A 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.

It’s feast or famine in the weird movie world; last week a feast, this week, the opposite.  The only good part about the drought onscreen and on DVD is it gives us a chance to talk about TIFF and some upcoming projects.

FILM FESTIVALS: TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Toronto, Canada, Sep. 8-18)

The Toronto International festival (official website) has become one of the world’s biggest cinema celebrations.  Coming at the end of the yearly festival season, it’s a place to debut a few important movies that were finished too late for Cannes; it’s also a place to showcase Oscar contenders.  Here’s some films of note screening there:

• Alps:  The story involves people who fill in as doubles for departed loved ones to help with the grieving (or denial) process.  Director Giorgos Lanthimos is on record calling it “darker and funnier” than his last film, the Certified Weird Dogtooth .  Sep. 13 & 14.
• Behold the Lamb: Irish black comedy about an unlikely pair taking a “long, strange and highly illegal road trip” en route to the “weirdest score of their lives.” Sep. 11, 12 & 16.
• Carré blanc: A young man works for a nameless corporation putting fellow employees through bizarre performance tests in this surreal dystopian fantasy.  The press release suggests a blend of Kafka and Tarkovsky.  Sep 12, 14 & 16.
• Damsels in Distress: Comedy/satire about a clique of women at a chic East Coast university who make it a point to “improve” the lives of their fellow students, sometimes through musical numbers.  From Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Bareclona), whose previous work was defiantly unweird; the press release describes this one as “distinctly offbeat, even manic,” “often-surreal,” and “delightfully weird.”  Sep. 13 & 14.
• A Dangerous Method: Historical drama about the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.  We only mention it because it’s the latest from David Cronenberg.  Sep 10 & 12.
• Doppelgänger Paul: Absurdist comedy about a delusional man who comes to believe a random stranger is his exact double; another plot strand involves possible plagiarism of his 20,000 page opus, A Book About How Much I Hate Myself.  Sep. 12, 14 & 17.
• Fable of the Fish:  A homeless woman becomes a celebrity when she gives birth to a fish.  Magical realism from the Philippines.  Sep. 10, 11 & 18.
• Generation P: A Russian poet turned adman takes a cocktail of hallucinogenic drugs; later, he meets the ghost of Che Guevara and a conspiracy involving a cult worshiping the ancient goddess Ishtar.  Definitely a weird one; sounds a little bit like a Thomas Pynchon screenplay.  Sep.  14, 15, & 16.
• Invasion: A rediscovered Argentinian movie from 1969 about an alternate reality Buenos Aires preparing against an invasion by unknown forces.  Jorge Luis Borges co-wrote the script.  Sep. 12 & 15.
• Keyhole: You heard it here first (possibly): a new Guy Maddin film.  This one stars Jason Patric as Ulysses, a gangster on the run, journeying through his labyrinthine house trying to find his wife (Isabella Rossellini).  Sep. 9 & 11.
• Melancholia: Lars von Trier‘s latest is apocalyptic sci-fi; a planet (called Melancholia) is set to collide with Earth on a woman’s wedding day.  Kirsten Dunst walked away from the Cannes with Best Actress honors; Charlotte Gainsbourg, Keifer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt round out the fine cast.  Sep 10 & 17.
• Monster’s Club: An anarchist hermit who lives in a cabin and sends mail bombs to CEOs is visited by a mythical monster.  Inspired by the writings of the Unabomber (seriously!)  Sep. 10, 11 & 18.
• Hors Satan [Outside Satan] – Nearly silent movie about a French hermit who may be Satan. Variety called it “Another ‘WTF?’ film from Gallic writer-director Bruno Dumont.” Sep. 9, 10 & 16.
• The Skin I Live In: Pedro Almodovar (who has never gone fully weird, but is always off-center) delivers a mad scientist revenge movie with significant superficial similarities to Eyes Without a Face. Sep. 11 & 17.
• Sleeping Beauty – From Australia comes this modern folktale that sounds like it has more to do with The House of Sleeping Beauties than with the classic fairy tale.  We like writer/director Julia Leigh’s quote: “I’m interested in Wonder Cinema…” Sep. 14 & 18.
• Take Shelter – Michael Shannon plays a crazy guy (daring casting, that) whose dreams of impending tempests storms are so lifelike that he’s convinced to build a storm shelter in real life.  Sep. 15 & 16.
• Twilight Portrait: Not too much info on this Russian debut, but the premise is that a woman is transformed into “a bizarre twilight version of herself” after a brutal sexual assault by a cop.  Sep. 9, 10 & 16.
• Twixt: Puffy Val Kilmer stars as a horror novelist who dreams about a ghost girl and gets drawn into real-life case involving a small town serial-killer.  From Francis Ford Coppola.  Sep. 11, 12 & 18.
  
• UFO in her Eyes: Chinese authorities try to turn their backwater town into a tourist magnet after a possibly crazy woman reports having seen a UFO. It’s described as “surrealist and ironic.” Sep. 11, 12 & 17.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Gallino (est 2012?):  Carlos Atanes has released a trailer for his upcoming project Gallino, which he promises will be even weirder than his previous film Maximum Shame (an absurdist S&M musical).  Here’s all we know so far: it’s subtitled “the chicken system” and described as “a pornophilosophical film.”  Gallino official site.

The Rum Diary (2011): Bruce Robinson‘s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s semi-autobiographical novel about the boozy adventures of hard-drinking expatriate journalists in Puerto Rico in the 1960s will be appearing in theaters in mid-October.  We’re not expecting it to be anywhere near as hallucinatory as Fear and Loathing, but there is a wealth of talent involved and Johnny Depp looks like he will be doing his spot-on Thompson impression all over again.  No official site yet.

NEW ON DVD:

Carmel (2009):  Highly personal, autobiographical impressionistic film by Israeli director Amos Gitai.  Apparently a fragmented and incoherent series of scenes dealing with Israeli history, it’s no crowd-pleaser, but Gitai was able to recruit Jean Moreau to help out with the narration. Buy Carmel.

Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988):  The killer tomatoes return, disguised as humans; features the song “”Big Breasted Girls Go to the Beach and Take Their Tops Off” and a young George Clooney.  You know it’s a light week for weird movie releases when we’re mentioning a Killer Tomatoes flick to fill up space. Buy Return of the Killer Tomatoes.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Kabluey (2007):  A slacker takes a job as a blue-clad corporate mascot to help his sister-in-law take care of his rowdy nephews when his brother is sent to fight in Iraq.  We wouldn’t have paid much attention to this black comedy if John Anderson of Newsday hadn’t complained that “an excess of pure weirdness won’t lead to an excess of laughs.”  If you were trying to keep us away from Kabluey with that comment, John, you failed miserably.  Watch Kabluey 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.

Here’s what’s coming up next week: everyone loves top 10 lists (right?), so on Monday we’ll check out the weird films underground director Pat (Heads of Control: The Gorul Baheu Brain Expedition) Tremblay considers essential.  We’ll also remove a couple of titles from that rapidly-growing reader-suggested review queue (see below) with coverage of Todd Rohal‘s super-duper-ultra-quirky debut, The Guatemalan Handshake (2006), as well as Andrei Tarkovsky‘s arthouse sci-fi mindbender Solyaris (1972).  And, continuing his “M22” series, Alfred will cover another avant-garde staging of a Mozart opera with  Martin Kusej’s rendition of Don Giovanni, Wolfgang Amadeus’ darkest work.

If none of the weird search terms we encountered this week were astoundingly strange, at least they were a varied bunch.  We started out the week feeling sorry for the subject of this Internet inquiry: “sex free chris gustafson.”  We hope things turn around for Mr. Gustafson.  Speaking of sex, lust is a subject which inevitably inspires weird search terms, and this week is no exception.  Usually, people who are looking for porn aren’t as prim and proper as the polite pervert who ventured onto the Web looking for “the best suggestion of intercourse sites.”  That’s not quite as bizarre, however, as the fetishist seeking “very dirty and stingy women free porno pics.”  (Is a dirty stingy woman one who buys generic condoms in bulk at the dollar store?)  We’re unsure whether to be disturbed or amused by someone looking for a “surreal jr nudist,” but we do know that we’re confounded by the search for “adult hitler brain” (did the searcher want to be sure he didn’t pull up irrelevant results for child Hitler brain?)  And how could we not mention the puzzling query for a list of “weird movies which cannot be acted in bollywood”?  Still, we didn’t find any of these terms quite as weird as this week’s winner, “how to drive a antichris.”  We have to wonder: is the searcher really looking for info on how to drive an anti-Chrysler?

Speaking of the ridiculously-long reader-suggested review queue (which we did in the first paragraph), here’s how it’s looking: The Guatemalan Handshake (next week!); Solyaris (1972) (next week!); Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Seventh Seal; Primer; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland  Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

A 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.

You know the doldrums of the summer blockbuster season are finally over when interesting movies start to trickle back into theaters…

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010): A mystery/action epic set in a fantastical steampunk China; the titular detective investigates a spontaneous human combustion plague.  Many are saying this is a return to form for once-great director Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China, Zu Warriors).  Opening in New York and LA, with playdates in major North American cities throughout September.  Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame official site.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life [Gainsbourg: Vie Heroique] (2010):  Biopic about the dashing chanteur who slept with Bardot and Birkin; it includes surrealistic elements (Gainsbourg’s libido, a grotesque, giant-nosed puppet, shares screen time with him).  This one is currently buried deep in the reader-suggestion bin.  Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life official site.

Love Exposure (2008): Shion Sono’s 4 hour (!) comedy epic involves Roman Catholicism, candid panty photos, and a butt-kicking, man-hating schoolgirl.  It’s playing this week at Cinema Village in Greenwich Village, with future screenings highly unlikely.  We’re hoping this exhibition is a harbinger of an imminent Region 1 DVD release.  No official site, but this IFC News review (which describes the movie as ” totally bugs**t insane”) may get your juices flowing.

NEW ON DVD:

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990): In one of his final movies, the world-class director films eight of his own dreams, including one where he enters the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (who’s played by none other than Martin Scorsese).  Normally, a re-release of Dreams would be cause to celebrate, but in this case it’s not.  Here’s why: this is a “Warner Archives” release, which means an overpriced, features-free DV-R (the “Archives” are where Warners sends niche movies, such a silent films, that they conclude won’t make enough money to justify pressing DVDs).  Further, the announcement page ominously warns that the film is not restored and has been made from the “best-quality video master currently available.”  Since Warner’s 2003 DVD release is out of print, relegating Dreams to the Archives suggests they have no interest in investing in a quality production of this important film anytime in the near future.  Buy Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (DV-R). You can also rent or buy Dreams via Video-on-Demand.

“The Complete Jean Vigo”: Truth in advertising: the Criterion Collection has packaged up the complete film works of Vigo, the son of an anarchist who died at 29 of a lung infection after completing his first feature film.  That film, of course, was L’Atalante (1934), the lightly surrealist tale about newlyweds living on a barge; also of interest is the then-controversial 41 minute short Zero de Conduite, a revolutionary tale about a French boarding school that was banned by the French censors until 1946. Buy “The Complete Jean Vigo” (The Criterion Collection).

Face to Face [Ansikte mot Ansikte] (1976):  This neglected Ingmar Bergman movie about a psychiatrist hallucinating and undergoing a nervous breakdown has long been unavailable, despite the fact that both Bergman and star Liv Ulman were nominated for Oscars in 1977.  The movie has been compared to the Certified Weird Repulsion, among other tales of feminine madness.  Olive films snapped it up while the Criterion Collection was looking the other way. Buy Face to Face.

Norwegian Ninja [Kommandør Treholt & ninjatroppen] (2010):  An alternate-history story that re-imagines the career of diplomat Arne Treholt (who was convicted of treason for selling secrets to the Soviets) as a top ninja in a secret Scandinavian spy squad!  We suspect a lot of the jokes in this absurdist political satire will go over the heads of non-Norwegians, but how can a weird movie site not at least mention a film entitled “Norwegian Ninja“? Buy Norwegian Ninja.

Orpheus [Orphée] (1950):  Frankly, there have not been a lot of weird new releases in 2011 (as compared to the banner year of 2010), but the Criterion Collection has had us working overtime with their special edition re-releases of old classics.  Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, an update of the Greek myth about the poet who travels to the underworld in search of his lost love, is one of Surrealism’s greatest achievements.  Dig those wavy mirrors.  Another film currently languishing in our reader-suggested review queue (that should get bumped up with this release). Buy Orpheus (Criterion Collection).

Wrecked (2011): Psychological thriller starring Adrien Brody as a man who wakes up trapped in a wrecked car with no memory of who he is or how he got there.  He hallucinates a lot.  The fact this bravura one-man show performance by relatively big star Brody went straight to DVD does not bode well; hopefully, it was just too weird to be released in theaters. Buy Wrecked.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Coen Brothers Collection”: Of course we love the Coen Brothers, but the only film in this four movie collection that might even be called mildly “weird” is Raising Arizona, the ultra-quirky story of a cop and a crook who get married, find out they’re infertile, and kidnap a baby.  The other three movies—the neo-noir Blood Simple, the period gangster film Miller’s Crossing, and the hit black comedy Fargo—are all very accomplished, but fairly conventional.  A 2007 DVD box set from MGM (buy) contained the same four films, but threw in the Certified Weird Barton Fink as the cherry on top.  We’re hoping (probably in vain) that Fink‘s exclusion from this set means someone has plans to release it on Blu-ray separately. Buy the “Coen Brothers Collection” [Blu-ray].

“The Complete Jean Vigo”: See description in DVD above. Buy “The Complete Jean Vigo” [Blu-ray].

Deadgirl (2008):  Read our capsule review.  This controversial film explores what happens when two horny teenage boys find a beautiful undead woman on a slab and decide to keep her as a sex slave.  Is it misogynist, feminist, or just plain exploitation-ist? Buy Deadgirl [Blu-ray].

If… (1968): The first film in the Lindsay Anderson/Malcolm McDowell “Mick Travis” saga (which continued with the Certified Weird O Lucky Man! and wrapped up with Britannia Hospital) is set at a British boarding school, and is one of the greatest (and weirdest) anti-authority howls of the 1960s & 70s.  This Criterion Blu-ray adds no new features over and above what was on the 2007 2-disc DVD. Buy If . . . [Blu-ray].

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D (1993):  Read our review.  This is the basically the same as Disney’s existing DVD/Blu-ray release, except that it adds 3-D capability for the few TVs that are set up for a third dimension.  Note that Nightmare was not originally released in 3-D.  The release includes a 3-D Blu-ray, a regular Blu-ray, a DVD and a digital copy. Buy The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D [Blu-ray].

Orpheus [Orphée] (1950):  See description in DVD above. Buy Orpheus [Blu-ray].

“Radley Metzger’s Erotica Psychedelica”: Three of Metzger’s well-shot, pre-hardcore features: Camille 2000 (1969), The Lickerish Quartet (1970), and Score (1972).  We can confirm that The Lickerish Quartet, at least, is pretty psychedelic.  This three-disc limited edition (3,500 units) from Cult Epics comes with a soundtrack and “collectible lenticular artwork” (?) Buy “Radley Metzger’s Erotica Psychedelica” [Blu-ray].

Raising Arizona (1975): If you want to skip the non-weird films in the Coen Brothers collection listed above, you can buy this single disc offering from Fox. Buy Raising Arizona [Blu-ray].

Wrecked (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Wrecked [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.

We’ll be covering a strange lineup of movies next week—but what else would you expect us to do?  First up is a reader review of the Korean arthouse hit, 3-Iron (2004); we’ll finish up our look at the currently available features from Spanish underground auteur Carlos Atanes with his Dick-ian sci-fi tale, Proxima (2007); then we’ll travel back in time (courtesy of the Criterion collection) to try to make sense of Louis Malle‘s long-neglected surreal slapstick comedy Zazie dans le Metro (1960); and Alfred starts a new series on the avant-garde renditions of Mozart operas at the 2006 Salzburg festival with The Marriage of Figaro.

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the revelation of our “Weirdest Search Term of the Week.”  For the third or fourth week in a row we’re going to pass over “wierd lumpy movie short,” but don’t think we don’t notice your effort, searcher.  In the “how could you possibly think Google would know the answer to this?” file goes the query “why won’t my wife rent gummo”?  We liked the term “surreal seed salesman” but, just like the person who was searching for something “like necrophilia but weirder,” we’re looking for something, well, weirder.  We found it in this odd request for “all the list of movies related to humans as veterinarian sea shows and friendship with mermaid.”  Congratulations, fan of movies related to humans as veterinarian sea shows, you win the coveted title of “Weirdest Search Term of the Week”!

Here’s the long-suffering reader suggested review queue for your perusal: Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; The Seventh Seal; Primer; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland  Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →