Our weekly 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.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Generation P (2011): A Russian poet turned adman takes a cocktail of hallucinogenic drugs; later, he meets the ghost of Che Guevara and a conspiracy involving a cult worshiping the ancient goddess Ishtar. Definitely a weird one; sounds a little bit like a Thomas Pynchon screenplay (it’s from a Russian cult novel). We just assumed this weird satire about the Americanization of Russia would never appear in theaters in North America, but congrats to New World Distribution for proving us wrong. Opening this week in New York and Los Angeles with more dates to follow. Generation P US Distributor Site.
NEW ON DVD:
Prairie Love (2011): Sundance programmers described this Dakota-set story of a man who sneaks into the place of guy going to meet his prison-bound paramour for the first time as “wonderfully bizarre” and “brazenly idiosyncratic.” Of course, that equates to no theatrical distribution and belated debut on DVD, but at least we’re happy to see it. Buy Prairie Love
“Trilogy of Life”: The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), Arabian Nights (1974): Before going totally over the edge with Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini made these three bawdy (then x-rated) fantasy adaptations of classic literary tales. The Canterbury Tales features a very unique look at Hell you won’t want to miss. Buy “Trilogy of Life” (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) (Criterion Collection)
Weekend (1967): A weekend trip to the country turns into a surreal nightmare as a French couple find themselves stuck in an apocalyptic traffic jam. This Jean-Luc Godard has patiently been waiting its turn in our reader-suggested review queue. Buy Weekend (Criterion Collection)
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
“The Otto Preminger Collection”: If for some reason you’re embarrassed to be seen buying a copy of the Certified Weird Skidoo (1968), you could always purchase that square acid musical as part of this three movie pack. The co-features are Hurry Sundown (1967), a “steamy” melodrama with racial overtones, and Such Good Friends (1971), a marital infidelity comedy set in a hospital. None of these movies are currently available on Blu-ray separately. Buy “The Otto Preminger Collection” [Blu-ray]
“Trilogy of Life”: The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), Arabian Nights (1974): See description in DVD above. Buy “Trilogy of Life” (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Watchmen Collector’s Edition (2009): Read our capsule review. Only three years old and already released in multiple editions, this one packages together a Blu-ray of the long-running “Ultimate Cut” together with a copy of Alan Moore’s original graphic novel. Buy Watchmen Collector’s Edition: Ultimate Cut + Graphic Novel [Blu-ray]
Weekend (1967): See description in DVD above. Buy Weekend (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.