SXSW wristbands are now on sale for Austin residents.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
One of the benefits of giving up our city for 10 days a year is the dream of the elusive, Austinites-only SXSW wristband. On Tuesday, January 16, the festival issued its annual somewhat surprise announcement of the sale, and the news couldn't have come at a better time. As we battle the throes of these hard Austin winters, it's nice to be reminded that spring is just around the corner. (Well, in our case, it's really is just right around the corner. It's supposed to be 70 degrees on Saturday.)
Beginning at 11 am on January 16, organizers are offering SXSW Music wristbands to Austin-area residents for $169. The credentials offer secondary access to all official SXSW music showcases from March 12-18, 2018.
In order to snag a wristband, the buyer must purchase online and have a credit card with an Austin ZIP code. (A list of approved ZIP codes can be found here.) Customers may buy two wristbands, but both names must be provided at the time of purchase, and each individual must pick up their band in-person with a valid ID. Wristbands can be picked up March 12-17 at the Austin Convention Center.
In addition to gaining entry to over 100 stages, festival organizers point out that the wristbands enable locals to catch more than 2,000 international, national, and regional artists over the course of the fest.
For more information, and to purchase a wristband, go here. Be forewarned, released in limited quantities, these wristbands sell out fast.
Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck in The Accountant 2.
Photo by Warrick Page/Prime
In this Hollywood era of franchises, finding one to call their own is a priority for many movie stars. Over 30 years into his career, Ben Affleck had yet to find one; he did star as Batman in multiple movies, but that role has been interchangeable. He seemed to get a prime action hero role with 2016’s The Accountant, but somehow it’s taken nine years for The Accountant 2 to come out.
Affleck’s character of Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man whose abilities to quickly and efficiently comb through mounds of data are matched only by his fighting skills. When Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a former Treasury agent who had previously hunted Christian, is murdered, King’s replacement, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls on Christian to help figure out what happened and track down his killer.
The search quickly finds multiple criminal conspiracies, including a hitman ring, a scheme to abduct migrants, and more. Naturally, Wolff claims to need help in the endeavor, so his mercenary brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) soon joins in on the quest. The two brothers work together to figure out the puzzle while also stopping to have some fun every now and then.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (both returning from the original), the film feels like it is missing many connective scenes. It often starts down one road and seems to be making good progress when it suddenly veers into another storytelling lane with no explanation. This happens multiple times throughout the film, to the point that it becomes almost impossible to tell what the main story is supposed to be.
In the first film, the oddity of having an autistic math genius also being a world-class marksman and fighter somehow made sense. This film leans much more into Christian’s physical skills, with the autistic side of things showing up in his (mostly) emotionless demeanor. While that works to a certain degree, the choppiness of the story undercuts the character traits that Affleck does his best to impart.
The best examples of the messiness of the film come in the multiple scenes that serve as nothing more than comic relief, with not even an attempt at connecting them to the main plot, such as it is. Two of them involve Christian proving himself to be a ladies man despite his lack of conversational skills, both of which fall flat as they seem to be making fun of his autism rather than highlighting positive aspects of it. Each of the comic scenes is so disparate in tone from the rest of the film that they essentially bring the story to a screeching halt.
Affleck is fine in the part, although he’s much better when Christian turns toward action hero mode than when he has to display the character’s autistic traits. Bernthal is great at being an over-the-top macho guy, and he gets to indulge that side of him throughout the film. Addai-Robinson is disserved by a role that doesn’t give her character any autonomy despite her high-powered position.
Affleck’s career has been one of the most up-and-down ones of any supposed A-list actor, and The Accountant 2 marks another down moment for him. He may have finally gotten his first sequel for a film in which he’s the main character, but don’t expect there to be a third installment.
