Mental Health Break

Two of the Internet’s favorite things – cat and parkour – combine to create a heh-worthy parody:

Mental Health Break

Puppies on a roll:

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Watch Debussy come to life:

(Hat tip: 3QD)

Mental Health Break

Kids who need the bar of soap:

Kids Cursing In Movies Mashup from Avaryl Halley on Vimeo.

Mental Health Break

We might end up making an executive decision and declare this one the best cover song ever:

Update from a reader:

How dare you put Cartman’s “Poker Face” ahead of the epic “Come Sail Away” from the Chef Aid episode. The video doesn’t exist, but the rendition alone is pure gold:

Mental Health Break

My alma mater – yes, Oxford University can be pretty gay sometimes – channels Shakira for charity:

Mental Health Break

A reader serves up the first candidate for our “Best Cover Song Ever” contest:

With all the anxiety and tumult in the news, I figure we need a good metal song for some catharsis. Better yet, a metal song play with a bit fey musical instrument! I therefore nominate Rob Scallon’s ukelele cover of “War Ensemble” by thrash metal legends Slayer.

Our selection committee is giving more weight to covers that blend genres like that. Email your submissions to contest@andrewsullivan.com.

Mental Health Break

Breaking the fourth wall:

Looking at you – Movie Montage from Brutzelpretzel on Vimeo.

Update from a reader:

A quick note: The vast majority of these clips are not really “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” They are simply POV shots, showing what one of the characters in the film is seeing. It’s an effective technique for helping the audience put themselves into the mind of one of the characters. But true breaking of the fourth wall is the direct acknowledgment of the audience. You are not being put in the position of a character; you are being asked to conspiratorially join in the movie.

My favorite versions are malevolent in nature; many remember several shots like this in the Austrian and American versions of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, as one of the young killers turns to the camera and asks the audience their opinion. But my favorite comes in Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey as repressed serial killer Bob Hoskins slowly walks through his home, I believe up some stairs, presumably on his way to kill a young victim. And then he pauses, and looks directly at the camera for an uncomfortable moment, before continuing on. Essentially he was indicting us in his crimes, there are no passive observers.