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.

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.

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.

The Raven

Ricardo de Montreuil has made a splash with his $5,000 scifi short, The Raven. The film has already drawn comparisons to Alive in Joburg which later became District 9. Who knows... perhaps we'll be seeing a 2-hour version of this in the years to come.

Death of a Meme

I first saw Downfall (Der Untergang) a number of years ago... probably 2006 or 2007. Without the internet, the bunker scene is bereft of humor; it is simply an interpretation of Hitler taking bad news badly, albeit a powerful one thanks to the ranting skills of Bruno Ganz. But on YouTube, Hitler found the time to bitch about everybody's problems. And he was often funny, unless you actually speak German. Despite trying to blitzkrieg the world in the name of lebensraum, and that whole Holocaust thing, Hitler finally found a way to become the everyman he'd always wanted to be. I'll bet there are even some Jews out there who will miss him, or at least his internet incarnation. Time may well heal all wounds, but don't be surprised if your suture scars are making a funny face at you.

Head over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) if you're interested in reading more about copyright law and fair use.

Spawn of Grindhouse

Remember Machete? You know... one of the fake trailers from Grindhouse? Well it's due out later this year (September 3). I'm guessing Robert Rodriguez has been un castor ocupado between this and producing Predators.



As if that wasn't awesome enough, Hobo With a Shotgun - AKA faux trailer that won the SXSW 2007 Grindhouse Competition - is currently being filmed as a full-blown feature. Playing the title character? Rutger MFing Hauer. Get pumped.

Will Eli Roth bring us Thanksgiving? Will we ever get to see Nic Cage play Fu Manchu in Werewolf Women of the SS? One can hope.

Stephen Fry, Nanoscience Guy

Stephen Fry narrates this video about nanoscience from the University of Cambridge. Cambridge has a decent science playlist on their YouTube channel and an AV page on the university website called Cambridge Ideas.

The Pale Blue Dot

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." ~ Carl Sagan

Ridley Scott Hearts Unicorns

Philips has commissioned a series of short films, Parallel Lines, to air on April 8th at their website. The kicker? The films all use the same unifying theme, and since the filmmakers are all from Ridley Scott Associates, that theme has something to do with unicorns.

Anyway, you can read more about the individual shorts and their creators over at /Film.

*UPDATE*

My favorite short, "The Gift":

Predators

Forget all your frustration and/or disinterest with the AvP movies. Robert Rodriguez is the producer for the new Predators, due out later this year.

If that doesn't persuade you by itself, check out an interview with Rodriguez at SXSW's Horror Panel.

We Are The Machine

Today was the first day I heard the term "Semantic Web" even though people have been talking about it - as far as I can tell - shortly after the creation and implementation of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) in web development (officially recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, in 1998). Semantic Web, often referred to as Web 3.0, is driven by metadata, simply defined as "data about data." If you're having trouble understanding, I found a simplified explanation on YouTube.

The most interesting thing about Semantic Web, for me, is that language is at the heart of it. Definitions and organizations of words will ultimately determine how efficiently the internet works for everyone based on their respective searches. It's not that words aren't at the heart of search engines already, but there is a logic being built in metadata that will allow more specific returns (reactions) to queries. Each of us will contribute to a global meta-consciousness through our actions on the Semantic Web. In short, we are collectively paving the way for artificial intelligence: programs with the wealth of the world's prepackaged data at their disposal.

Index This

For a YouTube channel whose most popular - and largely humorless - series of videos is called Make a Hot Girl Laugh, the satire in Google Threatens To Kill Users is surprisingly well-written. Like we needed any more proof that the phrase "XXX,000,000 (insert here) Fans Can't Be Wrong" is complete f***ing bull****.

Google, where's my gTeleport already?

Centurion

Neil Marshall returns with his version of the Ninth Legion massacre, starring Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds), Dominic West (The Wire), and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace). The film is set to debut in the UK on April 23, and it'll hopefully hit American theaters by summertime. Also, fans of Marshall's The Descent should be able to find The Descent: Part 2 (which Marshall produced but did not direct) on DVD by the end of April.

Cheese-A-Thon

Some make you cringe, some make you laugh, some get repeated constantly, and others have turned into memes (speaking of which... where's "You're the man now, dog."?). There are a few inclusions that I don't find cheesy enough and a few that just aren't cheesy at all, especially in context. But with those caveats aside, this is a pretty accurate and pretty fun list. I was glad to see that special attention was paid to the Governator, Keanu, Batman & Robin, The Wicker Man, and the Star Wars prequels. Personally, I would have loved to see "Holey rusted metal, Batman!" And there has to be something from a Star Trek movie worth including. Come on, there's eleven of them; throw a rock.

A list of the films is in the info box on YouTube, but maybe you want to see how many you can name first. Oh, and please please please pleeeease check out The Other 100 Best Movie Quotes of All Time.

The Life Arachnid

I think Wes Anderson's penchant for ensemble casting would make him go whole hog for the entire Avengers team. Personally, though, I think he'd have more fun with Runaways.

While I'm dreaming, Quentin Tarantino will reboot X-Men, J.J. Abrams will reclaim Star Wars, Joss Whedon will do Y: The Last Man justice, Guillermo del Toro will bring The Walking Dead to life, Peter Jackson will dazzle us with Fables, Zack Snyder will use his 300 magic on Northlanders, Paul Greengrass will unleash DMZ, Martin Scorsese will find the darkest parts of Scalped, and Christopher Nolan will take the WildStorm universe seriously enough to create a trilogy featuring characters from Team 7, Stormwatch, and The Authority.

Did I miss anybody?

How To Report The News

Just two weeks ago I was singing the praises of Dead Set, the British zombie mini-series. Turns out that Charlie Brooker, the brilliant writer of the show, is also responsible for this scathing skewering of news reporting convention. One might say he's got them 'dead to rights'.

"And this is a lighthouse keeper being beheaded by a laser beam..."

Big Brother Blood Bath

It's easy for me to hate most "reality" tv shows, but especially one that trivializes the work of George Orwell. What better way to bring the wankers down than plop them into a chapter of World War Z? It warms my heart.

Universal Perspective

Or, as shitmydadsays would say: "Universe is 14 billion years old. Seems silly to celebrate one year. Be like having a fucking parade every time i take a piss."

Rent-A-Person

Kurt Kuenne is most widely known for his documentary, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, but he's also been producing brilliant short films for many years. Be sure to check out his award-winning Validation. And, while we're on the subject of uber-cute super-sap, throw Patrick Hughes' Signs on the fire, too.

Inspiring Bicyclist

Whether you're fearing for his life or simply in awe of his talents, Danny MacAskill demands to be watched. Band of Horses playing in the background doesn't hurt either.