Just Saw This: Halloween Shorts for 2012

Courtesy of Short of the Week, I bring you Halloween Shorts for 2012.

...and they all involve kids.

IWTST: The Raid - Redemption

The Raid: Redemption | Gareth Evans| 2011 | USA, Indonesia | Format: (negative) XDCAM, (printed) 35 mm [spherical] and [Kodak Vision 2383] D-Cinema | 101 min

I want to see this...

Story Time with James Salter "Bangkok"

Bangkok | James Salter | Paris Review | short

Hollis was in the back at a table piled with books and a space among them where he was writing when Carol came in.
Hello, she said.
Well, look who's here, he said coolly. Hello.
She was wearing a gray jersey sweater and a narrow skirt as always, dressed well.
Didn't you get my message? she asked.
Yes.
You didn't call back.
No.
Weren't you going to?
Of course not, he said.
He looked wider than the last time and his hair, halfway to the shoulder, needed to be cut.
I went by your apartment but you'd gone. I talked to Pam, that's her name, isn't it? Pam.
Yes.
We talked. Not that long. She didn't seem interested in talking. Is she shy?
No, she's not shy.
I asked her a question. Want to know what it was?

...Finish it here

A great short story.  Read it for lessons in dialogue and building tension to a satisfying conclusion.

Lauren Treece

VA+MI=DI Video Pick - Die Antwoord "Fatty Boom Boom"

They so freaky.

The Kind of Sci-Fi I Want to Make pt. 2

This kind of imagery inspires new types of stories...

ISS Startrails - TRONized from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

IWTST: The House I Live In

The House I Live In | Eugene Jarecki | 2012 | USA, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Australia, UK | Format: various | 108 min

I want to see this...

LA Times reviews The House I Live In: 

Politically engaged filmmaking is nothing new for Eugene Jarecki, who has grappled with weighty themes in documentaries that include "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" and "Why We Fight." With "The House I Live In," a cogent look at America's failed war on drugs, his work reaches new depth and urgency. 

It's a film as profoundly sad as it is enraging and potentially galvanizing, and it's one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to hit the screen in years. 

Jarecki lays out a clear and compelling case demonstrating that U.S. policy against mind-altering substances and, more to the point, the people who use or sell them, amounts to a systematic scourge upon those with the least resources in this country — a war based on class and race. 

Jarecki's film is a call for fairness and for a reasoned, humane approach to a complex problem, one that over the decades has been drastically oversimplified, in the tradition of prohibition and punitive moralism.  

Visit the website: www.thehouseilivein.org/

Sitting in Silence with Johnny Depp

Just Saw This: Looper

Looper | Rian Johnson | 2012 | USA, China  | Format: 35mm  | 118 min
  
Just saw this last night.
Highly recommend this stylish action thriller that deftly handles the themes of sacrifice and love.  The story is air-tight, the acting is believable and the cinematography is beautiful and well-paced without coming off pretentious.  Despite there being 1 or 2 scenes that I found a little over the top or even cheesy, I can't help but say that this was a very good movie.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt knows how to pick a good film to star in and produce.

Jim Emerson really enjoyed the details like the framing, movie references and, especially, the clouds.

   

I think my very favorite thing in Rian Johnson's "Looper" is a squiggly cloud. It hangs there in the sky above a cornfield and you can't help but notice it. Which is good, because this is a time-travel movie and the cloud comes in handy later when something happens again in this same spot and the cloud tells you what time it is. Thanks to that cloud, you know this is a re-run.

Omer Mozaffar touched on  the dystopian vision of movies set in the future.

In its background, we see that every utopian society must sanitize itself of its unwanted trash: human and waste. Think of the utopian mindset we create for ourselves when we take our unmentionables and move them out of sight, out of mind, consequently out of responsibility. 

Which reminds me of a thought I had while watching the movie, could this 3rd world wasteland be the future of the US?

Roger Ebert dug it too and enjoyed the romance.

Rian Johnson's "Looper," a smart and tricky sci-fi story, sidesteps the paradoxes of time travel by embracing them. Most time travel movies run into trouble in the final scenes, when impossibilities pile up one upon another. This film leads to a startling conclusion that wipes out the story's paradoxes so neatly it's as if it never happened. You have to grin at the ingenuity of Johnson's screenplay.

...The story gains depth with the introduction of romance. In most thrillers, female characters tend toward eye candy and are extraneous to the plot. Not here. Young Joe meets Sara (Emily Blunt), a fiercely independent woman who lives on a Kansas farm with her son, Cid (Pierce Gagnon). Although Young Joe has literally come from nowhere, they slowly grow close. In the future, we learn, Old Joe was married, and his wife (Summer Qing) was murdered by a figure known as The Rainmaker.

R. Kurt Osenlund thinks Looper is a contender for alot of technical Oscars.

Does Looper have a prayer in the Visual Effects race, where tigers and hobbits and Avengers will be sprinting, neck-in-neck? Before the film's release, the answer would have likely been a resounding “no,” as the throwback panache of Rian Johnson's aesthetic isn't even trying to compete with all the 3D bells and whistles of the spectacles above. But with a rapturous response from critics (RT score 94 percent and holding), Looper has the buzz and support to step into some serious contention, if not in the major races, then in tech areas that previously seemed beyond its reach. That is by no means to say the movie's tricks are not impressive. A near faultlessly calibrated slice of futurama (err, future drama), Looper is 2012's action flick to beat in terms of quality, and its old-school restraint has a contrasting lure that might make it a viable slot-filler (think the annual foreign trend in the Animation category).

The sound categories could potentially be easy gets for Looper, with the Sound Mixing and Sound Editing teams of Jeremy Peirson and company reaping recognition for their crisp and kick-ass aural effects (move over pulse rifle, the blunderbuss has arrived). Often in the film, the boom-boom-pow of the sound is matched by the rhythmic verve of the Editing, which is best highlighted in the film's fascinating montages, like Young Joe's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) cornfield-to-nightclub daily grind, and Old Joe's (Bruce Willis) domestic evolution on the far side of the world. But an editing nod is next to impossible with the snowball-in-hell chance of Best Picture love. And though James Gelarden's Art Direction evokes a certain Ridley Scott metropolis, it's small potatoes when pitted against the Masters and Anna Kareninas of the season.

And a crucial nomination...

Sony should campaign hard for a Makeup nomination, as it's the one that Looper has the strongest shot at landing. Gordon-Levitt's semi-surreal makeover may not initially read "Willis," but as the characters spend more time together, and the dual roles are juxtaposed, the trickery of the makeup artists gains impressiveness, and that says nothing of the dimension added to Gordon-Levitt's performance. 

Pena and Latino films at the NYFF

As the NYFF winds down to a close on Oct. 14, 2012,  Vanessa Erazo on Indiewire's Latino Buzz spotlights retiring Program Director, Richard Pena, and 4 of the Latino films playing there.  Having watched all the trailers, they ALL look like amazing films.  I have embedded two that really caught my eye below. Watch them all here.  Hopefully, Mr. Pena's successor builds on his tradition of programming top Latino films within the NYFF.

No
Pablo Larraín (2012)
Chile/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: DCP | 110 minutes 

The Last Time I Saw Macao

A Última Vez Que Vi Macau | João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012)
Portugal/France | Portuguese with English Subtitles | 85 minutes

The Short Grabbing Hollywood's Attention

According to THR:

True Skin, a sci-fi short about robotic augmentation designed to launch a feature version, was officially unveiled this morning but it has been generating plenty of buzz beforehand. In fact, when a trailer for the short hit in April, cyberpunk author William Gibson praised it while agencies and producers all inquired to see the short.  It wasn't ready then but it is now.

Directed by Stephan Zlotescu, the action is set in the not-too distant future where everyone is augmenting their bodies. The story’s hero can't afford to augment in the U.S. so heads to the black market of Bangkok where he gets a hold of a mysterious chip that he discovers is not only slowly turning him robotic but is also a hot commodity wanted by shadowy forces. Jumping off the short, the hero faces a race against time to elude his pursuers and save what's left of his humanity. 

Zlotescu is a FX guru who’s worked on videos for Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Nikki Minaj. With his FX background, he was able to make the short of very little, overseeing the FX work himself. He shot it on location in Bangkok with his frequent collaborators, Chris Sewall, and a man by the name of H1, who acted as producer and cinematographer, respectively.

The team call themselves N1ON and look at the short as launching pad to set up a feature film Zlotescu has been hoping to get off the ground. The hope is to make a modestly-budgeted feature in the model of Chronicle, the found footage super-power movie directed by Josh Trank that proved to be a surprise hit earlier this year.  Zlotescu and N1ON are repped by Scott Glassgold and Raymond Brothers of IAM Entertainment.

Martial Moves of the Day: Sprints & MMA Drills

My latest workouts consist of incorporating sprints and circuit training.  I was accustomed to doing the long run/jog but, in reality, whether you fight in the ring or on the streets, fights are like sprints that require you to explode with a burst of energy and be able to control your heart rate to stay calm in the fight. Hence, the sprints.  In addition, I'm doing exercises that, aside from getting you in shape, also enhance your fighting attributes and techniques.  Below are 4 videos I've been using to get in shape.

Meanwhile, don't forget to get my MMA-Streetfighting book on Amazon, Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble.  The book is chock full of techniques for stand-up fighting, fighting in the clinch, takedowns and grappling, with and without the knife.  A primer for all fighters.

Between the techniques in my book and the exercises in the videos below, you're on your way to bad-assery.

 

Worst Death Scene Ever?!? Definitely, the Funniest

Of course, it had to be in a 1974 martial arts movie.  It's called "Karateci Kiz." From Turkey, no less.