Sure we all agree that there is no boundaries for creativity, as last night Ok-Go showed us their creativity by singing us a song about primary color!

Known for their creative and crazy music videos (like treadmill choreography and domino effect), now Ok-Go teamed up again with Sesame Street to teach children about primary color with their style (and they named it as Ok-Go color). The video reminds us of Ok-Go’s trademark in their music videos: some stop-motion effect, using white-painted wall as the background, and simple but epic music videos. You can see all four members of Ok-Go’s are wearing primary color outfit as they moving along and shouting “YELLOW!” or “BLUE!” or “GREEN!”.

Well… this is surely will make kids dancing along to their song, because the music video seems fun and full of primary color. Check out the video below and play this Ok-Go’s game about primary color. Don’t forget, Ok-Go will release their new music video for “Needing/Getting” on Sunday, 5February!

The journey of Arthur Dent started off as the main character in the novel which was published in 1979, later in 1993 DC Comics made a three-part comic book adaptation of the novel and again in 2005 the awaited movie adaptation was premiered. In the live of Arthur Dent, played by Martin Freeman, he was just a normal englishman that had started his day wrong, just about everything he did went wrong and thus he was not in a good mood, and to make his day even much worse, the earth will be destroyed to create a new hyperspace motorway. Thankfully, his best friend Ford Prefect, played by Mos Def, came to the rescue by revealing that he is an alien and give Arthur a hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, in midst of that and world destruction, Ford grabbed Arthur, and hitchhiked on a spaceship that was passing by before the earth disappeared, and thus started the journey of two hitchhikers through the galaxy.

I personally never read the novel or the comic book, however the first impression I got when I watched this movie, is its really hilarious, confusing and strange, but hilarious with the many scenes that exposes the galaxy beyond its atmosphere and anything that humankind had ever heard or even imagine of extraterrestrials. With its science fiction slash comedy genre, all the cast delivers a convincing acting, specially marvin the melancholic robot who always utters meaningful yet sad dialogs in midst of the whole frantic situation. And with the eccentric storyline, the approach of telling this movie is different than other general movies and might leave some of its audience confused and lost in the middle of the movie. Not to mention the riddles of life in the dialogues, one thing for sure its not the typical science fiction movie, give it a go by looking at the trailer below.

From the same director of My Neighbors The Yamadas, comes an excellent piece of story on environmentalism that revolves around the lives of tanuki (Japanese raccoon-like dog often portrays with tremendous testicles). The word Pom (Pon) Poko refers to the sound of the raccoons inflated bellies which use to scare off humans. It’s a really cute film and heartfelt at the same time. The rapidly changing or shape-shifting abilities of these adorable creatures are so endearing that we can just watch that throughout the movie. However, the director has a lot more serious message in mind that just kawaii characters. Halfway through, the tone has taken on a sadder and more serious issue. With rapidly growing demand for space, humans have resorted to clearing so much of the forest that raccoons have to defend themselves. Hilarity ensues when these raccoons devised different tactics to deter the deforestation. It’s fun to see them trying to impersonate humans, spirits, and other forms. However, over time, it’s clear that no matter how smart these tanukis are, they are no match to the humans. Since not all raccoons have this shapeshifting ability, those without, are left to fend for themselves. A very touching reminder of how much we have taken from mother nature and its creatures and how powerless they are against us.

Synopsis

A community of magical shapeshifting raccoons desperately struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development. (IMDb)

Pom Poko (Isao Takahata, 1994)

‘Louvre City’ is a documentary by acclaimed French filmmaker, Nicholas Philibert. Known for his unique approach in documentary, he features the museum’s expositions after the renovation in the 1980s. Once the palace for Louis XIV and his successor’s, now it houses the world’s grandest art gallery with over 300,000 works of art. The documentary is guided by the people who dedicates their daily life in the museum, the curator, decorator that place’s the pieces of artworks in their proper places. The documentary highlights Louvre with beautiful scenes that reveals its private chambers, miles of underground passages and thousands of priceless artworks of paintings, sculptures and object.

The Fall is a movie directed by Tarsem Singh first released in 2006 at Toronto International Film Festival. It’s about a stuntman who brings a 5-years-old girl the most adventurous story she’ll ever know.

The story takes setting in a 1920’s hospital, where a stuntman named Roy Walker  must stay in the hospital because he just got an accident at the set. In there, he meets a broken-arm little girl named Alexandria (she fell from the stairs when she tried to pick an orange from the tree).

Roy is in depression because his girlfriend dumped him and he is worried about his career in the future. It makes him wants to attempt a suicide with overdosed by morphine. Roy realized that he couldn’t get morphine as much as he wants, so he decides to takes advantage of Alexandria’s innocence.

In order to gain Alexandria’s trust, he tells her a tale about 5 heroes who want to take a vengeance to their governor. Besides Roy and Alexandria, the characters in their imagination are from people they meet in the hospital, such as Nurse Evelyn as Sister Evelyn and Doctor as Alexander the Great. Unfortunately, Roy’s story ends miserably and Alexandria doesn’t like sad endings. From here the movie shows Alexandria’s role as Roy’s savior.

The storyline is actually predictable, but Tarsem managed it well and turned the movie into something entertaining. The interaction between Roy and Alexandria seemed natural. There’s a plus from this movie as they took the scenes at different 26 locations over 18 countries, including Indonesia. Tarsem also showed some different cultures, like Tari Kecak (Kecak Dance) from Bali in Mystic’s scene and Sufi Whirling (Turkey) during Red Bandit wedding scene with Sister Evelyn. Also, the unique costumes from the film are designed by Eiko Ishioka, Oscar-Winning costume designer for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).

The Fall shows more about the interaction between Roy Walker with Alexandria and her involvement in Roy’s depressed life. The Fall is a must watch, especially for people who enjoy surreal-genre movie and moviemakers.

Charles and Ray Eames, we know, have become one the major contributions to modern architecture and furniture, other than furniture, they have also delved into the world of photography, painting, graphics,and filmmaking, toys, and product design.

Through the following documentary Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and Painter features the story about the husband-and-wife duo, highlighting their personal lives, their creative process and the influence of American aesthetic to their design sensibility.

Watch the trailer below

Remember in 2010 a video went viral through the internet about a 2 years old Indonesian baby that smoked? It was shared globally, many people watched it and criticized it as one of the most disturbing video in 2010. It triggered a research by Christof Putzel who is a journalist and correspondent for Vanguard, a tv series that showcased documentary series on Current TV. Intrigued by the image of a smoking 2 year old, Putzel decided to do his own research into the growing Asian tobacco market, which culminated into a full-length film. Sex, Lies and Cigarettes is a documentary film talks about the tobacco company industry. This film is a documentary on the declining market of cigarettes in America, yet on the different side of the world the market was soaring high. Since Phillip Morris bought a tobacco company in Indonesia named Sampoerna, a new line of cigarettes named ‘A Mild’ with its inspiring tagline ‘Go Ahead’ was created. Putzel did many research on the tobacco market in Indonesia, from an interview with Anne Edwards, the spokesperson for Philip Morris International, the infamous smoking baby himself, to the indonesian government and he also had snuck in the world tobacco conference in 2010, which was held in Jakarta.

The video itself gives an insight of the world that revolves around the addiction to tobacco. It talks about the negatives and the positive impact of the tobacco company in Indonesia, on the positive side it gives the people in Indonesia a secure job and to the government it secures the country’s economic growth, yet on the negative side, the product is killing those who consumes it. Putzel talks about the ethics in a market that makes it consumers addicted and the fact that its marketing strategy targets young people. The film itself is narrated in a way that the audiences will see for themselves the facts that is acknowledged by people who is effected by smoking. Putzel discusses simple facts and he does not takes sides, he gives the audience the freedom to come up with their own conclusions about whether smoking cigarette is good or bad?

Gie is a film adapted from a book titled “Catatan Seorang Demonstran” (Notes of a Demonstrator), a collection of journal entries by Soe Hok Gie. The film tells the life story of the famous young, Indonesian-Chinese activist and was directed by Riri Riza and released in 2005.

The movie starts from Gie’s teenage life during high school. Some scenes show the critical nature of Gie and the fact that he always expressed his opinion from when he was young. Also, several scenes showed his interest towards languages and books; he spent his free time by reading or writing articles, and he always wrote on his journal everyday.

His critical behavior reached its peak when he entered University of Indonesia, literature faculty, majoring in History. There was revolution at that time (demonstration and protests everywhere, wanting Soekarno to step down from his position as President of Indonesia). This caused emergence of student organizations in University of Indonesia based on religion and ethnicity. Gie, who doesn’t want to be involved with other organizations, decided to establish new organization with his friends named MAPALA (Mahasiswa Pecinta Alam or Outdoor Nature and Adventure Clubs) where most of the activities will be hiking, open discussion, watching movies, and parties.

Gie also writes articles about Indonesia’s government for several newspapers, such as Kompas and Sinar Harapan. There are also several scenes focused on Gie’s private life with the role of fictional characters intended to dramatize the story.

The film’s duration prevented director Riri Riza from being able to deliver a complete picture of Gie. Some parts seem unclear, such as Gie’s father silent and reclusive behavior. Gie himself doesn’t seem as outspoken as we would expect from a young activist.

Overall, this movie tells about Soe Hok Gie’s path of life. This movie is a good movie for everyone who wants to know more or recall the figure of Soe Hok Gie—a young famous activist in 60’s.

The Golden Globes is always referred as a warm up to the grander award-winning event of The Academy Awards, and though Ricky Gervais joked that you need to “bribe” the Hollywood foreign press to get your movies on the nominated list, some of the movies below actually do deserve the high praises. Set to be held on February, 26, 2012 Kodak Theater at Hollywood,
here are the nominees list that have just been announced yesterday.

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Animated Feature Film

“A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
“Rango” Gore Verbinski

Art Direction

“The Artist”
Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Hugo”
Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“Midnight in Paris”
Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
“War Horse”
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography

“The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth
“Hugo” Robert Richardson
“The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
“War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

Directing

“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

Documentary (Feature)

“Hell and Back Again”
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
“Pina”
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
“Undefeated”
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Foreign Language Film

“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran

Music (Original Score)

* “The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams
* “The Artist” Ludovic Bource
* “Hugo” Howard Shore
* “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias
* “War Horse” John Williams

Music (Original Song)

* “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets”
Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
* “Real in Rio” from “Rio”
Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown; Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Best Picture

“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

For the Full Nomination list, please visit here.

Editor’s Note: FISFIC (or Fantastic Indonesian Short Film Competition) is a yearly event where participant submit scripts and those selected will be given a budget to produce their film, competing with each other for a grand prize of a budget to make another film. This review focuses on the 2011 competition, which has the films compiled into a DVD. Enjoy the review.

What can I say, I’ve watched all the movies that is the top six, out of the hundreds of those who pitched to FISFIC competition, and well I didn’t expect much from these top six, but I was really curious of the results. Overall, all the six movies have a different approach in telling their plot, which in a way is unconventional compared to most horror, thriller, science fiction and fantasy Indonesian movies.

Out of the top six, the first movie I watched was ‘Meal Time’, read through the synopsis and I was honestly intrigued with it. I like how it was set in some sort of prison with the proper setting chosen. Through the movie I noticed some things that are interesting, even though the prisoners there were shackled, both hands and feet, I couldn’t help notice that the ‘cell’ didn’t use a lock, and well that seems unusual for places who stores ‘prisoners’ in a ‘special place’ out in the middle of the forest, it directly gives me an illusion of how easily the prisoners would escape. The acting was one more thing that feels kind of gawky, the chemistry portrayed between actors felt unreal. The cinematography stayed true throughout, but I wouldn’t call it great. I think the concept story of ‘Meal Time’ have a potential, but the duration given was too short for this type of story that needs a lot of disclosures.

As for ‘Rengasdengklok’ I truly enjoyed the concept that were given, how it uses a real historic event yet the scriptwriter gives a different perspective of it, a resident evil kind of twist. Again I was not fond of the acting or even the post-production. I felt it was unnecessary to put all of those ‘film like’ effects, if the director or cinematographer wanted to have an old-film feeling in the movie, I think it would’ve been better if they used a real film instead of using a DSLR. Sure FISFIC is a competition for amateur moviemakers but with the grand animated opening scene, my expectations was raised really high, only with a disappointing execution of the rest of the movie. However I do applause the makeup artist who created the masks he or she really made the film, I know how hard (not to mention expensive!) to create and recreate a detailed zombie mask, though there was one particular zombie who was look more comedic instead of terrifying.

The third film ‘Reckoning’ tells the story of a home invasion that takes a bloody dramatic turn. The output of the story did not really live up to the concept of the story. I reckon this simple plot would do better with a proper scriptwriting, with much believable and less ‘chatty’ dialogs towards the climax. However, I was more interested in seeing Katharina Vassar rather than the main characters, her personality stands out more out of the two main characters. I like the idea of having a movie with this concept executed with a film noir look associating low-key black-and-white, referring to old stylish Hollywood crime dramas, sadly the execution was not done right. There was no significant visual styling that would be a great advantage taken from the low-key lighting schemes or even a bold cinematic storytelling to it.

‘Rumah Babi’ the third movie and also my third favorite as it tells a really simple story of a documenter that went wrong, I like how it gives a different view of how a documenter would do just about anything, anything, to get his or her story, no matter if his risking someone else’s life. Not only that, in this short 20 minutes movie, with only one actor and two actresses, the suspense gravitates around the story as the secret was slowly revealed. The cinematography, most specifically the lighting was commendable, it gives the sense of a thriller-mysterious feeling without having it over the top, the shots that were taken are common in horror movies but the use of those shots are very neat in their editing.

What I really like from ‘Effect’ is the progress of the plot, basically it tells a story of a employee being disrespected by her boss, thus she seeks revenge by trusting an online site to vengeance her, and I think we all know that trusting someone in the internet almost never goes well. The clever scriptwriter gives an unusual effect in terms of constructing the puzzle with such a difficult angle to tell the story. Although I did have some continuity problem watching how Bu Lenny died, there was too many new characters introduced in one scene and it makes the story kind of hard to follow, but I do admire the risk the director took to make a scene like that, the infamous theory of the domino effect. Aesthetic wise, I personally think the color editing did not compliment the movie, it just makes the color correction to the movie was a bit bleach colored, I don’t know what was the angle of having this color but it sure didn’t give any good effect.

Last but not least, the winner of FISFIC Vol.1, ‘Taksi’. The build up tension that was made in the movie successfully surprised audiences, with its not everyday heroine. The story was simple, A woman was trying to find her way home in the middle of the night, when a taxi driver passed her and asked if she needs a ride, rest assured it was a bumpy ride for the taxi driver. Associating an everyday life event, it creates many speculations among the audiences mind as the plot progresses, the setting was perfect, the shots that were taken compliments the actors and actress acting with the not over the top color editing or lighting use. Taksi was a clear winner that grasp the concept of a thriller-horror movie in a short 20 minutes.

Overall I am impressed on how very  enthusiastic the people who were involved in FISFIC was, it clearly shows with such a variety of outcomes from the top competitors, shows that many people are passionate in making a real cinematic movie! I hope that in 2012, FISFIC Vol.2 would be even greater! Best of luck for those who are planning to enter!