"Something Fishy"

Here's a silent short, with great colour and an amazing young actress. 

Something Fishy is a short Dark Comedy written, directed and produced by Kristy Best. Kristy's first Short Film received a First Time Filmmakers Grant in 2010 from Metro Screen and Screen NSW, and more than fifty friends contributed funds via crowd-funding site indiegogo.com.

Something Fishy has screened at Vail Film Festival, LA Comedy Shorts, DC Shorts, Friars Club Comedy Fest, Dungog Film Festival, Canberra Short Film Festival and Cornwall Film Festival.

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Surrealism and video games

Made by Kornhaber Brown and hosted by Mike Rugnetta, this is the first episode of a PBS series called New Idea Channel. 

This episode examines surrealism in the context of a discussion about the salient features of the Super Mario Brothers. They make a case for Mario's inclusion into a canon of art wider than "Video Game".

You know surrealism, right? 

Stuff like this:

Super Mario Brothers — the world's greatest piece of surrealist art? Watch this.

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"About Abby"

About Abby is a webseries about a cock-eyed optimist in search of love in L.A. Written and directed by Sassy Mohen, and starring Keghan Hurst, Ashley Reign, Gabe Pasillas, Rob McGillivray & Patrick Blakely.

In this Episode, Abby is fresh off the boat. She and high school sweetheart Kevin have recently split. Besides feeling a bit frisky (though she'd never admit it), she's also clueless about what her next step is. Lucky for her, co-worker Harold has the perfect guy for her & her good friends Micah & Caroline are there to guide her along the way.

Here's Episode 1 - About Abby and the Aussie.

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David Lynch sells coffee in Japan

David Lynch

David Lynch used his own show, Twin Peaks, as a vehicle to sell Georgia Coffee in Japan. (Today it is the #1 selling caffeine drink in Japan, outselling Coke two-to-one.)  

When asked whether he was concerned about what the commercials might do to the Twin Peaks image, he said, “I’m really against it in principle, but they were so much fun to do, and they were only running in Japan and so it just felt okay.”

The four 30-second commercials follow an FBI Special Agent (Kyle McLachlan) as he enjoys plenty of Georgia Coffee and solves the mystery of a missing Japanese woman in the town of Twin Peaks. Lynch was supposed to do a second series, but the Japanese company cancelled them.

Episode One: "Lost."

Episode Two: “Cherry Pie.”

Episode Three: “The Mystery of ‘G’.”

Episode Four: “The Rescue.”

It's not official until it's been on The Simpsons. Here Homer gives us the benefit of his insights into Twin Peaks and Georgia Coffee. (You'll need to turn the sound up for this one.)

"Spider-Woman"

This is the first episode of Marvel Motion comics new adventure of Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, as she rediscovers her life in a world she did not make. The Secret Invasion is over. Now comes the reckoning.

Created by the Eisner Award-winning team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.

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"The Hauntening"

Here's a short film from Waverly Films, which shows how much you can do with one actor, an average kitchen, and some imagination. 

And a customized soundtrack.

Spooky messages while cooking beans...

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Free movies #2

I listed a bunch of movies you can watch for free on the internet back in March 2012. That post received a lot of interest, so I thought I'd list a few more films.

• 12 Angry Men (1957) — What begins as an open and shut case of murder soon becomes a drama of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
• 27 Dresses (2008) — After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with. 
• A Bridge Too Far (1977) — An historic telling of the failed attempt to capture several bridges to Germany in World War II in a campaign called Operation Market-Garden.
• An Act of Murder (1948) — A hard-line judge is tempted toward mercy-killing by his wife's terminal cancer.
• Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) — A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love, in a year during which she keeps a personal diary.
• Cadillac Records (2008) — Chronicles the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists. 
• Duel (1971) — A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by a malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.
• He Got Game — (1998) A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter sentence.

Easy Rider

• Easy Rider (1969) — Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. 
• Last Man Standing (1996) — A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.
• Law Abiding Citizen (2009) — A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.
• Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) — Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.
• Lord of War (2005) — An arms dealer confronts the morality of his work as he is being chased by an Interpol agent.
• Malcolm X (1992) — The biopic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader.
• Man On Fire (2004) — In Mexico City, a former assassin swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect.
• On the Waterfront (1954) — An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses. Marlon Brando won an Academy Award for his performance in this film.
• Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) — Aliens resurrect dead humans as zombies and vampires to stop human kind from creating the Solaranite (a sort of sun-driven bomb). 

Rain Man

• Rain Man (1988) — Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
• Stardust Memories (1980) — While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.

• Straw Dogs (1971) — A young American and his English wife come to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment.
• The Chronicles of Narnia (2005) — Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion. 
• The Criminal (1960) — In Britain, an ex-con who's taken part in the robbery of a racetrack is caught and sent back to prison, but he won't tell his fellow gang members where he's stashed the loot. The gang kidnaps his girlfriend and has him tortured in prison in an effort to find out where the money is. Released in the US as The Concrete Jungle, in a nod to The Asphalt Jungle.
• The Getaway (1994) — To get out of prison, Doc McCoy has to cooperate with the same person who got him into prison. 
• The Illusionist (2006) —  In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a magician uses his abilities to secure the love of a woman far above his social standing. 
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) — In San Francisco, a group of people discover the human race is being replaced one by one, with clones devoid of emotion. 
• The Lineup (1958) — In San Francisco, a psychopathic gangster and his mentor retrieve heroin packages carried by unsuspecting travelers.

The Mechanic

• The Mechanic (1972) — Charles Bronson plays an aging hitman, who is instructed to train his own replacement.
• The Out of Towners (1969) — George Kellerman is being flown to New York City with his wife Gwen for an interview with the top brass, but the carefully planned trip turns into a nightmare.
• The Peacemaker (1997) — A US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.
• The Right Stuff (1983) — The original US Mercury 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it.
• The Valachi Papers (1972) — When mobster Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Vito Genovese, he takes desperate steps to protect himself.
• Thursday (1998) — A drug dealer, who has made a new life for himself, risks losing everything when a former ally turns up with heroin.
• Waiting for Godot (2001) — Two tramps wait for a man named Godot, but instead meet a pompous man and his stooped-over slave.