#50: a celebratory kind of vibe
Welcome to issue #50 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU! It's a bit of a jumbo issue this time.
When I started this newsletter, I set for myself the ambitious goal of reaching 100 issues. Now that I've reached 50, I've retconned that goal to reaching 50 issues, and decided to celebrate. Come with me, won't you, on a little trip down memory lane, into the soft warm glow of this newsletter's short history, as I take a look back and revisit a few of my favorite recommendations.
Short films (live action):
"Interesting Ball" (2014) - Official description: “A red ball bounces past a cafe and a couple folks’ houses and then goes to the beach.” This synopsis, while technically accurate, is exquisitely underplayed; increasingly ludicrous action somehow earns a surprisingly moving conclusion. Brought to you by the writing/directing duo DANIELS, who went on to bring you the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.
“Eer“ (2021) - Kristoffer Borgli is a Norwegian director & writer who depicts a version of Los Angeles in which fake health crazes and weird fads are sweeping the city, to surreal and often bloody effect. NOWNESS describes Eer as being “full of the wry comedy, sardonic reasoning, and deadpan delivery that audiences have come to relish in Borgli’s work.” Borgli himself describes the film as simply “based on real events” and leaves it at that.
"We Won't Forget" (2021) - A super effective short film about a woman who experiences a meltdown/freakout at a party she's hosting. The guests' responses heighten the situation in unpredictable ways. The film was apparently a hit on the festival circuit and I'm not surprised; it hits uncomfortably close to home. Written by Lucas Elliot Eberl, Edgar Morais and Whitney Able; directed by Eberl & Morais.
Short films (animated):
“Little Runmo“ (2019) - An animated short produced by Gooseworx, in which an adorable character in a side-scrolling video game learns the meaning of life. Chilling stuff, really.
"Cosmohedron" (2023) - "A surreal journey through the interconnections between all things." Highly psychedelic animated short from director/animator Duncan Hatch - conceptually psychedelic, I should say. Figure/ground reversals abound; the scale shrinks and expands unpredictably; from the smallest particles to the mightiest deities, Cosmohedron has a third eye on the entire morass of possibility.
“Reneepoptosis“ (2018) - This film, directed & animated by Renee Zhan, won the Jury Award for Best Animated Short at the 2019 Sundance Festival. Its description: “As three Renees go on a quest to find God, who is also Renee, they discover all the great joys, trials, and mysteries of being Renee.”
Music videos:
"Bicstan" (2022) - Avant-weird filmmaker Alan Resnick and comedian Patti Harrison tag team to direct the music video for Hudson Mohawke's single from his third album, Cry Sugar. The video depicts an unexpectedly bizarre and hilarious game of one-on-one basketball, proving definitively that sometimes dancing is more important than winning.
"Ghosts" (2015) - A music video from the band Alagoas, in which an alien crashlands on Earth a thousand years ago, and befriends a local tribe that comes to investigate. But even the tribe's shaman is unprepared for the side effects of this encounter. Directed by Dvein, who released a great "making of" video for this one.
“Ponpara Pecoruna Papiyotta” (2015) - A mysterious band called 557230 - comprised of a unique lineup of many guitarists & multiple drummers - was recruited to perform a track written by Yoko Kanno (composer for Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and a zillion other titles) for the 50th anniversary of a beloved Japanese biscuit brand. They were actually the extremely famous members of a different band (Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku, if you must know), disguised as 557230, releasing a small string of mysterious and zany promo clips leading up to the release of this full-blown music video. It’s a bombastic masterpiece, the Bohemian Rhapsody of product placement. The director, Sojiro Kamatani, is responsible for a string of wild commercials and several other excellent music videos: "Baku," "UA," and "Yakuno Jitsugetsubushi."
Dance films:
Holly Blakey Presents: “Phantom” (2021) - Choreographer Holly Blakey describes “Phantom” as “a ritualistic summoning of something that never arrives.” It’s a devised piece for 14 dancers, commissioned when she was recovering from a miscarriage and felt like she was out of ideas. The film captures the piece in an intricate, close-up fashion, and packs quite a visceral punch.
"Les Indes Galantes" (2017) - Filmmaker Clément Cogitore combined music from a baroque opéra-ballet composed in 1735 with the choreography and performance of an LA hip-hop style dance crew to create this magnetic short film. This review of the film was enlightening to me, and there's a "behind the scenes" video as well.
"Ghosts" (2022) - Rone is a French electronic musician, LA(Horde) is a trio of directors/choreographers, and together with the dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille, they created one of my favorite music videos of 2020, "Room With A View." They reunited for this film, with the addition of Spike Jonze contributing a script about the ghosts of art that haunt a museum and struggle to free themselves to haunt the world.
And Finally, Miscellaneous WTF:
"Rare: The Boy Who Cried Swag" (2022) - A potent whirlwind of a piece: ultra stylish fashion film, hyper edited music video, science fiction movie trailer, and blunt force social protest film all wrapped up into one jolting experience. Directing duo King She won three Young Director awards at Cannes for their high velocity portrait of a young model trying to escape the simulation, or better, control it.
"Smile Guide 5: How to properly phone" (2015) - A short episode from the Mushroomland web series by Wiktor Stribog. Don't be alarmed by the 1990s VHS aesthetic. No, save your alarm for the surrealist & daintily menacing content, which you will fail to understand, but in a vaguely unsettling fashion. Further context not required, but the series has a total of six episodes, collected here.
"Recollection Connection" (2021) - Tired of your old memories and want to swap for some new ones? Meow Wolf's public access show is here for you.
Exit Music
Sending you out this issue with one of the canonical best cover versions of the song "Africa," by Hackney Colliery Band. Turn it up, play it repeatedly.
Here's the YouTube playlist with this issue's recos. Please enjoy responsibly.
And hey, if you've been with me since the first issue:
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto
Scotto Moore is the author of WILD MASSIVE, BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES, and YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU.
