"2012" Trailer Actually Kinda Awesome

Let's face it: Roland Emmerich hasn't really had a hit film in a while. He experienced mainstream success with Stargate and Independence Day, hit a snag with the box-office bomb (but still fun to watch) Godzilla, rebounded with The Patriot, then returned to disaster movies with The Day After Tomorrow. (He also did 10,000 B.C., but we don't really need to mention that, do we?) Anyway, his new one 2012 looks a bit too much like The Day After The Day After Tomorrow, but I'm willing to give it a shot, mainly because of its badass teaser trailer:



I'm sure you're wondering, "Devin, what makes this trailer so badass? Freaked-out monk gets devoured by giant tidal wave, that's it. Not sure what all the fuss is about." Really? Well, let me point you over to this:



So, really, I could change the title of this post to just read "Song from 'Shining' Trailer Kinda Awesome," but figured including the "2012" trailer would make it more topical.

Favorite Thing of the Day

The End
Originally uploaded by Dill Pixels

As seen on Yewknee. A Flickr set comprised entirely of ending title cards from a wide variety of sources. See if you can guess which TV show/movie each one belongs to.

Cucalorus Watch '08: The Aftermath

Well, Cucalorus 14 is said and done. Thanks to the recent political sea change, the mood at this year's festival was decidedly chipper and optimistic. As a result, politically charged documentaries like Crawford and Secrecy were skipped in favor of more lighthearted fare, such as Good Dick, a comedy about a young video store employee who becomes obsessed with the girl who stops by and rents nothing but porn, and We Are Wizards, a documentary delving into the wide span of Harry Potter fandom.



The eccentric characters of Chicago were represented in a pair of documentaries, one of whom was present for this year's festivities. Vincent: A Life in Color, directed with an experienced eye by first-time filmmaker Jennifer Burns, follows Vincent P. Falk, who takes breaks during his programming job to dress up in flamboyant suits and dance on the bridges of the Windy City for the benefit of passing tour boats. Burns premiered the film at Cucalorus, and brought Vincent (as well as her editor, Christine Gilliland) with her. Vincent proved to be a fascinating figure, both on film and at the festival. He and Burns frequented many of the films my friends and I did, including Wesley Willis's Joyrides, a doc about a similarly eccentric Chicago figure, albeit with a somewhat more tragic story. Willis achieved modest success for his mathematically-precise artwork, but it was his disjointed and offbeat music (which has appeared in Super Size Me and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) that made him a star of the underground rock scene. Directors Chris Bagley and Kim Shively spent equal time focusing on Willis's art and his music, as well as the strange circumstances that turned this sometimes-homeless, borderline-schizophrenic into a household name, until his death in 2003 due to leukemia.

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.

Cucalorus Watch '08: Lessons Learned from Being a Programmer

It's official. The 14th annual Cucalorus Film Festival is one week away, and I am more than excited to see this year's films. This year, I was invited to be a programmer, and ended up watching over 50 feature-length films from every corner of the globe, from South Korea and Australia, to Germany and Austria. In the end, only four films I saw actually ended up in the festival, giving you a good example of how competitive it is (over 1,000 entries, shorts and features, were submitted this year, but only 145 will be screened). Coming away from the experience, I have amassed a list of do's and don'ts (mostly don'ts) for aspiring filmmakers, based on the majority of the films I had seen:

1. Avoid spelling things out. Take out blatant exposition and let the audience deduce things out on their own. They’re smart. They’ll figure it out.
   
2. Avoid “realistic” conversations if they don’t advance the plot. Quentin Tarantino wrote the “royale with cheese” bit, not you.
   
3. Make sure you record your dialogue well. It doesn’t matter how good the quality of the picture is. If the sound sucks, you’ve lost your audience.
   
4. Don't exploit a tragedy. If your lighthearted comedy can’t work without copious references to the ’92 L.A. race riots, then it can’t work.
   
5. Don't namedrop all your favorite movies into your characters’ dialogue. I don’t care how much you love Full Metal Jacket. Having your character recite the entire “This is my gun” speech isn’t going to help your movie.
   
6. Avoid having a character say the title of your movie unless it’s absolutely necessary to the script.
   
7. If you’re the director, don't put “a (your name) film” at the beginning. That privilege is reserved for people who actually have an Oscar nomination.
   
8. Don't insert a blooper reel into your end credits. You’d be surprised by how many people actually did this. Adding one is the same as saying “I know you hated my movie, but look at how much fun we had making it! Surely that must be worth something, right?”
   
9. Don't waste a lot of time and effort on the DVD sleeve. The best movies I saw came in unmarked slipcases and the discs had nothing but the title and the running time on them.
   
10. Don't use label-makers. Thick paper stickers make the discs hard to read in regular players and nigh on impossible in slot-loading players.
    
11. Finally, the goofy little shorts you made with your friends may have been a big hit on YouTube, but so was “2 Girls 1 Cup.” Neither have any place at a film festival.

Alright, that was the end of my ranting. I'll be posting a list of movies to see this year, so stay tuned.

Oh, and one more time for those who missed it: VOTE!

Two Interesting, Yet Radically Different, Video Clips Deserving of Your Eyeballs

My close, personal friend* John Hodgman recently wished everyone a Happy Halloween by giving the YouTube community a brief taste test of the much talked about Crystal Skull Vodka, which sparked the interest of the world after a bizarre infomercial featuring Dan Aykroyd surfaced:



As promised by my long-winded post title, I have another completely unrelated video clip to share with you, courtesy of Drawn! It consists of a Japanese artist showing off his latest sculpture: a "papercraft heart" complete with working gear mechanisms! Like most things Japanese, it looks awesome and I must own it:



Oh, and I almost forgot: VOTE!

*Not really. I met him at a lecture and book signing in Durham. He is awesome, though.

Scary Music Videos Part 3

UPDATE: Use this playlist to view these videos plus twelve others! For this list, click the playlist button on the bottom of the video, then click the right arrow.


Two years ago, I posted five of my favorite creepy music videos and it has consistently been one of my most linked-to articles. So last year I did it again and this year, I've scoured YouTube to find four more for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Enjoy!

Basement Jaxx, "Where's Your Head At" (dir. Traktor)
Superimposing faces onto animals and other people is nothing new here. Chris Cunningham famously took the face of Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) and planted it on creepy little kids as well as supermodels, with equally horrifying results. But Traktor's video for "Where's Your Head At" takes it a step further, revealing a secret plot to kidnap musicians and transfer their brains into monkeys. What purpose this is supposed to serve is never revealed, but it does make for a frightening music video.

Squarepusher, "Come On My Selector" (dir. Chris Cunningham)
Despite his two freaky-ass videos for Aphex Twin (three if you count the experimental short film Rubber Johnny), Chris Cunningham's video for Squarepusher is my personal favorite. And while it certainly isn't his scariest, it is definitely his most fun. So many bizarre things are in this, including a hyperactive Japanese kung fu girl, a talking dog, and a bad case of brainswap. Another oddity about this video is the fact that Cunningham had all the actors speak English, then dubbed over their voices in Japanese and included English subtitles.

Mogwai, "Batcat" (dir. Dominic Hailstone)
The newest video on my list this year comes from instrumental rockers Mogwai, who delivered their uncharacteristically metal single "Batcat" not long ago, and with it, this terrifying video from Dominic Hailstone. Seemingly torn from the pages of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the video concerns a hooded girl fleeing from masked people only to wind up in a cave inhabited by the vicious title character.

Hugh Cornwell, "Another Kind of Love" (dir. Jan Švankmajer)
Who knows what '80s pop singer Hugh Cornwell was thinking when he hired freaky Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer to helm his 1988 music video for "Another Kind of Love." Like one of my earlier picks, the visuals and music don't match at all, which only heightens the disturbing nature of the video. Watch for the part where Cornwell's dismembered head collides with the female mannequin's head and creates a swirling mass of clay with four eyes and an alligator mouth and tell me that a Nine Inch Nails song would've probably suited Švankmajer's creepy vision better.

Feel free to leave links in the comments to some of your own favorite scary music videos, and have a Happy Halloween!

Two New Reasons to Read (or at least to listen to someone else reading)

This October, two of my favorite authors will be releasing new books. This is notable because (1) I rarely read because I sadly don't seem to have enough time to sit down and pick up a tome, so anything new in the world of bookdom is of interest to me and (2) it's my blog and, goldarnit, it's notable, okay?

Sarah Vowell caught my eye when she appeared on "The Daily Show" promoting her travelogue-cum-history-lesson Assassination Vacation. I was somewhat familiar with Ms. Vowell, thanks to her voiceover work as Violet from The Incredibles. Still, what struck me about her interview with Jon Stewart was her casual mention that he makes an appearance on the audiobook version, portraying twentieth president James A. Garfield no less. I'd never heard of an author who invites special guests to perform on her audiobook, and Vowell's latest book, The Wordy Shipmates, has a colorful cast of characters, including actors Peter Dinklage, Bill Hader, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, John Slattery, and "Daily Show" correspondents John Oliver and John Hodgman. The hardcover version of The Wordy Shipmates drops 10/7, as well as the audiobook version, which is totally worth the extra two bucks.

Speaking of "Daily Show" correspondents, resident expert John Hodgman got involved with the show thanks to an appearance on it promoting his first book, a compendium of complete world knowledge entitled The Areas of My Expertise, which in addition to amusing anecdotes about furry lobsters and the Mall of America, also included an exhausting list of 700 hobo names, which have since become the things of internet lore, inspiring an art project and a successful webcomic.

Well, he's back with another massive almanac, this one titled More Information Than You Require, which not only promises to explain "hermit-crab racing" and "how to cook an owl," but also comes with another 700 names, this time of Mole-Men, and will also include their occupations, whatever that means. While Hodgman's television personality (which includes portraying a PC in the incredibly popular Apple ads with him and Justin Long) is one thing, his style of writing is most definitely another, and while people who enjoy the former may not click with the latter, it's worth noting that if you can crack the dense layer of irony that comes pre-packaged with every Hodgman novel, sweet confectionery goodies lay beneath. More Information Than You Require drops 10/21. More info, including the entire book jacket, can be found on Hodgman's (awesome) official website.

Mirman on Palin

Eugene Mirman, the landlord from "Flight of the Conchords," wants to make sure all of America is informed about Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin before they vote this November. For example, did you know that Sarah Palin was raised by wolves (not same-sex wolves, of course) and that she bit a bear to death? Clearly, it must be true since it was reported in highly reputable online media!



More awesome stuff, including the animated "Get Your War On" series, can be found at 236 Video.

Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)

Here's a little something to remember you by, Isaac.

We'll miss you.

Who's watching Apple?

I'm sure I don't need to remind anybody that the Watchmen trailer just came out and it is, indeed, quite badass. One thing I did notice is that on Apple's page for the HD versions of the trailer, there's a rather amusing error in the cast list: "Laurie Juspeczyk" and "Jon Osterman" are character names, not actor names. Oh, well.

I apologize for not posting as frequently as I used to. A lot of different things have been happening in the last few weeks, and unlike most other bloggers, I don't like writing about my personal life, mainly on the basis that it would probably bore most people to tears. I will say that I have finished a short screenplay I co-wrote with my friend, Stephen Ruiz, and hopefully we might be working on getting it shot before the year is out. We'll see...

The Flaming Lips Have Finished Their Movie!

I'm sure everyone already knew this, but after seven years in the making, Christmas on Mars is finally complete and has already begun making the rounds at various music festivals, including Sasquatch and Bonnaroo. In order to prepare the audience for the film, the Lips have made this brief PSA that plays before they screen it:



Now, if only they could get the multiplexes to put this in front of their feature presentation, rather than the dancing popcorn...

George Carlin, R.I.P.

George Carlin died Sunday at the age of 71. He will be sorely missed. Here's one of my favorite Carlin sketches from recent years:

George Carlin - Why We Don't Need 10 Commandments (mp3)

Get Smart Gets a Reality Check

The New York Times turned in a puff piece about the new Get Smart movie, basically talking about how hard it will be to update a television series making fun of the cold war for a modern audience, an audience made up mostly of kids and Steve Carell fans. However, the Times made a mistake by including a multimedia section showing three scenes from the television series and three similar scenes that will appear in the film, which prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what you probably already knew, but were afraid to admit: the movie sucks in comparison to the television show. You simply can't hire the two guys who wrote Failure to Launch and expect the same level of comedic brilliance that show creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry provided.

So, it looks like both Get Smart and The Love Guru will blow, so you're just gonna have to hold out until next week when Wall-E comes out to get your comedy fix.

Movie Review: Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs

In the mid-2000s, something unusual happened. Futurama and Family Guy, two of the seemingly endless amounts of television programs Fox had cancelled at the start of the decade, were suddenly popular again, mostly thanks to a successful syndication of both shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup and strong DVD sales. Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane decided to exploit the situation, and revive the series for three increasingly formulaic seasons on Fox, as well as an upcoming spin-off, The Cleveland Show. In Futurama’s case, Matt Groening decided to take things in a different direction, choosing to create a series of direct-to-DVD movies, which would then be split into half-hour episodes for Comedy Central. While the first of these movies, Bender’s Big Score, oftentimes felt contrived and lacking in the biting satire that fans of Futurama had come to expect from its creator, The Beast with a Billion Backs actually feels like a feature-length film, and less like a series of episodes strung together.

What makes the new movie work is that writers Eric Kaplan and David X. Cohen (who co-developed the show with Groening) keep the subplots to a bare minimum and, thankfully, keep away from that nasty plot device called time travel. In the film, a giant hole in the universe has been ripped open, causing scientist Stephen Hawking (played by the real Stephen Hawking) to stage a conference for all the scientists to try and come up with a solution to the problem. Meanwhile, Fry (Billy West) starts a relationship with Colleen (Brittany Murphy), who gives him a bit of a surprise when it turns out that she has four other boyfriends. After discovering this, Fry dumps her and decides to jump through the rip in space, in order to start a new life. Once through the rift, he discovers a planet-sized, multi-tentacled monster called Yivo who falls in love with Fry’s universe and decides to mate with it. Strange, I know, and it gets stranger. Pretty soon, Fry becomes the Pope of Yivo’s new religion, and invites humanity to leave Earth and enter the other dimension. At the same time, Bender becomes a member of the secret League of Robots, whose mission statement to “Kill All Humans!” is pretty much ignored by its members, which include Calculon, Hedonismbot, and other familiar faces in the Futurama universe.

It may seem like a lot to swallow, but keep in mind that Bender’s Big Score had a lot more plotlines, and plenty of disorganization to go with it. The Beast with a Billion Backs keeps the energy focused on one story at a time, and only rarely pulls out some obscure character for a cheap laugh. The movie also benefits greatly from the casting of David Cross as Yivo, who injects some much-needed droll humor into an otherwise daunting character. Overall, Groening restores our faith in the future of Futurama with a wonderful new movie, and while it does represent a return to form, it doesn’t feel like a rehash of the same old jokes.

Radiohead: The Best Of (DVD Review)

Capitol Records drove the final nail into the coffin that was Radiohead’s contract today, with the release of a massive selection of greatest hits compilations, including a single-disc edition, a double-disc limited edition, a quadruple-LP edition, and a DVD featuring all of their videos. All of these came with the somewhat unoriginal title Radiohead: The Best Of, a puzzling choice considering so many of their song titles would make wonderful alternatives. What about No Surprises...or Exit Music...or We Suck Young Blood? Anyway, if you’ve already got most of Radiohead’s albums, you’ll probably find the DVD to be the only release this week of any value (though that LP box set looks pretty sweet, too). On it are 21 of their music videos, culled from each of the albums released on Capitol. The only glaring omissions are two videos done for Kid A, most notably Stanley Donwood and Shynola’s animated film for “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”

Unlike the single and double-disc CD sets, the DVD is arranged chronologically, so that viewers can truly see the evolution of the band from angst-ridden alt-rockers to representatives of the dark corners of the avant-garde. Pablo Honey alone is represented by four videos (three more than necessary, but I guess we must be thorough), most of which feature Thom Yorke mugging for the camera while the band plays on behind him. Radiohead’s visual style matured along with their music as they released 1995’s The Bends, and the directors they worked with began to forge dense narratives, as evidenced by the videos for “Just” and “High and Dry” (both the US and UK versions are on here, though the US version is the one worth watching). Jonathan Glazer proved especially good at translating Radiohead’s music into memorable visuals, with his beautiful time-lapse photography for “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and the sinister car ride of “Karma Police.”

The real treat, however, is all the videos for Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief, most of which have never been released on DVD in the US. Michel Gondry’s astounding one-shot video for “Knives Out” is alone worth the price of admission, considering it was mercilessly removed from Gondry’s Director’s Label DVD at the last minute. Also essential viewing is Shynola’s ethereal computer animated video for “Pyramid Song,” featuring a polygonal character diving into an ocean filled with abandoned buildings and houses. One of the more surprising inclusions on this set is the video for “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors / Like Spinning Plates,” directed by Johnny Hardstaff and featuring two Siamese twin babies whose chests get ripped apart by robotic machinery. The video isn’t as graphic as the description suggests, and the highly detailed machinery is actually quite beautiful to look at. Finally, out of the four videos for Hail to the Thief, the Jan Svankmejer-influenced “There There,” directed by Chris Hopewell, is the definite highlight.

Overall, Radiohead: The Best Of does a good job of showing a band in transition, as their video collection slowly goes from simply starring the band to reinterpreting their increasingly sinister, yet highly innovative music.

Music Review: Verve Remixed 4

One often wonders if Verve could’ve saved a whole lot of production costs if it had just lumped the best songs from the last three Verve Remixed compilations onto a single disc and released that instead. The same case could be made for the fourth volume in the series, which suffers from the same problem that plagued the earlier volumes, which is that not many DJs like to do a whole lot of tinkering to the classic compositions they are asked to remix.

Like volume three, which culled most of its remixers from the indie community (Postal Service, RJD2, and Danger Mouse, to name a few), volume four tries for thematic unity by recruiting globetrotting turntablists to work their magic on the Verve back catalog. It’s a gamble that pays off…for the most part. Nina Simone’s “Gimme Some,” a track originally rooted in the blues tradition, is given a Motown sheen by pop producer Mike Mangini, while French electro experimentalist Pilooski does a thumping cut-and-paste number on Simone’s “Taking Care of Business,” making it one of the biggest departures from the original and a definite highlight of the Verve Remixed series. Meanwhile, funk/jazz hybrid group Antibalas transforms the rhumba stylings of Patato & Totico’s “Dilo Como Yo” into something resembling an atmospheric outtake from Panda Bear’s last album.

But for every Pilooski and Antibalas, there’s a Truth & Soul, who simply add a beat to Dinah Washington’s “Cry Me a River” and call it a remix. Even more perplexing is Kenny Dope’s take on James Brown’s “There Was a Time,” which sounds like nothing has been altered, but still ends up being two minutes longer than its original incarnation. As always, the compilation ends on a downtempo note, with The Cinematic Orchestra taking Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of “I Get a Kick out of You” and laying some acoustic guitar over it, as well as a somewhat obnoxious vinyl-scratch sound effect. It’s an anticlimactic end to a somewhat lackluster compilation, but for the people at Verve, I suppose it’s business as usual. (In typical bureaucratic fashion, Verve decided to punish the people who actively searched for a physical copy of the album at record stores. A bonus, album-only remix of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” by Mint Royale was added to the iTunes version of the album.)

Farewell, Sydney

Sydney Pollack has passed away. He was not only an outstanding filmmaker, with directing credits for Tootsie, Out of Africa, and The Way We Were, he was also an outstanding actor, with his final performance, as George Clooney's superior in Michael Clayton, being one of the acting highlights of 2007. He died of cancer at the age of 73.

My Criterion Collection

I recently counted up all of the Criterion Collection movies I had the pleasure of viewing and found that I have seen over ninety of their titles. How well do you rank? (Titles are listed by Spine No.)

#1: Grand Illusion (dir. Jean Renoir)
#2: The Seven Samurai (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#11: The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
#12: This is Spinal Tap (dir. Rob Reiner)
#13: The Silence of the Lambs (dir. Jonathan Demme)
#24: High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#25: Alphaville (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#26: The Long Good Friday (dir. John Mackenzie)
#29: Picnic at Hanging Rock (dir. Peter Weir)
#30: M (dir. Fritz Lang)
#33: Nanook of the North (dir. Robert Flaherty)
#39: Tokyo Drifter (dir. Seijun Suzuki)
#40: Armageddon (dir. Michael Bay)
#46: The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Ernest B. Schoedsack & Irving Pichel)
#48: Black Orpheus (dir. Marcel Camus)
#51: Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam)
#52: Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#53: Sanjuro (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#56: The 39 Steps (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#57: Charade (dir. Stanley Donen)
#61: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (dir. Terry Jones)
#64: The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed)
#65: Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson)
#70: The Last Temptation of Christ (dir. Martin Scorsese)
#78: The Bank Dick (dir. Edward Cline)
#91: The Blob (dir. Irvin S. Yeaworth)
#97: Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee)
#98: L’avventura (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
#100: Beastie Boys Video Anthology (dir. Various)
#102: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (dir. Luis Buñuel)
#103: The Lady Eve (dir. Preston Sturges)
#104: Double Suicide (dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
#105: Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
#107: Mona Lisa (dir. Neil Jordan)
#110: M. Hulot’s Holiday (dir. Jacques Tati)
#111: Mon Oncle (dir. Jacques Tati)
#112: Playtime (dir. Jacques Tati)
#116: The Hidden Fortress (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#131: Closely Watched Trains (dir. Jirí Menzel)
#135: Rebecca (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#137: Notorious (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#138: Rashomon (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#140: 8 ½ (dir. Federico Fellini)
#144: Loves of a Blonde (dir. Milos Forman)
#157: The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson)
#164: Solaris (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
#166: Down By Law (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
#168: Monterey Pop (dir. D. A. Pennebaker)
#170: Trouble in Paradise (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
#175: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (dir. Terry Gilliam)
#178: My Life as a Dog (dir. Lasse Hallström)
#190: Throne of Blood (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#217: Tokyo Story (dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
#219: La Strada (dir. Federico Fellini)
#220: Naked Lunch (dir. David Cronenberg)
#221: Ikiru (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#226: Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo)
#230: 3 Women (dir. Robert Altman)
#233: Stray Dog (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#247: Slacker (dir. Richard Linklater)
#251: Shadows (dir. John Cassavetes)
#260: Eyes Without a Face (dir. Georges Franju)
#265: Short Cuts (dir. Robert Altman)
#268: Youth of the Beast (dir. Seijun Suzuki)
#280: The Sword of Doom (dir. Kihachi Okamoto)
#287: Burden of Dreams (dir. Les Frank)
#288: F for Fake (dir. Orson Welles)
#300: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (dir. Wes Anderson)
#302: Harakiri (dir. Masaki Kobayashi)
#307: Naked (dir. Mike Leigh)
#309: Ugetsu (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
#319: The Bad Sleep Well (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#322: The Complete Mr. Arkadin (dir. Orson Welles)
#336: Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater)
#349: Kicking and Screaming (dir. Noah Baumbach)
#352: Jigoku (dir. Nobuo Nakagawa)
#353: Sólo con tu Pareja (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
#374: Bicycle Thieves (dir. Vittorio de Sica)
#377: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (dir. Mikio Naruse)
#381: La Haine (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
#385: Army of Shadows (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)
#386: Sansho the Bailiff (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
#387: La Jetée (dir. Chris Marker)
#391: If…. (dir. Lindsay Anderson)
#393: Pitfall (dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
#395: The Face of Another (dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
#396: Ace in the Hole (dir. Billy Wilder)
#399: House of Games (dir. David Mamet)
#400: Stranger Than Paradise (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
#408: Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#413: Drunken Angel (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#421: Pierrot le Fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#431: The Thief of Bagdad (dir. Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell & Tim Whelan)

Real Life Wall-E

As if I didn't need another reason to see the new Pixar film, apparently they went and built a real-life version of the title character. Take a look: