REVIEW: 'Paradox' Premiere @ SXSW - Film Directed by Daryl Hannah w/ Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

Daryl Hannah and Neil Young
SXSW Film Festival - Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX
March 15, 2018

PARADOX, the Daryl Hannah directed Shakey Pictures film featuring Neil Young + Promise Of The Real with Willie Nelson, premiered last night at the SXSW Film Festival at the Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX.

By all accounts, it was a "trip".

From Neil Young Premieres Trippy New Film 'Paradox' at SXSW | Rolling Stone by David Fear:

"We made this in the spirit of lighthearted fun," Daryl Hannah said, staring out into crowd packed in to Austin's Paramount Theater. "So we hope you can relax your brains." A mellowed-out frontal lobe is pretty much a prerequisite for Paradox, the actor-turned-filmmaker's free-form collaboration with boyfriend Neil Young and his backing band Promise of the Real that the couple premiered at SXSW last night. Shot on both Super 8 and on Hannah's phone over four days in the Rockies between tour dates (and while everybody adjusted to the high altitude), it's a funny, trippy homemade project that's part performance movie and part pleasantly buzzed daydream. You could dig through its pastoral images and pulp-Western playin' around for messages if you wanted, but essentially, it's an off-hours riff designed to channel Young's opening line from Tonight's the Night's "Speakin' Out": "I went to the movie the other night/The plot was groovy, it was out of sight."

...

The whole shebang is one lovely lark, "a labor of love," Young said during the postscreening Q&A. "Well ... not a lot of labor." The rock star was in fine wisecracking form, joking that the soundtrack was "probably coming out 26 minutes from now" (it's out March 23rd, the same day that Netflix will begin streaming the movie, FYI) and pretending to take a call. "Bernard Shakey is on the phone," he told the audience, referring to the directorial pseudonym he used for 1982's Human Highway and 2003's Greendale, both distant cousins to Paradox. "That's a piece of wood," Hannah replied. No less than two fans told Young that their fathers were so excited that they were asking him questions. One woman kept thanking him for his music. Everyone seemed stoked to simply be there.

"I'd like to make a real movie some day," Hannah said, and as the folks onstage and in the audience began laughing, she quickly added, "No offense guys. Just y'know, something with a crew and a budget." As for now, she's made something that's perfect for, in the words of the Man in the Black Hat, "smoke a beer, sip a joint to." That's no small feat. Paradox is custom-built for dipping into at random, a series of strolling contradictions that somehow make sense when you meet it on its own sly, stoned level. It's not for everyone, but it doesn't need to be. It could not be more perfectly titled.

Full review at Neil Young Premieres Trippy New Film 'Paradox' at SXSW | Rolling Stone by David Fear.

As previously reported, Netflix.com will stream the film globally on 23 March, the same day as the release of the movie's soundtrack.

PARADOX
Director: Daryl Hannah
w/ Neil Young + Promise Of The Real & Willie Nelson
(Click photo to enlarge)

Also, see interview at Our SXSW conversation with Neil Young about ‘Paradox,’ his archives and more | American-Statesman/Austin360 by Peter Blackstock.

Here is the new trailer for the film "PARADOX" directed by Daryl Hannah with Neil Young + Promise Of The Real & Willie Nelson.

PARADOX #SXSW tonight!!! pic.twitter.com/3LkoRxXy8k

— Daryl Hannah (@dhlovelife) March 15, 2018

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