Hey guys,
so you may be thinking, did Starboy forget that the newsletter is supposed to be released on Thursdays? No, actually I am changing the release schedule to Fridays every two weeks at 12PM CET!
Do you enjoy mockumentary style comedies? Something like The Office or Parks and Recreation? Do you enjoy vampires, werewolves and all that fantasy jazz? Well, then this recommendation is precisely for you? Let me quote the opening title cards to give you an idea:
Every few years a secret society in New Zealand gathers for a special event: THE UNHOLY MASQUERADE.
In the months leading up to the ball, a documentary crew was granted full access to a small group of this society.
That’s the opening statement for this comedy “horror” mockumentary about 4 vampire flatmates living in Wellington, New Zealand trying to live their best life. The main vampire we follow, who is essentially our protagonist, is a 379 years old guy called Viago Von Dorna Schmarten Scheden Heimburg (né von Blitzenberg), who travelled to New Zeland in search of the love of his life. He is also played by the director, Taika Waititi (he directed Jojo Rabbit in 2019 And played Hitler in it, you also directed Thor: Ragnarok among other things). Throughout the movie we get to see the day-to-day life of our vampires. We get to meet other creatures and vampires that are also living in Wellington.
The best thing you can do is to go watch the movie blind, as I did a few years ago. The dry cringey humour is understandably not everyone’s cup of tea, but given how well the jokes are crafted and acted out, they should be able to tickle anyone’s funny bone.
I am going to link the opening scene and if you like that you will certainly love the movie!
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/QWk4YtK-iHY?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
What We Do in the Shadows (TV Show)
What we do in Shadows was essentially a ninja double rec. After Taika’s exposure to mainstream Hollywood, the cult following of the movie grew so much that it was adapted into a TV show. None of the actors were going to return, and the whole show was going to take place in America. With how much I enjoyed the movie, I was quite sceptical towards the whole ordeal, given the usual TV adaptations of movies being essentially just a easy cash-grab by misusing the IP’s fame. I was please to find out that not only the show was great, but it was actually better than the movie. The general idea is the same, but this time we are following a group of vampires that live together on Staten Island.
They show still has the original creators involved, so we with a bigger budget and more resources, they were able to improve the whole thing. The characters are more fun, the gags are better, the mythology of the whole universe increases like ten times and every introduction is interesting and unique, regardless of the multiple different iterations of fantasy creatures throughout the years.
The two highlights of the show are Matt Berry’s Laszlo and Mark Proksch’s Colin Robinson. Laszlo is a English noblemen that is married to one of the vampires living in the house and is obsessed with sex. Some notable examples of his obsession are him being a former porn actor, or being a gardener that sculpts his plants into the shape of, hm, vaginas of the people from his family. Colin Robinson is interesting because in contrast from other vampires, he is an energy vampire that feed on people’s frustrations. So he goes to an office and is extremely boring and frustrating, syphoning energy from the people around him.
It is really hard to do the show justice in written form, at least it is for me, so here is trailer for the first season:
Every Frame a Painting
Video essays about movies are a big thing on YouTube. There are thousands of them, varying in their quality and in the coherence of their content. The channel that has had the biggest impact on this category in my opinion is Every Frame a Painting. The channel is fascinating in that it was only active between April 2014 and September 2016 and even though that there has not been a video uploaded on it for about 5 years now, it is still highly regarded and frequently quoted by many people, including notable people from the industry. Here is an article by authors talking about their YouTube journey.
I still frequently return to the channel to rewatch the 28 video essays and it seems like that a lot of people do as most of the videos have 1million+ views. It is hard to define what exactly was Tony trying to make videos about other than that he made video essays about whatever he found interesting about movies.
My favourites include the following:
- Drive (2011) – The Quadrant System
- Akira Kurosawa – Composing Movement
- Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy
- The Marvel Symphonic Universe
That’s all for this one. You may be able to tell that I love What we do in the shadows if it wasn’t clear. It is a good blend of everything I enjoy and I hope that you will be able to do too 🙂
Until next time, yours truly,
Starboy