Watch ‘Cost of Living,’ a Great Workplace Sci-Fi Short Featuring Bret Harrison and Brandon Routh

Posted on Monday, February 13th, 2012 by Russ Fischer

Remember, if you will, the days of Fantastic Fest 2011. One of the most buzzed about films at the Austin, TX festival wasn’t a feature from an established director. It was Cost of Living, a short written and directed by first-time filmmaker BenDavid Grabinski.

The short stars Bret Harrison (Reaper, Breaking In) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as employees of a company that makes, or engineers… something. Or ‘somethings.’ Actually, let’s say very violent, very dangerous somethings.

Cost of Living throws a couple of more or less regular guys into a really crappy situation and then watches them fight their way out. It is a tasty blend of splattery, tense action with just enough self-awareness and humor to balance the danger. Oh, and it is beautifully shot by Morgan Susser, and features a special guest as the voice of the company computer. The full film is now online; check it out below. Read More »

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Watch Riley Stearns’ ‘Magnificat’, Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Stephen Tobolowsky

Posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 by Angie Han

Mary Elizabeth Winstead‘s 2012 is definitely off to a good start. Her starring turn in the indie drama Smashed earned high praise at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and she’s got A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on her upcoming slate. But Vampire Hunter‘s not due out til summer and Smashed and Charles Swan have yet to even announce release dates, so it may be a while before most of us actually get to see her on the big screen.

Thankfully for those of us who’d rather not wait that long to enjoy her talents, she recently starred in Magnificat, a short film written directed by her husband Riley Stearns. Winstead plays a woman who’s “tormented by malevolent visions that begin to bleed into reality.” /Film favorite Stephen Tobolowsky also stars. Watch it after the jump.

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