The two have one of the most tortured meet-cutes in cinema history before movie shenanigans bring them together, tear them apart, and… Well, I won’t spoil it, but if you’ve seen your fair share of romantic comedies, you likely know how things end up.

The second film of the evening was a different animal altogether. The UK produced and set Medusa Deluxe also played at last month’s SXSW festival, and A24 has picked it up for distribution. The film is an unconventional take on the murder mystery. The fact that the deadly goings-on take place during a competitive hairdressing competition is only the first wrinkle. Writer and director Thomas Hardiman structured and shot his tightly wound thriller/comedy/horror as one continuous take.

I know that it’s getting easier and easier to pull off this sort of trick, with cameras getting ever lighter and essentially no limit on how long you can shoot with digital storage. Still, there were numerous times throughout the screening when I was questioning where a cut was hidden, because I knew there had to be several. Technological advances help, but the herculean effort of making sure each and every piece of the puzzle gets put in place at exactly the right moment must be a daunting prospect.

When one of their own is brutally murdered and scalped during the preparation for the competition, both hairdressers and models alike begin freaking out, to put it mildly. Hardiman’s relentless camera tracks behind and around the characters, giving us a frenetic feel that reflects the inner turmoil of everyone on screen. One sequence that features a cigarette getting a little too close to one of the meticulous hair creations made me audibly (and rather loudly) gasp.

The storytelling gets a little jumbled at points, and – I’m willing to blame my dumb American ears here – the thick Cockney accents are sometimes hard to decipher, but Hardiman’s flamboyant style and breakneck pace are something to behold. That’s to say nothing of his devilish sense of humor.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who has worked with the likes of Noah Baumbach on Marriage Story and my beloved C’mon, C’mon with Mike Mills, gives Medusa Deluxe a sumptuous look. Come for the wild murder mystery, stay for the closing-credits dance sequence featuring the entire cast.

Since I’m coming to DIFF 2023 as a local, I’ll be doing my regular thing at the day job while covering the fest. (This is one of the few times you’ll ever see me reference my regular, non-movie related employment on this website.) As a consequence, I’ll only be attending late-afternoon and evening screenings. This actually works out for me, as the bulk of early screenings for DIFF 2023 begin at around four in the afternoon. Plan on seeing a few updates during the week from me, most likely one on Wednesday and a post-mortem on either Friday or Sunday, similar to my SXSW 2023 coverage. I’m excited to gorge myself on movies for a week while still slipping into my own bed every night.

Cheers!

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