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):
Hard to Be a God (2013): Future Earth scientists land on a planet stuck in its own version of the Middle Ages, and are treated like gods. Director Aleksei German, who died in 2013, worked on this adaptation of a novel by the Strugatsky brothers (who also wrote the source material for Stalker) for the last 13 years of his life. U.S. distributor Kino Lorber’s Hard to Be a God site.
“Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015”: As usual, this annual shorts event is divided into three programs: animated, live action, and documentary. Although years past have seen multiple experimental movies make the slate, this year looks to be a regression towards the conventional: the only thing of potential weird interest we spotted was Bill Plympton‘s latest, “Footprints,” on the animated un-nominated undercard. These bite-sized mini-masterpieces are usually worth taking a chance on, however. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015 official site.
SCREENINGS – (Television, Turner Classic Movies, Sat. Jan 31, 2:15 AM EST):
Twice Upon a Time (1983)/The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T (1953): TCM Underground just keeps digging up the rarities. We half expect The Day the Clown Cried to screen next month. This week, however, we get Twice Upon a Time, the never-on-DVD and rarely screened animated feature written and directed by John Korty using George Lucas’ Star Wars money. The chaotic plot involves warring tribes who deliver sweet dreams and nightmares, respectively, and parts of the dialogue were improvised by a comedy troupe (in two versions: one more kid-friendly, and one full of mild profanity). The movie utilized a painstaking, unique and never-again attempted form of animation whereby translucent cells were laid over a light table and filmed to give the movie a “stained glass” appearance. If that’s not enough to entice you, consider that they’re following that screening up with a showing of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Dr. Seuss’ Certified Weird musical fantasy about boys enslaved by a musical tyrant and forced to play a giant piano. Set your DVRs! Thanks to 366 contributor and TCM Underground monitor L. Rob Hubbard for pointing this one out (he writes much more about the film on his personal blog). Lots more Twice Upon a Time background (the movie’s backstory is maybe even more convoluted than its plot) on TCM’s official blog, “Movie Morlocks”.
SCREENINGS – (Spectacle, Brooklyn, NY, Sat. Jan. 31):
Final Flesh (2009): Read the Certified Weird entry! We don’t know exactly who’s behind Spectacle—we just discovered them this week—but anyone who publicly screens Vernon Chatman‘s DVD-only prank project wherein four amateur porn troupes enact an absurdist script about the apocalypse is OK in our book. We notice they’re hosting some more screenings of rare Certified Weird movies later in the season, so if you’re in Brooklyn or thereabouts you’ll want to bookmark their site. Final Flesh at Spectacle.
NEW ON DVD:
Miss Meadows (2014): Katie Holmes stars as a Marry Poppins-like schoolmarm with a vigilante streak. The irony here seems a little on-the-nose. Buy Miss Meadows
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013): A movie-within-a-movie is the setting for Shion Sono’s latest; the early teaser trailer featured samurai fighting yakuza and ran literal rivers of blood. We’ve been anxiously waiting on this release for some time now. Buy Why Don t You Play in Hell?
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Why Don t You Play in Hell? [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Lazy Stoners Descending (2014): An amateur psychedelic documentary chronicling three stoners’ pro-pot musings. Is the title a play on Lucifer Rising, or am I just high? Obviously, this movie contains profanity and graphic images of legal-in-Colorado drug use. Watch Lazy Stoners Descending on YouTube.
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.