PLOT: A man searches for a woman from his past, who may be nothing but a dream.
COMMENTS: Bi Gan creates shots of intricate logic inside narratives of unfathomable illogic. Technically speaking, Long Day’s Journey into Night (which has nothing to do with Eugene O’Neill’s play) is another feat of long-take virtuosity; think of films like Russian Ark or Birdman (which it approaches, but does not exceed). Scored to Chinese blues and shot on slick neon streets, the film serves up its slow, dreamy story with an intoxicating noirish melancholy.
The first half of Long Journey jumps back and forth in time, and possibly between reality and fantasy. Bi deliberately withholds narrative information: for example, the protagonist, Luo Hongwu, begins describing his search for one “Zuo Hongyuan” before telling us who he is or why he wants to find him. Repeated motifs—karaoke singing, a disreputable old friend named Wildcat, pomelo fruit, a green book, a spinning house—float around, hints of plot that tantalize more than they explain. The result is like the fractured storytelling of Mulholland Drive, but more subdued and dramatic, and with the key to untangling the story (if there is one) buried even deeper inside the labyrinthine narrative. It’s an exercise in how close you can toe the line of incoherence and still have a structure that functions in the same way as a plot.
The second half begins when Luo visits a movie theater to pass time. The line between the film’s two chapters clearly marked when he puts his 3-D glasses on, and the film pops out into its extra dimension. What follows is the most explicitly surreal parts of the film; Luo has drifted off, and meets a boy who may be his never-born son and a woman who just may be the one he has been seeking. The camerawork will astound you.
Long Day’s Journey into Night is the ultra-rare art-house film released to theaters in 3-D (although only the second half is in that format). At home, I watched it in regular old 2-D (although it is available on a 3-D Blu-ray for those few with enhanced players). I doubt I missed out on much. It feels like a little bit of a gimmick; the main justifications are to create a clear dividing point between the movie’s hemispheres, and to make you feel like you are going on a journey with the protagonist. In China, Journey was marketed as a big-deal blockbuster romance and released to theaters on New Year’s Day, China’s preeminent holiday. This counts as a master prank in my book.
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DIRECTED BY: Paul Anthony
FEATURING: Paul Anthony, Ryan Beil, various guests
PLOT: Once a month, Paul Anthony gathers the best talent to show off on Vancouver’s premiere public access station, filmed live at the Rio Theatre.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: This is, yessir, a television show—and not a weird one. However, any regular reader of this site should check out this odd-ball, screw-ball, fast-ball show.
COMMENTS: Just over a week ago, reader “Jesse G.” brought the phenomenon of “Paul Anthony’s Talent Time” to our attention. I’m not generally one to hustle favorites to the front of the line (and, indeed, can’t say I know much of anything about Jesse other than that his last name begins with a magnificent letter), but with the keywords “heartfelt”, “crazy”, and “Vancouver” sprinkled across his recommendation, I realized two things. First, I like entertainers who make a genuine effort to entertain; second, I like them even more if they wear a bowtie.
Paul Anthony and (more often than not) Ryan Beil co-host a variety show every month at the Rio, a downtown Vancouver theater. While tickets to see the event live require a cash outlay, Canadians (or at least Vancouverites) are able to watch it for free on their public access station. The seven episodes assembled on Amazon Prime provide only a limited view of the action, but I suspect an adequate one. Paul and Ryan introduce the show. They quip. They cavort with the audience. And they have a good time—and judging from the crowd reactions (of an almost-always almost-nearly full house), everyone else does, too.
The acts vary in quality, as is to be expected, but no more than what I’ve seen in more professional variety show outings. Weak or strong, the real magic comes from Paul (with a more sarcastic counter-magic from Ryan, when he’s on stage). Watching him perform, obviously relishing the opportunity to be with the crowd and introduce really niche acts, is nothing short of joyous. Whether it be explaining why something technical won’t work that night, talking to a rock band made up of 9-year-olds, or hyping the crowd for the big chance to win “One! Hundred! Dollars!” through answering a staggeringly obscure trivia question, Paul has found his vocation, and he’s more than happy to share his joy. This joy is only dampened in the final episode found on Prime, where there are flashes-back to someone actually answering the question correctly.
Every installment has a theme. The hot tub episode, in particular, ably milks the fact that they were unable to arrange for an actual hot tub to be present on stage. The Christmas extravaganza with “Regular Santa” (a recurring guest donning the traditional look) vs. “Cool Santa” (some skinny-ass metal guitarist) also stands out. The theme for Prime’s final episode was money-grubbing, as Paul and his assembled “celebrity guests” man the telephones to raise money for the now bankrupt program. Things seem be going well, until the host realizes that the money raised doesn’t even cover half of the episode’s expenses.
I very much love the city I live in and wouldn’t trade it for any other location in the world. That said, I did have twinges of regret when watching that I probably will never make it up Northwest to see this fun-time fellow live. No matter. His show has a website, a fan-base, and a bright future. One word review: Infectious. (Particularly the show’s jingle; Be gone, you quirky, up-tempo tune.)
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Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS – Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT, Jan 23-Feb 2):
The 2020 movie season will officially kick off with Sundance, where a hundred hopeful independent movies, including a few off-the-wall ones, come to vie for a handful of distribution contracts. In recent years, Sundance added the “Next” and “Midnight” screening sections to add some weirdness to the otherwise tame lineup of dramas about privileged white people and their problems. There is usually at least one memorably strange film that sneaks by the screeners: 2019 brought us the Groundhogian grief nightmare Koko-di, Koko-da. Of the recently announced titles (full list via Variety), here are the few we’ll be keeping our eyes on:
The Nowhere Inn – Singer St. Vincent creates a fictional documentary described as “distorted and bizarre” and slated for the Midnight category.
Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia – Portmanteau feature centered around a Miami speedboat; it counts Swiss Army Man directing team Daniels among the contributors.
Wendy – Benh Zeitlin‘s second feature film comes 8 years after Beasts of the Southern Wild; it’s a retelling of Peter Pan set in Neverland and told from Wendy’s perspective.
“Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival”: This is the first time we’ve ever seen a crowdfunding campaign for a film festival, but it’s a worthy one. This small Orlando festival “delirious celebration of cinematic weirdness” (mostly shorts) that’s been running for four years now and is looking for a fifth in May 2020. At the time of this writing the campaign had raised just over a thousand dollars; it runs for almost another three weeks. Perks include t-shirts, totes, hats, pins and ads. “Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival” on indiegogo.
The Death of Dick Long (2019): Bandmates try to cover up the demise of the title character in this offering from Swiss Army Man‘s Daniel Scheinert. Beware spoilers for this bizarre black comedy. DVD, Blu-ray or VOD. Buy The Death of Dick Long.
The Limits of Control (2009): Read our review. Arrow Academy gathers together new and archival material for this Blu-ray Special Edition of Jim Jarmusch‘s odd, inconclusive anti-thriller. Buy The Limits of Control.
Millennium Actress (2001): Read the Certified Weird entry! This DVD/Blu-ray combo pack from Shout! Factory surprisingly marks the first time Satoshi Kon‘s retrospective of Japanese cinema seen through the eyes of a dying actress has been released to Blu-ray. It’s also a new restoration. Buy Millennium Actress.
Monos (2019): Enigmatic Colombian film about a purposeless group of soldiers camped in a fog-shrouded jungle, often compared to Apocalypse Now. Neon releases it to VOD (the Blu-ray has been delayed for a couple of weeks) with little fanfare, but we’re excited to finally see it. Buy or rent Monos.
The Peanut Butter Solution (1985): Read our review. This bizarro Canadian kiddie flick about a boy who loses his hair after being frightened by ghosts finally makes it to DVD, Blu-ray and VOD, thanks to the good folks at Severin Films. (Per Amazon’s delivery times, Blu-rays ordered today may not arrive by Christmas, though DVDs might make it.) Buy The Peanut Butter Solution.
The Sore Losers (1997): An alien sent to the American south to complete a killing spree hooks up with some delinquents and inadvertently messes up his kill count. Unclassifiable punk/rockablilly/trash/surrealism feature from Memphis’ own Mike McCarthy, in a 3-disc Blu-ray/DVD/soundtrack CD set. Only available directly from the director. Get your ordering instructions at the Sore Losers official Facebook page.
“Twin Peaks: From Z to A”: There have been a lot of repackagings of “Twin Peaks” over the years, but this may be the ultimate set. The original series, Fire Walk with Me (1992) (with deleted scenes), “The Return,” and new behind-the-scenes featurettes, spread across twenty-one Blu-rays, in an innovative box that turns into a “red room display.” Buy “Twin Peaks: from Z to A”.
Until the End of the World (1991): Wim Wenders‘ apocalyptic road movie includes a subplot about a machine that can make the blind see and bring dreams to life; too bad the world’s about to end. The movie flopped in the two-and-a-half hour cut released to cinemas, but here it is in all of its almost five-hour long glory, courtesy of Criterion on two Blu-rays or three DVDs. Buy Until the End of the World.
Viy (1967): Read our review. The masterpiece of Soviet horror, from a Gogol story about a seminarian who must pray over a witch’s corpse, finally gets a decent DVD and Blu-ray release, courtesy of Severin. Buy Viy.
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We’ll only list irregularly scheduled one-time screenings of this audience-participation classic below. You can use this page to find a regular weekly screening near you.
The Teenage Tasteless Tourist Tape (2019): Got an hour to spend on some no-budget experimental cinema? The director of The Teenage Tasteless Tourist Tape (below) explains this one is “supposed to be watched alone in the middle of the night, not knowing what the hell this is.” I bet he wouldn’t be upset if you watched it during the day.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Have you bought your copy of the 2019 Yearbook yet? No? Just here for the free content? That’s fine. Next week we’ll alert you to a couple more pieces of odd culture you may not be aware of: Canada’s “Paul Anthony’s Talent Time” (at least, the episodes that are available to Americans via Amazon Prime) and Chinese mystic Gan Bi‘s latest technical marvel, Long Day’s Journey into Night. But if you’re looking for a last minute stocking stuffer, there’s still time to order a copy of that Yearbook… Onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
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DIRECTED BY: Matthew Barney
FEATURING: Anette Wachter, Matthew Barney, Eleanor Bauer, Laura Stokes, K.J. Holmes
PLOT: In remote Idaho, Diana and her two assistants hunt, observed by an Engraver.
COMMENTS: A dialogue-free exploration of the myth of Diana the Huntress set in Idaho’s ridiculously beautiful Sawtooth Mountains, Redoubt is a level beyond art-house; it’s art installation. Diana (played by U.S. National Rifle Team member Anette Wachter) is a mysterious sharpshooter camping in a tent in the wilderness. She’s accompanied by two female assistants, contortionists who sleep together in a hammock tied high in the pines and who express themselves solely through interpretive dance. Meanwhile, an Engraver (Barney himself: the character seems to be both a forest ranger and an artist) ventures into the mountains and etches landscapes. At night, he returns to his trailer, where a woman (presumably his wife) electroplates the day’s metal engravings; she’s also working on an abstract sculpture based on a constellation. We observe every step in the creative process. At one point the Engraver watches a Native American woman perform a hoop dance at an American Legion building in an otherwise deserted town. The “action” is divided into a series of “hunts,” although there is little story development. Eventually, Diana catches the Engraver spying on her, shoots one of his engravings, and finally sets a pack of wolves loose in his trailer. Unlike the mythological Acateon, who was transformed into a stag and killed by his own hunting dogs after catching a glimpse of the goddess bathing nude, the Engraver merits divine wrath simply by the act of creating his art, as if act of trying to capture nature is itself a transgression.
There is some fantastic imagery here, capped by the National Geographic-style mountain cinematography (at one point, it captures an avalanche) and the finale which shows the artist’s lair chewed over by lupine chaos. If you enjoy the kinesthetics of the human body in motion, the limber dancing (by professionals who are often clad in long johns) will have an additional appeal. The austerity of the glacially-paced, low-narrative presentation, accompanied only by minimalistic music and the sounds of footsteps in snow and occasional bird calls, is as cold as an Idaho morning, however, and will limit Redoubt‘s appeal. Nonetheless, this is Matthew Barney’s version of an accessible art-house film.
At this point, you might be wondering, “where have I heard the name Matthew Barney?” Barney is the sculptor/filmmaker responsible for the celebrated/infamous films that comprise the Cremaster cycle (which featured hermetic symbolism, bizarre costuming, and such provocative imagery as a bee flying out of a man’s penis). He followed that performance up with the 330-minute scatological film opera River of Fundament. His films incorporate his sculptures and other multimedia (a book accompanies each), and are typically screened only at museums. Only once[efn_note]Not counting the super-limited (20 copies) “Cremaster cycle” DVD sets sold at auction at Southeby’s for six figure sums.[/efn_note] has Barney allowed his work to appear outside of a museum setting: The Order, a 30-minute re-edit of Cremaster 3, which was printed in limited quantities and commands a premium on the secondary market. Redoubt represents, to my knowledge, the first time he has worked with an actual film distributor (Grasshopper). It’s being released this winter to a few select art-house cinemas as well as the usual museums, which is a welcome development. (You can check out the screening schedule at Grasshopper’s website). The scarcity of Barney’s work contributes greatly to its legendary status, but let’s hope that the increased distribution of Redoubt represents a loosening of the artist’s strictures. Maybe as he ages and mellows he’ll break his vow to never release the Cremasters commercially. Or at least let us poor schlubs see River of Fundament on Blu-ray. Probably not, but hope springs eternal.
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