The Best Weekend of Your Life

How to make the most of ACL Fest 2012: 5 insider tips

Photo courtesy of Austin City Limits
Photo courtesy of Study Breaks

Well, this is it. Starting Friday, we're knee-deep in ACL Fest for the last three-day weekend format before it switches over to an improved two-weekend schedule next year.

Even for veterans, the festival feels like a different beast from year to year, with new bands and different ways of experiencing the music. To keep you festival-goers happy and on top of your game, CultureMap has pulled together the top five tips on what's in store for you at this year's festival.

Enhancements to wristband credentials
The best news for one-day attendees is the opportunity to have a wristband, allowing for everyone to come in and out of the park as they please. This was not the case before, and it has led to thousands of disheartened music lovers throughout the years.

Now, with the RFID capabilities, you can register your wristband, allowing you to replace it if you somehow lose it in a mosh pit. Registering your wristband also enters you to win VIP upgrades and prizes from the festival.

Improvements to the ACL Fest 2012 app
The ACL app has been vital to scheduling the festival for years, but now you can also use the GroupMe chat function, which allows you to stay in communication with your group across the park. (Don't lose the flags or blow-up dolls, though. That's tradition.)

You can also post Instagram photos for the whole festival to see just by tagging #aclfest. And the music doesn't stop once you leave the park, thanks to the Slacker Radio ACL Fest Channel, which is streaming shows throughout the weekend.

Wider selection of Austin-friendly food and drink
The amazing food selection is one of the best parts about ACL Fest, and this year it's even better. Chi'lantro and Second Bar + Kitchen are two of the new additions to the ginormous food tent area, which already features Mighty Cone, Mandola's, Seedling Truck and Salt Lick.

Additionally, reflecting Austin's growing reputation as a serious craft-brewing community, the Zilker Drafthouse tent will have a huge selection of craft beers on tap.

Watch the Texas-OU game at the festival
It's a rare occurrence when the famous Red River Rivalry falls on the same weekend as ACL Fest, but this year some very hard decisions had to be made by fans of football and rock. For those who chose ACL, we salute you.

You should know that you can still watch the game on Saturday at the Rock Island Hideaway (in the middle of the festival, behind the Austin Ventures stage). Just make sure you're wearing burnt orange because this is Longhorn territory.

Watch the festival action on the web
If you didn't get tickets, don't fret too much. Although you won't get to experience the artists in person, you can basically get a front row seat in the comfort of your home by tuning in to the ACL Fest YouTube channel. This official webcast happens in real time, filmed onstage with the performers, so you don't have to miss a moment of the action.

It's easier than running from stage to stage while two of your favorite acts are performing at the same time (like, ahem, Friday night).

Those are the biggest announcements for this year, so now you're in the know. If I were your mother, I would also remind you to check the weather updates every morning and plan accordingly. You might need a poncho and sunscreen on the same day if this weather keeps up.

Go now. Have fun. Be safe. Wear earplugs. Come home at a decent hour. Make good choices. You know how we worry about you.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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