Sundance Channel

My hopes for HBO’s “Girls”

Alida Nugent — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:48:37 +0000

HBO’s teaser trailer for Lena Dunham's upcoming series Girls proves that everybody on television is having sex. If that sounds too broad for you, let me put it another way—every girl on television and living in New York City is having sex. It might not be attractive or pretty or without use of the word ‘lube,’ but it’s something that is happening. In fact, it’s probably better television fare if it’s kind of gross. Gritty and unattractive are the new ‘honest’—like Kristen Wiig’s sex scene in BRIDESMAIDS or all the dark jokes in 2 Broke Girls. Sex has returned to its rightful place in the bottom of the gutter, and most female-centric comedies this season aren’t afraid to lay in it. It’s clear that the Sex and The City look-at-all-of-my-pretty-shoes-Lady is dead, only to be replaced by a vintage dress-wearing version who can’t stop rolling her eyes. She’s your new girl of the moment, and she’s certainly prevalent in Girls. She’s poor. She’s in charge of her sexual prowess but barely in charge of everything else, including her flailing limbs. No, I’m kidding, she’s not really in charge of anything because he’s not calling her back.

Spike Jonze’s short film I’M HERE

Dennis Lim — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:00:17 +0000

In his feature films, Spike Jonze has successfully melded his singular sensibility with other equally distinctive voices (Charlie Kaufman in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ADAPTATION, Maurice Sendak and Dave Eggers in WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE). But for a taste of pure, unadulterated Jonze — to really appreciate the deadpan high concepts, the absurdist melancholy, the skewed sense of enchantment — turn to his music videos and short films. Written and directed by Jonze (and financed by Absolut Vodka), the half-hour I’M HERE, the high point of a strong opening shorts program, follows in the venerable tradition of sci-fi stories about robots who discover the contradictions of the human heart. Sheldon (Andrew Garfield) is a sad-eyed android librarian in an unfriendly Los Angeles where the robots lead an underclass existence and seem fated for a lonely obsolescence. (He and his fragile fellow bots certainly look like last century’s models: boxy heads, Lego-like appendages, protruding wires.)

SUNfiltered music videos

Matthew Rodriguez — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:30:29 +0000

1. I likeasarous a lot this prehysterical music video directed by Steven Andrew Garcia for Mika Miko's song "Totion" featuring dinosaurs partying it up!

Girls on Vespas.

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:03:33 +0000

Is this art? Is this advertising? Or is it a fetish? And what is this funny feeling I have while viewing them? However you slice it, there’s something appealing about this Flickr collection of glamorous calendar photos of ladies posing with Vespas from the 1950s through the ’70s. Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59287402@N00/sets/1787954/ Via: http://www.metafilter.com/79922/Momma-Mia-Ragazze-in-Vespa-Girls-on-Vespas