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.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Ma (2015): Dialogue-free, Southwestern set version of the story of Mary (mother of Jesus). Debuting writer/director Celia Rowlson-Hall describes it as “a journey into the visceral and the surreal…” Screening in major U.S. cities. Ma official site.
We Are the Flesh [Tenemos la Carne] (2016): In a post-apocalyptic world, a brother and sister find shelter with a hermit who is indulging his own depraved fantasies. It’s already in our reader-suggested review queue, with coverage planned for next week. The Mexican arthouse horror opens in Los Angeles this week and New York the following week, with scattered showings across the country throughout the late winter. We Are the Flesh official Facebook page.
NEW ON DVD:
Closet Monster (2015): A closeted gay teenager and aspiring special effects artist must face his coming out anxieties with the help of a talking hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini. Glen Dunks called it “[c]olourfully designed and with more than a hint of weirdness.” Buy Closet Monster
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Closet Monster (2015): See description in DVD above. Buy Closet Monster [Blu-ray]
The Triplets of Belleville (2003): Read the Certified Weird entry! The good news is that his animated tale of an old woman and her dog seeking the assistance of three retired singers to save her grandson from the mob is finally on Blu-ray; the bad news is Sony Classics gives it a disrespectful bare bones BD-R release. Buy The Triplets of Belleville Blu-ray
NEW ON VOD:
In Search of the Exile (2016): An abstract experimental film described as “a visionary cinematic experience, a doorway into a dreamworld where reality morphs and transforms before our eyes.” Three of the releases featured in this section this week are from Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais of the UK’s Underground Film Studio; none of them have otherwise received U.S. releases. In Search of the Exile on Vimeo.
Replica (2005): Before Birdemic, James Nguyen honed his directorial skills with this never-released medical thriller about a man getting a kidney transplant. This curiosity is being offered “unriffed” to the most self-loathing cinema masochists by Rifftrax (you might want to wait for the version with comic commentary, due out in early February). Replica (unriffed) at Rifftrax.
Savage Witches (2012): A low-budget, experimental homage to the Czech classic Daisies. Per our own El Rob Hubbard, it’s “an aesthetic attack on the audience’s expectations of film as entertainment.” Savage Witches on Vimeo.
Splendor Solis (2015): Daniel Fawcett directs this one, a collection of his own transformed home movies presented in split screen, solo. El Rob describes it as “a tone-poem celebration of cinema, creativity, play, collaboration, friendship and all of the splendors under the sun.” Splendor Solis on Vimeo.
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.