I’ve actually been intrigued with this movie since the first trailer, but held off because I couldn’t get anyone to see it with me (“it looked too depressing”) and because a fellow Chickster warned me that von Trier also directed “Dogville” and “you don’t want to see ‘Dogville.’” Based on what I’ve heard, I think that’s true.

But I wasn’t afraid of “Melancholia” from the get-go. I guess I admired its honesty. From the trailer, you have no doubt that the world will end, but this movie seems to be more about the complex emotions about accepting the end of the world or not being able to. For sisters Justine and Claire, it’s a rather bare and sad end, but isn’t that to be expected? I don’t mind if a movie’s depressing if it’s honest and interesting. And I will say that after just reading a description of “Dogville” I was expecting much worse.

It’s also visually striking, well-acted (Dunst received the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and Kiefer Sutherland is always good), emotionally absurd—rendering it very honest—and masterful in it’s cinematography.

But it wasn’t without flaws either. The beginning was really slow, literally. There were about 10 minutes of painfully unnecessary slow motion, though almost everything captured was visually pleasing and well-executed special effects. And I did have a hard time being on Dunst’s side when she couldn’t enjoy such a beautiful wedding. Sure, I know that deep depression renders you unable to feel happy when you should and that’s why it’s so demobilizing, but I couldn’t help sighing every now and then and thinking “Geez, chick. Just take a freakin’ Prozac.”

But again, it also makes me wonder if von Trier had a deeper meaning there (likely). Women are physically affected by the moon, so maybe the movement of an entire planet could really screw up the chi of one who’s already depressed, beyond mood stabilizers. If that is what he meant to imply, he did hint at it a little when twice in Justine’s part of the story (when the approach of the dark planet wasn’t yet known), she pointed out the strange behavior of the stars and seemed to see a meaning that no one else did.

Overall, I would not avoid this one if you have an interest. But be prepared for some slowness and some inevitable sadness.

WriteByNight has so many events coming up it’s just ridiculous. You may as well just bring a sleeping bag and crash at WBN for the next couple of weeks. And bring toilet paper. Not that we don’t have any, but … you know. Who couldn’t use more toilet paper?

First, the new Deadliners panel is officially a go. Join us at WBN on Tuesday, April 17th, for Lessons from Kony2012. Panelists Maira Garcia, Reeve Hamilton, and David Krug will explore the phenomenon that is/was Kony2012, and what journalists can learn from it. As usual, moderator Alex Hannaford will keep everyone on task, there will be opportunity for a Q&A following the panel, and then you’re welcome to stick around WBN for a glass of wine and to hobnob with the panelists. More info at the Deadliners website.

Two nights later is Leah Kaminsky’s Blackmail Party. (See WBN’s blog post.) Join us at 7 p.m. to see some (maybe) head shaving, as well as to learn about an exciting new WBN writing accountability tool.

Our next exciting seminar is called The Art of the Sentence, and will take place at WriteByNight on Tuesday nights in May. WBN instructor Joel Weinbrot will lead attendees on an exploration of the magic and mystery of the sentence, the writer’s frenemy and the building blocks of prose. This offering is part seminar, part workshop; in Sessions 2 and 3, participants will get the chance to have their fiction workshopped by Joel and by their peers. May 8th, 15th, and 22nd (all Tuesdays) from 6:30-8:30 at WBN HQ.

See our events page for more details on The Art of the Sentence, and for a full listing of WriteByNight and Professional Writers of Austin events. Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to stay up-to-date with new events, seminars and workshops.

This web series follows a guild of gamers Codex, Zaboo, Clara, Bladezz and Tinkerballa that make up The Knights of Good as they attempt to balance addictive online gaming and harsh reality. Clara (Robin Thorsen) for instance, is the mother of three, not that she considers that a priority next to gaming. She’s not exactly an attentive mother, which is hilarious and disturbing at times, but I choose to find it funny. The morally apathetic Tink (Amy Okuda) wouldn’t make a good mother either, since the one time she babysits Clara’s kids she puts them in a giant dog crate and refuses to change them. Again, some will likely find this offensive, but I just choose to find it funny. Those two are certainly my favorite characters, but all the actors who play guildies do a phenomenal job, from the socially unconcerned Jeff Lewis (Vork) to the charmingly awkward Felicia Day (Codex), who’s won a 2009 Streamy Award for best actress. 

In fact, the show has pulled in a slew of awards including Series Awards from SXSW, YouTube and Yahoo, and more Streamy Awards for best comedy and best web series.

This isn’t bad for a show that was paid for by PayPal donations from loyal fans in its first season. But since season two, it took one giant step up to being distributed by Xbox Live and Microsoft and sponsored by Sprint. Each webisode is about 3 to 8 minutes long, but if you watch them on Instant, you can watch a whole season at once in about an hour and half.

Brown Bag Delivers aims to fix an issue present in most offices these days: easily available, free junk food. Though I never visit donut shops myself, if someone brings a bag of donuts into work and leaves them on the counter for everyone, I will absolutely eat some out of sheer desperation and cheapness. But if my company were to provide a healthier option on a regular basis instead, I’d lose 20 pounds in no time.

Well, that is the mission of this new company—to deliver homemade, healthy food to homes and offices for an amazingly low cost. They even have a two for one coupon going on right now for personal meals. (Contact them at moreplease@brownbagdelivers.com.) 

But if you’re thinking of incorporating healthy eating into your work environment, they also have corporate packages of 10 meals for $90. That’s only $10 per homemade meal! This isn’t much more than what you pay to pick-up a fatty fast food meal chalk full of preservatives. Plus, the food comes to you.

So how did this idea come about? Well, basically a French-trained chef, Joram Tapiero, and Mexican restauranter, Ben Mendoza, teamed-up with former technology exec Aaron Bollinger and chef Justin Trapani to create this revolutionary concept.

“We wanted to bring back the nostalgia of taking your brown bag of homemade, healthy food to school, but on an adult level,” said Ben Mendoza, CEO.

“Every meal we create is made from scratch and is custom-designed,” said Aaron Bollinger, CMO.

The personalized menu for our rendezvous consisted of spinach and feta empanadas, lamb tagine, penne with Bolognese, and small walnut brownie bites for dessert. It was indescribably delicious. I also had a light guiltless feeling after, since I knew what I was eating was healthy. This is much better than the usual heavy feeling you get after stuffing yourself with whatever sustenance you can find during a mere one-hour lunch break.

I gladly recommend this company to any Austin foodie for personal or business meals, catering, etc. (they have vegetarian and vegan options as well), and I have no doubt anyone would like their food. In fact, I’d say it’s “in the bag.”

The “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid” framework is also a metaphor for the competitiveness of the female relationship. If you release giant pythons into the everglades, fine. I’ll inject alligators with chicken hormones to make them even bigger to kill the pythons. How could this not be a good idea?

And they really pull out all the stops on this one. The effects…well. They’re certainly there. And the story is…very interesting. For instance, at one point, after the pythons have killed about seven people already including her fiancé, Tiffany rightly says in response to someone wanting to postpone a celebration in the everglades, “Why? It’s not like anyone has died.” Right.

And there is a character that the directors are so attached to that we get to see him die twice, at very different ends of the movie. (That’s right. They forgot they killed him already or possibly just didn’t care.)

Anyway, very entertaining. But good? Well…

Micky Dolenz also has a cameo….

I’ve never watched “One Tree Hill,” which I think is probably intelligent self-preservation (please, correct me if I’m missing out), but I heard they had a Sims episode so I had to, at least, check that one out, since I’m an avid Sims fan.

And I immediately regretted my decision to sit through this episode five minutes in. Maybe it’s just that I’m not familiar with the characters, but I’ve never met a crop of fake people that I’ve cared so little about. Nothing about it even remotely caught my attention or stirred my heart strings, which are honestly pretty easy to target and pull. (Okay, I admit I felt a little bit of something when the man, whose heart replacement got eaten by a loose dog at the hospital [Can we say gross and unlikely? And no one even tried to stop the dog.], yelled at the waves and dared God to come and get him. But if he suspected what happened was some kind of punishment, it makes me wonder what the heck he did. Apparently he killed someone, but I can’t figure out if it was a person or some kind of pet. Either way, I don’t like him.)

But overall, there really just wasn’t enough Sim stuff in the episode! In the last few seconds the little boy playing the game showed his mom the “Tree Hill” town he designed and all the characters he had made, but that was it. I’d say it was about 30 seconds worth of Sims. So instead of sitting through this episode, unless you’re into this show, I’d say just watch the YouTube clips online.

Their current slate of workshops offers something for all ages. Check it out:

Creative Writing Summer Camp
Three-week summer workshops are led by Austin’s best writers: award-winning poets, novelists, playwrights and essayists. Students write poetry and prose and learn to revise and edit their work for publication. The camp culminates in the publication of beautiful, library-quality anthologies and two public readings (one of these is followed by a book signing for student authors). Each student receives a copy of the published anthology, which is also donated to the Austin Public Library system and sold at BookPeople. Various locations around Austin, with a new location at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Westlake. Read the Austin American-Statesman’s inside look at Badgerdog’s Creative Writing Summer Camp.

Spring Break Workshops
Over one, two, or three days (March 13-15), writers will delve into what makes fiction tick and wade through the unstill waters of poetry to create their own new work. These workshops, led by professional, award-winning writers, will include multi-genre readings. Writers are grouped according to age. Location: Griffin School (5001 Evans Ave, Austin 78751) Open to students in grades 3-12. All writers will have the opportunity to publish their writing on our online journal, Unbound. And check out what the Austinist had to say about our spring break programs.

You can also check Badgerdog’s blog to get a behind-the-scenes look at their programs, including meeting their instructors.

If you decide to take a Badgerdog class, please let us know how it goes!

(photo: tonyhall/flickr)

It’s witty, funny and it has two very strong female characters, Abigail and Parker (Raven-Symoné and Joanna Garcia), whose side I am completely on when they decide to sabotage the wedding of Caitlyn (Virginia Williams), a girl who stole their best friend Rachel’s (Chryssie Whitehead) boyfriend and then had the audacity to ask her to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.

So they somehow place themselves as bridesmaids in this wedding and do everything they can to take Caitlyn down, including replacing the white wedding tent with a bounce house and putting the wedding dress through a wood chipper. They even enlist the help of a policeman/groomsman, who just happens to be into Parker, while they strive to reunite Rachel and her true love.

2) Which makes us wonder, how would T-Rex eat an ice cream cone? We imagine it would frustrate him as much as the other activities featured on the tumblr T-Rex Trying…, which includes the timely:

3) There were many music-related things to love this week, chief among which was this SNL skit in which Justin Timberlake hilariously parodied Bon Iver:

4) It made us feel old to find out that Monday would have been Kurt Cobain’s 45th birthday. In honor of the late great Nirvana frontman, Flavorwire assembled a slideshow of Pictures of Kurt Cobain Looking Happy. Even if you were not a Nirvana fan, it’s fun to flip through and see several shots of a young Dave Grohl, as well as this adorable shot of Cobain with daughter Frances Bean and a kitten:

5) There have been many tributes to Whitney Houston over the past couple of weeks, but we don’t think any are as beautiful or as unexpected as this one from Chris Cornell:

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles play two sibling “hunters,” Sam and Dean (That’s right! Padalecki is Sam and Ackles is Dean, which is confusing for anyone who’s a “Gilmore Girls” fan.) who are aware of a supernatural world most people don’t see and have taken it upon themselves to bring down evil. They’re actually a family of demon hunters with an unfortunate childhood introduction to demons, and they spend the first season looking for their missing hunter father.

They also drive a classy 1967 Chevy Impala all over the country (even though the whole thing is shot in Canada) usually with “Carry On Wayward Son” in the background, and they really don’t make very sturdy relationships with people, with a few exceptions. They really are loners in the way that most people in television series pretend they are but really aren’t. They really don’t have a network of support (and when they do, they tend to lose it), and they really are in some horribly cheap hotel in a different city every other day. It kinda solves the whole “Murder She Wrote” problem, which leaves you thinking that Angela Lansbury is the real murder. Murder doesn’t come to them, they go to it.

Now sometimes their traveling isn’t completely convincing. Once they’re supposed to be in Dallas, Texas, (my hometown) and they’re all wearing heavy coats and going to record stores I’ve never seen or heard of (because they’re actually in Canada) and every hotel room they stay in is the same set dressed-up to look different, but I still like that in this show, these two brothers really are pretty much detached from everything, except each other, which leads to some interesting drama and a multitude of very short-lived love stories, often with a gruesome ending.

There’s also everything you’d expect to see in a supernatural show, from vampires to shape-shifters, but it’s always presented in a way that doesn’t pull any punches. Though it’s sometimes a comedy, the monsters in the show are serious, deadly and rarely comical, like you would sometimes see in “Buffy.” There’s also a higher level of violence and eerie in this show that I haven’t seen in any other currently aired on regular TV, that leaves me marathoning it with a girlfriend (which actually doesn’t stop me from getting scared during) and then checking my backseat as I drive home alone in the dark. But there’s certainly comedy as well. They tend to enjoy breaking their show’s usual mold and doing some really whacked-out episodes that other shows might not be able to pull off. For instance, in season 6, there’s an episode where they get thrown into another reality where “Supernatural” is just a television show and they’re really Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles and another one of the regulars on the show, the angel Castiel (Misha Collins), is addicted to Twitter. It’s very funny.

Another thing to celebrate is the fact that “Buffy” cast members tend to guest star on this show quite often. In fact, the list currently includes: Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), James Marsters (Spike), Amber Benson (Tara), Julie Benz (Dara), Amy Acker (Fred from “Angel”), and Mercedes McNab (Harmony) to name a few. Mercedes actually plays a vampire once again but not in the usual fun way that you’d expect. (Actually, it’s pretty upsetting!) There is also an episode where Paris Hilton gets her head chopped off. Who doesn’t want to see that?

Though I will say in recent seasons they’ve gotten a little crazy-elaborate with their story lines (maybe because they’ve run out of ghosts and demons?), I think at least the first six seasons, which are all available on Netflix Instant, are worth a watch. The verdict is still out on season seven though, which is still unfolding.

Click here for a trailer.

The premise is simple enough. Two guys (Tom Hardy and Chris Pine), who are also best friends, inadvertently fall for the same girl (Reese Witherspoon). But because these best friends are also CIA agents, the stakes are raised to be both hilarious and, at times, life-threatening. Reese Witherspoon brings a sex appeal to her character of Lauren that we haven’t seen in her work since “Walk the Line.” Of course, she kind of has to as the romantic foil for both Tom Hardy’s Tuck and Chris Pine’s FDR, because the three of them together are probably the best looking trio of leads in a movie ever.

What works best in “This Means War” are the things that appeal to both sexes — the humor, the characters and their relationships to each other, particularly in the sweet bromance between Tuck and FDR. What doesn’t work, aside from a video store meet-cute scene that seems almost anachronistic, are the big action set pieces, which is pretty surprising considering that the movie is helmed by director McG. One-time music video auteur McG made his directorial debut with two silly “Charlie’s Angels” flicks that were more fun than they had any right to be. Despite having more plot holes than a pair of fishnets, “Charlie’s Angels” created big action set pieces that were exciting to watch, which is why the ho-hum spy action of “This Means War,” and in particular the opening sequence that felt like a deleted scene from “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” felt disappointing. By the time the spy action centers around FDR’s and Tuck’s attempts to sabotage each other’s chances with Lauren, the excitement definitely picks up, but I can’t help feeling like the intro and the rest of the spy storyline was a missed opportunity for greatness.

Overall, “This Means War” is pretty much the best Valentine Hollywood has given us yet — hot people falling in love, kicking ass and, the most romantic of all, making us laugh.

2) If you’re feeling a little broken-hearted this Valentine’s Day, we won’t blame you if you cry along with this gorgeously intimate cover of the cheeseball “Pretty Woman” soundtrack staple “King of Wishful Thinking” as performed by Time Travels (via SYFFAL):

King of Wishful Thinking by SYFFAL

3) If you’d rather spend your V-Day three sheets to the wind, we recommend blaring Fun. and Janelle Monae’s “We Are Young”:

4) If you’d rather just look at hot guys, definitely watch the Oscar-nominated French star of “The Artist,” Jean Dujardin, doing some villainous auditioning in this Funny or Die video:

And then there’s this banned poster for his next film, “Les Infideles.” Sacre bleu!

5) And for those who appreciate a Chuck Norris joke, Happy Valentine’s Day from America’s Sweetheart herself:

Actor Kevin Williamson did a wonderful portrayal of Dr. Horrible, a.k.a Neil Patrick Harris, and even had the singing chops to boot. It’s not an easy role either. He has to play the wannabe evil but actually sweet and misunderstood “Billy Buddy” who swings from disturbingly misguided to pathetically endearing every other second.

Taylor Overstreet also did an amazing job as Penny, and her voice sounded almost identical to Felicia Day’s. And Justin Lavergne brought his own interpretation to Captain Hammer, since not everyone can be Nathan Fillion, but if I couldn’t be Nathan, I’d want to be this guy. The “These are not the hammer,” line is not easy to deliver with the right comedic timing, but he “nailed” it.

So overall, just go see it. GO SEE IT! I might have to see it twice.

As a married lady of childbearing age, I’ve seen kids on the horizon for a while now. But after watching “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” I may be putting those plans on hold for a while longer. By turns fascinating, mysterious, thrilling and haunting, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” may just be the best form of cinematic birth control out there.

The movie, a festival favorite that opens today in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and the Regal Arbor, is based on the award-winning novel by Lionel Shriver, directed by Lynne Ramsay and stars Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and newcomer Ezra Miller. The story follows Eva (Tilda Swinton) throughout, vascilating between the present and flashbacks to different points in her marriage to Franklin (Reilly) and the rearing of their son, Kevin, who is played by Miller as a teenager and by several younger child actors early on. From the beginning, Eva senses that Kevin is different, and the mother-son bond never forms. Franklin thinks it is all in her head, but as the film unfolds, we see that Eva’s unease was definitely founded, and she finds herself facing situations we could never imagine while also trying to find answers within herself to questions of parental responsibility and love.

Ezra Miller, as well as the younger actors playing Kevin at various points in childhood, gets under your skin and makes you uncomfortable throughout, giving Kevin a chilling air of unpredictability and menace. But this movie absolutely belongs to Tilda Swinton, who gives the best performance by an actress I’ve seen all year, and I am utterly stunned that she did not receive an Oscar nomination. If I had an Oscar ballot, she would be taking home the prize. She has won many awards so far for her haunted, stricken portrayal of Eva, including being voted Best Actress by the Austin Film Critics Society.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” isn’t an easy film to watch, but because it forces you to face the unthinkable, it will stick with you long after its 119 minutes.

The action kicks off on Animal Planet at 2 p.m. this Sunday. As an added bonus, this year’s edition includes a cheering section of piggies!

2) In other animal-related news, this video of our beloved Kristen Bell’s sloth meltdown kept us in stitches all week. Well, you know what they say, Veronica Mars, she’s a marshmallow!

3) Some animals live in zoos, while others lived on your childhood bed. As “The Velveteen Rabbit” knows, that doesn’t make them any less real, which is probably why this essay on childhood stuffed animals from The Gloss got us all choked up.

4) Another week, another trailer for “The Hunger Games.” We wish Cinna would dress us for the premiere.

5) You’ll have to wait until March 23 for “The Hunger Games,” but we heartily recommend that you get your movie fix this weekend from “Chronicle,” which we caught at an Ain’t It Cool News sneak peek last night with filmmaker Josh Trank in attendance. While he may be maddeningly young (27, to be exact) to have a feature bowing in a wide release, Trank did a great job putting a new spin on an old idea — what would happen if we actually had superpowers? The performances from the three leads, which include Michael B. Jordan of “Friday Night Lights” and “The Wire” fame, were great as were the visual effects. The only negative for us was the found-footage format, which we’re growing tired of (IGN has a retrospective on the genre and its flaws), but overall, “Chronicle” is a surprise well-worth the time. Check out the trailer: