By Drew Grant 5/16 4:48pm

movie pitches

Video

Violet & Daisy: a chick-flick for psychopaths.

The Best Film Pitch Ever Sent Out Via PR Blast: VIOLET & DAISY

Have you ever just glimpsed at a film review, or poster, or what have you and thought, “I need to see that movie, immediately?” That just happened to us when we passed by IFC on West 4th and saw the poster for Shane Caruth’s Upstream Color. (It’s like Primer, but with worms living under your skin!)

That feeling of excitement is rare, and should be treasured for the moment of cinematic magic that it is.

However, sometimes you see a review, or in this case, a pitch over email, for a film and you think “This is perfect, but not intentionally.” It’s also a rare moment of celluloid joie-de-vivre, but very different from its cousin in the first example.

VIOLET & DAISY is a film of the second category, which we last heard about as the movie that Buddy Fletcher used Louisiana public pension funds to fund. There are so many parts of it that make us laugh out loud, we’re not sure if maybe this was just someone messing with us.

Take a look at the email, her in its entirety: Read More

By Drew Grant 5/10 4:56pm

viral videos

Video

The happy couple.

James Franco, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton and Lonely Island Get Married on Spring Break (Video)

As part of YouTube’s “Comedy Week,” Zach Galifianakis held a very special edition of his Funny or Die web series Between Two Ferns which starts out like a regular James Franco interview but then gets weird real quick. Lonely Island and Edward Norton co-star, which is great, because we haven’t seen those guys in forever. (Edward Norton, where’ve you been hiding?) Read More

By Drew Grant 4/23 5:54pm

never sleep again

Video

Gah!

Ronald McDonald’s First Televised Appearance Culled Directly From Your Nightmares (Video)

Back in 1963, Willard Scott was not yet the famous weatherman of The Today Show; the predecessor to Al Roker. He was just a guy looking for a gig…any gig, as this newly unearthed McDonald’s commercial reveals. Brought to the light of day for the burger joint’s 50th anniversary, this television spot featuring Mr. Scott as Ronald McDonald raises way more questions than it answers. Mostly “How is that even a clown?”, “Is that a cup on his nose?” and “Will I ever sleep again?” Read More

By Drew Grant 4/22 4:08pm

Rants and Raves

Video

Michael Shannon (left) and a Barbie.

Two Dramatic Readings of the Delta Gamma Sorority Email That Will Make Your Monday (Video)

On Thursday, University of Maryland student Rebecca Martinson, a member of the Delta Gamma Sorority, achieved a level of Internet infamy after a private letter she had sent to her sisters was circulated around the campus and eventually sent to Gawker. Some were quick to call Ms. Martinson “psycho” and refer to her email as “insane” due to its rambling, incoherent and frankly confusingly venemous content (as far as we can tell, this was sent because some sisters were “being fucking WEIRD at sports”); ironically, it would take a sorority member or at least someone in a mean girl’s high school clique to truly appreciate the quick and effective destruction of a life with just one click of a forward button.

But we’re not here to pass judgement on Ms. Martinson or her colleagues. We’re here to watch two dramatic readings of the email: the first by Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Shannon– which truly does bring to mind the actor’s role as a hallucinating schizophrenic in Bug–and the latter by a Barbie doll. Read More

By Drew Grant 4/22 2:36pm

A capella

Video

Two-toned: Performers from NBC's The Sing-Off (left) and Northeastern's a capella group, the Nor'Easters.

The ‘Cool’ Kids of College A Capella: Can America’s Dorkiest Music Genre Calm Down?

Before this weekend we believed the world could be divided into two sets of people: Those who liked the cheesy theatrically of a capella groups and those who would rather Lena Dunham their ears with a Q-tip rather than watch an episode of Glee or sit through Pitch Perfect.

But that was before this weekend’s International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) at The Town Hall in New York, where the Nor’easters of Northeastern University took home the grand prize and NPR’s Linda Holmes, writing on the radio station’s Monkey See culture blog, introduced us to the idea of non-ironic rockapella and a phenomenon known as “flirting on the square.” Read More

By Drew Grant 4/16 4:18pm

Exclusive video

Video

Don Draper, killing it. (AMC)

Update: Exclusive: Every ‘Next Week, on Mad Men‘ Promo on AMC (Video)

Update: Matt Zoller Seitz of Indiewire’s Press Play blog noted that the this concept had a predecessor in their own “The Ultimate ‘Next on Mad Men‘ Preview Clip“. We’ve added it after the jump, so you can compare for yourselves.

There has to be some sort of running gag over at AMC HQ regarding the ridiculousness of their Mad Men promos. Nothing happens! Every week, we find out that if we stay tuned next Sunday, we can watch Don pick up a phone, Betty furrow her eyebrows, and Roger say “Well, that was something!” Pete is shown changing TV stations as some sort of meta-commentary on what we wish we were doing, instead of watching Mad Men commercials.

Whatever the answer, if you’ve never seen one of these advertisements, The Observer made a ultimate compilation mix. Feel free to play on a loop as a substitute for actually watching the show. Read More

By Drew Grant 4/12 4:30pm

Accidental racism

Video

LL talks "Accidental Racist" (Hulu)

LL Cool J Attempts to Explain ‘Accidental Racist’ to Leno, Not That it Helps (Video)

If you’ve managed to go this entire week without subjecting your ears to the Brad Paisley/LL Cool J duet “Accidental Racist,” congratulations. Do not go seeking this song, which is offensive on many different levels but first and foremost, sonically. Like, it’s just a hard song to listen to, with the genres of rap and country blending as seamlessly together as an Uncle Kracker video. And that’s without even delving into the meaning of the song, which might have been trying for some meta-commentary on accidental racism by being the most racist song two people with good intentions could accidentally (on purpose?) make. Like, any song that references “a new fangled Django” is probably not going to be great, but the part where LL raps “If you don’t judge my gold chains/I’ll forget the iron chains” is so cringe-worthy it feels like watching Marnie tank Kanye West’s “Stronger” in front of Charlie’s new co-workers all over again! Possibly worse! (Definitely worse.)

So if you haven’t listened to it, don’t and just trust us that “Accidental Racist” is really, really bad… the kind of awful that can’t be fixed by going on Leno and talking coherently about why you agreed to do the song in the first place. Read More

By Drew Grant 4/02 3:22pm

E-Cigs

Video

Relax. (NJOY)

Courtney Love’s E-Cig Commercial: ‘Relax, It’s a F**king NJOY!’

We’ve seen Stephen Dorff shill for E-Blu, but not one of the other very famous celebrities who vape have been willing to put their reputations on the line to be the face of electronic cigarettes.

Until today. Courtney Love has partnered up with NJOY to create an amazing 50-second spot that should delight anyone who is sick of those uptight, non-e-cig snobs. Or just likes to hear Ms. Love curse in a way that only the Hole singer can. Read More

By Drew Grant 3/22 4:13pm

Viral Video

Video

Spring Break forever...until you stick a Q-tip in your ear. (THR)

The Girls of Spring Breakers: The Best Mashup of the Season?

You see, we put a question mark in the title because that way you will click through to find out whether The Hollywood Reporter‘s video combining scenes from Spring Breakers and HBO’s GIRLS is as great as we question it to be. But the truth is, you already know the answer. You’ve known it all along, deep down. This is obviously the best mashup you will be seeing for awhile. Honestly, they had us at “Spring Breakers meets Girls.” Enjoy. Read More