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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 5/10/2013

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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.

SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, CA, Saturday, 5/11/2013 & 5/18/2013):

The Drifting Classroom (1987): From Hausu director  comes this tale of a high school classroom set adrift in the cosmos thanks to a trans-dimensional tornado. Never released on DVD (though hopefully that will change), this rarity is available to lucky Los Angelinos for a pair of midnight showing. Part of a Obayashi retrospective sponsored by the Japan Foundation Los Angeles. More info on this and other Obayashi events at Cinefamily.

NEW ON DVD:

“Drive In Collection: The Dungeon of Harrow (1962)/Death by Invitation (1971)”: The Dungeon of Harrow is a forgettable horror-drama that the promotional material, in a moment of shocking self-deprecating honesty, confesses is a lot like The Terror. Death by Invitation, a witchcraft tale set in the 1970s with 17th century flashbacks, is slightly more promising; All Movie Guide only gave it one-and-a-half stars, but did call it a “weird little picture.” Buy “Drive-In Collection: The Dungeon of Harrow/Death by Invitation.”

Foodfight! (2012): How’s this for an oddity: a badly-animated, pro-advertising kids movie about corporate spokescartoons like Charlie the Tuna and Mr. Clean who come to life at night when the supermarket shuts down to fight evil fascist generic products that threaten their wholesome way of life. Who else would voice the hero in such a project but than every kid’s favorite role model and branding genius, Charlie Sheen? It sounds like a “Simpsons” gag, but God help us, this thing exists. Buy Foodfight!.

The Rabbi’s Cat [Le Chat du Rabbin] (2011): In this animated fantasy set in Algeria in the early 20th century, a rabbi’s cat find he’s able to speak after he swallows a parrot; he makes sarcastic comments, lusts after his master’s daughter, and tries to secure a bar mitzvah for himself. Director/artist Joann Sfar was last seen directing live actors (and giant-headed puppets) in Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life. Buy The Rabbi’s Cat.

The Telephone Book (1971): A woman falls in love with her obscene phone caller, and her quest to track him down leads to encounters with crazy Manhattanites. This underground sex comedy reprtedly features a dream sequence where a giant woman attempts to have sex with a skyscraper, which may be reason enough to track it down. For now, at least, the DVD and Blu-ray are not being sold separately. Buy The Telephone Book [Blu-ray + DVD Combo].

Upstream Color (2013): Read our capsule review. ‘s hard-to-describe, dreamlike sophomore feature is now out there for everyone with a DVD player to see; it’s a candidate for the List, so don’t forget to stop by and tell us what you think of it after you see it! Buy Upstream Color.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973): Read our capsule review. No word on any special features (or the sound and picture quality) on this first Blu release of the cult musical. Buy Jesus Christ Superstar [Blu-ray].

The Rabbi’s Cat [Le Chat du Rabbin] (2011): See description in DVD above. This is a Blu-ray/DVD combo. Buy The Rabbi’s Cat [Blu-ray/DVD].

The Telephone Book (1971): See description in DVD above. Buy The Telephone Book [Blu-ray + DVD Combo]

Upstream Color (2013): See description in DVD above. This listing is also for the DVD/Blu-ray combo pack. Buy Upstream Color [Blu-ray/DVD].

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.

 

 

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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 5/3/2013

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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):

Post Tenebras Lux (2012): From Mexico comes this kaleidoscopic, non-linear portrait of a family in crisis that looks a bit like a Mexican Tree of Life. We have no idea where it’s playing, but we dig that glowing red demon thingee. Post Tenebras Lux at Strand Releasing.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

The Profane Exhibit (est. 2013): A secret society of storytellers spin tales of horrific depravity in this anthology film. , Ruggero (Cannibal Holocaust) Deodato, José Mojica Marins, Nacho (Timecrimes) Vigalondo, , and count among the (uneven but intriguing) assembly of directing talent. No official site, but Fearnet has the latest casting news.

NEW ON DVD:

Body Melt (1993): A pharmaceutical company’s newest project makes those who take it hallucinate and then decompose; but who can resist free samples? Amateur reviewers compare this little-seen Australian movie to the gory, transgressive work of Dead-Alive era ; it’s been resurrected on video thanks to Katarina’s Nightmare Theater. Buy Body Melt.

Walk Away Renee (2011): Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette takes a cross-country trip with his bipolar/borderline schizophrenic mother Renee; along the way she loses her medication and her behavior becomes erratic. After the trip, Caouette illustrates some of his mom’s delusions with trippy paranoid fantasy sequences in this indie documentary/fiction hybrid. Buy Walk Away Renee.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Attack from Space (1965): Benevolent alien robots send superhero Starman to defend Earth from an attack from space. The climax has Starman fighting off an entire army: it helps that he’s bulletproof and can somersault up stairs backwards (with the help of reversed camera footage).

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.

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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 4/26/2013

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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):

Hamesima X (2010): A Mossad agent catches and interrogates a man who has infiltrated a top-secret facility; turns out, he’s an alien bringing Kabbalistic secrets (and fleeing psychic ninjas). We have very few reports on this mystical Israeli import that is playing New York City for one week, but you have to admit that plot description sounds a little weird. Hamesima X official site.

Mortem (2010): Hmm… from what we can make out of the synopsis, we gather Mortem is about a woman who refuses to die and instead holes up in a hotel room and makes out with her own soul? It’s hot girl-on-girl metaphysical action in this B&W French import that’s playing at Quad Cinema in Manhattan with Hamesima X (above) this week; director Eric Atlan will be in attendance  for a Q&A session on April 26 & 27. Mortem official site.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012): An impressionistic, experimental, partially animated portrait of a young artist and his desire for a beautiful woman. Debuting this week in New York City with scattered showings across the country through early June. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty official site.

SCREENINGS – (Cinbefamily, Los Angeles, CA, 4/26-4/28):

Phase IV (1974): Ants set out to conquer the world in famed title designer Saul Bass’ only feature film. It’s a restored print, but the real attraction is Bass’ original 2001-inspired 8-minute psychedelic finale sequence, newly discovered in the Academy Film Archives vaults. Sorry we have to miss it but we hope the new footage will show up in a DVD release soon. Phase IV at Cinefamily.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (est. 9/13 – Japanese version): ‘s latest is about… well, we don’t know what it’s about, because no one on staff reads Japanese. It’s got samurai fighting yakuza and literal rivers of blood and definitely looks weird, though, as you’ll see if you check out the teaser trailer on the official site. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? official site [Japanese].

NEW ON DVD:

D’Agostino (2012): The story of the romantic—or at least the master/pet—relationship between a London businessman and the naked male slave he discovers hiding in his dead grandmother’s Greek beach home. Critics weren’t too fond of it, but it does sound a little weird. Buy D’Agostino.

Flirt (1995): A woman tries to tempt a man into marrying her before she accepts another proposal, and then the same scenario plays itself out among different people on three different continents in Hal Hartley’s experimental comedy. Hartley (The Unbelievable Truth) has his fans, but this one has never been released on DVD before. Buy Flirt.

The Grapes of Death [Les Raisins de la Mort] (1978): Frenchmen turn into zombies after they drink wine made from grapes treated with pesticide. Having spent last year remastering and re-releasing ‘s surreal vampire movies, Redemption is finishing up his catalog with his less well-known (and generally less successful) horror efforts. Buy The Grapes of Death.

It’s in the Blood (2012): Read our capsule review. stars in this psychological horror/drama set in the woods. Buy It’s in The Blood.

K-11 (2012): A record producer wakes up after a night of partying and finds himself imprisoned in Los Angeles Prisons K-11 unit—that’s where they send the homosexuals and transgendered folk. Directed by Kristen Stewart’s mom Jules (a veteran Hollywood script supervisor), critics declared it guilty of sucking, although on the plus side the Hollywood Reporter called it “like a deranged John Waters remake of The Shawshank Redemption” (they put that quote on the cover). Buy K-11.

Meanwhile (2011): Hal Hartley’s latest tells the story of a self-sacrificing Joe wandering around Manhattan, never seeming to get ahead because he’s always helping others out. It only runs an hour, never received theatrical distribution, and was funded via Kickstarter. Buy Meanwhile.

Night of the Hunted [La Nuit des Traquées] (1980): In a departure for Jean Rollin, this strange horror movie contains no mythical monsters, but instead takes place in a mental asylum housed in a skyscraper. Like Grapes of Death, this one stars one of Rollin’s favorite actress, the former hard-porn star . This is obviously not to be confused with Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter! Buy Night of the Hunted.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Flirt (1995): See description in DVD above. Buy Flirt [Blu-ray].

The Grapes of Death [Les Raisins de la Mort] (1978): See description in DVD above. Buy The Grapes of Death [Blu-ray].

K-11 (2012): See description in DVD above. Buy K-11 [Blu-ray].

Meanwhile (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Meanwhile [Blu-ray].

Night of the Hunted [La Nuit des Traquées] (1980): See description in DVD above. Buy Night of the Hunted [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Peacock (2010): Read our capsule review. Cilian Murphy goes drag, but Andreas Stoehr complained that it’s a “a muddled, small-town drama with only the occasional hint of slight weirdness”: see if you agree. Watch Peacock free 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.

Top 10 Lists - Guest Experts

ADAM COOLEY’S 10 WEIRDEST MOVIES EVER

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Adam Cooley (IMDB entry) is a microbudget film director and an experimental musician with the band Scissor Shock. All of his movies are available for free download from his personal site. You can also watch his output and see his favorites from others on his YouTube channel. We invited Adam to submit a “top 10 weird movies” list in 2011; here it is…

This list was really hard to compile, since I mainly watch what a lot of people would describe as ‘weird’ films—experimental, underground, off-beat, subversive cinema is what I’m primarily interested in—so I basically had to think about hundreds, if not thousands, of films for possible inclusion here. So, when asked to do this list, it took me a couple of years (!) to compile it and be happy with the end result, as I constantly felt the need to change it up. As such, many great little weird gems (Elevator Movie, Daisies, Frownland, Back Against the Wall, Small White House, Beaver Trilogy, SpaceDiscoOne, Pastoral: To Die in the Country, Liquid Sky) had to go.

To make this list a bit easier on myself, I decided to completely get rid of any hand-drawn/computer-drawn animated entries, which really could be a whole other list (if you’re curious, look into “Xavier: Renegade Angel,” “Popee the Performer,” and especially look into the works of Yoji Kuri), which obviously includes anime (the truly disturbing and strange Midori, Kuchu Buranko: Trapeze—the weirdest anime I’ve ever seen—and the more obvious but still surprisingly offbeat stuff like “Paranoia Agent,” “Serial Experiments Lain,” “Boogiepop Phantom,” and the last two episodes of “Neon Genesis Evangelion”).

I also decided to get rid of shorts which means I had to get rid of titles by Toshio Matsumoto (Phantom),  (Emotion-–and, yes, I know not having Hausu is a big hole in my list), or Shuji Terayama (nearly his entire experimental film works series made drafts of this list at various points).

Finally, I got rid of any “collection” DVD’s here (though my top choice is disputable, note that all 30 shorts for it were made specifically for the DVD; it wasn’t a bunch of little shorts made at different times thrown into a collection). As such, I deleted such gems as “Phantom Museums” by Brothers Quay, “The Complete Short Films of Jan Svankmajer”, and Jeff Keen’s amazing set “GAZWRX” (which would be my # 1 choice for this list if I included collections here — watch this set immediately!).  So, basically, I tried to mostly include actual “movies” here — 90-ish minutes, with actual distribution, mostly available on DVD, some by established directors, though I would love to compile separate lists of some of the stuff I excluded here.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded explanation, but without further ado, here’s ten of the weirdest movies ever…

Still from Surviving Life (2012)10. Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) [Prezít Svuj Zivot] (2010):  needs no introduction; he is quite the influential and brilliant experimental filmmaker. Really, many of his full length features—and almost all of his shorts (if I’d allowed them)—could have fit into this list. However, I chose this film, his most recent, which is almost a compilation of all his bizarre techniques, though he also invented lots of new weird devices specific to this film. The backgrounds the characters interact with are odd, mixing computer-generated elements with handmade sets. A lot of the film is still pictures of the characters, although there is plenty of stop-motion animation too. Beyond the presentation, there are also plenty of weird characters, like the pet man with a bulldog head. Visually, this film is even stranger to look at than most of the films on this list, but the storyline is a bit more coherent and conventional than upcoming entries—not to mention that several of the weirdest sequences take place inside of a dream, whereas most of the aforementioned films place their stranger moments in reality—hence why this is down here at # 10. Atill, I highly recommend this film. Top notch editing, acting, and artistry are on display here.

9. Death Powder (1986): The first draft of this list was dominated by Japanese films—Labyrinth of Dreams, Pinocchio 964, Rampo Noir, Hausu, Continue reading ADAM COOLEY’S 10 WEIRDEST MOVIES EVER →

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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 4/12/2013

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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):

Antiviral: Here’s a bizarre premise: adventures in an underground trade supplying fans with viruses taken from their favorite celebrities. The directing debut of Brandon (son of David) Cronenberg. Antiviral official site.

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To the Wonder: An American man and his French wife struggle with mutual infidelity. ‘s latest is reportedly as minimalist and oblique as the sensational (and Certified Weird) Tree of Life, but it’s also the worst-reviewed film in his distinguished career. To the Wonder official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Only Lovers Are Left Alive (est. 2013): ‘s latest tackles vampires in love; we suspect it will resemble Twilight about as much as Dead Man did Young Guns. With Tom Hiddleston and  (as vampires “Adam” and “Eve”) and in a rare villainous role. This could premier at Cannes. Only Lovers Are Left Alive IMDB page.

NEW ON DVD:

Dead Ball (2011): A baseball prodigy with a (literally) deadly fastball who has sworn off the sport finds himself blackmailed into playing for the team at his juvenile detention facility. It’s from Sushi Typhoon and the co-director of Meatball Machine and Yakuza Weapon; if you’ve been paying attention, you know that this means you’re in for lots of absurd gore and general Japanese b-movie weirdness. Buy Dead Ball.

Father’s Day (2011): Read our review. Astron-6′s absurdist grindhouse feature came out last year in an expensive collector’s edition set; here it is in the priced-to-move single disc edition. Buy Father’s Day (single disc).

Sexcula (1974): A mad scientist hires a vampire prostitute to inspire the sex drive into his latest creation: a gigolo monster. It’s Canada’s only X-rated (scenes are described as “explicit”) horror movie, and was thought lost for years. Buy Sexcula.

Ultrachrist! (2003): Jesus Christ comes back to Earth as a superhero to fight the minions of the Antichrist (including a resurrected Jim Morrison). I guess it took them ten years to release this on DVD because they were waiting for a time when it wouldn’t seem sacrilegious for the Savior to support lesbian marriage? Buy Ultrachrist!.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Dead Ball (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Dead Ball [Blu-ray].

Father’s Day (2011): See description in DVD above. Besides the DVD only version and the Limited Edition set, you can buy this midnight hit in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo or this single disc Blu-ray. Why not buy all four versions? Buy Father’s Day [Blu-ray].

Naked Lunch (1991): Read the Certified Weird entry! The Criterion Collection upgrades ‘s telling of ‘s junkie nightmare to Blu-ray. Buy Naked Lunch [Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Attack of the Monsters [AKA Gamera vs. Guiron] (1969): Flying turtle Gamera saves two little boys from space babes who want to eat their brains, and from their knife-headed monster pet. One of the most insanely ridiculous flicks in the entire Gamera canon—and that’s saying something!

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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.