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May 16, 2021 2:34 PM   Subscribe

Baelin's Route. A 30-minute epic film complete with sweeping shots of New Zealand landscapes, a one-shot fight scene with a gang of orcs, and an NPC protagonist who's incapable of saying anything other than, "Morning! Nice day for fishing, ain't it?" From New Zealand comedy group Viva La Dirt League (previously).
posted by russilwvong (11 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
I recommend watching some of VLDL’s shorter Epic NPC Man skits first, just to get a feel for the world and the characters. It’s not strictly necessary, but I felt that being familiar with Baelin, Greg, and the rest of the crew added to my appreciation of their first long form story.
posted by tdismukes at 3:02 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world, the disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days. A purpose.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:33 PM on May 16, 2021


All it needed was to replace a few circles with hexagons and it'd have been perfect.
posted by Hogshead at 3:54 PM on May 16, 2021


This was great thanks. The music, scenery, and comedy was exactly my style.
posted by mundo at 7:32 PM on May 16, 2021


The last thing I expected was for a Viva La Dirt League skit to be good at telling a long form narrative, much less be so moving. Not to mention successfully and interestingly grapple with themes of free agency, personhood, and artificial intelligence. And the (avoiding spoilers here) young woman in the blue cloak was a surprisingly good actress, too. This from Viva La Dirt League, whose whole M.O. is literally one-note skits beaten to death until they are sort of funny. This wasn't that. It was better.
posted by seasparrow at 7:47 PM on May 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


From the sometimes I forget how long ago 2016 was file:
It's not Middle Earth
It's not even New Zealand
The Wizards of Aus
posted by bartleby at 8:08 PM on May 16, 2021


Since they live in New Zealand, they get landscapes that other movie companies pay millions of dollars flying crew there by walking out the door. The movie was funded by a Kickstarter that raised almost half a million USD.
posted by Xoc at 12:50 AM on May 17, 2021


VLDL do a range of skits in the tech/gaming oeuvre, and all the regulars are capable of properly stealing a scene. My favourite skits are the Playtech ones, set in a PC retail store. Byron the delivery man makes occasional appearances and is always hilarious.
posted by trif at 2:55 AM on May 17, 2021


I think part of the reason their sketches are often of middling quality is that they have so many of them. I figure it's an algorithm thing. Producing loads of sort of okay sketches seems shrewd from an eyeballs-maximization standpoint. And some of their sketches are genuinely good!

But this was excellent.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:34 PM on May 17, 2021


Finally got to watch this and I was not let down. I'm genuinely impressed with how they expanded their little universe here. The "young woman in blue cloak" actress really elevated the whole movie. Really nicely done.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:01 PM on May 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Local NZ news feature about the project.

And the first (?) critical analysis of the film, at 15 minutes it's half as long as the feature it is discussing.
posted by seasparrow at 7:34 PM on May 19, 2021


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