Music Videos

Music Videos Program

Various artists / directors

SXSW Page

Lowdown: A lot like short films, except with more music and less awkward dialog.
Bonus: Barefoot waterskiing sequence in Writer's Four Letters.

Shit you should find and watch: Writer's Four Letters, Man Branch's The Gym is all she Has, Fires of Rome's Set In Stone (M83 Remix), Apes and Androids' Golden Prize

Heypenny, 'Copcar' Director: Joey Ciccoline & Paul Padgett
- Visual gameplay harkens back to what originally made music videos cool on MTV (yea, that's right, I'm old enough to remember when MTV played videos and I'm pretentious enough to use words like "harken").

Grizzly Bear, 'Forest' Director: Allison Schulnik
- Lots of claymation, which is cool if you're really into claymation.

Writer, 'Four Letters' Director: Brad Kester
- Absolutely badass waterskiing set to a good indie rock tune. One of my favorites.

Hunter Cross and the Strays, 'Twisty Ties' Director: Paul Ahern
- This animated tale of aquatic revenge is why you should not let your pet fish form bands.

P.O.S, 'Drumroll' Director: Todd Cobery & Scott Wenner
- The best urban war zone setting I saw this day.

Chris Garneau, 'Fireflies' Director: Daniel Stessen
- It's like hobbit rock, but also somehow not.

The Diagonals, 'Clones' Director: Nick Smith
- This is why, no matter how much of a happy loner you are, you should always go out and make some friends.

N.A.S.A., 'Spacious Thoughts' Director: Fluorescent Hill
- Stylized animation featuring "a personified Tom Waits as a menacing red cloud," how could anyone not like that?

Man Branch, 'The Gym Is All She Has' Director: Matt Leach
- Lounge/karaoke themed story of a hard working woman.  Man Branch's unique vocals put it over the top.

Truckers of Husk, 'Person for the Person' Director: Casey Raymond & Ewan Jones Morris
- Stop motion animation with real people.

Passion Pit, 'To Kingdom Come' Director: Mixtape Club
- Some kind of DaVinci-esque mad scientist romp.

Kevin Devine, 'I could be with Anyone' Director: Ray Machuca & Sherng-Lee Huang
- The various subtitles under the couples in the video are the most interesting thing.

These United States, 'Everything Touches Everything' Director: Maxwell Sorensen
- I can't do better than the official description: "Two crows and a scarecrow cast aside their differences and put on a psychedelic rock concert in a corn field."

Fatback Circus, 'Brain Damage' Director: Rodney Brunet
- Unique underwater visuals.

Socalled, '(Rock the) Belz' Director: Kaveh Nabatian
- The best Jewish/Hip-hop puppet fusion video I've ever seen.

Fires of Rome, 'Set in Stone (M83 Remix)' Director: Matthew Lessner
- Fucking awesome glam-rock video badass-ness.  Totally pushed that Darkness video for I Believe in a Think Called Love out of my glam-rock mind.  Double bonus afghan hounds in slow motion.

BRONTOSORUS, 'Amy' Director: Pete Scalzitti
- Animated bathroom implements playing a rock show for some goo.

Cinnamon Chasers, 'Luv Deluxe' Director: Saman Keshavarz
- First-person POV piece with branching time exploring the consequences of picking up a cute hitchhiker.

WHY?, 'These Hands/ January Twenty Something' Director: Ben Barnes
- Dual-song video exploring the difficulties of carrying a boy with arrows in your back and the difficulties of relationships.

Height, 'Mike Stone' Director: Justin Barnes
- Doin' the lyrics-of-the-song-spelled-out-in-the-video thing.

Apes and Androids, 'Golden Prize' Director: That Go - Noel Paul & Stefan Moore
- Cosmic glam travelers and a hot chick in the middle of the road.  Bonus splashing champagne sequence.


It's good to see that originality and creativity are still alive and well in the music video scene.


I am
the
Baba

SXSW Film Twenty-Ten!

For now is the time for that time to be upon us again.

- mad movie monkey, 3/12/2010

That's right cowboys and cowgirls, the South by Southwest film festival is here for 2010. Film screenings start today!

As always, the official SXSW film site has the basic lowdown and film screening schedule, as well as some information on where the venues and shuttle buses are located.

Additionally the My SXSW site and companion iPhone app are useful tools for planning your whole South by experience.

Now prepare yourself to consume the home cooked wit and wisdom of the Mad Movie Monkey! Wash it down with some Big Red.

I am

the

Baba

Daytime Drinking

Director: NOH Young-seok
Year: 2008 - Production: StONEwork
Movie Home - SXSW Page - IMDb

Lowdown: This is the heartbreak-induced-Korean-drunken-misadventure movie you've been looking for.
Bonus: Korean drinking FAQ at the film's website.

Hyuk-Jin just got dumped by his girlfriend so he's out drinking with his buddies. To cheer him up they decide to take a trip to Jeongseon, but Hyuk-Jin has to go home first to feed his dogs so he'll travel seperately. When he arrives he learns that his buddies never left - they passed out and have a terrible hangover - he's on his own.

So begins Hyuk-Jin's drunken journey around Korea in the wintertime. From Seoul to Jeongseon to Gangneung and some points in-between, Hyuk-Jin is batted back and forth like a pinball by a universe determined to keep him drunk and unbalanced.

There are many moments of quality comedy here, if you're the type able to laugh at the world when it spits in your face. The sadness, desperation and loneliness come through crystal clear as well, and anyone who's tried to drink their way out of the funk from being dumped will surely find many moments of solidarity with Hyuk-Jin.

Those not native to or familiar with Korean culture will find a good deal of interest in the various drinks and customs regarding drinking, and the film will likely leave you wanting to at least try some Soju, if not go on a full scale Soju, wine and whiskey bender.

Clocking in at just under 2 hours, Daytime Drinking can feel slow at times. The pacing, however does enhance the comically sad and desperate situations Hyuk-Jin finds himself in. The characters he encounters also each carry an absurd situation or two of their own, which usually leads to some good humor as their paths cross, crash into and reconnect with Hyuk-Jin's own drunken journey.

Subtitled, sometimes poorly, but the Engrish can be quite comical itself, Daytime Drinking is worth checking out if you're into off-the-beaten-path features or chronicles of drunken adventure.

I am

the

Baba

Reel Shorts 1

Collection of Short Films
SXSW Page

Lowdown: All the big-screen projection of feature-length movies without the burdensome 90 minute time commitment.
Bonus: Guiness and French Toast for breakfast at the Alamo Drafthouse

Hug, directed by Khary Jones: Everyone needs a hug sometimes and never trust your manager around your sister.

Hi Mom, Amylee Belotti: A good synopsis of the reality behind the curtain of the American dream.

Cochran, directed by James P. Gannon: Something to think about the next time you hastily write a note for the UPS or FedEx delivery dude.

Alexandria, directed by Eric Elofson: Books, flood myth, art, morals and an asshole manager.

Isis Avenue, directed by Paul Marchand: Striking drive by on the leftover possessions of a passed elderly woman and those who must now deal with them.

Winter Lilacs, directed by Stephen Gurewitz: A man who loves his mother.

That's My Majesty, directed by Emily Carmichael: Black and white, construction bidding and princess fireworks.

Sunday Mornings, directed by Jannicke Laker: Brilliant survey of the morning after recovery process.

Countertransference, directed by Madeleine Olnek: A cautionary tale about the perils of sometimes naked pop-culture therapists.

I am
the
Baba

Monsters from the ID

Director: David Gargani
Year: 2008 - Studio: Blue Room
Movie Home - SXSW Page - IMDb

Lowdown: Blind me with SCIENCE!
Bonus: Awesome 50's space and monster footage.

With a sharp focus on American Science Fiction film from the 1950's, Monsters explores the role of the Scientist as an American hero during a time when the whole world was getting used to the idea that science had become awesome enough to blow us all to hell.

The 50-year rule of history seems to be well in effect here as the images of attractive everyman scientists working hand-in-hand with the military and government evoke a firm distinction from the way we view our current technological wonderworld, both in modern film and in the pseudo-reality of news and media.

The contrast that will sit in your gut like a slightly undercooked blarney stone is just how differently America viewed science and engineering back in the glossy days of yore at the dawn of the atomic age. Lauded as our savior, part of our national strength and identity, science is portrayed without the moral repulsion that can be found these days.

Viewed through this lens, our hypocrisy is laid naked; for only some science is eeeevil these days. To many of us in America the science of geology, stubbornly demanding that the Earth is more than 6000 years old or the science of biology, the science that might cure Alzheimer's or Multiple Sclerosis is very very bad. However the science that makes the GPS in your SUV work or the science that lets you trade Credit Default Swaps to rape people's life savings is just fine and dandy.

The third act of Monsters is an open plea for education and the restoration of the Scientist as a person to be honored and remembered in America. While slightly less effective than the rest of the film, this plea is nonetheless smack-in-the-face obvious to anyone who had their eyes and ears open during the first two-thirds of the movie.

The message is simple, and the same one Kennedy uses to urge us to the moon: humanity is going to brave the scientific fronteers of space and energy and if America continues to keep science as a bastard child locked in the basement, we will simply be left behind.

I am
the
Baba

SXSW Film 2009

The 2009 South by Southwest film festival is upon us. You can check the official site for news, panel schedules and screening times.

The mad movie monkey will be attending selected screenings this year and undoubtedly ranting, so brace yourself for some grease-laden helpings of digital wisdom.

I am
the
Baba