Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A diverting diversion: Two short films by Joseph Gordon-Levitt

When he's not busy starring in movies that I almost always enjoy watching, Joseph Gordon-Levitt apparently devotes much of his time to a creative social collective of sorts, hitRECord, and among other things it has produced the two charming short films embedded below.

At the site, well worth checking out even if you have nothing to contribute to it, members pool their talents to create musical and video projects, and as you'll see from these two movies, they're a pretty talented bunch.

Both were directed and star Gordon-Levitt, with Lexy Hulme as his co-star. First up comes "Morgan M. Morgansen's Date With Destiny," which made its debut at Sundance this year, and then the slightly longer and much better sequel of sorts, "Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeeth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo," which features Channing Tatum and debuted this year at SXSW.

What they share is wild wordplay; odd, old-timey animation vaguely reminiscent of the Monty Python crew's work; and just about as much charm as you can pack into 12 minutes or so of footage (and note, if you want to watch them full frame, they look splendid enlarged.) Enjoy the movies, and if you want to learn more about hitRECord, stick around for the third video, an introduction to the site from Mr. Gordon-Levitt. And with that, I have to get ready for the job that still helps me pay the bills. Peace out.





3 comments:

M. Dean said...

Great shorts. I have to say, and am quite shamed to do so, that I watched the first few minutes thinking that the music was quite odd and then I realized the Scott Pilgrim ad below plays automatically. I think I enjoyed Joseph the best in "The Lookout" and was surprised to find that he was the younger version of the main character in "A River Runs Through It" when I re-watched it a few weeks ago.

Reel Fanatic said...

I should really warn people about that, because especially when combined with anything else, that Scott Pilgrim music can be really annoying

He was indeed great in "The Lookout," and for another one I think you'd really like, he was also great in "Brick" ... And I had no idea that was him in "A River Runs Through It," a movie I haven't seen since it first came out

M. Dean said...

Yeah, brick is a classic in my book. Such style without trying. It's so easy to immerse yourself in that world.