Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good short films, animation, Wholphin, Zooey Deschannel
Likes: DVD magazines, interesting science, out-there movies
Dislikes: meandering films
Hates: Getting depressed by documentaries, bees

The Story So Far
Wholphin, part of the McSweeney's empire, releases a quarterly DVD magazine, which collects, as the subhead says, unseen things. Four issues have been released so far, which are available individually or in a four-issue set. DVDTalk has a review of the first four issues here.

The Movies
Death to the Tinman
A 12-minute short by writer/director Ray Tintori, this black-and-white film is definitely out there, taking the Oz concept of the Tinman and going in an entirely different direction, crafting an unusual story about revolution and rebirth, that's more about the intense visuals than the touching fable, looking like the spiritual offspring of German expressionist cinema. There's a dark sense of humor at work, and the music is uniquely important to the feel, but the artist in Tintori is the guiding force, and the result is a memorable film.

Drunk Bees
A Wholphin original scientific report, this five-minute piece looks at the phenomenon of alcohol abuse amongst the already-threatened bee population. A blend of science fact and subtle humor, the film shows the buzzing bees getting utterly faced and acting just like drunk humans. I can't say I particularly like bees, so I got the heebie-jeebies from the extreme close-ups, but it's amazing to see them hit the sauce.

House Hunting
I've never actually looked at real estate before (I live a charmed life) but it seems weird wandering through a stranger's house. House Hunting confirms my beliefs, as Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschannel are led to a house with an odd sense of dis‑ease, thanks to a creepy real estate agent who seems to be up to no good. Directed by "Party of Five" creator Amy Lippman, the film has excellent flow, and Rudd and Deschannel are fun and have great chemistry, making them seem like a real couple. Though the ending is a bit ambiguous, it doesn't hurt the film, as the story is mostly about perception, and it gets bonus points for a Felicity Huffman cameo.

American Outrage
Filmmakers who help raise awareness of the problems that exist in our society should always be applauded, especially when those affected have no really voice of their own. That's the case when it comes to the Shoshone Indians in this film, who basically have their land and livelihoods stolen from them by the government, in order to allow gold refiners to rape the land. It's unbelievably sad to see these people, citizens of this country, abused in this way, and the effect it has on the natural world around them. The filmmakers do an excellent job of setting the table on this story in this 32-minute excerpt from the documentary.

Madame Tutli-Putli
I am not a Joe Six-Pack, and I much prefer an intelligent, thoughtful film than an explosive shoot-em-up (unless it's done artistically), but boy, I have trouble getting through a speech-less cartoon longer than five or six minutes. My brain just shuts down. This is just such a film, at 17 minutes in length, though it's a beautifully-animated movie. I swear that I tried to get through it, but about nine minutes in, I started to zone. Call me a philistine, but it just didn't do it for me.

Piece by Piece
What is it about smart people that makes them such perfect subjects for documentaries? Perhaps it's the obsessive nature of many of theintelligentsia . Perhaps it's a natural jealousy of their superior brainpower. Perhaps they are just freaks. Whatever it is, they sure are fun to follow around, as we once again see here, in a film about speedcubers, people who solve Rubik Cubes with unbelievable speed. The subjects aren't the most unusual ever documented, but watching them, and especially listening, as they make the little color squares fly, is hypnotizing. It's like the geek version of Rize. I have to admit, the film makes it so interesting, I felt the desire to try it myself.

Chonto
Another entry from Carson Mell offers up more of his Charles Burns-meets-Clutch Cargo art with narration by would be music god Bobby Bird, who spins a tale worthy of any good seedy bar's back table. I imagine watching this short is like a computer simulation of what hanging with Hunter S. Thompson was like, just with added transvestite potatoes and full-on ape boners. What a trip.

Echos der Buchrucken (Parts I & III)
I love a good freak-out, especially when it delivers its surreal cargo in an artistic way, and these low-budget shorts are perfectly dingy examples of almost Kafka-like oddness. To tell you what goes on in these pieces might ruin the surprises they hold, but there's fantasy nudity, aliens and musclemen, which should entice just about anyone to give them a look at these possibly Cronenberg-inspired wondered.

By the way, no part II? For shame.

One Day with the SLA
At less than 10 minutes, there's not a lot here, but it's an inside look at a liberation army in Darfur, and the struggle that is their everyday life. There's a lot of attention paid to the relief efforts that surround the area, but to be right in the middle of everything, alongside the gun-toting people there, is to experience a war-torn nation in a rare and interesting look at a life we'll hopefully never know.

Monument Valley Flight Attempt
This may sound artsy-fartsy, but this 2:41 film is deceptively simple, as an attempt to launch a giant "paper" airplane at a beautiful location in Monument Valley. The camera angle, which looks down on the attempt from far above, puts us in a position of contempt as we watch a tiny, pathetic act in the midst of a vast landscape. It's probably one of the saddest things I've seen in recent history.

John "Kung Fu" Wang
I love to meet weird people. Not in real life of course, but on film, I can't get enough. John Wang fits the bill, as you can tell immediately as he hangs from a pole with just his arm and ankle. But he's also the owner of some interesting patents, and a genuine bad-ass. The director smartly attempts Wang's unique stunt, just to show you it is far from the easy activity "Kung Fu" makes it seem to be.

Shot Through
A simple idea done well tends to result in a pretty good short, and that's true for Shot Through, which sees a drum kit blasted apart by gunfire, with the footage edited to create music from the sound. Like I said, a simple idea, but it's fun to watch and hear.

The DVD
Wholphin No. 5 is packaged in a cleanly-designed digipak, with a tray on the left side and a 39-page booklet glued into the right inside panel, while a content breakdown is on the back cover. Wholphin stays loyal to the magazine concept right down to the annoying subscription card that falls out.

The disc features animated menus with a list of content, but it's not your usual menu animation. What's in the background is the beginning of one of the shorts, which will keep playing if you don't select an option. This issue has three menu films, which can be chosen from a list in the lower right of the screen. There are no audio options, no subtitles and no closed captioning.

The Quality
Only one of the films included is presented in anamorphic widescreen (the Wholphin original Drunk Bees), while the rest are a mix of full-frame and letterboxed transfers. The image is solid throughout, though the video on American Outrage is noisy, and the lower-budget pieces, like Death to the Tinman and Echos Der Buchrucken display some minor dirt. There are some compression artifacts in Shot Through, but nothing too bad. The only noticeable issue comes with House Hunting, which feels very soft, though it's possible that's a style choice. The best-looking articles have to be Drunk Bees and Madam Tutli-Putli which are stunningly crisp and colorful.

Again, all you get are Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, and though they do the trick, when you listen to the ballistic audio on Shot Through, you'll want to hear a more dynamic mix. There's certainly nothing wrong with the way these films sound, as the dialogue is clean and the music and sound effects pop well, but after being spoiled by my library of DVDs and their DTS tracks, it's a slight let-down.

The Extras
The only extra you get is the booklet included in the packaging, which features a letter from the editor, interviews, an essay by Amy Lippman, notes on the research in Drunk Bees and biographies of the filmmakers. As was the case with the first four issues, save the booklet for after you watch the films.

The Bottom Line
Wholphin delivers yet again, delivering an intriguing mix of content that's diverse enough to be accessible, but not safe or boring, thanks to the inclusion of edgy documentaries and fantasy shorts alongside a very traditional, yet excellent movie like House Hunting. The presentation is very good, though it would be nice to get anamorphic transfers and 5.1 tracks, and there's no bonus disc, unlike the previous three issues. Despite those caveats, the films included are interesting enough to stand on their own.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.