Reviewer's Bias*
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Likes:
Dislikes:
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The Movies
The Room: Before and After
The menu films for this issue are the most unusual and highest-profile yet, with a trio of shorts directed by Mr. McSweeney's himself, Dave Eggars. The concept is a simple one, as there's a camera looking at a bedroom, where a person enters and explodes emotionally and physically, taking out anger, frustration and more on the room. The three stars who get to wreck shop are James Franco (Milk, Spider-Man), Creed Bratton ("The Office") and comedienne Maria Bamford. In a way, it's like performance art, especially with Franco, who seems to be on his way to a very avant-garde, possibly self-destructive film career, though there's obviously a story alluded to in each. After the freak-out, the actors each sit down to talk about what just happened, making the films into a study of the acting process. Though there's no continuing storyline, it's recommended you watch Franco's last, as the other two pale in comparison, though Bamford's screams are haunting.

kids + money
The scariest thing about being the father of a girl is knowing one day she'll be a teenage girl. But if this documentary is any indication, it'd be even scarier if I lived in a city like Los Angeles. The kids profiled here live to shop and are defined by brands, an illness enabled by parents willing to spend their last dollar to make sure their offspring are in style. It's horrible to think that people like this exist, and even worse to know they are surely not alone. Director Lauren Greenfield knows enough to let her shockingly materialistic subjects do all the talking, keeping the flourishes very minimal, increasing the impact of their words.

Hidden
This animated documentary doesn't offer the clearest story, but you can't miss the point, as Giancarlo, a young boy, talks about the fear involved with living as an illegal alien. The use of animation with a real story makes for a unique feel, that works well with a child's point of view, but the lack of details, which lends a universal appeal, makes for a vague sense of what's going on. In documentaries, often it's the details that make a story real to the viewer, and they just aren't presented here.

Great Man and Cinema
The art of repurposing old footage is one this reviewer certainly appreciates, especially when the footage features a megalomaniacal dictator with awful hair, grandma glasses and a form-fitting jumpsuit (despite obvious evidence of a lack of gym membership.) Here, film of North Korea's crazy Kim Jong Il, is edited with some of the movies created in his insular world to create a fun music video. The footage is odd enough on its own, complete with what looks like the North Korean version of a Robert Palmer video, but the way it's put together helps raise it to a new level of foreign fun.

Short Term 12
A big winner at Sundance, this short packs a lot of story into a small package, telling the tale of teens in an in-patient rehab center and the counselors there, who aren't doing much better than the kids they're working with. Going back and forth between the patients and the workers builds up the relationships in the groups and between them, building a sense of tension that pays off in a rising climax featuring some misdirection that enhances the impact, rather than diffusing it. It's refreshing to see a short film made with a focus on story rather than style.

My Friends Told Me About You
Speaking of shorts focusing on style... Carlos D of the band Interpol co-wrote and stars in this short-film freak-out, a movie that's light on understandable story, but loaded with interesting visuals and atmospheric touches that make it watchable, but incredibly hard to "get." But hey, if you're going to make a movie like that, better to do it as a short, rather than waste people's time confusing them for a few hours. Best I can tell, this might be about a Russian spy, a time-traveling Victorian-era man and some nasty business. I could be very, very wrong though.

From Burger It Came
An amusing conversation between a man and his mother about that time he got AIDS, is illustrated in animation that's reminiscent of the work of Gahan Wilson, resulting in a flat-out entertaining short. There's not much to say, other than the story is ridiculous, chronicling Dominic Bisignano's hypocondriacal tendencies, and the animation matches it every step of the way, visualizing his twisted view of illness.

Love You More
Photographer Sam Taylor-Wood has adapted a Patrick Marber short story about teenage lust and the Buzzcocks into a dreamy little film where music is as important as any element, as two classmates discover an interest in each other via the titular Buzzcocks song. Somewhat graphic in the depiction of sex between the two leads, it's surprisingly sweet, and uses the shortcomings of old record players to underline just how awkward most first-time attempts at sex are. In seeing how Taylor-Wood captured the '70s here, it'll be interesting to see what she does with John Lennon's youth in Nowhere Boy.

The DVD
We received a very early screener copy, but one can assume that Wholphin No. 8 will be packaged in the same cleanly-designed digipak as the other seven issues, 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. The disc features animated menus (anamorphic widescreen) 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
This is the first issue of Wholphin where the majority of the shorts are presented in anamorphic widescreen, with just one (Hidden) arriving in letterboxed full-frame. With so many recent films, the transfers are in fine shape, though Short Term 12 is rather noisy, and a bit dull in terms of color. The rest are as good as you'd hope for from recent films, with some stand-out transfers on Love You More and kids + money. There are no issues with dirt or damage, and no noticeable compression artifacts.

Once again, the sound is presented as Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, which are fine, and do the job for these films, but they won't impress anyone used to more robust sound.

The Extras
As is oft the case with Wholphin, the only extra is the excellent booklet, with essays and interviews for each film in the issue.

The Bottom Line
Past issues of Wholphin have featured plenty of films that felt "complete," but never has the line-up felt as substantial as this issue's, with only a pair of entries that could be viewed as mere clips. The quality is probably the highest yet for the magazine, thanks to selections that are more recent and better funded, but as usual, there's no supplements beyond the great booklet. If you're looking for the trademark Wholphin mix of unusual content, there are better issues, but if you want a film festival on a DVD, this is a fabulous choice.

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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.