Background: reader Funkadelic has gone above and beyond the call of duty in making suggestions/recommendations for inclusion on the site, both in the feature and short film categories. Not that I want to encourage readers to compete to outdo him and try to get their own dedicated posts, but I thought I could clean up the suggestion thread a bit by moving his numerous recommendations to their own post. Please enjoy; Funky’s tastes are in line with ours, his enthusiasm is infectious, and everything here comes pre-recommended.
Links go to trailers or short clips, or in the case of shorts to the complete films.
FUNAKDELIC says: “I can’t help the enthusiasm in discovering this site. It fits my taste like an iridescent, window-to-another-world glove with elongated fingers.”
SUGGESTED FEATURES:
Santa Sangre (already in your queue)
Svankmayer’s Faust
Jan Svankmayer’s Faust
(Really any svankmayer movie will do)
The Cell
The Cell
KOYAANISQATSI
KOYAANISQATSI
Uzumaki
Uzumaki
The Fall
The Fall
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine
Why no Fantastic Planet?
How about a couple weird “bad” movies?
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
Fair Warning, though it’s weird, J.C. Vampire Hunter really is BAD.
A more deserving entry in your queue is Dark City
Anyone suggested In The Mouth Of Madness yet?
Weird story arc more than surreal visuals. Always love leaving a movie that makes you question reality.
A couple older Japanese movies that BOTH deserve consideration:
Sho o suteyo machi e deyou (Throw Away Your Books,Go Out Into The Streets)
Bara no sôretsu (Funeral Parade Of Roses)
SUGGESTED SHORTS:
An animated short for you
Rabbit
One more for ya’:
MUTO
Did you have this one?
I Met the Walrus
More Shorts for your consideration (if you don’t already have them):
HOW WINGS ARE ATTACHED TO THE BACKS OF ANGELS
Another short:Imagenes mentales de un hombre perdiendo la razon
“Behold, I am Funkadelic. I am not of your world.” Funkadelic, 1970
That guy is out of control!
The Man Who Fell to Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKF5lHcJY9k
Fearless Vampire Hunters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q-sukI-ZpU
Brain Candy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JLIFZFvRmw
It’s All Gone Pete Tong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5K6pIez5P4
Who, Funkadelic? Yeah, he sure is.
The Man Who Fell to Earth will certainly be reviewed, and the Fearless Vampire Hunters [AKA Dance of the Vampires] probably will be as well. You’re the second person who’s mentioned that Pete Tong movie, so we’ll likely be forced to check it out. I didn’t think Brain Candy was that weird, but maybe that’s just because it was just about what I expected from The Kids in the Hall (except, honestly, not as funny as some of their better TV episodes).
You’re right the show was funnier. But if you have no knowledge of Kids in the Hall (and lots of 20 somethings already don’t) and you randomly catch Brain Candy on cable, it is a bit odd.
I agree that if you’ve never seen the “Kids in the Hall” show and you stumble across Brain Candy you might find it more than a little odd. To some extent the same thing goes for Monty Python movies like The Holy Grail and Life of Brian. I’m not sure how to eveluate their pop-weird comedy; I’ll decide when the time comes, I guess.
Today’s Funky movie for the list:
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Db4avDn1mc
- a physicist/neurosurgeon/Samurai/rock musician/Jet Car driver/comic book hero saves the world by defeating inter-dimensional aliens, called Red Lectroids from Planet 10, with help from peace loving rastafarian sounding/looking Black Lectroids.
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai will definitely see coverage!
The Funky pre-US release Pick:
Bunny and the Bull (2009)
“A young shut-in takes an imaginary road trip inside his apartment, based on mementos and memories of a European trek from years before.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L9VlgJitmA
Nice one Funky! We’ll be keeping an eye out for that one.
Both Quay brothers movies are fantastic, can’t imagine one or both not being one of the 366 (gotta get one on the queue 366)
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDAXcGBiWFQ
“Dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale.”
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi330236185/
“tale of a dilapidated boarding school for the teaching of servants run by a brother and sister in which the curriculum is the repetition of one single lesson. When Jacob, a young man, enrolls in the school, he becomes entangled in the strange lives of the students and headmasters alike. Called by director Terry Gilliam, “The most visually beautiful and hauntingly humorous film I have seen in the last 300 years.”-Rotten Tomatoes
Yeah, the Quay Brothers definitely deserve coverage. Their shorts are worth looking into, as well.
Institute Benjamenta has been out of print for a while and will be re-released by the British Film Institute in March. I’m not sure whether it’s getting a Region 1 release at the same time but I may well review it if it does.
As for as getting on that queue: we’re planning on getting 2 items out this week (one down with the publication of Eternal Sunshine), but it seems we get an average of 2 new suggestions per week, which means the best we can hope to do is tread water. The readers, not the writers, are controlling the content, which is how it should be. I do wish we could get to the movies faster, though, while still doing a thorough job.
Need someone to take a stab at writing a review? Any particular pic? I can give it a shot.
There’s a little known feature of the site—I guess we haven’t advertised it well enough—whereby reader’s can submit reviews of films we haven’t done yet. You may want to wait until we run our next review-writing contest, however; it’s about time we did a second one.
Tuvalu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqrgLDSA7K8
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tgy9ODhwNI
Hey Funky, long time no see. If you liked Tuvalu you might want to check out our review of Absurdistan, also by Veit Helmer. A great offbeat movie, but not quite weird. As for Hedwig, I’m a bit surprised myself that no one has mentioned it before now. Just goes to show how many weird movies there actually are out there.
I saw that review. I found Tuvalu MUCH more strange than Absurdistan. As you pointed out, Absurdistan isn’t really that weird, I think Tuvalu would might rate at least borderline. Have you seen it? I hold a special place for it because it got my wife interested in “weird” movies.
Another surprising one for me is that no one seems to have suggested Natural Born Killers. Love it or leave it, I think it is a big budget weird movie. Yes Stone rams the themes down your throat, but the not-very-subtle-commentary on modern culture seems easy pickings for a review too.
I haven’t seen Tuvalu beyond the trailer, but I am interested in giving it a chance. Based on Absurdistan I think Helmer has a great weird movie in him somewhere and I hope Tuvalu is it.
Someone did suggest Natural Born Killers, though I didn’t queue it up. It will get it’s shot at the List someday. There’s still 316 spots left to be claimed!
Too bad you reviewed Absurdistan first, you would have been more impressed with TUVALU. Probably would have hoped absurdistan lived up to Tuvalu’s promise(only to be left wanting).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NEC6NcHWUk
Funkadelic, I support you regarding TUVALU. It’s one of the movies that deserves to be reviewed here. I love it with all my heart!