Gamers: Dorkness Rising

Brad and I just watched the low-budget gamer movie Gamers: Dorkness Rising. The film deals with a Dungeons & Dragons DM, Lodge, who is struggling with the fact that his gaming group has devolved from role-players into rules-lawyer munchkins. (If you've played any role-playing games, you know what I'm talking about.) The situation is complicated when one of the players introduces his ex-girlfriend, Joanna, as a new player in the group, and she begins to share Lodge's frustrations with the unrealistic behavior of the other characters.

 So we're watching the movie, and we're enjoying it, but I can't shake the fact that I know "Joanna" from somewhere. I finally write it off as a passing similarity to other spunky blonde gaming geeks I have known, but when the credits roll, it all snaps into place. Joanne is played by Carol Roscoe, an old friend of mine from college. Small freakin' world, huh?

By the way, I'm not so much surprised that so many in my circle of friends have found success in theater as I am surprised that so many (OK, two) have done so by making really clever parodies/homages to gaming culture. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Tom Lomell.)

And on a tangentially related note (i.e. films, geekiness, and people I sort of know), Joe Winston, creator of the amazing Chicago public-access cable show This Week in Joe's Basement, seems to have hit the big time with his new documentary What's the Matter with Kansas, which Roger Ebert has slathered with praise. I can't wait to see it later this month.

Destination Moon

Just wanted to plug Moon, a science fiction film that is making the independent theater circuit. For those who like their science fiction carefully-paced and cerebral (think 2001), this is a movie for you. The film is full of my favorite kind of special effects—invisible ones. There is a lot of very clever camera work and computer graphics, but their purpose is to support the story, not "wow" the viewer.

I am deliberately abstaining from including links to the movie's website, as I think the trailer and the synopsis reveal more than most people would want to know. If you like the paranoid and claustrophobic (but very human) films of such directors as Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott, then just go see the movie.

Trust me.