From the McSweeney’s people, who had already launched a rather good monthly magazine that used to be about books and writers called The Believer (It’s not so much about that anymore, and while still good, I no longer get it because I can read about politics, music and films in a dozen other places).
Their latest venture is a quarterly DVD, made up of “shorts.” People continue to make short films even with almost no outlet for them. One would have thought the web would have given more light to this kind of film, but other than the occasional re-cut trailer (Shining, Passion of the Christ) or a photoshopped scene of a jet landing on the 405, it hasn’t really been so. The other possible outlet for this stuff is straight to DVD which again has been tried by various DVD “magazines” with not too much success.
So enter Wholpin from McSweeney’s with an impressive bunch of names on the cover, and actually an impressive bunch of films as well. The variety between the films is impressive; there’s no attempt to create a “theme” thankfully, and the unexpectedness of what you’re getting in each new chapter is really a big part of the fun.
The film that has gotten the bulk of the attention is a section of a documentary on Al Gore by Spike Jonze. It takes place on a rare and last day off before the big final run up to the election, and it’s illuminating and sad. This is Gore at his house in the country – rather, on the coast – relaxing, thinking, spending time with him family, swimming. I’m no fan of legacies and political families whose sons and cousins get elected on names and family fortunes, and Gore is one of those, but – Well, we all know what the but is here.
Two other films on the disc impressed me even more: David O Russell, whose Three Kings looks like it might be the best film he ever makes, has the disc’s other documentary; which is very close in storyline to Three Kings. Except real. With all of the scapegoating, and none of the happy hollywood ending that Three Kings had. Now, how Russell would get involved in a documentary about a subject he had a movie about 10 years earlierhas to be an interesting story. It’s not mentioned here, though there is a much longer version of the film that is plugged duyring the credits.
Section 8 – the now-shuttered production company from Soderbergh and Clooney – turns in a very polished and very good fiction film called The Big Empty, starring the usually underutilized Selma Blair. It’s based on a strange story that appeared in McSweeney’s actually, and I won’t give away the plot, but will say it’s probably my favorite thing on the disc.
There is a long, animated, middle-eastern fairy tale, faded and scratche up, and just perfect that way. No subtitles or explanations (that I could find), but again, none really needed to enjoy it. I am a big fan of other cultures’ fables and passed-down tales in any case, so this was of particular interest to me, though I can’t imagine anyone else wouldn’t also be captivated by it.
Patton Oswalt stares at the camera and makes faces for five minutes.
Some guy standing in front of a building sings Stairway to Heaven backwards, and then the tape is shown backwards, resulting in a kind-of-forward singing of the song. It’s impressive.
Miranda July writes, and with John C Reilly, appears in a short film which is probably most like what I expected these short films to be like; Quirky, unengaging and not prticularly memorable. Not bad, but… expected, I suppose.
Finally, I’ll mention there is a Turkish sitcom, based seemingly on the Jeffersons. There are four sets of subtitles you can choose from other than the actual translations. One is written by the usually crazed writer Brian Evenson, who is remarkably uncrazed. Others are quite funny, but to get through them requires actually watching the thing several times, which is a bit much.
I don’t know if I’d really want to pay to have this forever though, you know? Most films I don’t need or want to own on DVD, and I think is not really an exception to the rule, even though I enjoyed it. In fact, I’d be willing to send it others here if someone would like to see it. (It’s not the kind off thing I’d think most video places would rent out either.) It comes packaged with the latest McSweeney’s (18) and The Believer, so it’s easy to get.
But it’s original, and there’s probably a good wealth of material being made they can continue to expose, and that’s great.
Yeah, I’m going to give Wolphin a shot.
By the way, Sundance had all of their 2006 festival shorts online (I’m not sure if they are still up). I saw a few and was surprised by the lack of cleverness. This year’s winner, Bugcrush, was a queer horror film and while it has its moments and is well photographed (the director is also a fashion photographer), I found it to be mediocre at best (and the actors didn’t make a full commitment to the material which bothered me).
I remember reading that Russell’s documentary was going to be a part of a Special Edition DVD of Three Kings but when America entered into Gulf War II, the producers decided that Russell’s doc was too incendiary and jettisoned its inclusion. So it shows up here in an abbreviated form.
We just watched the Gore short–very fine–and the July–I agree with Mark, i.e. I don’t have much to say about it and will forget it within a day or two–and “The Delicious,” which I gotta say made me laugh a lot. I fear I’m going to have to buy a red pantsuit for Halloween next year.