Good Morning Austin, March 17: SXSW Leaves It to ‘Beaver’

indieWIRE takes a few looks at Wednesday night's big premiere, "The Beaver." First, Bryce J. Renninger covers the SXSW screening and Q&A, at which director Jodie Foster called Mel Gibson "the most beloved person" she's ever worked with. (Chow Yun-Fat, she said, is the runner-up.) Anne Thompson does the same, throwing in some personal opinion ("a dark, moving family drama"), film clips and backstory on how Summit shelved the film for half a year in an attempt to "ride out Gibson's crazy tabloid circus." Then critic Eric Kohn reviews the film, which he sums up thusly: "Despite a ludicrous set-up based around one of the most outlandish performances of Mel Gibson’s career, 'The Beaver' is a tame, leisurely drama that neither provides the beleaguered actor with decisive comeback material nor further muddies his tarnished image."