I just love stop motion videos

And this one is no exception.



A music video. Lovely music.
And I feel like this is what dreaming+sleeping really feels like.

Saw this on Design*Sponge.

we watch a lot of movies around here

[EDITED TO ADD: M noticed that I forgot to include *The Band's Visit on my list. It's a recommend and I thought it came out in 2007 which is why I forgot to include it here. It's a charming and unexpectedly good (like I thought it was going to be good, but it was even better than I thought, so... unexpected and even better) movie about an Egyptian police precinct band on a performance trip to Israel who get stranded in a remote town wondering if they will make their scheduled performance for an Egyptian embassy opening. I know that's a run-on sentence. Go watch it, you'll like it.

And also? I forgot that the Oscar nominations were being announced yesterday so my bitching about the Academy possibly overlooking Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei was unnecessary. They both got nominated. Yay!]

It's well into 2009, but since I have a lot of time on my hands I'm going to write up a list of all the movies we watched this year and this time just brief notes of my thoughts, maybe. Okay and stars next to the ones I recommend.

The Business of Being Born (interesting documentary, very biased)
In Bruges (interesting - not really the comedy it was advertised as being)
Charlie Bartlett (it was okay)
Be Kind, Rewind (awesome visuals! I would have loved to be on staff for the props and set department when making this movie. Too bad the story was just so-so.)

*Blindsight (documentary about a blind mountaineer (really) who undertakes an expedition to climb Mt. Everest with a group of blind Tibetan kids. Yes it's crazy inspiring but really I engaged with the people in the film more for their stories and not necessarily for what they accomplished as blind people. Very very good.)

The Hammer (Adam Corolla's movie. not bad. not really that good though)
Run, Fat Boy, Run (not worth it)
Shine A Light (the only way I'll ever afford to see a Rolling Stones concert. I'd recommend this if you like the Stones and concert films.)

*Young@Heart (loved it! not great as a documentary but the subject matter was so intriguing!)

*The Visitor (very strong performances-Richard Jenkins has become one of my favorite actors to look out for, compelling story, uplifting ending)

*Son of Rambow: A Home Movie (awesome! love the visuals-very creative! adorable kid actors (not in the saccharine way) and heartwarming story about friendship)

Iron Man (entertaining-I'd recommend it if you like explosion-laden summer blockbuster types)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (a sentimental favorite and entertaining for that reason but admittedly flawed)
The Foot Fist Way (thought this would be way funnier. it fell flat)
The Promotion (engaging enough of a concept, last bit sort of didn't make it for me. enough funny bits to keep you going)
The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton is a better casting choice for the Bruce Banner role than (give me a break) Eric Bana ?? and there were plenty of fun explosions and such, but not a very good movie overall)

*WALL-E (very very good. I loved how the first half of the movie conveyed a very complete narration with nearly no dialogue. a touch preachy at the end but still very enjoyable)

Wanted (interesting ideas, tried too hard to force the comedy in, and the gore was unnecessary and over the top)
*Tell No One (French title:Ne Le Dis a Personne. Not bad, does a fine job of working within the genre. The music was a bit overwhelming and the end was just a touch unsatisfying but still quite entertaining. Not a top recommendation, but I guess I would recommend it.)
Hancock (the first half was good the second half sucked ass)
Batman: Gotham Knight (Heath Ledger was without a doubt magnificent in his interpretation of the Joker. the whole movie was about 30 minutes too long, they didn't seem to know how to end it. Better to have done the 2-face story as another movie than try to force it as an additional plot line into this one? I don't know. Something about it didn't work.)

*Kenny (still on my top 10 list for this year. I appreciate a movie that is very good and very funny and has a positive ending. It's so easy to kill off all the characters if you're stuck and don't know how to end your story. It's much harder to keep them alive and put a positive engaging spin on the end of the story of their journey.)

Transsiberian (interesting but flawed. Ben Kingsley isn't all that in this one)
Step Brothers (ridiculous but funny)
Man On Wire (french tightrope walker documentary. fascinating and sometimes beautiful, but I kept thinking to myself: what a crackpot!)

*Frozen River (this movie too remains on my top 10 list with similar thoughts as above about the ending as I had about Kenny)

In Search of Midnight Kiss (not worth it, I regret that I wasted those hours of my life)
The Pineapple Express (not as funny as I'd hoped and slightly ridiculous 'specially at the end, but still entertaining)
Tropic of Thunder (really bad)

*Burn After Reading (it's refreshing to watch an intelligent comedy. I enjoy the silly ones, but this one was even more enjoyable because it was smart and felt true and well acted. A fine ensemble cast.)

Ghost Town (disappointingly not that good considering the talent involved)
Rachel Getting Married (it was okay. Anne Hathaway was good in a dramatic indie role. And the wedding party scenes were my favorite visually, but the story didn't work for me. lots of loose ends, you know?)
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (cute idea, heard a promising review of it, but it wasn't that good. Charlie Bartlett was better)
Happy-Go-Lucky (very enjoyable character study of an amazing individual. I loved the trampoline scenes which I thought visually connected with the idea of joy and happy-go-luckiness (if you will). Not really a story as much as a slice of life, you know, something interesting happened once and here I'll tell you about it in a 90 minute film format. Eddie Marsan who plays the crabby driving school instructor (en rah-hah!) also gave a strong performance)
W. (made me feel sorry for him. felt like a too-long SNL sketch Josh Brolin does an amazing impersonation)
Synecdoche, New York (3 hours of my life that I'll never get back)
Role Models (not as funny as I thought it would be)
Slumdog Millionaire (unsatisfying story but pretty to look at and the music was good)
Wendy and Lucy (sweet, compelling and short story like)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (unsatisfying story but pretty people making out a lot and beautiful cinematography+art direction)

*The Wrestler (I cried a lot after this movie was over. I cried a fair share during it too. When I saw the trailers for it I had a very visceral reaction and I teared up a few times. His face is so amazing, there's so many stories in it. I hesitate to call it my #1 movie for this year, because I feel bad recommending a movie that's so sad. But it was very well written, fantastically performed and directed and I think what makes me most sad of all is how true it is. Mickey Rourke and Marissa Tomei will get totally overlooked by the academy for their roles in this movie which is a crime as far as I'm concerned.)

*Waltz With Bashir (animated full length feature of a lebanese war veteran dealing with his demons. I kept seeing the trailers for this one but didn't want to go see it. M saw it without me and what he told me now makes me want to see it. So this is a bit of a cheat to include it on this list, but there you go.)

From DVD:
*Billy the Kid (documentary about an amazing teenager)

we heart Ira Glass

Ira Glass is a popular guy in our household (and among our friends). Here's a fun little clip of his appearance on "The Letterman Show" talking about "This American Life's" annual Thanksgiving show called "Poultry Slam."



I find fascinating the laugh-track quality of the studio audience's response to Ira's story. Mainstream America must have been puzzled by this introduction to public radio. But what a great introduction. Hopefully they were enticed to check out the Showtime show or even the radio program.

NB: Ira's segment is just about 5 minutes long, the rest of it is the musical guest's performance.

watch this documentary

It's called Billy The Kid and it's great. M and I watched it on dvd the other day and loved it. I'm a little brain-dead right now so I can't think of anything else to say about this movie without giving too much away. But it's short and sweet and will make you feel good about life after you watch it. Seriously recommended in my household.

adorable biscuit advert

Bakers Precious Biscuits from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Kids in cute clothes (the striped leggings just kill me), imaginary creatures from fairy tale books, magical, whimsical stylization. I wish my internet connection didn't suck so much because I love watching this short and sweet little ad over and over.

beautiful progression

Click on the image above to be redirected to the video.

This is a lovely advert for a car. I love the circular camera work and the compositing is really well done. I had to watch it a few times to catch all the details. It's short and worth the study. Also a beautiful score that crescendos to a dramatic visual climax. Very well done as a piece of advertising. Too bad it's a piece of advertising.

"Orange" advert

What a charming advert for a British phone company (I think). I like their use of stop motion animation with 2D silhouettes. Nice single shot camera work. Must have taken a lot of organizing and planning.

Click image to redirect to the video. Image from kandle design.

ninja cat

pretty close to the truth

movie recommendation: Frozen River

M and I saw a really good movie over the weekend. I guess it's on limited release in NY and LA for now. But if you happen to notice that it's playing at a theatre near you, I strongly recommend that you go and see this.

Frozen River is a drama about a single mom struggling to make her next mortgage payment before her rent to own mobile home gets taken from her. She lives in upstate New York in a little town that borders a Mohawk reservation/Canada. She ends up getting involved in a human smuggling operation that leads her to make a difficult decision with surprising and hopeful results.

It was very well written with spare dialogue that was nonetheless impactful. The movie starts off a bit slow (that could have just been me as I was sort of not feeling well when we entered the theatre) but the characters and story engage you and keep your attention to the very end. Melissa Leo, the actress who portrayed the main character was terrific. She was every bit the tired, put-upon, at the end of her ropes single mom scrambling to make ends meet, overlooking her oldest son's earnest efforts to fill the role of man of the house, snapping at him instead because of mundane mistakes that he made (like burning popcorn). I've never seen her before and I'm inclined to believe that part of this film's believability was in casting unknown faces to grace the screen. Even the slightly stilted performances in the supporting roles (as portrayed by Misty Upham and Charlie McDermott) lended to the credibility of this slice of life tale.

First time writer/director Courtney Hunt did a fine job of conveying the drudgery and squalor of the lower economic class in a struggling border town. Her shots were cold. You could feel it sitting in the movie theatre watching the actors trudge across the snow, or driving through the slush. I have just a minor criticism of her framing as I thought she got too close for some of the close-up shots which was sort of distracting because they didn't feel like they needed to be shot so close. And I really appreciated how she incorporated native indian characters as part of the story without going down the usual trite path of dreamcatcher-type kitsch.

It's not a happy/feel-good movie that the whole family can enjoy. It's certainly dreary, there's a bit of tension sprinkled judiciously throughout, but I think the characters are totally relatable and the ending leaves you with a sense of hope that really warms the spirit.

Energia Video

Here is a short but excellent video about energy consumption.

Click on image to be redirected to the site with the animation.

I don't speak Portuguese, but could grasp the message in this charming video by Buraco de Bala. It features original illustration style done up as an animation (on a white board?? Shazam. Look out UPS!) with a simple score. It's pleasingly designed/animated. My favorite part (hard to pick) was the type treatment of the title at the beginning.

more lookybook

Edited to add: It seems like Google's Feed Reader doesn't support the embedded video that Lookybook uses. So you'll have to go to my blog directly (or lookybook's site) to view it. Not sure how other feedreaders deal with this, though. Sorry 'bout that.

And personally, I would buy this book for myself:

protect water

What a lovely animation by Rich Scurry. I love the illustration style. The penguins and deer drinking are my favorite bits.

Click on image to be redirected to video.

more moving magic

Click image to be directed to the website with the video.

Christopher Ferris is not only a skilled 3D animator, but he's got a nice show reel that I enjoyed watching. I tend to be bored by show reels as they all look the same. This one grabbed my attention by not assaulting me with a dance music soundtrack and also he employed an unusual presentation where he labels his work with brief information about the type of project. Nicely done.

Flynn - The Red Suitcase

Click image to be directed to animation site.

What a charming little animation!

Rockn'Rolla

Click image to redirect to video.

Another cool 2.5D animation. Nice use of limited palette. Recalls a bit of Sin City style illustrations too.

muffin man animation

I love the simplicity of this clay(?)mation movie. It's an ad for a Canadian bank's investment services and as much as I am wary of the idea of local shops headed towards large scale growth and mega branding, this is a fine example to illustrate this kind of growth if you are into that stuff. Also, I like the way the animators tell the story by zooming out. Click on the image to go to the quicktime movie. It's just a few seconds long and doesn't take too much time to load.

kenny

M and I saw a great movie on Sunday. It was so good I need to write about it and encourage all of you to go out and see it right away.



It's an Australian mockumentary about a everyday guy named Kenny who manages portable toilets for large outdoor events. Yes there is toilet humour and a few scenes that might make you squeamish (though the filmmakers did a fine job of just hinting at something without actually showing it). But the real gem of this movie hasn't got anything to do with the toilets or the poo (I can't help but call it that now, as Kenny so matter-of-factly does himself). The real gem is the character Kenny as portrayed by actor Shane Jacobson.

Kenny is so earnest and down to Earth. You'll love how he doesn't take himself too seriously. You'll feel for him as he deals with a bad day at the office and cheer when he finally gets his day. He's a good dad, a good employee and an all around good guy which normally doesn't make for terribly interesting film viewing, but somehow this guy pulls it off. And then some. You leave the movie feeling great and as M commented wishing "there were more people like Kenny roaming God's great Earth to make it a better place."

Seriously. Go see it. You won't regret it.

PS. We saw this at an arthouse theatre. I have a feeling that it might be a bit hard to find in local theatres. But I promise it will be worth the drive to an out of way arthouse theatre if that's the only location that screens it.

post-it note poetry

of a sort...

I find these Spanish language (with subtitles) micro poems charming! Click on the image to go to their site with the video. And their illustrations are great too. I'll have to give a shout out to H to check these out as she is an infrequent visitor to my blog.

(I tried to upload the video via blogger but it's taking so freaking long I am just about ready to give up.)

fleet foxes

What a lovely little animation I just caught via CGART.


White Winter Hymnal from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

I love that all their little sweaters are a bit frayed. And the song is nice. I'll have to give it another listen to catch the full impact of the lyrics.