The Hair Cut
Great locale, cute idea.
A barber welcomes a most unusual customer. The Haircut is a film about the thin line between vanity and delusion, and how the customer is always right.
Sydney Aquarium: Fish Piss
The Sydney Aquarium has recruited Melbourne comedian Dave Callan to explain why it’s a good idea to see the sharks behind glass, despite of what Al Gore may think of it.
Filming was shot by Octavio De Lellis via Monkey Lab.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
via Duncan’s
Une Histoire Vertebrale
In the eternal race to find love and happiness, some unfortunate souls start with a handicap. It is the case of the man we join as we start jump into Une Histoire Vertebrale (A Backbone Tale), a short animated movie by Jérémy Clapin, produced by Strapontin.
Just wrote a review of this short animated movie for Short of the Week.
Watch the short. (Flash Video)
Living and Dying (part 1)
A new animation from Adam Gault (see Lantern Fishes) is the first ofa six part effort based on a series of paintings by Stefanie Augustine and Adam Gault.
Watch it. [Mirror] (Flash Video)
via Transbuddha
Discovery Channel: I Love the World
Yes, I do love the world. I am going to save this for a rainy day.
Tap Project
For World Water Day (March 22) Unicef launched the Tap Project, a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible drinking water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water for children around the world.
Beginning Sunday, March 16 and culminating on March 22, restaurants [in the United States] will invite their customers to pay $1 for the tap water they normally get for free.
This promo for the 2007 Tap Project has been made at Psyop by Laurent B., Mel Tonkin, Zoe, Lutz, Tanya Weiss and Borja Pena.
Duncan’s TV has this year brand new promos if you want: Monsters and Dollar.
Watch it. (MPEG-4)
Why Girls Don’t Fart
Another mistery solved…
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Annie Awards: Spongebob Voice-Overs
The voice cast of Spongebob Squarepants (Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Rodger Bumpass) dub some of the greatest films ever made.
From the Asifa-Hollywood Annie Awards on February 8th, 2008.
Featured: Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, The Godfather.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Review of There Will Be Blood
Wow! Director Paul Thomas Anderson flexes some serious filmmaking muscle in this film. This is the Raging Bull of our times, less optimistic (imagine that), less character arc but they do share the same theme: a strong character who cannot escape from himself. In Raging Bull, the redemption or the self awareness comes, in There Will Be Blood, there is not even a hint of such notions.
The obvious checklist: great acting: check; best acting performance by Daniel Day Lewis: check; incredible detail to costumes and times: check; great supporting cast: check; great directing: check; great cinematography: check; fantastic editing: check; powerful story: check.
So all the great reviews you have read about this movie are true.
Here are some of my favorite moments from the film that you will not hear about:
- Daniel Plainview comes to a small farm to check out a family who are sitting on a valuable oil reserve and don’t know it. He shows up with his son pretending to be shooting quail. The family patriarch, Abel Sunday (played by David Willis) comes out to greet him. The scene is slow and awkward but real. Anderson and the actors weren’t simply recreating an awkward moment, they are recreating a moment from the early 1900’s (I can only guess, of course). David Willis is simply incredible, he manages to play a character without a brain, a simple minded man. Of all the great acting in the film, his performance manages to stand out.
- Another great piece of acting from David Willis is the close-up shot of him eating, right after Daniel Plainview has beaten up his son. At first, he seems to have taken a stand against Daniel but the following close-up of his son (played by a wonderful Paul Dano) indicates that he is actually standing up to his son. Willis manages to show his simple minded choice of ignoring the problem but all the while knowing what is at stake. Fantastic.
- When the baby strokes Daniel Plainview’s face on the train. Such an easy moment to indicate that he is going to father the child. Simple, no fancy shots of paper signing or whatever.
- The bowling alley in Plainview’s house is one of the best set pieces I have ever seen. Seriously, how cool is that. And Daniel chasing Paul around the back, it is playful. You forget how powerful those bowling pins can be. Which is wonderfully relevant to what happens next.
- The final line “I am finished” can be interpreted in so many different ways. From what is just happened to what will happen in the future to the actual movie.
- When Daniel talks about the peachtree dance hall and his brother can’t remember. My reaction to the information mimicked Daniel Day Lewis’.
One of the greatest movies of all time.
MacBook Air’s Thin Obsession
Has Apple considered the implications of its glorification of thin models in the MacBook Air television advertisements? Has it once considered the feelings of my “big boned” HP, and how she’s felt living in a society where you’re only as attractive as you are THIN? And what about the young processors that are at an impressionable age. Do they need this pressure? I think not.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
The Running Man - by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
I miss this kind of animation. There is always a touch of madness. In this case, madness is everywhere. It is cathartic, like an excursion to all of potential rage possible within a being. Don’t miss this classic, a mix between sci-fi noir (Blade Runner-like) and Akira.
Wine “Tasting” with Conan O’Brian
Wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk (from Wine Library TV) teaches Conan that wine tastes just like grass, rocks, dirt, and socks.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Happy Monday
In Happy Monday documentarian Andrew Filippone Jr. tells a simple story through a radically new formal language for non-fiction film, where story and subject are externalized and made tangible.
What a Freegan Waste
What is a Freegan? And why are so many of them popping up all over the place?
Directors Notes posted this half hour documentary by Craig Rook about people that, in their own way, fight actively the environmental disaster.
Grab the short here.
Interview with the author here.
Lodger - I Love Death
A story that moves at the speed of light.
Lodger is back for more twisted musical animation. See the entire life of a stick figure in under four minutes. From a very wrong conception, to sleeping in school to endless work-a-days, Lodger captures the futility (and repetition) of life and sets it to a rollicking good rock song.
I love those subways!
Watch it (at Atom films, you have to endure a quick commercial before the film)
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