Why Watch? “Upon seeing the eye with one’s eyes, we deconstruct the fourth wall.” Ker-smack! Much like its fight against pretension, the title of this short film is simple, direct, and promises exactly what we get: a badass girl in aviators delivering knuckle sandwiches to film students saying incredibly dumb things. Yes, learning is a process where a lot of mistakes are made, but sometimes a stereotype is annoyingly accurate, and this is catharsis in movie form. What does it cost? Just 3 minutes of your time. Check out Film Students Getting Punched for yourself:

Why Watch? Because WTF stands for “Genius.” The vibrant, skillful blend of puppetry and animation, the hammer-to-nail satire of children’s programming and the huge wad of creativity make this short a winner all around. As a bonus, the song is catchy as hell. This is what everyone is thinking whenever they see kid’s shows as adults. Fortunately, it’s done as smartly as possible. The easy joke is avoided, and the rest is a frantic, jaw-lowering exercise in insanity. What does it cost? Just 3 minute of your time. Check out Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared for yourself:

Headphones on. DVD player loaded. Blank page open. That’s right, folks. It’s another edition of Commentary Commentary, our weekly look at a film’s commentary track and all the amazing anecdotes and discernment that come with it. This week we’re going international for the first time here in Commentary Commentary. We’re headed all the way to South Korea and all the way back to 2006. Not exactly sure which of those two settings are further away, but we have them right here on this pressed, metal disc. This week we’re listening to Bong Joon-ho‘s commentary on his monster movie, The Host. Does he end up revealing in it how much he hates everything America stands for? Spoiler alert: he doesn’t, but I’m sure this article isn’t going to help matters. So take a look at what I learned. I suddenly have a craving for Kimchi and Soju.

Probably the most controversial film screening at the festival, thanks to the usually virulent reaction that anything that is even remotely anti-religion tends to get these days, Habemus Papam is director Nanni Moretti‘s latest irony-laced film, which takes a firm stab at the institution of the Vatican (and unsurprisingly has already inspired notable calls to boycott it). This isn’t new territory for Moretti, who follows up 1984′s religious satire The Mass is Ended, with this look at the Vatican’s attempt to elect a new Pope, which remarkably is also the Italian director’s sixth film in Competition at Cannes over the years. In Habemus Papam, otherwise known as We have a Pope, we are introduced to the conclave of Vatican Cardinals as they meet to elect the new pontiff  from their ranks (a process which hilariously is presented like a group of school children unwillingly sitting for an exam). Panic ensues when the eventually-chosen candidate played by Michel Piccoli (who I swear is Carl Reiner’s long-lost twin), has a major anxiety attack at the responsibility and refuses to present himself to the crowd assembled in St Peter’s Square. In desperation the Vatican turn to a psychoanalyst (Nanni Moretti himself) to try and help the Pope deal with his issues, only for him to go on the run in Rome, posing as a normal civilian to hide from his Godly duty. Hang on, a major world leader with a psychological crisis? A therapist brought in to help him? So really, it’s sort of like a comic The King’s Speech, only with more full frontal [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Whether you’re trying to avoid the releases this week or augment them with even more movies, Your Alternate Box Office offers some options for movies that would play perfectly alongside of (or instead of) the stuff studios are shoving into the megaplex this weekend. This week features a hammer-wielding Norse God from the pages of Marvel, a woman who can’t keep her hands off her friend’s fiance, and a crazed Mel Gibson with a puppet on his hand.

Perhaps the most famous rendering of Saddam Hussein on-screen was as a bowling alley shoe attendant in one of The Dude’s vivid daydreams. Now, that’s about to change. Although he won’t be playing him directly, Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing a courageous dictator fighting tooth and nail to keep democracy from infiltrating the country he’s severely oppressing for The Dictator. The tongue-in-cheek treatment of the bad guy and the title are obvious callbacks to Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, which mocked Hitler with wondrous dance sequences and gibberish. Borat and Bruno director Larry Charles is back, but this is an entirely different animal. It’s great to see this kind of comedy being made, and it’ll be interesting to see how well Charles and Cohen can pull it off. According to the press release, the movie is set for release through Paramount May 11, 2012.

Comedy. Drama. Thriller. These are the three words that the Apple website uses to describe Rubber, but you could add to that list, Horror, Psycho-Satire, Meta-Parody and a few other made up words. Rubber is a hell of a movie. It’s a ridiculous film about a killer psychic tire (named Robert) that shows that some filmmakers out there still have the stones and creativity to make something truly new under the sun. Directed by Quentin Dupieux, the movie now has a trailer for you to enjoy/decipher and a sweet release date of April 1st.

There’s nothing quite like a quiet summer day, rocking back and forth on the front porch, watching the parade slowly pass by, waiting to see which one of your neighbors will end up brutally murdered. Mark Carter has been shopping around Serial Killer Days for a while now. In fact, it looked as though Jason Reitman was going to direct it back in 2008 after Juno came out, but he found his way to another project and another Best Picture nomination. However, a producer of both Thank You For Smoking and Up In The Air, Dan Dubiecki, is on board alongside Paramount to finally make the horror satire. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name which focuses on a town that has a serial killer at large that strikes on the same day every year. Of course, the town responds by throwing the murderer lavish parades, nominating the Scream Queen, and getting in a generally festive spirit for death.

The man who brought us Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, The Fountain, and the forthcoming Black Swan isn’t known for his sly humor. However, his next project sees him moving out of his wheelhouse a bit in order to deliver an adaptation of Machine Man – the serial and soon-to-be novel by satirist Max Barry. Aronofksy is an interesting choice for director because he has almost exclusively done thrillers and dramas, but Barry’s writing (which I was introduced to through “Jennifer Government” and the addictive, interactive game the book used as an early form of online marketing) is known for calm sarcasm and a near-constant smirk when telling tales of modernism and our new role in the corporate structure. In Machine Man, an engineer replaces his weak, fleshy limbs with strong metal ones, but it turns out other people might want to use that sort of thing for evil. Being called an “amped up pop thriller,” the novel still has that trademarked tongue in cheek attitude of Barry’s writing (or, at least, the amount of it that’s already currently online does), and it’s always exciting to see a director try something new – especially before delving back into the world of gritty drama and Wolverine. [THR]

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. This week, Print to Projector presents the story of a political theory, a governmental style, and the greatest nation on the planet with the bald eagle as its official bird. This Daily Show guide to everything you could ever possibly want to know about the United States of America packs in the infographics and the Judge Judy references that the people demand. It’s time someone made it into a movie.

With so many rights, how could this be wrong? The Oscar-nominated director plans to produce (at least) a prep school satire where a young loser is taken under the wing of the kid with the longest rap sheet in school.

Get ready to laugh at terrorism! In this completely non-exclusive clip, we take a look at the lighter side of stockpiling bleach for bomb-making.

Armando Iannucci’s ‘In the Loop’ is a smart political satire with a terrific cast.

Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever! Josie and the Pussycats is the best band ever! Orange is the new pink! For some reason, Cole Abaius loves this movie. Has he been brainwashed by subliminal messages in pop music and Mr. Moviefone?

This according to a new video made by Sacha Baron Cohen pitching his new movie and his character’s rear entrance to anyone who’ll pay admission. Does this mean Bruno will be starring in High School Nud-ical 3?

We tow the line between spoiling everything (we don’t spoil anything) and educating (just some slight preparation) in order to give a decent look at what to expect from a film based on a book that you might not have read yet.

The last time Ben Stiller directed a movie, we got the hilarious insanity that was Zoolander. This time around, we get an action-packed satire about the extreme personalities that exist in Hollywood.

One of the most written comments on the web by movie forum users has been something along these lines: “Does Will Smith say ‘Aww Hell Naw!’ then kill the infected?”