Movie Review - "Merantau"

Straight away, I'll say the the martial-arts in this flick, called Silat, is an absolute joy to watch. The narrative in this movie, however, has a lot more soul than the average movie in its genre. The premise is quite simple, but moment to moment the story actually feels quite poetic. Things happen that one would be unlikely to predict, and the photography is much more than the traditional wide-angle coverage of the action. For martial-arts fans especially, but also just for movie lovers in general, Merantau really has something new and special to share with you. I would highly recommend it, and it is currently available on Netflix Instant.

You Cannot Fix That Which Is Not Broken - "Blade Runner"

The rights to any Blade Runner sequels, prequels, and spin-offs have been sold (Full Story). A chill ran up the collective spine of the nerd community. Ming Doyle said it best in her twitter post:

If the reason you want to see a new BLADE RUNNER is that you think the special effects will be "better," then you haven't seen BLADE RUNNER. (Original Tweet)

That is all.

Kanye West, say "Thank You"

In an effort to give credit when others don't, I would like to point out that a title sequence in a new music video from Kanye West pulls directly from Gaspar Noe's film "Enter The Void," without crediting the film in any way. To be clear, I'm not saying that either the director of the video, Hype Williams, or that Kanye West are evil, idea stealing, hate-demons. In fact, I applaud Kanye West for introducing many people to Daft Punk with his song "Stronger," which featured "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," by Daft Punk. I just wish the "All Of The Lights" video would at least make some kind of nod or reference to Gaspar Noe.

Kanye West - "All Of The Lights"


Title sequence from "Enter The Void" (2010, dir. Gaspar Noe)


I would also like to thank /Film for bringing this to my attention. In their article, they cover a few more details than I did: http://www.slashfilm.com/kanye-west-channels-enter-void-latest-video/#more-98558

First Aerial Footage of Uncontacted Tribe

Besides being gorgeous, this footage truly humanizes the threat illegal logging in the Amazon poses. It's difficult to imagine what it must really be like to have zero contact with the industrialized world, but there's something comforting knowing that such groups exist. It's also interesting to imagine that there are tribes of people we didn't know were on Earth, yet so many people think that because we haven't found them yet, clearly there is no sentient extra terrestrial life.

For more information, check out www.uncontactedtribes.org

It's bad, right?

You wake up, and you can feel the zit on your forehead. Without even touching it, you know it's huge. It even hurts a little, obviously because your skin has been stretched so far from it's idle state. Your fingers move across it, and you swear there is a marked shift in altitude for your finger at the zit's summit. It's real bad. As you head to the bathroom, you clear away the memories of the dreams you just finished having as you prepare to soon fill that space with shock, disgust, and calculations of depth and circumference. Before looking in the mirror, you rub your eyes one last time making sure your gaze is as clear as possible. Your eyes meet with your reflection's, and slowly you tilt your head upwards. "My god," you think to yourself "these are the zits they write abo... wait, where is it?" You run your fingers over the spot again, this time watching your reflection closely, as if there's a chance that maybe it's not really you in the mirror, but it is. Instead of a snowcapped summit, there's a barely visible mound which wouldn't even qualify as a small speed-bump were your forehead a road. Instead of a sickly, tensioned red, it's color is that of all the other flesh around it, save for a little rosy complexion near the base. You knew it was bad, in your mind, you had put it all together and you understood the truth of the situation. You were so sure you had it all figured out. You had it figured out, all of it, until you looked at your reflection. Sure, it still hurts a little when you put on your hat to face the cold, but it's okay. It's better than okay, actually, it's fine. Maybe it's even better than fine, you realize, because today it will serve as a reminder that the truth is not what you conjure up in a dream-drunk haze, but rather it is your self.

Kevin Smith Keeping Indie Alive w/ Red State

Kevin Smith has been a hero filmmaker to me for a while now. My first exposure to his work was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which I didn't really love, and is actually my least favorite of everything he's made, save for Cop Out, which I still don't think is that bad. Once I saw Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, I got what he was about, and I loved it. His latest production is a flick called Red State, and it looks like nothing he's ever done before. But even more than the film itself, Smith is also trying something new with the distribution model. Below is a fantastic speech he gave after the premier of Red State this past Sunday at the Sudance Film Festival.



If you don't watch the whole above video, I understand. The salient points are that he's not even engaging in the usual marketing and distribution of the studio system. He has taken it upon himself, and is doing a cross country tour of the film, and following each screening with a Q&A with him, and star of the film Michael Parks. Many people criticized Nine Inch Nails, as well as Radiohead, when they self released their latest albums, saying that they were only able to be successful because of the audience they had already built. I don't disagree with those critics, and I don't disagree that Kevin Smith has built quite a following, but I think what Reznor, Radiohead, and Smith are doing is important because they lend an air of legitimacy to independent media distribution, which makes it that much easier for the rest of us still working towards a career.

If you don't love Kevin Smith, or don't like the look of Red State, I seriously encourage you to find other ways to support independent artists in any way you can. One of my friends introduced me to a singer songwriter named Ani DiFranco, and here's a lady who has never touched any studio system. Or Zoe Keating, who's an all indie avant garde cellist, or any number of other people. Blood, sweat, tears, and the support of those who love it should be the foundation of any art that is to be shared, and that's exactly what these folks are doing. It's kinda beautiful.

Here's the trailer for Red State


And here's a link to the Red State USA Tour: http://coopersdell.com/

Looking Forward - "Rango"

So many CG flicks just seems to blur together into one long piece about about a talking animal/object on some quest for something or other. Gore Verbinsky's Rango didn't look any different. I should say that it didn't look any different until I saw this short "making of" featurette. After seeing this, I am genuinely interested in seeing Rango if for no other reason than to spite the Shrek style of animated filmmaking where the actors never even meet each other during production.