NoBudge 10th Anniversary Playlist

NoBudge 10th Anniversary Playlist

Woohoo, it’s our 10th anniversary! We’re celebrating this week by taking a look back at some of our favorite films since our beginnings in 2011 (when we first launched as a Tumblr blog!). The playlist below features a selection of wild comedy masterpieces, like “Observatory Blues” and “Ford Clitaurus,” dramatic character portraits / tales of melancholy, as in “Agua Viva,” “Shelly,” “And Nothing Happened,” and next level freakouts, as with “Allen Anders” and “Her Friend Adam.” We’d be remiss not to include selections from NoBudge favorites Doron Max Hagay, Andy DeYoung, Tynan DeLong, and John Wilson. There are a couple films from the early days of NoBudge, notably “The Mud,” (2013) and “Cochran” (2011), but you may notice there aren’t any films from 2020 or this year. This isn’t to say we have no favorites from the last couple of years, but this list is more about resurfacing classics, which need a little time to age. Finally, the unconventional holiday classics, “Men’s Thanksgiving” and “Kim Bush’s Abduction” will get you in the spirit for the upcoming festivities. Enjoy!

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NoBudge 10th Anniversary Playlist
  • Ford Clitaurus

    Following a trio of friends around town as they dance choreographed routines in grocery stores and give acting workshops in Bingo halls, "Ford Clitaurus", true to its name, is a hilarious head-scratcher. It’s best to watch without knowing much. As in, stop reading this right now and press play ab...

  • Observatory Blues

    The brilliantly loony “Observatory Blues” tells the life story of Fernando Music, a writer born with no hands that becomes famous for a series of books about space and sex. Beautifully shot on 16mm and featuring a genius cast moving in all kinds of glorious directions (including a narration by Hu...

  • Allen Anders - Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987)

    The fever dream of a 1980s stand-up comic who is either having a nervous breakdown or the best set of his life. Directed by Laura Moss, and written and performed by Tony Grayson, “Allen Anders - Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987)” is an ingenious sendup of a dated comedy special, darkly hilar...

  • Company

    A woman invites an old acquaintance to live with her after a devastating loss. Director Doron Max Hagay, fresh off his induction into the NoBudge Hall of Fame, is in Hall of Fame form with “Company,” his latest collaboration with Blair Beeken and Katy Fullan. In it, Dana, an L.A. woman reeling fr...

  • Agua Viva

    A Chinese manicurist in Miami attempts to describe feelings she doesn't have the words for. “Agua Viva,” written, directed and animated by Alexa Lim Haas, is a gorgeous, melancholic portrait of a stranger in a strange land. As she quietly goes about her day giving manicures and pedicures in a Flo...

  • And Nothing Happened

    In the aftermath of an assault, a woman tries to come to terms with the violation, or just get through her day. Director Naima Ramos-Chapman uses an unexpected dose of magical realism to express a poetic response to a loss of dignity. The quiet morning at first feels mundane, but as new details e...

  • Shelly

    Shelly is a peculiar young woman making a movie about a seahorse named Imogen. She picks up footage at the local aquarium and in her Brooklyn apartment while pursuing a deep sea diving certificate, so she can record the seahorses in their natural environment. We don’t quite trust the intentions o...

  • Santa Monica

    I'm currently in the middle of an obsessed phase with Kate Berlant & John Early, two of the funniest/smartest young performers around. This brilliant collaboration, "Santa Monica," written by the two & directed by another new NB favorite Andrew DeYoung, finds Early & Berlant playing characters wi...

  • The Mud

    A woman ascends out of a mud pit disrupting a young couple living in a country home. The young couple takes her in -- just like Pauly Shore & Sean Astin in Encino Man -- and they teach her how to be human, beginning of course with how to sharpen a pencil. At first the stranger has a rejuvenating ...

  • Cochran

    Jim Cochran hates his job, he wishes he could just shoot clay pigeons all day.

    Directed by James P. Gannon.

  • Men's Thanksgiving

    A house full of men with nothing to talk about. To boot, no one knows each other, or whose house they're in, or whether the football game they’re watching is being broadcast via Cable or Dish. An unbelievably funny exposé on men's small talk, which takes every moment of social awkwardness & magni...

  • Her Friend Adam

    An incisive dissection of jealousy, and the need for independence within a relationship. It stumbles into some absurdly funny territory, but it's largely a drama, one that burrows deep quickly and leaves you feeling punched in the gut. The explosive performances by writer/director Ben Petrie and ...

  • thematrix061702_ROUGHV.5.wmv

    First of all, it’s not a typo. That's the actual name of the movie. Got it? Okay, so the movie is about a group of friends trying to remake "The Matrix" in a Brooklyn apartment. They take the harebrained scheme very seriously though every element of the production is utterly unconvincing, from th...

  • How to Live with Regret

    The new satirical video tutorial from filmmaker John Wilson explores the world of regrets, both big and small. A bad haircut or a broken phone may not seem like a huge deal but it may cause "cascading effects that lead to long-term regret." With his signature halting voice-over, Wilson weaves in ...

  • Kim Bush's Abduction

    Several hours of unanswered texts and phone calls have everyone at a Christmas party wondering: where is Kim Bush? Filmed in Gulfport, Mississippi, and starring real-life sisters Courtney and Gabe Bush (playing themselves), “Kim Bush’s Abduction,” is a rolling mix of mystery and comedy, brimming ...