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 at the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS – Ithaka Fantastik Festival (Ithaka, NY 11/3-11/12):
For a film festival that’s held in the middle of nowhere—apologies to Cornell grads if that sounds like a slight—Ithaka Fantastik has assembled a fine slate of arty genre films. Most of them are second-runs (or, if you prefer, “best ofs”) from Fantasia or Fantastic Fest: we recognized The Endless, Vidar the Vampire (screening here as Vampyr Vidar), Let the Corpses Tan, November, Top Knot Detective, Lowlife, and Sequence Break. We did note one brand new title of interest:
- Snowflake – Hired assassins in Berlin fight over a magical screenplay that allows them to rewrite the story as they go. Screens Nov. 10.
There will also be a screening of the restored Suspiria and, more impressively, a concert version of Jean Cocteau‘s 1930 Surrealist experiment Blood of a Poet, with a new live score performed by Anna Coogan.
Ithaka Fantastik Festival home page.
NEW ON DVD:
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016): It sounds like a starting point for a Guy Maddin movie: 500 silent films are discovered in a vault under a hockey rink in a town near the Arctic Circle. This is more of a straight documentary than the cinematic poems Bill Morrison is best known for, but it still promises to uncover amazing oeneric images from the past. Buy Dawson City: Frozen Time
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016): See description in DVD above. Buy Dawson City: Frozen Time [Blu-ray]
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.
- Columbus, OH, 11/7-11/9 – El Topo (1970). At Gateway Film Center.
- Ithaka, NY, 11/9 – Suspiria (1977). Part of the Ithaka Fantastic Festival.
- Los Angeles, CA, 11/3 (midnight) – Akira (1988). At the Nuart Theater.
- Los Angeles, CA, 11/7 – Donnie Darko (2001) with Nightcrawler (2014), introduced by Jake Gyllenhaal. At the Aero Theater.
- New York City, NY, 11/3 (midnight) – Night Train to Terror (1985). At the Spectacle Theater.
- New York City, 11/3-11/4 (midnights) – El Topo (1970). At Videology Bar & Cinema.
- New York City, 11/5 – Shock Corridor (1963). At the Metrograph.
- New York City, 11/8 – Barton Fink (1991). At the Museum of Modern Art.
- Silver Spring, MD, 11/3-11/9 – Suspiria (1977). At the AFI Silver Theater.
- Tuscon, AZ, 11/3-11/4 – Repo Man (1984). At the Loft Cinema.
- Tuscon, AZ, 11/6 – Blood Diner (1987). At the Loft Cinema.
- Vancouver, BC, Canada, 11/3 – Videodrome (1983). At the Rio Theater.
YOU CITE US! YOU REALLY CITE US!:
“Science Fiction Double Feature: The Science Fiction Film as Cult Text” – Students using this text to study science fiction films may note our Zardoz review is cited in support of the proposition that “some found the film’s subversive narrative an effective commentary on the culture of the time and a somewhat visionary, if ‘weird,’ sci-fi film that broke away from conventional morality…” Cool, but not as cool as the following citation in
“Graph Embedding for Pattern Analysis
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.