Independent filmmaker Anthony Spadaccini always had a keen visual eye, leaving no stone left unturned. You can tell by watching his films that he takes great pride in every shot and every camera angle. His films are an emotional experience, but even more than that, they are a visual experience to remember. You feel as though you are entering another dimension or another universe. You are a little uncomfortable, scared, and unsure, yet you can’t look away and you can’t wait to see what unfolds next. It grabs the viewer right from the get go and doesn’t let go.
Author Archives: Guest Contributor
Hooves and Fangs: Investigating Why Some Men Love My Little Pony, but No Men Love Twilight
The word “brony” has become so loaded over time that it’s hard to use without bringing up unfortunate connotations. I’d like to leave aside the more… colorful aspects of the group and stick with the loosest definition possible: a brony is an adolescent or adult male who watches and enjoys the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. (To answer your inevitable question: Yes, I have watched the show. I do think it is very clever and has a lot of crossover appeal. The quality declines after the first season, but if you can get past your “ew, cooties!” mindset, you might find something you enjoy.) The show is so popular with males that a female fan is almost unusual and strange. When someone brings up MLP, as a citizen of the internet, you just kind of assume it’s a guy. Just as, if someone is fanatical over Loki, it’s reasonable to think they’re probably a girl. It’s an intriguing phenomenon: whereas a girl liking superheroes is unconsciously viewed as “trading up,” a boy liking something meant for girls is automatically viewed as shameful.
A Series of Tweets from the Recently Re-Animated Dead
Recovered from @FleshEatr87; Dictated By Joseph Ovelito
Despite experiencing a resurgence in popularity akin to the kind enjoyed by any fading star who “accidentally” releases a hot sex-tape, zombies have never had fair treatment. In the realm of horror movie villains, they are the nameless drones, the middle children, the pawns on the chess board of scary cinema. Vampires get to be sex symbols, slashers get cool back stories, and evil Leprechauns get to explore space and America’s inner cities (Leprechaun 4: In Space and Leprechaun in the Hood, represent). Zombies, on the other hand, exist solely so our protagonists can spend half the movie running away from them in terror before realizing that destroying the head/brain isn’t very difficult when the thing that’s stalking you moves about as quickly as an amputee wading through cement. We never get to know what they are actually thinking… until now, that is. With modern technology revolutionizing the way we communicate with one another/download pornography, it seems only fair that even the undead get a chance to play with all the new gadgets. Here’s what might happen if a zombie was equipped with a smart phone and a Twitter account. Enjoy…
The Broad, Disappointing Strokes of "Avatar"
There’s something about shooting fish in a barrel, and if any modern equivalent of a movie which lent itself to post-modern bashing more than Avatar does, you might only have truly smug equivalents of Stepin Fetchit, and those examples are self-aware.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
In the days of overexposed, computer heavy FX extravaganzas, horror films that go for a more subtle build of terror are usually dismissed as cheap throwaways that just don’t have the budget to compete with the big studio thrill rides. It’s no secret that the “less is more” philosophy is the independent filmmaker’s best friend, but occasionally there comes along a movie that embraces its sense of mystery and uses a building sense of menace to its advantage.
OutFOXed: Rupert Murdoch’s War Against Journalism (2004)
This documentary has very good intentions. It attempts to expose what Rupert Murdoch is doing with the Fox News Network, which is essentially to create a Republican propaganda machine. If you don’t know that’s what he’s doing, then this movie might wake you up. Or at least get you to look into it a little more.
The problem is, if you don’t know what Fox News is doing, you’re probably a moron. And you’re probably not seeking out intellectual pursuit of such concepts. And you wouldn’t do best to watch this particular video.
Unbreakable (2000)
This is, to put it plainly, my current favorite film of all time.
Let me count the ways:
Cinematography. It’s experimental without being art kitschy. If there’s one thing that M. Night seems to get, it’s a good director of photography. The man knows how to frame a scene. A lot of that, I assume, is just like writing a book. Practice. And M. Night, judging from the early age at which he started making films, has a lot of practice. There are a number of angles in this film that just stick with you. The scene in the train from the perspective of the child. The scene from above the weights, giving the audience weight on the main character. The scene in the rapist’s home where you see the rapist suddenly appear. Willis in frame in his Security Outfit, as superhero as a superhero movie gets.