Doritos vs. Tom Waits

Here's a mini-documentary I put together for the recent Chips and Salsa Film Festival held at The Soapbox in Wilmington, NC:

This video wins the Internet for today.

Pac-Man, Tetris, and other classic video games destroy New York in the amazing short PIXELS from Patrick Jean:

Please Say Something now online!

My early pick for best short film of 2009 is now available for free to watch on Vimeo. Make sure to turn HD on and view full-screen:


Please Say Something - Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.

UPDATE: The short's now on YouTube. Check it out (in HD of course) and vote the shit out of it!

Oasis Tries Their Hand at Viral Marketing

Last year, Oasis decided to promote their new album, Dig Your Own Soul, in a very unusual way: get buskers from the New York City metro system to learn a couple of the songs, and then "leak" the songs to an unsuspecting public by performing them. Well, that time has come and gone, but they made sure to document the whole experience in this fascinating, 18-minute film (with cinematography by Wendy and Lucy's Sam Levy):

Movie review: Fear(s) of the Dark

You gotta hand it to the French: they sure do love a good anthology. Last year’s Paris Je T’Aime had the considerable task of taking over fifteen short films from a wide range of directors (including American favorites like Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Craven, Alexander Payne, and Gus Van Sant) and stringing them together in a multi-faceted look at France’s most cherished city. Now, Fear(s) of the Dark attempts to take the French anthology feature to the darkest points of the imagination, using an extremely limited color scheme (black, white, and various shades of gray) and a variety of talented animators of many nationalities.

Of course, the unfortunate truth is that Fear(s) of the Dark varies wildly in terms of quality and enjoyment. The biggest mistake that the curators of this miniature film festival make is chopping up three of the six entries and interspersing them throughout the program, making it hard for the audience to discern when (and if) those entries have reached their conclusion. Pierre di Scuillo’s short, in which a woman rambles on about her many fears while abstract images morph on the screen, works as a good transitional device, but shorts about a Japanese samurai ghost and an evil man with four vicious attack dogs would’ve had more impact if they were shown without interruption. Though this might come off as a little bias, the best shorts were the ones from the Americans, cartoonist Charles Burns and animator Richard McGuire. The former’s story, about a socially awkward college student with an unhealthy fascination of insects, does an exceptional job of creating a protagonist that has to earn its sympathy from the audience, as the young man (voiced by the late Guillaume Depardieu) changes from willing participant to hapless victim.

While most of the entries in Fear(s) of the Dark qualify as unsettling or disturbing in some way, McGuire’s short (the last in the program) is the only one that is downright scary. McGuire’s minimalist animation style makes the previous entries seem flamboyant by comparison, as he relates the wordless story of a man taking shelter in a house during a snowstorm, only to find that he may not be alone. So while Fear(s) in the Dark, as a whole, may not be a sweeping success, it does make me wish that new installments would show up each Halloween as opposed to new Saw films.

4 Films (and 5 Shorts) You Should Probably See At Cucalorus 14

The 14th annual Cucalorus Film Festival has arrived and, as with the presidential election, change is in the air. Unlike last year, which focused more on big studio releases with an indie slant (Rocket Science from HBO Films, Control from The Weinstein Company), this year promises more truly independent productions with a larger amount of attending filmmakers to discuss their work. Some of the bigger names in attendance are Jason Ritter, the star of the quirky comedy Good Dick; Emily Hubley, director of the breakthrough live-action/animation hybrid The Toe Tactic; and Kelly Reichardt, the director of Old Joy, the hit of Cucalorus 12, and this year’s entry, Wendy and Lucy. But the real meat-and-potatoes of Cucalorus has always been the films themselves, and with that in mind, here are four features (and one block of shorts) that I think will be more than worth your time.

Deadgirl (dir. Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel)
When two young men discover a female corpse in the basement of an abandoned asylum, they decide that she is a prize worth keeping in this sick and twisted hybrid of horror and black comedy. Cucalorus’s website promises this one will be the most talked-about film of the festival, and with both of the directors present to give a Q&A, it’s the one film you can’t afford to miss.

Deadgirl will be shown with short film Ashes Friday, November 14, Midnight, in Thalian Hall, Main Stage.

Lightning Salad Moving Picture (dir. Kenneth Price)
If you attended any screening at Cucalorus last year, you’ve probably met The Superkiiids, a trio of improv comediens who specialize in absurdist humor and bizarre sketches. Well this year, they are proud to present their feature-length debut, in which the Kiiids are faced with the challenge of creating Back to the Future Part IV. It’s a premiere screening that’s guaranteed to be insane, with director Kenneth Price and The Superkiiids on hand afterwards for a Q&A.

Lightning Salad Moving Picture will be shown with the music video “Me-I” by TV on the Radio Saturday, November 15, 4:30 PM, in Thalian Hall, Black Box.

Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes) (dir. Nacho Vigalondo)
Director Nacho Vigalondo introduced himself to America with a short entitled 7:35 in the Morning, in which he stars as a man who holds a café hostage and forces the customers and staff to put on a musical number in order to impress a pretty woman who frequents the place. It was simultaneously hilarious and poignant, and ended up getting an Oscar nomination for best live action short. His feature-length debut promises to dispel with the dark humor in place of brooding suspense and twisted imagery as a man accidentally travels an hour into the past and must deal with his former self who is trying to kill him.

Los Cronocrímenes will be shown with short The Mark Thursday, November 13, Midnight, in Thalian Hall, Main Stage.

Wendy and Lucy (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt returns with this heartfelt look at the relationship between a young drifter (Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams) and her dog (played by Reichardt’s real-life pet labrador). Produced by I’m Not There director Todd Haynes and featuring gorgeous cinematography by Sam Levy, Wendy and Lucy is an American indie classic. Reichardt will be giving a Q&A after the screening.

Wendy and Lucy will be shown Saturday, November 15, 7:30 PM, in Lumina Theater at UNCW.

Glass Coffin Shorts
A police deputy and his passenger stumble upon an insane aslyum where the patients have taken over. Four young friends go on a holiday that soon turns into a macabre nightmare. A culture war is set off in a miniature train shop. An epic 1988 clay animation film is given a much-deserved revival. What more can be said about this amazing block of exceptional short films? Oh, how about all of them have Q&As afterwards?

Glass Coffin Shorts will be shown Friday, November 14, 10:00 PM, in Thalian Hall, Black Box.

Keep in mind that this is just a fraction of the awesomeness at this year's festival. There's also The Toe Tactic (Thurs. 3:45 PM), Good Dick (Thurs. 7:30 PM), Wesley Willis's Joyrides (Thurs. 10:30 PM), We Are Wizards (Fri. 10:15 AM), A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy (Fri. 7:15 PM), The 27 Club (Fri. 9:45 PM), Nerdcore Rising (Fri. 10:15 PM), Absurdistan (Sat. 7 PM), Linkeroever (Sat. 9:45 PM) and tons more. Also, don't miss my short documentary Firewall of Sound as part of the UNCW Visions '08 collection of student films, Wed. at 2:45 PM in Jengo's Playhouse.

"This American Life" Returns to TV Tomorrow Night

I have recently come to the conclusion that I no longer have the time or the ability to discover new television shows by turning on the television. I now get my TV fix through my DVD player. Programs like "Human Giant" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are so rarely shown on their respective networks that buying their seasons on DVD is the only way I am truly able to take them in.

Case in point is "This American Life." Not only have I never had time to listen to the NPR station here in Wilmington, and thus have to subscribe to the podcast version of the radio show; I also don't get Showtime, so I won't be able to tune in to the premiere of the second season this Sunday. However, I do have access to YouTube, and Showtime has been kind enough to bestow some clips from the upcoming season, including a second short film by animator extraordinaire Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth):



"This American Life: Season One" is available on DVD exclusively at Borders bookstores (trust me, it's worth the effort). Season Two debuts tomorrow night at 10 PM on Showtime or, for those without Showtime, probably the next day on YouTube.

Hooray! Another short film complete!

This one's called Ball and, despite its short running time and simple premise, was a bitch to put together. Rotoscoping every single one of those frames literally drove me crazy. I think I frightened a few of my friends when they interrupted me working on this thing in the editing lab. Anyway, here is the finished result:



The song is "It's Okay" by the delightful PWRFL Power, off his self-titled EP, which you can purchase for a whopping $4 at the Catbird Records website.

New Hertzfeldt Short + Stills

Animator Don Hertzfeldt, who has consistently blown my mind and/or made me laugh my ass off with shorts like Billy's Balloon, Rejected, and The Meaning of Life, has made some major announcements regarding his new film, part two in the trilogy that began with 2007's Everything Will Be OK. The film is going to be called I Am So Proud of You and he has posted some awesome stills from it on his blog:




More stills, as well as DVDs of all of Don's work, t-shirts, and more awesome stuff, can be found here.

"David" Trailer Now Online!

The trailer for my short film debut, David, is now on YouTube! Please enjoy:



The official website for the movie isn't up yet, but it should be by the end of this week. Thanks to everyone who worked on this project! I look forward to sending it to various festivals this summer!!

Old News

I'd tell you the new Darjeeling Limited prequel, Hotel Chevalier, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, and directed by Wes Anderson, is available for free on iTunes, but you probably already knew that.

Kubrick, Godard, and more finally get the DVDs they deserve!

2007 is slowly turning out to be the year to score some classic movies on new fully-loaded special edition DVDs. Here's just a sample:

• Warner Bros. Video has announced that they will be releasing a Director's Series: Stanley Kubrick Collection box set on 10/23. The set will include brand-new, two-disc, remastered special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey (my constant pick for greatest movie of all-time), The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut and single-disc editions of Full Metal Jacket and the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. The Shining has been restored to its original widescreen version, and Eyes Wide Shut will finally be released uncut. Documentaries and making-of featurettes abound. In addition, bare-bones but remastered versions of Lolita and Barry Lyndon will be available separately. (Source: DVDActive)
  
  
• The Criterion Collection has revamped their website, turning it into an online store where you can buy their über-awesome special edition DVDs directly from the source, at a discount price, no less! This October, they will release a new 2-disc edition of Jean-Luc Godard's landmark film Breathless, which will include video interviews with cast and crew, an 80-min. French documentary on the making of the film, and tons more. Other noteworthy releases include Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, a 2-disc re-release of Alfred Hitckcock's The Lady Vanishes (featuring audio from François Truffaut's famous interview with Hitchcock), and new movies by Criterion regulars Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman.
  
  
• If crazy TV is more your style, you'll be happy to know that David Lynch's groundbreaking series Twin Peaks will finally be available, pilot episode and all, in a new Gold Box Edition on 10/30.
  
  
• Pixar will finally release all of their beloved (and often award-winning) short films in one collection, Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 1, on 11/6, which will include every single short film since 1984's The Adventures of André and Wally B. (Also, Ratatouille will be out the same day.)
  
  
• And, of course, unless you've been avoiding the Internet for the last year or so, you probably already know about the 5-disc Ultimate Edition of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which will include the highly-anticipated "Final Cut" of the movie, with new scenes, effects, and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, as well as three other versions of the film (theatrical and international versions, as well as the first director's cut), a three-hour documentary, and the never-before-seen "workprint version" of the film. Fortunately, if you don't have the greenbacks for the 5-disc edition (which comes in a f**king suitcase!), there are tons of other versions available to purchase, from a 2-disc edition that just features the final cut and the documentary, to a 4-disc edition that includes everything but the workprint.

New Pes - "Game Over"

How does Pes do it? Check out his latest piece of eye-candy, "Game Over":



A better quality QuickTime version can be found at his site, along with a ton of other awesome videos. I highly recommend Ka-Boom!, Roof Sex (not what you think), and his commercials. You've probably already seen his Bicardi and Coinstar spots. His "Making Of" featuretts are really interesting, too.