All posts by Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies)

Gregory J. Smalley founded 366 Weird Movies in 2008 and has served as editor-in-chief since that time. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, and his film writing has appeared online in Pop Matters and The Spool.
Pod 366: A Weird Movies Podcast

POD 366, EP. 93: GILES ANNOUNCES INTENT TO CRANK UP INSOUCIANCE ANOTHER NOTCH

2 Comments

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

A Different Man (2024): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. A man has miracle surgery to correct his facial disfigurement, then regrets his decision when a pseudo-doppelganger of his old self steals the role he was born to play. A24 puts out this excellent, if decidedly noncommercial, film on VOD this week; as always with A24, it’s offered at a premium on release, so if you’re a renter you may want to wait for the price to come down. Buy or rent A Different Man.

projects: We’re a little behind on officially announcing the debut of a new Hertzfeldt short (although we did promote it on social media). It’s called “Me,” it’s a musical (recut from a different musical that fell apart), and it features his usual blend of stick figures, witty existentialism, and psychedelic visuals. It’s available to rent (and will probably eventually appear on some physical media compilation.) In other Hertzfeld news, he has his first true feature-length project (called Antarctica) in the works, and he’ll be collaborating with other animators for the first time. Antarctica has been in development for decades, but now is on board as producer, so it’s about to get real. Learn more in this new, long interview with Sam Adams of Slate.

Hippo (2023): Read Giles Edwards’ Hippo Apocrypha candidate review and interview with star Kimball Farley and DP William Babcock. The black comedy about siblings home-schooled by a UFO believer gets a limited theatrical release this week in NY, with LA dates next week; VOD announcements expected  to come son. The Myspace-style official site is interesting.

Once Within a Time (2023): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s Apocrypha Candidate review. Our editor’s choice for Weirdest Film of 2023, Godfrey Reggio‘s 45-minute surrealist romp is an apocalyptic-yet-hopeful dream that almost no one had seen—until now. It releases on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD this week, so hearken to the call of its oddly recognizable tattooed saxophonist. Buy Once Within a Time.

Suspiria (2018): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. OK, this is the (interesting in itself) remake, not the Canonically Weird original. But it’s one hell of a limited edition set from Australia’s Imprint label: a 4K UHD disc, an (all-region) Blu-ray housing the movie, a new commentary track (from author Miranda Corcoran), and a third Blu-ray housing nothing but special feature after special feature. Buy Suspiria (2018).

Wizard of Oz (1939): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. OK, you’ve seen this (if you haven’t, rush to see it now, youngster) and it’s been re-released on home video a billion times already. This is the current “ultimate” edition: a 4K UHD disc plus a Blu-ray with lots of extras (most of which we believe have been seen before). The selling point on this one (besides the 4K disc) are the steelbook format and the physical collectibles: 12 lobby cards/posters and reproductions of the original invitation, recreation of an original program, and a replica ticket from Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Wizheads take note! Buy Wizard of Oz (4K Steelbook).

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

We’ll be back with Pod 366 next week, although as mentioned potential guests and co-hosts are still up in the air. Things are more settled in terms of written review, as Shane Wilson braves one that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue in Nicolas Winding Refn‘s mall-cop mystery Fear X (2003); Giles Edwards enters the Solar System by Slinghsot (2024); and Gregroy J. Smalley heads to Africa (virtually) to investigate The Omen (2023). Onward and weirdward!

Capsules

CAPSULE: THE BEAST (2023)

Leave a comment

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

La bête

Recommended

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , George MacKay

PLOT: To get a job in a dystopian future, a woman undergoes a procedure designed to dampen her emotional responses by ridding herself of past-life traumas.

Still from The Beast (2023)

COMMENTS: Surely Henry James could never have imagined that, more than a hundred years after he wrote it, a Frenchman would loosely adapt his story “The Beast in the Jungle” as a centuries-spanning science fiction story incorporating a belief in past lives. James’ protagonist suffers a certain paralyzing presentiment of obliteration (the titular Beast), which is shared by (at least one of) Seydoux’s characters; but truthfully, Bertrand Bonello’s ambitious screenplay incorporates almost nothing from the original story—just the theme of loneliness and regret for missed opportunities, and a similar European setting for about 1/3 of the film. It also throws in a metric ton of other concerns, including artificial intelligence, incel culture, and reincarnation.

As suggested by the plot summary and hinted above, The Beast tells three different stories: one set at the turn of the twentieth century, one set approximately in contemporary times, and one set in 2044. This last date is the film’s base reality, despite not being the first story we’re thrown into. The Beast sets up the rather ridiculous premise that past life experiences are encoded in DNA and traumas that lead to automatic emotional responses can be overcome through a therapeutic regression that involves being submerged in a tub of black goo while a computer probes your ear—a concept that sounds like it came out of an esoteric Scientology text. While the procedure, and the theory underlying it, are insane, it doesn’t matter whether we accept them; it only matters that the movie believes in them, and creates a world that operates according to those rules. In Gabrielle’s case, the recurring trauma is her unconsummated passion for Louis, who is a gentleman in the 1900s, a stalker in the early 2000s, and an aspiring functionary like her in his current incarnation. The future’s rationale for the operation is legitimately unsettling, tapping into fears of cybertechnological dehumanization: with so much work automated and taken over by A.I., humans voluntarily try to rid themselves of passion and emotion in order to make more rational decisions that enable them to compete with the dominant machines.

So The Beast is, in a sense, three movies in one. There’s the science fiction fable; the Parisian period piece; and a contemporary stalker drama that quickly shades into (pretty effective) thriller territory.  As a standalone film, the full-length petticoat and starched collars of the Belle Epoque section would have made for a staid and respectable period drama, with a tremendous closing image. The modern day incel story can come off as a preachy, with on-the-nose commentary; MacKay’s portrayal of a 30-year old virgin who vlogs about how he’s “magnificent” and “deserves girls” but “can only have sex in my dreams” would seem like an eye-rolling caricature, if the character were not directly based on real-life incel mass-murderer Elliot Rodger (I believe some of MacKay’s monologues were taken verbatim from Rodger’s YouTube videos). But although each section is merely competent on its own—and arguably make for a bloated picture with a lot of unnecessary fat left in—tying them together in the reincarnation format makes for a whole greater than its parts. Certain conversations are repeated in full in different eras, and recurring themes like dolls/puppets resonate across time. Both previous Gabrielles consult psychics, in radically different contexts, who are able to see through the years and reference things that occurred in other lifetimes. Looking for common threads and shared symbols across the three stories engages the mind more than any of the issues the three tales address. And Bonello sprinkles significant weirdness throughout the project, much of it justified as artifacts of the disorientating effects of the procedure, but some of it freestanding. In the latter category is the opening with in a green screen studio, apparently rehearsing a scene for the upcoming film as she takes direction form an unseen voice (belonging to Bonello). Disorienting editing, uncanny dolls, dream interludes, unexpected clips from movies, a panicky laptop pop-up nightmare, and a nightclub with rotating mid-20th century themes all contribute to the strange flavor. The end result is a challenging art-house feature that doesn’t always hit its marks, but nevertheless remains intellectually stimulating.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…a weird sweeping romance and sci-fi dystopia mix that taps into so many contemporary anxieties, from AI stealing our jobs to climate disaster and the overall sense that the world is becoming unfeeling. It’s existential, yes, but it’s at its core a love story.”–Sara Clements, Pajiba (contemporaneous)

The Beast (Janus Contemporaries) [Blu-ray]

The Beast (Janus Contemporaries) [Blu-ray]
  •  
Check Price
Saturday Short, Shorts

SATURDAY SHORT: ASCENSION MILLENNIUM (2014)

Leave a comment

A typical day in the life of Corey Feldman, circa 2014: wake up next to a sexy blonde, struggle to put on Michael Jackson gloves, throw an inhaler to Sean Astin, pass by a pool party, take a hat hanging from the ceiling by a string, sniff breakfast while watching TV, head to the home studio to record a hit single, and get back into bed with a sexy blonde. One four-and-a-half minute tracking shots with no do-overs for goofs.

Capsules

POD 366, EP. 92: DAY OF THE DEAD SPECIAL

1 Comment

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

The Birthday (2004): Corey Feldman (!) stars in this overlooked indie about a man who sneaks into a birthday party where a cult is also making preparations for the end of the world. Alamo Drafthouse restored it and is releasing it to select theaters, but more significantly, it’s now available on VOD. The Birthday official site.

Blonde on a Bum Trip (1968): A blonde chemistry student is manipulated into manufacturing (and indulging in) LSD. This reputedly incoherent drug scare sexploitationer has been surprisingly hard to find on video in the post-VHS era; Vinegar Syndrome and Something Weird put it out on Blu-ray. Buy Blonde on a Bum Trip.

Dogra Magra (1988): A man awakes in a mental asylum with no memory and is informed he killed his wife on his wedding night. ‘s final film was an adaptation of an “unfilmable” novel; a commentator once suggested the film is like a Japanese mashup of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with Last Year at Marienbad. This is the film’s North American debut, on Blu-ray from the good folks at Radiance. Buy Dogra Magra.

The Other Laurens [L’autre Laurens] (2023): The official plot description reads, “A private detective [is] forced to face the ghosts of his past when his niece asks him to investigate her father’s death.” Sounds conventional, yet it catches our attention because Yellow Veil is releasing it, and one reviewer called it “Lynchian” and “a strange film” while The Hollywood Reporter referred to “bits of dark comedy and weirdness.” Previously on VOD, now on Blu-ray with director and crew commentary and a bonus short film. Buy The Other Laurens.

Shanks (1974): Read the Canonically Weird entry! ‘s last movie, featuring as a mute puppeteer who controls corpses with a remote control, was his strangest. Vinegar Syndrome puts it out in an limited 4K UHD+Blu edition with a commentary track (by critic/historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw), new and archival interviews, a video essay, and a hardbound book of stills and essays. Available exclusively from Vinegar Syndrome.

The Substance (2024): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s Apocrypha Candidate review. This bizarro beauty satire was a surprise hit in theaters and with critics, despite its wacko third act. It streams exclusively on Mubi (subscription required) starting this week, with other venues sure to follow. Also showing exclusively on Mubi: “Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection,” a new short from that features Renaissance sculpture. Watch The Substance on Mubi.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

We might have surprise guest(s) on next week’s Pod 366, but regardless, we will keep you up to date on the week’s weird news and releases. In written content, Shane Wilson takes on another that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue as he ventures into The Killing Room (2009); Giles Edwards drills into Australia’s Petrol (2022); and Gregory J. Smalley takes on Bertrand Bonello’s not-a-remake sci-fantasy The Beast (2023). Onward and weirdward!

List Candidates

APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: DAAAAAALI! (2023)

Leave a comment

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

Daaaaalí! is currently available for VOD rental or purchase.

Recommended

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , , Jonathan Cohen, , Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamand, Éric Naggar

PLOT: A journalist attempts to interview Salvador Dalí, but the painter’s erratic behavior and demands constantly cut her attempts short.

Still from Daaaaaali! (2023)
Anaïs Demoustier in DAAAAAALÍ! Courtesy of Music Box Films.

WHY IT MIGHT JOIN THE APOCRYPHA: If you asked who would be the most intriguing modern director to concoct a Salvador Dalí biopic, Quentin Dupieux’s name would be at the very top of the list. While other directors resort to bemused realism to tackle the Surrealist icon’s notoriously slippery persona, Dupieux is a kindred spirit who fearlessly jumps right in to what makes Dalí tick: the irrational, the nonsensical, the dreamlike. Confident in its refusal to explain its enigmatic subject, Daaaalí! is the only cinematic portrait one could imagine the real Dalí endorsing.

COMMENTS: More weirdly witty than funny and anything but insightful, Daaaalí! tackles its unknowable subject in the only way possible: as a dream. Aspiring journalist Judith somehow gets the famous artist to agree to sit down for a magazine interview, but when he finally arrives—after imperiously striding down a seemingly endless hotel corridor for long enough for Judith to hit the bathroom and order room service—he immediately shuts down the interview because there’s no camera. Then, when Judith reschedules and secures a camera for a second attempt, Dalí accidentally destroys it. And so on. Dalí serves as a negative force in the film, denying and sabotaging every plan that does not accord with his transient, selfish whims. It soon becomes apparent that, like Judith, we are never going to learn anything about the artist beyond his surface facade of arrogance.

But insight into the man is not what this movie is, or should be, about. Instead, Daaaaali! is thoroughly Surrealist in spirit, evoking Dalí’s aesthetics (and, equally, those of Dalí’s great frenemy, ). These men’s sensibilities are a perfect fit for Dupieux, who barely has to fine-tune his own eccentric predilections at all to tell this story. After the premise is established, we quickly spin off into a labyrinth of dreams and anachronisms (we see completed paintings, then later in the film we see Dalí in the process of painting them). Nothing encapsulates the playful narrative spirit better than the long digression (over a bowl of muddy stew with live worms) in which a priest tells the painter about a dream he had where he was shot by a cowboy while riding a donkey. That incident doesn’t end the dream, however; it keeps recurring throughout the film. We are quickly lost inside an arbitrary narrative structure that almost gets as confusing as Dupieux’s bewildering Reality. But we’re anchored in Dalí’s frustratingly quirky, self-involved personality, and in Judith’s repeated failure to capture anything of substance about her quarry.

There are basically four actors who play Dalí, plus one actor who plays old Dalí (a sub-Dalí standing to one side of the main story), plus at least one bonus Dalí who only appears for a few seconds. There could be more Dalís running about, but 4-5 Dalís seems like the most accurate number, without counting fractional Dalís. This use of multiple actors in a central role is, naturally, a reference to Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire, just as the continuous failure to consummate the interview recalls the failed dinner party of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The gentle anticlericalism shown by the repeatedly-shot priest character is also a decidedly Buñuelian touch. Dupieux adapts these Surrealist motifs so naturally that, as much as anything, Daaaaali! serves as a reminder that the Rubber auteur, while often trafficking in modern pop culture references like slashers and superheroes, is himself firmly anchored in the Buñuel/Dalí tradition. Dupieux even creates a living Dalíesque tableau to bookend the film: a piano with a tree sprouting from its cabin and a fountain spouting from its keyboard, draining into a piano-shaped pool. Although critics sometimes view Dupieux as a lightweight due to his prolific output and disinterest in tackling political or otherwise “weighty” themes, in actuality he stands nearly alone in carrying on this strain of classical European Surrealism. We may not learn much about Dalí in Daaaaali!, but hopefully people will learn more about Quentin Dupieux’s underappreciated talents.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“… great fun and appropriately strange, with Dupieux delivering a dream-layered understanding of artistry and impatience with palpable glee… ‘Daaaaaali!’ doesn’t build to a stunning conclusion. It moves slowly to weirder and weirder encounters, doing so with an assortment of performers portraying Dali, with everyone offering their fingerprint on the subject, making for flavorful acting choices.”–Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com (contemporaneous)