The Austin filmmaker behind some of the web’s funniest viral videos is at it again.
Austin filmmaker Joe Nicolosi is currently owning Reddit with his viral video, “The Matrix Retold by Mom.” In the clip, Nicolosi’s mother narrates a rather fast and loose retelling of the Wachowskis' sci-fi epic, while animation makes her hilariously fuzzy retelling come to life.
It’s not the first time Nicolosi’s videos have gone viral: a similarly goofy retelling of “Star Wars” has earned hundreds of thousands of views. His “Kittywood Studios” clip – about a mythical studio than films all the web’s cat videos also blew up – so much so, it spawned an imitation.
Nicolosi’s also seen his shorts on the big screen. For South by Southwest 2011, his “Indie Mario” trailer – where the Super Mario Bros. storyline plays out hilariously and disturbingly in real life – was the official SXSW “bumper” screening before festival films.
“I’ve always been a gamer,” Nicolosi told KUT in 2012. “I wanted to do a very realistic portrayal of Mario, as if it were a movie – kind of in the vein of Darren Aronofsky movie. A movie about a character who is really committed to a dark path. And is continuing down that path as everyone around him is saying, ‘Oh, this a is a bad idea, you’re destroying yourself.’”
“The reaction to it was pretty insane online,” Nicolosi recalled. “It had about a million views in the first three weeks, and has continued to get more and more since then.”
As of this writing. “The Matrix Retold by Mom” is closing in on 800,000 views – after being up for one day.