Lobby Boy · Paul X Snowberry

Big Stewdio · Anni - Sinner v2

Father at Fifteen

Darren Thornton used to teach drama at a center for troubled youth, and - drawing from that experience - provides us with a challenging portrait of his short's title character, Frankie. Frankie is dedicated to the idea of being a good father, doting on his child-sized doll, but there are several scenes that underscore his immaturity. Thornton doesn't avoid indicting a cycle of fatherlessness. Apparent poverty doesn't help matters, but it isn't crammed down your throat as an excuse. "Frankie" simply lets Frankie talk to us about his world: ugly enough to be real, true enough to be beautiful.

The film has received a fair amount of recognition, and press for the European Film Awards grabbed an interview with Thornton last April.

Just Say No-No

James Blagden created this animated short about Doc Ellis' no-hitter (June 12, 1970) using audio from a Weekend America interview that aired on March 29, 2008. Doc describes himself as being "high as a Georgia pine" during the game, under the influence of LSD. In the wake of Major League Baseball's steroid scandal, it's almost encouraging to hear a story about a guy accomplishing one of baseball's rarest achievements while he was hallucinating.

GIF Talk

Evan Roth (of G.R.L. and F.A.T.) has created a 10-minute ode to the asinine antics of animated Graphics Interchange Format files. What better way to celebrate than setting this massive mashup to Girl Talk and marvelling at how obsessed we are with babies and cats and science fiction and...

Underneath it All

"Surface" is a great idea for a short, wondering what the view would be like from below the action. Fortunately, the experiment is well-executed under the guiding eye of Varathit Uthaisri (aka TU+), a Thai designer/director working out of New York. Varathit has also has a storyboard animatic for "Surface" available on his Vimeo account.

Lifeline

Animator and storyboard artist Andres Salaff won the Bronze Medal last month at the Student Academy Awards for his short film, Lifeline.

If you're interested in seeing more of Andres' animations, he has a handful of other videos available on his Vimeo account.

Primer

When Shane Carruth unleashed Primer on the world, he arguably gave us the greatest time travel film of all time. Now it's available on Vimeo.

If you enjoyed Primer and you're wondering what Shane is up to now, you're definitely not alone. Many have cited the comments of Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom): "to all who asked: Shane is alive and well and has a mind-blowing sci-fi script. Let's all pray to the movie-gods that he gets it made soon" (via Twitter). While those are encouraging words from one of new favorite directors, those comments were made almost a year ago.

Within the last month, however, a movie blog called The Playlist acquired a copy of the script for A Topiary. The Playlist bloggers seem to think Shane's new project will live up to the hype, so here's hoping it finds the funding it needs to hit theaters.

The Goon

Eric Powell's The Goon is apparently getting the silver screen treatment with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) producing and the voice talents of Clancy Brown (Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Carnivale) and Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways, Cold Souls).

Apparently this zombie comic adaptation is still looking for a studio. It shouldn't be looking for long, but I'm hoping it won't slide into obscurity like The Amazing Screw-On Head (which also bears the voice of Giamatti). If The Goon can find an audience, perhaps we'll begin to see a wider variety of cult comics hit theaters, too.

Cloak & Cipher

"New song. Quarry Hymns. Not to be confused with Corey Haim."

Land of Talk has a new album and a new tour.

These sweet pilgrims of sound also played Some Are Lakes during their Take Away Show (presented by Black XS Live Sound and La Blogotheque). And if you want to hear Elizabeth explain the story behind Some Are Lakes, there's a great version of the song that was recorded during a Yours Truly session.

Reign of Death

Matthew Savage has offered up a compelling short, Reign of Death, featuring Noel Clarke of Doctor Who fame. Although Reign of Death features elements of both scifi and noir, I think it shares more in common with steampunk than tech noir in that the technological advancements serve better as anachronistic icing on a 1940s cake rather than indications of a possible future. In this regard, the film reminds me of Penny Arcade's Automata which also debuted last summer (continued in pages two, three, four, five, and six).

If you're interested in making your own short film, there are two great behind-the-scenes videos on Vimeo: Jonathan Dunn's Making of Reign of Death and Linus Hofmann's Reign Of Death VFX Breakdowns.

Things I Like, Things I Don't Like

Before Jean-Pierre Jeunet gave us Amélie, he had already perfected the style of his character introductions many years before in Foutaises (known as "Things I Like, Things I Don't Like" in the UK and "Small Talk" elsewhere in Europe). While Jeunet's developing talent is the main attraction, it's also clear to see why Dominique Pinon continues to appear in all of the director's films.

Go see Jeunet's latest, Micmacs, if you can find it... And yes, Pinon's in there somewhere.

Coma

Coma, by Thomas Brush (aka wittyhobos), is today's featured game on Newgrounds.com. The art reminds me a little of new indie classics like Braid and Machinarium, but what really shines is the shareware engine written by Sophie Houlden (aka GirlFlash).

If you liked playing Coma, take Nevermore 3 (by Adam Westerman) for a spin; it uses the same engine. And if you're interested in making your own flash game, check out Sophie's latest engine, Edward.

Out w/ the Old

When the news industry had no enemy but itself, the hubris of Citizen Kane seemed the perfect metaphor. But then that whole internet thing happened, Hollywood became obsessed with rebooting everything shortly thereafter, and suddenly a vigilante-tycoon-with-a-fetish-for-print-media doesn't sound so crazy. Throw some action movie kebab on the fire, suggest it will debut in 3D, and well... "now you're playing with power." If the Coen brothers can inject their existential goo into True Grit, I don't see why the universe would have a problem with it.

BP Spills Coffee

As a show of faith in the ability of BP (or anyone for that matter) to clean up the oil spill, Upright Citizens Brigade presents you with some acerbic salve for the soul. After a long day of cleaning globs of petroleum off of whatever livelihood you've lost, what better way to unwind than laughing until you cry into your beer. Please, just be careful not to spill.

Love in the Time of Zombies

This Spencer Susser short features Mia Wasikowska (aka. Tim Burton's Alice) as the teenage crush of a young man recently orphaned during the zombie apocalypse. The tone lies somewhere between Shaun of the Dead and Gummo. But whether you're facing undead hordes or mere societal decay, who doesn't want a girl that can dispatch swift shovel-swinging justice?

In addition to shorts, Susser also does ads and he unveiled the feature-length Hesher (featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman) at Sundance earlier this year.

Motivation

According to Dan Pink, money just complicates things. All we really want in life is autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

RSA "Animates" play like a perfect storm of Common Craft (In Plain English) and TED talks. I'm hooked.

Still Lost

I have mixed feelings about the ending of Lost. On one hand, I'm glad the show isn't going to limp along aimlessly. On the other hand, I've hated the Jacob storyline for a while now. For a show that spent so much time trying to raise the world's consciousness of electromagnetism (and time travel, and alternate universes), this heart-of-the-island fairy light bullshit doesn't fly with me. But then why would I give credence to a silly-ass smoke monster? I digress.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse clearly didn't heed the advice of Brian Cox's character in Adaptation: "I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine."

The characters changed and I found that interesting enough. I thought the addition of long-dead characters into the alternate universe was a nice touch, if blatantly sentimental. I just don't feel like the writers found a real ending. Maybe that's what happens when people demand answers to questions you created simply for an air of mystery. Maybe that means I'd like a hyper-convoluted version of Gilligan's Island. Meh.

So what's my point? If the endings of Battlestar Galactica and Lost are any indication: you'll be interested in the fates of characters on any show you spend time watching, but the likelihood that the end of your show will suck the big one increases exponentially if some big damn mystery is at the center of it all. Kind of like a run-on sentence.

Unless you're Joss Whedon. Because Joss Whedon doesn't suck.

P.S. I think Fringe is pretty awesome right now, but the head writers (Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci) are hit-or-miss. Transformers AND Star Trek? I'm torn. Don't even get me started on Akiva Goldsman. That guy thinks he's cool, but he's not.

The Tarantino Code

The secrets of Quentin Tarantino come under scrutiny in a diner scene that could be ripped straight from one of his own movies. Except, y'know, in Portuguese. This short film, starring Selton Melo and Seu Jorge (of Life Aquatic fame), analyzes QT with a fanatic's eye for details. Check out Hungry Man TV for a variety of short films and web series.



Are they all crafty clues or are some just coincidences? You be the judge. Either way, it's more fun than trying to spot Alfred Hitchcock cameos.

"Federer is the tennis player version of Tarantino..."

Wait... what?

Liquid Mountaineering

The simple rule of the internet is don't believe your eyes, or - at the very least - take a second look. If you work for a media company, that goes double. But, just like Oprah got trolled about 9000 penises ("Oprah 9000" YouTube search), occasionally something plausible is taken as proof of something outlandish. Who doesn't want to believe some mild-mannered euro-dudes discovered they could run on water with special shoes and hard work?

That's exactly the moment when you have to stop and think about the amazing catch that ball girl made or people cooking things with their cellphones.

And remember... nobody fucks with the Jesus.

TED Thyself

I love TED Talks; everybody should. Experts giving lectures in their fields, streamed online for free... what's not to love? I've posted some TED stuff before, so when I saw Dr. Sebastian Wernicke eviscerate the polarities of TED Talk popularity, it was begging to be shared.

"... If you came here to talk about how French coffee will spread happiness in our brains, that's a go!"

Dr. Wernicke illustrates his points so well that you can't help but giggle at all the silly humans, or be inspired to apply his methods. For instance, TED user Claudio Furet commented on the video with a guide to getting "really high votes" on your TED comments.

Get your own tedPAD and start being an expert today.