“Alfred Eaker’s Fringe Cinema” is a column published on Thursdays covering truly independent cinema: the stuff that’s so far under the public radar it may as well be underground. The folks making these films may be starving artists today, but they may be recognized as geniuses tomorrow. We hope to look like geniuses ourselves by [...]
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Barnz
FEATURING: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson
PLOT: Adorable, precocious and angst-ridden Phoebe (Fanning) has a psychological
disorder that makes her spit on her classmates and occasionally talk to the Red Queen, among other misbehaviors; she uses her role in the school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” as self-therapy.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: A [...]
This review is a follow-up to last week’s “Fringe Cinema” column on Damon Zex. Read last week’s column here.
Along with Yoga, Damon Zex’s other passion is chess. He had begun playing the game at the age of five and renounced it after winning a state championship years later. After emerging from a creative hiatus, Zex [...]
“You been exploding frogs again?”–Ruth Dove
DIRECTED BY: Philip Ridley
FEATURING: Jeremy Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan
PLOT: Over-imaginative young Seth, growing up in post-World War II rural USA, comes to believe that his widowed neighbor is actually a vampire. After his father dies in unexpected fashion, the older brother he adores returns from his military tour of the Pacific. [...]
Every Friday, we take a look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.
NEW ON DVD:
Dante 01 (2008): This sci-fi penal colony film with messianic overtones slipped well under the radar, which is somewhat surprising since it’s directed by [...]
“Alfred Eaker’s Fringe Cinema” is a column published on Thursdays covering truly independent cinema: the stuff that’s so far under the public radar it may as well be underground. The folks making these films may be starving artists today, but they may be recognized as geniuses tomorrow. We hope to look like geniuses ourselves by [...]
“It’s impossible to make a movie out of ‘Naked Lunch.’ A literal translation just wouldn’t work. It would cost $400 million to make and would be banned in every country of the world.” –David Cronenberg
DIRECTED BY: David Cronenberg
FEATURING: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Julian Sands
PLOT: Bill Lee is a writer/exterminator in New York City whose wife [...]
This list is part of a new feature where we ask established directors and critics to list what they feel are their top 10 “weird” movies. There are no constraints on what the author can pick. This list was composed by Sir Tijn Po, director of Coming Soon.
When people ask me if I believe in [...]
DIRECTED BY: Isabella Rossellini & Jody Shapiro
FEATURING: Isabella Rossellini
PLOT: A fly bides its time explaining how it escapes being swatted by humans, landsupside down on the ceiling, and spits into its food to dissolve it, until it sees a female and rushes to mate.
Complete short film, Green Porno: Fly. (Requires
Every Friday, we take a look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS:
The San Francisco International Film Festival opens April 23 and runs through May 7. Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now) will be honored and do an in-person Q&A [...]
