#69: "apparent subjective transcendence"
Welcome to issue #69 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU.
I mean, sure, I’m into it.
Scottovision
Ten buoyant treats that rose to the surface:
“Dilute! Dilute! Ok!” (2025) - Comedian Ember Knight, star of the Adult Swim show Ember’s Etiquette, made a nine minute EP based on the text on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle (lavendar, to be precise), interspersed with historical nuggets about the fascinating figure of the Doctor himself. It’s called — wait for it — ember sings the dr bronner soap label. You don’t really get to choose your prophets.
“Red Gaia” (2022) - Subtitled “An Android’s reflection on Saṃsāra,” this beautiful 3D animated short film is a haunting elegy for humanity, as the last functioning android on a dead planet attempts to find meaning in the ruins of a long gone civilization. It’s a “sci-fi tone poem” that transcends its dystopian set-up by illuminating deeper struggles and mysteries. Written and directed by Udesh Chetty.
“Oleum” (2025) - Commissioned by the Sydney Opera House Screen group, this surreal piece follows the final night of a severely wounded mechanic as he seeks out a waitress to hear her sing one last time. It’s meant to be a sort of “sci-fi electronic” take on opera tropes and a love letter to Sydney’s creative scene, but its impact is more visceral than heady. As the mechanic’s life dwindles to a stark slow motion and numbness sets in, the appearance of singer Maina Doe is cathartic. Directed by Versus.
“Difficulty Man Discovers A Lost Civilization” (2025) - You see, the man has difficulty relating. To everything. But then he discovers — wait for it — a lost civilization. It’s amiable goofball absurdism from the comedy duo Brendan and Cory, who have thoughtfully captured a whole series of Difficulty Man’s adventures.
“hello beautiful please follow back” (2025) - Writer/director Amandine Thomas discovered her grandmother was being scammed online, and leapt into action to save her. The resulting documentary short film captures the experience using a pleasingly retro design style reminiscent of “the old internet,” but her grandmother’s 160 fake followers on Instagram are very much the modern internet.
“Bath House” (2014) - The official description: “Six characters meet in a public bath house; the pendant bath house manager, a couple with a strange way of communicating and a gang with shady intentions. Something is bound to go wrong.” Director Niki Lindroth von Bahr operates here in a droll style with deliberate pacing and clever comic timing, all the more impressive given this is stop motion animation and the characters are animals. I reviewed her musical short film The Burden in a previous issue, and I expect I will seek out the rest of her filmography soon enough.
“Lamento” (2025) - Singer/songwriter Gaby Moreno has a new music video / musical short film out, shot in Guatemala and using a sci-fi lens to commemorate a beloved location from her youth that is swiftly eroding into the ocean. In the video the location, a former resort where both she and writer/director Diego Contreras spent significant time growing up, is being hastily scanned and catalogued by a powerful drone before it vanishes completely, and the music video is the solemn real world parallel of that scanning into a sliver of permanent memory.
“Gyrosophia” (2025) - Meanwhile, in the “let’s look at something extremely pretty for a few minutes,” animator Julius Horsthuis provides a particularly good slice of fractal architecture, which he lights as though it were a rave or a nightclub in interdimensional space. He’s been working on developing VR and full dome presentations of this kind of celestial fly-through lately, but you can only currently see that stuff in galleries; this is a great 2D alternative for those of us who haven’t had the immersive experience yet.
“Heroic Dose” (2025) - Director Dugan Gundelfinger tells the tale of taking an exorbitant amount of liquid LSD from a stranger on a beach in Costa Rica and subsequently freeing himself completely from that pesky thing called “ego,” in this demented short film. Blending a variety of styles and genres, as is fitting to the subject matter, Gundelfinger and his best friend Leighton Lovejoy (the two co-wrote the piece based on a supposedly true story) don’t hesitate to depict not just the apparent subjective transcendence of the experience, but also the rolling-around-in-the-muck reality of the given circumstances.
“Geon Vampires” (2014) - You see, the Inspector is charged with getting rid of the ugly and annoying things.
Exit Music
Sending you out this issue with an excellent cover of the Madonna track “Like A Prayer” by the electronic duo Sumner, appearing on Triple J. The modern beats bring the song to life, and the backup vocals are particularly outstanding.
Here's the YouTube playlist with (most of) this issue's recos. Please enjoy responsibly.
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.
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