It’s almost certain that the dude-bros of the 80’s would be profoundly alarmed by the powerful position “nerds” have risen to over the past decade or so.  “Nerds” and “nerd culture” are everywhere we look, so much so that recent debates have centered around the idea that some of the “nerds” out there (especially “nerd girls”) might be—gasp!—faking their nerdiness, just to fit in with the cool kids.  Think about that.  This is some serious Through The Looking Glass shit, my friends.

The wailing and teeth-gnashing online over the issue of “faux-nerdiness” has led to some genuinely interesting discussions, to be sure, but it’s hard not to find the whole thing kinda funny.  It’s also no surprise to see that we now have a movie dramatizing this unusual turn of events…but it is a little surprising that the first film to take on this topic would end up being as well-informed, genuinely hilarious, and painfully relatable as Andrew Matthews and Katie Graham’s Zero Charisma is. My review (from the film’s universally-praised SXSW 2013 premiere) awaits you after the jump.

A slew of actors are now in negotiations to join the cast of Steven Spielberg’s long-in-gestation Abraham Lincoln biopic Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis is set to star as our nation’s 16^th president, with Sally Field attached to play his wife Mary Todd. Now, the names of those currently in negotiations to join the project are as follows (deep breath): Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Hawkes, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill (Fair Game), Joseph Cross (Milk), David Costabile (Breaking Bad), Byron Jennings (Julie & Julia), Dakin Matthews (True Grit), Boris McGiver (The Wire), Gloria Reuben (ER), Jeremy Strong (The Happening) and David Warshofsky (Taken). Now that’s one hell of a cast.

Jones will play Pennsylvanian Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens, a strong supporter of abolishing slavery and a man crucial to the legislation that funded the Civil War. Gordon-Levitt is in talks to play Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd. Robert was Abraham’s eldest son and the only one to live past his teenage years. No word on who the other actors will be playing, but one assumes that Lincoln’s cabinet will make up a good deal of the roles. Hit the jump to read the full press release. Lincoln is set to start filming in Virginia this fall, with a 4^th-quarter 2012 release.