Cyrus (2010)

I hope you’ve never heard of the “Mumblecore” film movement and genre of the independent film world or this diatribe will be entirely pointless. Mumblecore is one of the many forms of independent filmmaking, with many directors being acolytes. The first film considered a Mumblecore film was Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha. What defines a Mumblecore film is a low budget, use of non-professional actors, although Jay and Mark Duplass (the directors of this review’s subject) use professional actors, and a lot of improvisational acting. The plot and story usually revolve around a post-college relationship between two White (Not always; Medicine for Melancholy used Black protagonists) heterosexuals. Now, that all that copy and paste from Wikipedia is out of the way, let us review Mumblecore comedy-drama, Cyrus.

Limbo (Playstation Network) (2011)

The video game industry is becoming increasingly identical to the film industry, in more ways than one; when something successful comes out, studios will demand something similar in order to cash into the public's admiration for the aforementioned success; however, to find artistic and innovative films/games that take risks, play with the genre and give credence to either industry, there’s the independent, or “indie”, market, that has little to no promotion. And playing Limbo from Playdead help remind me of the necessity and artistic value of the independent market in particular and the video game industry in general.

Flight Control HD (Playstation Network) (2010)

Being a flight controller must feel, in some sense, like being a god; choosing the destiny of hundreds of thousands of lives, whether they live and enjoy paradise or die in a hellish inferno and control where men may fly. If all flight controllers viewed their job as thus, rather than the challenging, demanding, nerve-wrecking occupation where the slightest hiccup can cause massive, irreversible damage that it is, then maybe the suicide rate will drop dramatically. Thankfully, Flight Control HD takes out the months of training, stress and guilt of all the holiday-makers you sent to a slow and melt-y death and trying to use a Arab looking passenger as a scapegoat.

L.A. Noire (Playstation 3) (2011)

Remember when those absolute idiots who probably think the height of comedy is a fart, called Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Horse? Because a game company can only makes one type of game if that game is the only popular one, even though I remember Rockstar releasing a racing game and a puzzle game. It is a stupid assumption, like saying Valve only make First-Person Shooters. But people won’t really be able to “cleverly” nickname L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Noir, because it is a different kettle of fish, while their may be driving in a large, open world, L.A. Noire is more reminiscent of classic Adventure games, with a mixture of Open-World games and a dash of Third-Person Shooters.

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

The 1950s should have been a time filled with peace and prosperity, a time where humanity would finally realise their inhumanity to each other and live in brotherly harmony together at last after such a destructive and horrific war. Unfortunately, it was an era of paranoia and fear, especially in America, of the newest "evil": Communism. The paranoia was fuelled by four factors; The Soviet Union’s conquest of Eastern Europe; the spread of Communism in Asia; the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two American Communists who were convicted as committing espionage and giving information on atomic bombs to the Soviet Union; and the most important element in exploiting the fear of Communism and creating a nation of paranoia was Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy, a US Senator who made the claim that Communists were infiltrating the country and were working in the highest levels of government. Many would not dare criticise McCarthy due to fear of being labelled a Communist by McCarthy, however, one man did stand up against the McCarthy witch hunts, a journalist and broadcaster more famous for his wartime broadcasts from London during the Blitz, Edward R. Murrow. Through the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), he would criticise and fight against McCarthy’s wild accusations and is believed to be instrumental in both the downfall of McCarthy and the rise of television’s responsibility to inform and illuminate the thoughts and minds of people and not hide the uncomfortable and ugly truths. And so, his struggle to do both is presented in the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck.

Black Dynamite (2009)

Spoof films haven‘t exactly been anticipated with admirable gusto from audiences recently, but who can blame them when most Spoof films are made by the sultans of shit, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. That’s right, the fuck-tards who made the Scary Movie series, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans and Vampires Sucks, all of which are about as entertaining as being stabbed with a knife made of salt and hepatitis. Each of their films are just terrible and unfunny; what they think is a clever comedic spoof of something is just a pop culture reference with a dick and/or fart and/or sex and/or MILF joke, also known as ‘unfunny Family Guy sketch’. And because each film made ridiculous amounts of money (some make triple their budget), those two assassins of comedy have a poisonous grip on the Spoof genre, so it is no surprise that most Spoof films just fly under the radar of audiences for fear of being the same as the cinematic abortions of Friedberg and Seltzer. A fact that is a shame for Black Dynamite, because it is a brilliant and funny Spoof film that completely trumps Friedberg and Seltzer’s entire filmography.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Joel and Ethan Coen, better known as the Coen Brothers, are possibly the masters of the cult film. Every film they have made has never reach a large mainstream success; I could ask anyone in the UK if they ever saw James Cameron’s Avatar and every single one would say “yes“, but only a few would answer in the affirmative to seeing Fargo, Miller’s Crossing or, this review’s subject, The Big Lebowski or to even knowing who the Coen Brothers are. This is a shame because, not to sound disparaging to Avatar or James Cameron, they are brilliant films and filmmakers that trump many over-hyped mainstream films. Especially with The Big Lebowski, a surreal, eccentric and humorous film that has become one of my all time favourite Comedy or Film Noir or Mystery Thriller and one of my all time favourite films.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

I absolutely love 1950’s Science Fiction B-movies. I love the corny, cheesy and usually swearword and blasphemy free dialogue, the simplistic plot that’s either about the dangers of nuclear radiation (Them, Tarantula) or how Communist/aliens are invading our wholesome American way of life (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Some can be intelligent or thought provoking like The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the majority are fun and entertaining popcorn films. Just like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a Sci-Fi B-movie I absolutely fucking love.

DEFCON (PC) (2006)

Ever since Osama bin Laden showed he was serious business in 2001, nuclear war has become less a threat to human existence and more a quaint concept from the old days of Commies and big city dividing walls. Although America will continually make us fear every North Korean nuclear weapons test or Iran’s evil scheme of becoming a developed nation through a nuclear power plant program, possibly in the hopes to distract us from the fact that America is the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons against a civilian populace. But Introversion Software, the self proclaimed “last of the bedroom developers”, wanted to return to the fun side of nuclear holocaust with DEFCON, a game where you don’t really win but lose the least and keep score on your perfect genocide.

Superbad (2007)

The early years of the first decade of the 21st century were greatly defined by the films of Judd Apatow. Everyone who lived in those years, almost definitely saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Knocked Up and loved them and made Apatow’s name one known in every Hollywood studio. After the hit Knocked Up, he produced a comedy teen film directed by Greg Mottola (Who would later direct and write hit comedy Adventureland), a film that would forever resonate through history with one word; McLovin. Let’s talk about Superbad.