SXSW 2025: Reeling, Redux Redux, One More Shot

It’s another year for SXSW, a prime film festival in Austin, Texas, that also showcases music, panels, and entertainment venues. Entering the festival as a critic, I had the luxury of seeing multiple films from the festival before they made their big feature debut. Among the three films in this article is One More Shot, an Australian film about a time-traveling bottle of tequila. Next is Reeling, a film depicting the difficulties a family deals with when encountering a life-changing accident. Finally, there’s Redux Redux, a revenge tale that, like One More Shot, features time travel. In this case, multiverse traveling, where a mother takes revenge on her daughter’s killer through an endless loop of multiverse hopping. All are very different films that give a taste of the showcase variety of the festival. Here’s what I thought of the films. SXSW began on March 7 and will run until March 15.

One More Shot

It’s a nostalgic time-loop film! If you’re familiar with Groundhog Day, then you’ll get an idea of what this film is. One More Shot proves why the time loop genre, although a bit overused, is still an effective storytelling device. It’s got a great bit of humor, with some clever writing mixed, admittedly, with some clunky dialog. For instance, when Minnie (Emily Browning) meets one character, they have the whole “I’ve heard everything about you” with “That’s funny, I’ve never heard anything about you” exchange. How many times have I heard that one before?

The beauty of this film is its effective story about a woman who must learn how to become a better person. The film isn’t slapsticky but funny in its scenes and reactions between characters trying to deal with one another. Minnie Vernon isn’t the most likable protagonist. Her heart gets broken time and time again, yet instead of understanding why or moving on, she keeps trying to fix things, even if it means messing up someone’s life.

For New Year’s Eve at the turn of the millennium, Minnie is invited to a party with her friends. There’s Joe (Sean Keenan), who once had a strong relationship with Minnie that ended up not working out, and a collection of friends who are already getting married and having kids. It’s just a constant reminder of Minnie’s failures. Instead of living with them, Minnie chooses to destroy other people’s relationships for the sake of having a non-single life. At the age of 36, Minnie lives in a house she’s getting kicked out of and has no husband or kids.

Minnie hopes to fix these relationships. Getting her life back in one magical night that can make her feel loved again. How can she do this? With a magical bottle of tequila that travels you back in time. How it works is simple. The first time you take a shot is where you’ll be looped each time you take a swig from the bottle.

One More Shot is a funny, moving picture of what it is to not live in jealousy and find self-acceptance. Granted, not everyone can be a successful Doctor like Minnie is, but there’s always an element in our life that, no matter how many times we can go back, we can’t change. One More Shot’s emotional cues hit at the right times with its funnier moments. Nicholas Clifford’s flick reminds us of the sanctity of life without bashing it under our skulls. 

Screening information for One More Shot can be located here:

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/events/FS18819

Reeling

Family can be complicated. They all act like they support you when, in reality, they probably don’t. Reeling is a story about family that could have been a story about healing. It could have been a movie about resolved differences, but it’s not. Rather, it’s a film about people who can’t let go of the past.  At first, the movie feels a bit bland.

The opening titles look like it was made by an amateur editor who just learned how to use titles in Adobe Premiere. The beginning sequence of Ryan just driving around as the camera lays in the backseat gets a bit nauseating for those with motion sickness. We see our protagonist, Ryan Brown (Ryan Wuestewald), driving his car up to the vacation home where he’ll be spending his time. His brothers and sisters welcome him as he seems a bit shy. There’s clearly something wrong with Ryan, but we don’t know what it is until the film progresses further.

Ryan may appear to be a headcase, but he may also be one of the most normal people in the family. At first, the film seems like it’s going to be some sentimental flick about family healing all wounds. Not so. It’s not until close to the middle act that we see why Ryan is the way he is. It also provides clarity as to why one of his brothers, John (Hans Christopher), mistreats Ryan. John projects his guilt onto Ryan. He tells him to go away, criticizes everything he does, and is genuinely kind of a monster to him. John doesn’t have a punchable face, but you’d like to sock him for being so rude.

To counter John’s cruelty is his sister Meg (Nikki DeParis). Meg treats Ryan with a great deal of delicacy. She knows he’s still in recovery as she tries her best to care for her damaged brother. The movie doesn’t tell us right away why Ryan is so troubled. It slowly peels back the layers until there’s a final reveal. There are hints of an accident of some sort. For instance, there’s a sequence where Ryan goes through family pictures while rubbing the scars on the back of his head. and another scene where he has trouble with his coordination when playing catch with a little girl.

Although it starts slowly, the drama really picks up when everything is revealed. Reeling isn’t a film that will make you feel fired up and then saddened by the end. The situation between the family gets worse as feces hits the fan. Ryan blows up at John—and not just for mistreating him. It’s a story more about rage, betrayal, love, and tragedy wrapped in a singular, effective drama.  

Screening information for Reeling can be found here:

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/films/2206004

Redux Redux

Who knew revenge could be so dry? Redux Redux is a thriller with a neat concept executed with the visual effects of a Sci-Fi channel movie. What starts as promising becomes dull by its middle act in an already short film. What the film is missing isn’t character development but rather interesting characters. Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) is plenty dynamic herself, but by the film’s middle act, we’re met with a sassy teenager who sucks all the tension away from the movie. Sadly, without the proper credits for the characters, I can only nickname them. So, whoever Stella Marcus is playing will be called Teen.

Teen is about as annoying as a runaway girl can be. She’s snarky, unpleasant, and ungrateful. Why she ran from home isn’t addressed in the film. We don’t know her family situation other than she hates them. All during her pouting, it isn’t easy to stay involved with the picture. The goal of her character serves a certain purpose in the movie that drops the ball by the ridiculous decisions Irene makes at the end of the film.

Redux Redux is a sci-fi revenge thriller that loses its thrilling element in the second act and luckily picks up a bit in the third, but not without some questionable narrative decisions that can’t be disclosed without spoiling the movie. A decision Irene makes goes against her entire intention so that it can land the movie on an eye-rolling sentimental note. Irene Kelly’s daughter is dead, so she takes revenge by traveling to different multiverses to kill the man who kidnapped and killed her daughter. No matter how many multiverses she goes through, her daughter is always deceased. Irene can only live with rage. But even slaying her daughter’s killer hundreds of times gets old for her.

In a great monologue from Michaela McManus, she talks about the relentlessness of a racing brain. You’re a prisoner to it. The only thing Irene could do to live on is murder the killer once again but to shut the brain up. To let the killer go instead of murdering him seems like an impossibility. How do you not forgive but move on from such an unforgivable act? These questions are examined but not as effectively as you may wish.

The time travel (sorry, multiverse) angle has been used to exhaustion and by much better filmmakers. When time travel is used as a crutch, it’s very noticeable, especially when your movie doesn’t know where to go. Time travel doesn’t automatically make your film unique. A lot of other cooks in the kitchen utilize time travel as a tool to push their narrative. Unfortunately, this time around, it doesn’t help a script that needs more time to examine the grieving mom instead of the angsty Teen who sinks the film.

Screening information for Redux Redux can be found here:

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/films/2206150