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 DEVELOPMENT:

Nymphomaniac (2013): We’re not convinced that Lars von Trier‘s latest provocation, which is actually about a nymphomaniac (played by the ever-game Charlotte Gainsbourg) and will be released in both hardcore and softcore versions, will be super-duper certifiably weird on the level of an Antichrist, but we thought you would want to know about it. Plus, this teaser clip from the film was just released today, and we wanted you to be able to tell your friends you saw it here first. Nymphomaniac official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Comment Ca Va? (1978): Two newspaper workers set out to make a movie, resulting in a lot of voiceover philosophizing. Even this film’s staunchest defenders consider the experience like attending a lecture on Derrida. Olive Film is slowly releasing the lesser known works of Jean-Luc Godard (and there are lots of them). Buy Comment Ca Va.

Keep Your Right Up (1987): Jean-Luc Godard plays a director struggling to deliver a film to a producer in 24 hours in this slapstick/surrealist experiment. Reputedly one of the director’s weirdest. Buy Keep Your Right Up.

The Rambler (2013): Read our review. Expect this horror/black comedy about a stoic wanderer’s surreal adventures in the Weird West to show up on some “Weirdest Movie of 2013” ballots (i.e., ours). Buy The Rambler.

Upside Down (2013): A Romeo/Juliet romance in a bizarre setting: twin planets with opposing gravity, one sitting on top of the other. Surely there’s nothing weird here besides the high concept and the visuals, but those should be strange enough to earn this movie a mention. Buy Upside Down.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Big Lebowski (1998): Bowling stoner “Dude” Lebowski’s tranquil life is turned upside down when he’s mistaken for “Big” Lebowski, the millionaire. Maybe not the strangest movie we’ve covered in these pages, but it has some weirdophilic comic dream sequences and is a cult film par excellence. This Steelbook release also contains a DVD and the usual digital copies and is advertised as a “limited edition.” Buy The Big Lebowski [Blu-ray].

Comment Ca Va? (1978): See description in DVD above. Buy Comment Ca Va [Blu-ray].

Keep Your Right Up (1987): See description in DVD above. Buy Keep Your Right Up [Blu-ray].

The Rambler (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy The Rambler [Blu-ray].

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): Read our review. Another “limited edition” Universal Steelbook release (director Edgar Wright’s other, less weird, cult movies, including Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, are getting a similar deluxe treatment this week). Buy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [Blu-ray].

Upside Down (2013): See description in DVD above. This Blu-ray includes 3D capabilities, if you have a 3D TV. Buy Upside Down [Blu-ray + 3D].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920): This early silent adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novella stars John Barrymore in creepy pinhead makeup, and is a worthy precursor to the talkie versions starring Frederic March (1931) and Spencer Tracy (1941). Watch for a hallucinated tarantula.

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.

The people have spoken, and the two movies that will be added to the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies of all time are:

1. Sweet Movie (1974) (no movie in Group A came anywhere close to it)
2. Keyhole (2011) (by a razor thin 79-77 vote margin over Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me)

And the movie that we initially passed over that will now become an official candidate for the list: That Obscure Object of Desire (1977).

Thanks to all who voted! You can see the full results here.

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 – (Berlin, Sun., June 21):

Rustam Khamdamov retrospective: Here’s a rare opportunity to view the works of Rustam Khamdamov, whose surreal art-house movies are generally unknown outside the Russian-speaking world. On the menu is The Jewel of Rustam Khamdamov, a short documentary by Vladislav Yö about the making of Khamdamov’s latest film, Rubies. Murder; his 2010 short Diamonds. Theft; My Heart is in the Highlands, his absurdist 40-minute adaptation of the William Saroyan book; and his operatic feature The Vocal Parallels. Lovers of Russian surrealism in the Berlin area should make it a point to check this out. At Kino Krododil (German); here’s a descriptive blog post from the sponsors (in English) and the event’s Facebook page.

SCREENINGS – (Los Angeles, CA, Tues. June 25):

That’s Sexploitation! (2013): From the vaults of Something Weird Video and the twisted mind of Frank Henenlotter comes this documentary covering the most bizarre and salacious moments of the sleazy pre-hardcore film genre, from “birth of a baby” films to nudie-cuties to roughies. Aside from the glimpses of females flesh, most of this stuff was pretty boring and it plays best as short clips of the wildest moments. Note: cery few movies make their world premier on a Tuesday night. That’s Sexploitation! world premier at Cinefamily.

NEW ON DVD:

Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan: Kids at a boot-camp learn the homicidal real history of the beloved American legend, firsthand. Dan (“Grizzly Adams”) Haggerty and Joe (brother of Martin Sheen) Estevez head the cast. Buy Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan.

The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (2012): Juvenile delinquents who have been exiled to outer space make their way to Earth in this 1950s-style musical spoof. The tagline promises “a truly mad concoction!” Buy The Ghastly Love of Johnny X.

Stoker (2013): Read our capsule review. Chan-wook Park‘s first English-language film is a psychothriller that plays like a more perverted (well, more explicitly perverted) Hitchcock film. Buy Stoker.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Lifeforce (1985): Read our capsule review. A very silly movie about nude space vampires, but Mathilda May in hi-def is definitely tempting. Buy Lifeforce [Blu-Ray/DVD Combo].

Stoker (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Stoker [Blu-ray].

NEPOTISM CORNER:

“Roald Dahl on Film”: Frequent contributor Scott Sentinella wrote a piece on the film adaptations of children’s novelist Roald (Willy Wonka) Dahl for “A Living Dog.” Check out his rundown here.

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.

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):

Berberian Sound Studio (2012): A neurotic British sound engineer used to working on quiet nature documentaries goes mad when he takes an assignment designing the audio for a 1970s Italian horror film. This is already out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK, but it’s just hitting American shores for a limited theatrical run now. Berberian Sound Studio official site.

FILM FESTIVALS – Flyover Film Festival (Louisville, KY, Jun. 12-16):

You have to admire the self-deprecating honesty embedded in the title of Louisville’s premier film festival: this is a destination that filmmakers usually “fly over” while traveling from the East Coast to the West. Once a year, a few of them will stop here, and occasionally something weird will screen. That’s the case this year, as there is a single truly offbeat offering in the lineup—but it’s very offbeat.

• The Rambler: Calvin Reeder‘s followup to his utterly surreal The Oregonian looks like basically more of the same, with an aggressive male wandering protagonist (Dermot Mulroney) instead of a passive female one.

Flyover Film Festival official site.

NEW ON DVD:

The Manson Family (2003): A notoriously raw underground exploitation movie reconstruction of the Manson murders. This trippy, transgressive filth took director Jim Van Bebber 15 years to complete. This is a DVD/Blu-ray combo set. Buy The Manson Family [Blu-ray/DVD].

Nine Miles Down (2009): A scientist investigates a cavern discovered nine miles under the earth. Did the oil company accidentally drill into Hell? If so, which is worse: unleashing a horde of demons on the Earth, or fracking? Buy 9 Miles Down.

Wrong (2012): A man looking for his lost dog encounters bizarre characters and risks losing his sanity.  This is director Quentin Dupieux ‘s followup to his weird hit Rubber, and per the synopsis this one is “equally bizarre.” Buy Wrong.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Manson Family (2003); See description in DVD above. If you don’t need a DVD copy, this is the release you want. Buy The Manson Family [Blu-ray].

Wild Strawberries (1957): On his way to accept an honorary degree, an emotionally dead 78-year old professor reminisces about his life and impending demise in a series of flashbacks and dream sequences. This Ingmar Bergman classic is the latest Criterion collection Blu-ray upgrade. Buy Wild Strawberries [Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

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

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.

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):

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (2012): At a viewing of a video will of an experimental theater director, the assembled actors spontaneously begin re-enacting an old play. Made when he was ninety years old, director Alain (Last Year at Marienbad) Resnais isn’t slowing down, or losing his will to try new things. You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

No Milk (est. 2013): Subtitled “a short film about breasts,” this 15-minute movie tells the story of a truly dystopian future where breast milk is poisonous and boobs are considered repulsive. The producers raised their requested $25,000 on Kickstarter, so now they’re committed. Melanie Abramov’s previous short, “Dame Factory,” was full of erotic/repulsive feminist cheesecake surrealism, and we’d hope for more of the same this time around. No Milk at Kickstarter.

NEW ON DVD:

Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (2012): A dreamlike series of fictional, sometimes homoerotic vignettes revolving around a pre-fame James Dean. A 12-minute experimental short by director Matthew Mishory about Derek Jarman‘s childhood is included as an extra feature. Buy A Portrait of James Dean: Joshua Tree, 1951.

Mental (2012): This Australian black comedy/satire involves a politician who hires a crack-smoking hitchhiker to play nanny to his five teenaged daughters, each of whom believes she suffers from a different mental illness. We would have passed over mentioning this one if not for some reviewers declaring it “surreal, uncontrolled, frenzied,” “bewilderingly strange,” and “just plain nuts.” Buy Mental.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection”: Hitchcock is probably too well-established in the cinema mainstream to ever count as “weird,” but the deep-seated neuroses of Psycho and Vertigo and the inexplicable horror of The Birds will likely appeal to weirdophiles. Also in the five disc collection are North by Northwest and Rear Window. Buy “Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection” [Blu-ray].

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985): Read our capsule review. The third installment of the Mad Max series finally gets its turn on Blu-ray. So glad that we can all finally get Beyond Thunderdome… Buy Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Blu-ray].

“Mad Max: The Complete Trilogy”: If you’ve got the extra dough and don’t already own copies of Mad Max and The Road Warrior, here’s your chance to get the complete set of films that sparked the 1980s post-apocalyptic genre on Blu. Includes Thunderdome, but there are no extra features for fans. Buy “Mad Max Trilogy” [Blu-ray].

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

NEPOTISM CORNER!:

Nailbiter (2013): A family takes refuge from a tornado in a storm cellar, then find themselves trapped inside by a monster in this low-budget horror film. It was shot in the building that served as the organ factory in Carnival of Souls. Our own L. Rob Hubbard served as script supervisor and appears as an extra (he even gets a mention on the commentary track). Distributed by Lionsgate, so it’s available at major retailers and I even saw it at Redbox. Or you could always buy Nailbiter.

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.