The media has had a field day trying to suss out how much of Nick Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi's "hybrid documentary" Paper Heart is truth and and how much is fiction – specifically, whether the film's depiction of a blossoming romance between stars Yi and Michael Cera (Superbad) is rooted in reality or not. Honestly, we find that question far less engaging than the ones Yi poses in "man on the street" interviews all across America, in her often comical quest to figure out love – up to and including if it exists at all. In the documentary-like portions of the film, Yi's like a pint-sized Michael Moore: less bullish, more giggly, but just as game. Full-contact, first-person filmmaking isn't the only tradition Paper Heart, which opens in Austin on Friday, is working in; click on the photo gallery for more of Paper Heart's cinematic simpaticos.

"This is definitely a movie for cinema-lovers and Nazi-haters alike," said Eli Roth, by way of introducing Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which had its Austin debut as part of Saturday night's Cinemapocalypse event at the Alamo Ritz. We bailed at eight in the morning, after surprise guest Robert Forster (Alligator, Jackie Brown) turned up around four to screen William Lustig's 1983 Death Wish-y Vigilante, skipping out on the final two films in what turned out to be a six-film, dusk-til-dawn affair. Having survived our share of Butt-Numb-a-Thons, we're no stranger to long-haul movie marathons, but it's still a surreal feeling to walk out of the perpetually twilit Alamo only to be confronted by a.) a dead-empty, daylight-blasted Sixth Street straight out of The Omega Man, and, b.) zero crack-zombies and/or technicolor-yawning shot bar fratboy hoards. [Spoiler alert!] The Alamo's Minister of Propaganda, Tim League, in a stroke of ballyhoo genius not seen since Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (thankfully), unfurled a quartet of streaming Nazi party banners at precisely the moment in Inglourious Basterds when the film's firestorm of Jewish and allied vengeance brings the Third Reich to a flaming conclusion. Whoa. Nazi-conflagratin' fun, indeed.

You may have heard that Kyle Henry, local big-shot filmmaker and editor, is in the middle of his next big production, a series of shorts examining the emotional components of sex that Western society considers transgressive. Called FOURPLAY the project has already been garnering some buzz from the likes of independent film blogs like IndieWire and from the Austin Chronicle (we've even sent staff members to extra for the project). You can find out more, including an insight into Henry's creative processes and his collaboration with partner Carlos Trevino on the FOURPLAY blog. Since we can't show you any of the FOURPLAY footage, we might as well try to get behind the cerebellum that gave us Room. To do so we asked Kyle Henry to send us his Top Ten films so that we could, you know, get in the mood. Here's what he sent. 1) Barry Lyndon (Dir. Kubrick) - His least understood, most critical, most fabulous, most heartbreaking work. I'd also include Eyes Wide Shut too. Two great tragi-comedies about capitalism's ruinous effects on human being's souls. Although I find EWS' ending to be quite hopeful! 2) Sunday Bloody Sunday (Dir. John Schlesinger) - Everyone sees Midnight Cowboy, no one sees this film, which for me is his most mature, heartbreaking, subtle, non-judgmental work. For tour-de-force Hollywood smack-down, though, you should also check out his surreal adaptation of Day of The Locusts click the jump for the rest of Henry's list.

If last week's festival of inappropriateness didn't get your brain boiling then how about something a bit more meta? Oh yeah, "meta," the prefix that makes anything you're talking about an undergrad thesis. So, really, I'm taking the "waste of time" descriptor to a whole new level. You'll believe me when you play these games.

First off is another game from Anthony Lavelle. (You may remember another game of his called Shift [Here's my blog post if you don't remember (Aren't brackets in quotes so meta [So John Barth (Sorry, but everyone has a thesis.).]?).].) It's called Upgrade Complete and the objective is to earn enough points/money to upgrade and unlock everything from extra weapons to a cooler looking copyright logo (see picture at right). The game itself is dull, but the reward of spending your time upgrading every possible item and unlocking every achievement (spoiler alert) is a super-awesome screen that dubs you the best winner the game creator has ever seen and wishes you "Congratulations forever!" I think there's some commentary about gaming becoming a vehicle for bragging rights rather than being fun. Meta things usually make some sort of statement, right?

Similarly, there's John Cooney's Achievement Unlocked that rewards players for doing everything from simply moving to dying. Cooney's new game, This is the Only Level, is as meta as it sounds but it's actually relatively fun. You play an elephant with some serious ups who navigates the same level over and over again. Thankfully, each time there's a slight twist. Beware the insufferable music.

The mother of all meta games is the helpfully titled You Have to Burn the Rope. I'm not going to spoil the surprise of that one, but luckily the game should take you mere seconds to complete. Make sure you have your headphones on so you can listen to the song from Reachground during the credits that retells the epic story of your conquest. You can hear more Reachground songs, but nothing lives up to the meta song about a meta game.

It's complicated.

Enjoy.

Fantastic Fest has announced its second round of films, and boy, are zombies back in style. Not that they ever went out of style: just twenty minutes ago we were walking our fourpaws down Sixth Street and relishing the balmy aftergoo of our recent thundershowers when -- we kid you not -- a real, live (or not) zombie shambled past us. Seriously. We were standing in front of The Jackalope, minding our own business and admiring the apocalyptic weather when a threadbare cardigan-sporting returner with a foot-long strand of saliva swinging from his chin and a freakishly bloody abrasion on his noggin shuffled past, heading east, presumably, back to his burrow at the Texas State Cemetery. Who says Sixth Street is dangerous? We were completely unarmed and Mr. Creepy Deadfolk didn't even give us a snarl. (Frankly, we're a tad disappointed by that. And by god, we'll never leave the house without our digital camera/iPhone again.) But we digress. The real big news is that Fantastic Fest has, for the second time now (or third, if you count pre-Fantastic Fest Alamo appearances), lassoed zombie-flick godhead and only-reason-to-visit-Pittsburgh-ever director George A. Romero, who will be premiering his latest chompsocky nightmare, Survival of the Dead, along with, most likely, lots of scotch. (That would be a reference to his infamous "What's your favorite color?" answer from his Fantastic Fest Q&A session two years ago, in case you missed it.)

As part of its new-ish Reverse Shot Talkie series, Indiewire has posted a video of journalist Eric Hynes interviewing filmmaker Andrew Bujalski as the pair rummage through the Family Jewels, a Manhattan vintage store. It's a reference to the setting of Bujalski's latest film, Beeswax, which was shot in Austin and centers on a turf war over a co-owned secondhand store (North Loop's now-shuttered Storyville). In the video, Bujalski wanders through the aisles, talking about his three feature films and how he finally taught himself how to tie a necktie – off the Internet – in anticipation of his recent wedding to local author Karen Olsson. Beeswax opened in Manhattan on Friday. NY Times' lead critic (and new balcony warmer) A.O. Scott says this: "Beeswax, at first glance a modest, ragged slice of contemporary life, turns out to be a remarkably subtle, even elegant movie." Cinema Guild is distributing Beeswax, which had its American premiere at SXSW 09. No word yet on when it'll make its way to Austin theatres.

Austin is too small to contain a rumor like the one about Connie Wodlinger's departure from Music and Entertainment Television (ME TV). That rumor hit the street weeks ago and today, those rumors became official. The founder and current ME Television CEO is leaving the network after a turbulent year that saw the layoff of most of its staff and lingering questions about its financial stability.

Before Judd Apatow gave us Freaks and Geeks, there was writer/director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), who passed away from a heart attack this morning. A "philosopher of adolescence," as Roger Ebert once dubbed him, Hughes told stories of awkward teenage moments in that shallowest of decades, the Eighties. Through the wild suburban romps of hijinks and uncomfortable tears, he showed that high school caste boundaries could be crossed and that all these other kids around you weren't so strange after all, in a time when jocks and pretty, rich girls and freaks and bad kids and nerds intermingled much less than they do today. Every movie had someone who took a chance, and it was never about whether the result had good or bad consequences, but that they took a chance at all. Hughes' characters bravely stepped outside their comfort zones, whether it was padded with Laura Ashley floral madness like Molly Ringwald's character in Sixteen Candles or Alan Rudd's Cameron literally smashing out of his antiseptic bubble in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Hughes helped define a generation's experience and reshape their expectations, and teen movies will always be held to this standard. He will be missed.

I know all of my loyal readers who get their internet games solely from my blog posts were disappointed last week. My apologies, writing actual printed words got in the way. Won't happen again.

To make up for it I have a gaggle of games all made by Molleindustria, an Italian team that specializes in fun as biting social commentary. Everything from direct statements against big oil and megacorporations to more artistic presentations of communist revolutions. Some of the games are purposefully frustrating (eg., the copyright/freedom of ideas game) while others show the downside of success in a corrupt world (eg., the McDonald's game).

Share with all your radical friends (meaning "pinko," not necessarily "totally awesome") or just piss off your right-wing peeps with a quick and easy statement about what laissez-faire capitalism gets you.

Regardless of whether you win or lose, you finish the game with a better-than-thou attitude because you "get it." And you can ride that jerk wave all day and hold your big head high. I know I am.

Click here to choose your game and start playing your way to a cleaner conscience.

Molleindustria also has a few things to say about religion ... and they aren't good. Operation: Pedopriest and Faith Fighter will either make you laugh or write a letter to Congress.

Enjoy.