As Parker Posey was to Sundance in the '90s and Greta Gerwig to SXSW in the mid-aughts, no one embodies the current sensibility of the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival quite like Rachel Sennott. With a persona that is ditzy but knowing, somehow earnestly cynical, tuned in but offbeat, she is at the festival this year with two new films.
"Bottoms," described as the story of two queer high school girls who start a fight club to pull in cheerleaders, was co-written by Sennott and her "Shiva Baby" collaborator Emma Seligman. Its Saturday night premiere was among the most anticipated events of the festival. "I Used to Be Funny," written and directed by Ally Pankiw and playing the narrative feature competition, is the story of a young woman dealing with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder and shows a previously unseen dramatic side to Sennott's talents.
Having been to the 2018 festival with the short film version of the anxiety-inducing comedy "Shiva Baby" — the feature version played the 2020 festival, which had its in-person edition canceled in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — Sennott was also there last year with her scene-stealing performance in "Bodies Bodies Bodies."
