My new favorite webseries is Big Book of Lies. It’s a quirky comedy about a compulsive liar or is he? The series is acted well enough for a web series and is shot better than most. There is nothing spectacular about the filming but the lead Andrew Leads has some really good delivery and great reaction shots. He quickly gets himself into a mess and thankfully he has some friends that are as uniquely screwed up as him. One of which is the fictional twin of a famous scholar and the other is delightfully smarmy but charming buff type. I’m really enjoying the absurdity and maybe you will as well.

So, utterly bored one day, me and my buddy Rollie decided to revive a podcast we did together called september29th named after his blog. This time however, we decided to make it video. Below is the end result. If you dig it you can subscribe via iTunes or RSS, as I’m sure this won’t be the last of them.

In Bruges is an interesting black comedy starring Collin Farrell. I must say it is a hysterical film after you get past the first 15 minutes. The first 15 are painfully slow but its plot exposition, it has to go somewhere. Farrell pulls off a fantastic dramatic/comedic performance and I suggest finding this film and giving it a go. I was lucky enough to see the film at a theatre that serves beer. The film goes really well with beer. Below is a clip that might be a little out of context but you’ll get a good sense of what the film is like.

I must admit that I love classic arcade games. My vice of choice is Galaga but I tend not to shy away from a Donkey Kong Machine when one is mysteriously adorning the front room of a pizza joint like a relic that the kids give museums glances to before moving on to fancier games. I have fond memories of playing many of the classic games so when presented with a documentary about two guys competing to be the BEST Donkey Kong player I didn’t hesitate to add it to the netflix queue.

I must say this documentary is amazingly compelling, there is a classic rivalry built rather quickly and the 3 act structure works amazingly well in this documentary. Steve Wiebe is the archetypal “good guy”, you cheer and root for him if not aloud in your very center. You clearly want him to succeed. Moreover you find yourself really hating the “bad guy” in this film and quite honestly if I ran into Billy Mitchel on the street there is a good chance I would punch him in the mouth.

If you run across the film please check it out.

I’m so glad they won the Oscar. The song is beautiful. Congratulations to them both. Shame on the oscar producer for cutting off Marketa.

Acceptance Speech.

So I got around to seeing Juno. A wonderfully cute, quirky, comedy about an unplanned pregnancy. The writing is rather witty and reminds me of Kevin Smith actually, if he was younger and well…a girl. Diablo Cody, former stripper turned writer, penned the screenplay after publishing a book, Candy Girl, about her life in the sex industry. She actually got her start in writing as a blogger, but when you start blogging about being a stripper someone is bound to take notice. Some interviews make it seem like she was pole dancing and grinding away on some knuckle dragging mouth breather who had the gall to wear sweatpants when some Hollywood hotshot magically saved her by noticing her blog. Not entirely true, she did get the book published and did some work for City Pages, Jane Magazine and Entertainment Weekly prior to Juno. So there was a trail leading up to the film, granted she was still stripping at the time I believe.

I had heard the film was unconventional but honestly in this day and age it’s really not. To say it’s unconventional denotes that the situation is rare, I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t know someone in their graduating class who got pregnant. As far as movies to tackle the subject, it’s not the first. Saved!, The Opposite of Sex, Blue Denim and the truly unconventional Palindromes. Even Molly Ringwald had a crack at it in For Keeps. The unconventionality of the movie actually lies in its intelligence. Since that seems to fly out the window in most mainstream movies. There are no cliff hanger endings or plot twists and turns you don’t see from miles away but none of that really matters because it’s about the dialog. How the characters speak with their quips and relentless nostalgic one liners that makes a late 20 something like myself have little chance at not laughing. The irony though is that its greatest feature is also its biggest flaw. The words often don’t feel believable coming out of Juno’s mouth. I just couldn’t buy Juno quoting a line from Thundercats, she’s just too young.

There are a couple of interesting tidbits that I need to point out.

1. Juno has an Aaron Kraten print on her wall, I have to give it up to the set designer on that one.

2. The Soundtrack is brilliant! The one thing that bugs me is that now I hear that Moldy Peaches song on my cousin’s Myspace page. I’m waiting for her to ask me if I’ve heard of them to arrogantly reply YES, I saw them 6 years ago in a shitty Detroit bar, costumes and all.

3. The hamburger phone is fucking priceless!

The casting is at the perfect level, no one is particularly out of place in the film. Even Jennifer Garner works her role really well. I had seen Ellen Page in Hard Candy and was a little hesitant about her in this movie but she quickly squashed those reservations. Michael Cera’s performance is flawless, he has that shy, awkward, high school kid down. Jason Bateman seems very comfortable in his character as well.

I laughed a lot but I must say the movie was a little over hyped. Which is not the movie’s fault by any means but from what I heard of the movie I was expecting to see the next Clerks. However leaving the theater I thought, more like Clerks 2. Nevertheless it’s a great movie go see it, if you haven’t already. It will definitely end up in my collection of flicks when it hits DVD. Moreover I’d like to see what Diablo Cody comes up with next.

p.s. Mad props for the Kerplunk t-shirt Diablo wears in one of her Myspace pics.

I can talk about this movie for about as long as it runs, which is close to three hours but I won’t. I will make a simple recommendation that you watch it and truly give it a chance. It is a Lars Von Trier film and it’s a rather daring one at that. The minimalistic set design is absolutely gorgeous. Nicole Kidman is in the film but don’t let that shy you away from it, she does an amazing job. Dogville is part of a trilogy and I’m eager to see the second film Manderlay, the third film however may never be made as the director is a little finicky to say the least.

I just got back from seeing Eagle vs. Shark and it was…um, ok. Maybe I expected more from it because the trailer did look good and I heard a lot of hype about Flight of the Conchords, which the lead actor is in. The movie reminds me a lot of Napoleon Dynamite in that quirky, geeky, awkward nerdy way. Also like Napoleon, I think on a second watch I won’t find it quite as charming. There are some funny moments but above all it is a cute love story.

Check out the trailer and if it’s showing in your neck of the woods, give it a watch I suggest a matinée though.

I just got back from seeing ONCE a brilliant Irish film about a musician’s week long relationship with a young woman. It’s a beautiful love story that is on a completely different level than some might truly understand. Nonetheless it captures this story so eloquently and despite things not working out like in most movies, there is no animosity as a viewer. You understand that things couldn’t have ended differently. The shots are almost entirely done in steady cam or handheld cam. The style however is perfect for this story. There would be no other way to capture the rehearsal of a 5 piece band in a small bedroom. The movie itself borders on being a musical as much of the dialog is sung. However it will not make those of you who might not like musicals even think twice about it.

The soundtrack is absolutely brilliant. Most of the music is written by the lead actor in the film Glen Hansard from the band The Frames, most of the members in the band show up in the film. If you can find the film playing near you please go check it out. It’s a wonderful piece of cinema.