SXSW 2026 Reviews: ‘Family Movie,’ ‘Crash Land,’ ‘Kill Me’
In my third dispatch from the 2026 SXSW Film Festival, we take a look at three films within the Narrative Spotlight section that share a similar idea of human connection. Whether it’s a film about a family trying to make a low budget horror film, or about a group of young, amateur filmmakers trying to make a real movie about stunts, or one man’s journey to find out if he harmed himself or if something more sinister is going on, and someone wants him dead, these films all share a core drive to want to explore the internal emotional depths of their characters, even if not everything about the film works on a technical level or thematically interesting way by the credits start to roll.
Family Movie (Dir. Kevin Bacon)
There is something hilarious about Jack Smith (Bacon), in that he may or may not relate to the person that created him for the big screen. Bacon, a professional actor whom we’ve known for five decades plus, is mostly a figure known for his past work, being associated with a Hollywood name game, and his family, which is made up of actors Kyra Sedgwick, Travis Bacon and Sosie Bacon, all of whom share the screen with him in Family Movie. There is something about the fact that while Jack isn’t as talkative as Mr. Bacon, one can tell that they are old souls, clinging to their ways of making movies in an unconventional, independent, family run method that makes them happy. But for the audience, one can feel detached a bit from the purpose of why someone like Jack is making his “big film” as much as why Bacon needed to make Family Movie outside of wanting to work with his family on a movie.
The film follows the Smith family as they are making Jack’s latest B-movie horror flick, which he is in massive debt on and needs to finish so he can release it to make some of his money back that he owes. In creating the final death scene involving his daughter Ulla, they are interrupted by their neighbor, so Ellen, Jack’s wife and other star of his films, takes it upon herself to pay a visit next door, and after a pleasant conversation that turns the corner quickly to hostel, Ellen kills their neighbor, and as the film plays out, we find out that when he is mad, or someone threatens her family, she becomes a murderer. In a race against the clock before anyone finds about the murders, and finish the movie on time, the Smith family quartet, who have been slowly drifting apart since Jack started losing money and hiding it from Ellen, Ulla started auditioning for roles outside of her family’s films, and Trent, their son, can’t earn his father’s trust in working behind the camera, so he has transitioned to working on his MMA fighting/garage band. Family Movie works best with the Bacon/Sedgwick family all on screen together, working on their character’s issues of lost connection as a family, and seeing if they can fix their problems before there is no time left to do so. Their performances are good, nothing to over praise or criticize on that end, but the film, which runs at a nice 82-minutes long, feels like it runs out of ideas about twenty-five minutes in, looks like it was shot for network television and not the big screen, and don’t have enough fun with its meta, murder mystery plot that connects to the family drama. It’s a shame to say this, because it sounds like such a good idea on paper, but Family Movie is a weird project that neither has the passion or purpose to justify its existence.
Grade: D+
Crash Land (Dir. Dempsey Bryk)
In the second film on this dispatch about movie making, Dempsey Bryk’s coming of age story finds three boys journey of making amateur stuntmen making small films in their small time to pass the time in-between wreaking havoc, drinking, and driving everyone in their small town nuts; everyone hates them. When their friend and co-star Darby (Billy Bryk) dies while filming, Lance (Gabriel LaBelle) and Clay (Noah Parker) reckon with the idea that their work has had no meaning or value as of now, with it only leading to the passing of their best friend. In coming to this conclusion, the duo set out to make a real film, one that will turn the perspective of them and the memory of Darby around, while also giving their friend a legacy more than just stunts and cheap tricks.
In between the crass humor, reckless abandon found within Lance and Clay, Dempsey Bryk is able to tap into the scared nature of a generation slowly growing up with little to show for itself, and terrified at the results of their choices they’ve made so far. While the time person and lack of modern technology suggests this is a period piece set in the early 2000s, Crash Land looks to examine the fragile minds and souls of young men as they are turning to the next chapters of their lives. It’s a similar narrative theme found in something like 2025’s Marty Supreme, and while that is a better film overall, this feels like a spiritual cousin to that film in that through exploring these fragile men, we find that the way they are acting is their form of trying to connect, and are truly sad underneath all the loudness that surround them. Incredible work from Park, a real find and revelation in this film as he is carrying a quiet sadness within Clay throughout the film, is only matched by yet another memorable performance from LaBelle, who continues to deliver consistently interesting, layered work in his young career. Simple but effective but not groundbreaking, Crash Land comes of age for its characters over the course of its runtime and shows its creative behind that camera has a lot of promise behind him.
Grade: B-
Kill Me (Dir. Peter Warren)
When Jimmy (Charlie Day) wakes up in his bathtub one night, he slowly discovers he’s covered in his own blood, with his wrists cut, about to pass out again, this time for good. He calls 9-1-1, and the dispatcher that picks up the phone is Margot (Allison Williams), who talks to him on the phone till the ambulance arrives. The whole time he is on the phone, Jimmy tells her he didn’t do it, even though we find out that Jimmy is suffering from depression, mostly in large part to his girlfriend breaking up with him years ago and the childhood trauma of losing his father. His mother and step father worry about him all the time, his sister Alice (Aya Cash) is over him, and his physiatrist (Giancarlo Esposito) wants to just make sure he is doing okay as he’s taken a lot of time to make sure Jimmy is back to being his normal self. When he wakes up from the hospital, he is convinced that he didn’t try to harm himself, and that someone is out to kill him; and given his state of mind and past history, no one believes him. All except Margot, who reaches out to him, unprofessionally, after he’s out of the hospital to see how he is, and when she discovers Jimmy, he has turned his apartment into a crime scene, looking for all clues to help his case. When they turn on a black light and it is suggested that a bleach cleanup has occurred recently, Jimmy and Margot are on the case to solve who might’ve had it out for him.
While the entire film plays out exactly how you’d think when you hire an actor known mostly for playing villainous characters on television and the big screen, the key to Kill Me is its examination at depression and the dive into both Jimmy and Margot’s past that leads them both needing each other as a vessel to close the harsh chapters in their lives that they’ve yet to close on their own. Kill Me dances on the line between being a very fun murder mystery and trauma drama, and this success is because of Warren’s script alongside the performances from Day and Williams, whom the latter is quite excellent here as she is able to hold her own comedic chops against her co-star while also being moving about Margot’s past, and opening herself to a complete stranger, for whom she grows attached to. By the time the credits roll, it doesn’t matter who really was the murderer, because Kill Me is less about the thrills of the whodunit and rather the empathy found within its flawed characters.
Grade: B
SXSW 2026 Reviews: ‘Family Movie,’ ‘Crash Land,’ ‘Kill Me’ 
San Quentin Film Festival (SQFF) to Hold Event at Central California Women’s Facility 
‘Never After Dark’ Review: Dave Boyle’s Ghostly Spooker Will Keep You Guessing [B] SXSW 
SXSW 2026 Reviews: ‘Wishful Thinking,’ ‘The Sun Never Sets,’ ‘Obsession’