SPIDER

Short by Aussie Director Nash Edgerton (Brother of Joel Edgerton: Animal Kingdom and soon to open Warrior)...10 minute short about Jack and Jill...they are driving she is pissed about something he did....he tries to make up for it and attempts a humorous prank at the same time...the twists are jarring and crazy...and worth checking out.

Playlist: Antychryst

Why? Another short film I caught on IFC

Yes, I was drawn to the title of this 2002 Polish short. Serves me right. A group of young boys romp around like wild things while one of them keeps calling himself the Antichrist. It does build to a climactic stunt, but we're dragged to that point by the usual foreign arty pacing and editing. Felt a lot longer than 27 minutes.

Playlist: "Advantage"

I've been into shorts lately and I'm also going to refrain from making a clothing joke. You're welcome.

I caught the 11 minute "Advantage" on IFC and while its run-time was less than the total commercial-time during an episode of Lost, Australian director Sean Byrne packed it well. It opens with a young couple stumbling home from a night out when they come across a fenced-in tennis court. As stumbling young couples tend to do, they decide to...hold on, let me fire up the euphemism machine...rattle rattle clank...harness the underwear unicorn. Really? Is this thing still under warranty?

Right, ok, so they're harnessing when the lights turn on and the loudspeakers blare what can best be described as Satanic techno. They're not alone. In the worst possible way. The rest--remember it's all of 11 minutes--is spoiler territory. It's freaky and well done and Byrne impressed me enough that I'm interested to see his full-length horror feature, The Loved Ones, this August. Anyone catch it?

Playlist: "Whistle"

I've always found most DVD extras just filler for filler's sake. Really, there are just so many gag reels and green screens someone can reasonably be expected to pretend to be interested in. (And I'm not talking about director commentaries, Vin.) However, one of my new favorite things is getting a director's earlier short film as a bonus feature.

"Whistle" was a particularly fun find on Duncan Jones' Moon because it's his only other work to date (2002 to be exact). And it's not just an experimental novelty, but an actual short film. It's the high-concept story of a really long range assassin who specializes in precise computer-guided laser killshots (yes, that is extremely freakin cool). But, of course, something happens--damn you, something! Since it's only 28 minutes, I won't say anything more, other than it's definitely worth watching if you get the chance.

As for Moon, Vin covered it in one of our first posts, but I'll chime in with a couple of things. If you don't know, Sam Rockwell plays multiple characters who are quite often filmed together in the same scene. The combo of his acting and Jones' directing actually made me forget at times that I wasn't watching two separate actors interacting with one another and that's a helluva feat. Also, I've heard this mentioned, along with Danny Boyle's Sunshine, as some sort of start to a smart sci-fi renaissance. God forbid. I'd rather get these gems every so often then have it become a "trend" to be co-opted and Hostelesque tortured into mediocrity by some studio hack.

Playlist: Amblin'

Doing a little prep work for the next podcast, I watched Amblin', a 26 minute film from 1968. Oh, right...directed by a pre-bearded Steven Spielberg. Besides being the inspiration for his future production company name, it's also a perfect artifact of a young filmmaker honing his craft.

One of the more notable aspects of this story of two young hitchhikers amblin' along a desert highway is that it is completely dialogue-free, a decision that demonstrated a lot of foresight by a 22-year old. Too often, these bare-bones early films are sabotaged by the necessity of using unprofessional actors to bring to life a novice script. These shorts are essentially video business cards to try to get feature work. The last thing a struggling director needs is to have more attention on the bad acting than on his chops behind the lens.What we have here is simply a budding director having fun with his camera and developing his artistic eye (which apparently worked--he's made a couple of movies since then).

Last note: while it drags a bit in the middle, the ending was a bit of a surprise considering some of the weak finishes of his multi-million dollar epics.

And because we here at SMC love you, here it is (courtesy of JoBlo.com):