As if McSweeney’s needed another way to be relevant.

Wholphin, the new quarterly DVD magazine from the people who bring you The Believer and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, intends “to make sure important films are not lost…and that they reach the audience they deserve.” Each issue will feature 10 to 20 new or neglected films from artists throughout the globe. Not only does this new venture aid McSweeney’s popular takeover of avant-garde everything, its ingenious yet obvious magazine-in-a-DVD format gives the short film genre new relevance. Film festival fare meets DVD home entertainment in a pairing that, like the whale and dolphin that made a baby and inspired the magazine’s name, is much more than a collection of unrelated parts.

The films are, themselves, a mixed bag. Jeroen Offerman’s backwards performance of Stairway to Heaven feels like the discovery of your favorite band covering a song by your other favorite band. Al Gore takes his shirt off and lets his guard down in Spike Jonze’s remarkable campaign 2000 documentary. Miranda July and Miguel Arteta cut to the quick of the human ego in 4 minutes, 11 seconds flat. Some films greatly reward the viewer’s patience; some drag on longer than a bad sex scene.

Though it ends on an off note, I’d bet every cent of the $40 subscription price that better things will come. Wholphin is more than a movie mix tape. It’s a whole new way to give rare films and movie-lovers exactly what they both want: each other.