The Informant!

Last night, instead of working on homework like I should have, I went to an early (and free!) screening of The Informant! I don’t know why The AV Club was giving out free passes… but being a Soderbergh fan and also being incredibly excited about the cast (Matt Damon, Joel McHale, Tony Hale) I jumped right on that.

The movie follows Mark Whitacre (played by Damon) as he seemingly rats out ADM for price-fixing. Things quickly get out of hand, however, when he begins to fancy himself as some sort of secret agent and tries to play the FBI and ADM against each other, wearing a wire, stealing money, and lying across the board.

The movie went from hilarious to frustratingly hilarious and back to hilarious, which is surprising and more than a little transcendent seeing as how a good deal of its dramatic tension is drawn from the intricacies of high-fructose corn syrup production and the perils of a bottle of soda costing five cents extra.

Soderbergh’s timing is perfect, his cinematography keeps the film constantly interesting (even while the countless performances already give it two legs to stand on), and the script is airtight. Which brings me to the cast.

While I was aware of a good deal of the talent involved in The Informant! I was constantly surprised by familiar, gifted faces. The Informant! is unique in that it is a film that requires serious and straightforward performances from the entire cast, yet Soderbergh has chosen to populate it with comedians. So while they are not falling over or mugging for the camera, or even playing their parts up for comedic effect, their talents ramp up the considerable energy of the feature. Scott Adsit, Patton Oswalt, Andrew Daly, and both Smothers Brothers (that’s right! Dick and Tom!) show up throughout the movie.

Last but certainly not least, The Informant! features an incredibly schmaltzy, sophisticated score. I’ve never been more excited to go out and buy a soundtrack as I am right now.

Anyways, I would highly recommend going to see The Informant! It comes out on Friday. I am not being paid to say this, it was just really great I swear.

Joshua Duncan fan art

Yes, it happened and I don’t know why. But thank you very much Mikey Mccollor, I am quite flattered. And this is totally awesome and amazing.

Joshua Duncan: Time Traveler

Well here is this movie I made. I’m real proud of it. I wrote it and then co-directed it with man of the year Ned Hurley, who shot it. We used 16mm film and Peter Steineck made the end titles.

To watch it please go here, I am having trouble embedding. Hmm.

summer highlights and a bad thing

OK so I am here in Colorado and well I’ve been watching a lot of things. I started writing a new movie that I’m pretty excited about and well and stuff yeah.

I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona and really really liked it which was a little surprising but oh well. I tore through the first two seasons of Dexter and boy was that involving and fun and stuff yeah. Sit Down, Shut Up and The Goode Family are two great cartoons that will never be on television again. 8 1/2 blew my mind and so did Star Trek and Drag Me To Hell. I swear to you Drag Me To Hell is amazing I swear. Glee is a show you should look out for because the pilot was just so fun and energetic and bright and happy! I’m watching all of Firefly right now and it’s great but I’m awfully scared that it is going to get really sad.

Which isn’t so bad but I’m in the middle of reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close finally, and I’m not halfway through it and I can already tell it’s going to be one of my favorite things ever but I can also tell that by the end of it I will have sobbed like a baby at least once, OK. And I finished Duma Key and it was pretty good, it would be fun to make a movie out of. It is probably bad that I think like that.

Oh and as for comics well Doom Patrol is amazing, better than Watchmen I’d say, which is losing its favor hardcore for me. Also Young Liars and really anything by David Lapham (like maybe Silverfish or Stray Bullets) you should really really read. And OK, maybe I am putting together a game of Dungeons & Dragons, and maybe I am already participating in two campaigns, but darn it, it is great, really, it’s just that a lot of terrible people like it, and it is helping me flex some writing muscles that I didn’t know existed, OK? OK.

Oh and I found out about Past Lives this week, and it is like a Godsend, they are so wonderful. It is everyone from The Blood Brothers except for Johnny and Cody, and boy is it different but amazing. And also my friend Ned showed me ART the Only Band in the World and oh my goodness oh my Lord I am in love with them so much. I can’t even describe it.

But today something awful happened. I was driving my car and then a squirrel ran out in front of me and I braked really hard but I couldn’t stop fast enough and I felt a bump because, yeah, I hit the squirrel. BUT HERE IS THE WORST PART. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SAD, BECAUSE IT IS VERY SAD AND ALSO VERY MORBID. OK I WARNED YOU. I looked behind me like as if to make sure I really did hit it, I guess. And yeah I did definitely hit the squirrel. But I only hit the back of him. And he was still alive, trying to drag himself the rest of the way across the road, scurrying but mangled, with his back legs kicking in directions they shouldn’t kick, so I had to turn away, and then I almost cried, OK? Maybe I am hyper-sensitive, alright, I know that, but man that upset me. It is the worst.

There are probably other things I wanted to talk about but OK, yes, whatever. I am sorry if I am bringing you down. It’s OK. I’m OK.

Anyways, those are the highlights. I hope maybe this is nice, in contrast to the last thing I wrote, which was much more structured and terse. Who knows. I don’t know, not really.

Next post will be better, I swear.

Here's me and Rex! We're smiling! And giving thumbs-ups! Everything's cool!

anyways

Here is a title that my good friend Peter Steineck has designed for my latest 16mm film. It’s written by me, shot by Ned Hurley, and directed by the both of us. It should be done in a couple of weeks.

I am a mixture of confidence and terror right now, impressed by both accomplishments and failures, and I am so excited for the future, again. This is a good feeling.

Literally just now, in between writing this paragraph and the previous paragraph, I got an idea that I really like. I grew so excited that I stood up and walked in a circle. Then I realized I was walking in a circle with a stupid grin on my face in the middle of my office, so I sat back down and started typing this instead.

hello internet hello hello

Today, I got out of class 4 hours early so instead of working on homework I went to go see Adventureland. It was pretty good. Worth a watch I’d say. I have not blogged in so long, it was making me sad. So, here we go, here is a blog. Are you ready??

New shows that I have been watching are Better off Ted (which I think is great) and Parks and Recreation (which I think could be great but isn’t yet). Also, I’ve watched the first couple episodes of Castle and it is a total guilty pleasure of mine. What can I say, I like Nathan Fillion.

Look at him driving! He's hilarious!

There’s been much talk of dreams lately hereabouts, about interesting dreams and boring dreams, all of ‘em. All kinds of dreams. Dreams, dreams, dreams. Anyways, have you heard of a British show called QI? Neither had I, but I love it a lot.

I have watched a lot of movies and television, eaten a lot of food, and drank a lot of water since last we talked, internet. Anyways, I am excited for the classes I will be taking next semester. They are as follows:

• Documentary Filmmaking
• Lighting and Cinematography
• Film Editing
• Introduction to Poetry (I’m quite excited for this one, a whole class of poetry wow!)
• and last but not least, a super-exciting INDEPENDENT STUDY with Piotr Szyhalski that I am taking with Alex Roche, I think it will be cool!

You might notice that this only adds up to 15 credits. I noticed, too. I took 36 credits this past school year, 14 different classes in one year, it was not necessarily fun. This semester has been especially challenging but I am excited to do great things next year while still maintaining some sort of structure in my life. I am also excited to have a little extra free time. This does not necessarily mean that I will never take 18 credits again, however. There is just so many classes that I want to take, it is hard to restrain myself.

I just gotta say that, as a philosophy, I am really tired of existentialism. As a literary device, I still like it I guess, but mostly it just feels like a justification for being depressed and stupid. Anyways, whatever, I don’t care, I gotta go.

Love you, internet. I miss you but we’ll talk soon.