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.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

The Funny Man (est. 2011): There are only a few details, but it looks like a Psycho-inspired horror/thriller about a killer comic who wears a scary mask.  The director promises “unconventional stories, unusual characters, psychological thrills, and dark-twisted entertainment,” and the concept video is promising. The Funny Man facebook page.

ON THE WEB: AUDIO

“The Grandfather”:  We mentioned “Tales from Beyond the Pale” – Radio Plays for the Digital Age a couple of weeks ago.  The idea is to resurrect the dead art of the radio play for the mp3 age.  The latest release is Graham (I Can See You) Reznick’s “The Grandfather,” starring Angus Scrimm (in a role written with him in mind) as a lonely old man with a habit of talking to his cat as if she were his dead wife and a family tree that’s potentially very twisted.  I’ve heard it, and I can confirm that this one is indeed “weird” horror (I’m still not sure what really happened in the deliberately ambiguous ending).   Best listened to in a darkened room.  Hear a clip and download “The Grandfather” at “Tales from Beyond the Pale”.

NEW ON DVD:

Double Take (2010):  Archival footage of Alfred Hitchcock and a body double are used to create a new story involving the Master of Suspense meeting an evil doppelgänger during the Cold War.  Sounds fascinating, and who doesn’t love Hitch? Buy Double Take.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004): We’ve never seen one of Spanish director Carlos Atanes’ films, but we’re aware of him because he’s one of the few filmmakers who proudly describes his movies as “weird.” FAQ is an underground movie about a matriarchal dystopian future; to get a feel for it, we offer the following dialogue where a prisoner proposes his own punishment: “I will confess my crimes in public. I will shave my eyebrows. I will open my belly with a spoon and hang myself by the neck until I die before the year ends.” This is a special edition, Region 0 release. Buy FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions – Special Collector’s Edition.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (2009): An absurdist comedy about janitors undergoing male pregnancy. This is in our reader-suggested review queue, and we’ve been waiting for a DVD release ever since we first heard about it on the festival circuit. Buy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle.

Micmacs (2009): Read our capsule review. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s junkyard farce about a man with a bullet in his head fighting arms dealers is whimsical and way offbeat, but not as weird as his earlier efforts. Buy Micmacs.

“The Quintessential Guy Maddin! 5 Films from the Heart of Winnipeg”:  If you’ve been staying up nights wondering what 366 Weird Movies wants for Christmas, this announcement should put you to sleep.  This 4-disc treasure chest contains two Certified Weird movies—the arctic WWI fantasy Archangel and the bizarre hockey-themed Cowards Bend the Knee—along with the interesting Technicolor misfire Twilight of the Ice Nymphs and the yet-to-be-reviewed-here Careful and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary.  But wait!  That’s not all!  There’s also six shorts (including the mini-masterpiece The Heart of the World), a 60 minute documentary narrated by Tom Waits, extras from all the previous DVD editions of these films, poster art postcards, and a cardboard peephole for viewing Cowards as it was intended!  Sweet dreams! Buy “The Quintessential Guy Maddin! 5 Films from the Heart of Winnipeg” (Four-Disc Set).

Trouble in Mind (1985): A weird noir with a down-on-his-luck Kris Kristofferson meeting a bunch of absurd eccentrics at a diner in “Rain City.”  Also with Keith Carradine and Joe Morton. The “25th Anniversary” DVD is remastered, but no extras are advertised.  We should probably get around to checking out this one eventually. Buy Trouble in Mind (Special Edition).

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Micmacs (2009): See entry in DVD above. Buy Micmacs [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Alice in Wonderland (1966): This black and white 1966 BBC adaptation of the nonsense classic features a detached Alice, minimalist sets and costumes, Peter Sellers as the King of Hearts, John Gielgud as the Mock Turtle, Leo McKern in drag as the Duchess, and musical accompaniment by Ravi Shankar, and is very highly regarded.  Watch Alice in Wonderland (1966) free on Youtube.

Ride in the Whirlwind (1965): Monte Helleman’s companion piece to The Shooting, also featuring a young Jack Nicholson, although this one is a bit more conventional and less “existential” than the 1967 film.  Watch Ride the Whirlwind free at 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.

There’s still two days left to vote in the “reader’s choice” poll to elect two movies to be Certified Weird.  As it stands now, in Group A Takashi Miike’s perverted Visitor Q has opened up a 13 vote lead over Adaptation.  Jan Svankmejer’s stop-motion Alice continues to steamroll Group B (with the weird Western Dead Man a distant second).  The “reconsideration” category is the closest race, with Roman Polanski’s surreal sex comedy What? just recently surging ahead of the fantasy classic The Wizard of Oz.  There’s still time for you to affect the results.

Next week we’ll be continuing to focus on catching up on weird 2010 releases.  To that end, look for a review of Darren Aronofsky‘s just-in-theaters psychological thriller Black Swan; the ultra-quirky, ultra-nerdy DVD release Gentlemen Broncos, about a sci-fi pulp author who steals a home-schooled teen’s epic novella; and coverage of the Criterion Collection’s surprising new addition to its impressive catalog, Antichrist.

There were some truly weird search terms used to locate the site this week, including a search for a movie we really hope exist but suspect someone dreamed up after eating too much anchovy pizza late at night: “sci fi movie with evil villain nazi who needs to start his cyborg penis.”  Someone else came here looking for an entire genre of movie we were completely unaware of: “forest eat girl reproductive organ movie list.”  But for the weirdest search term this week, we’re going to go with “dream of fish floating around your virgina.”

Here’s the reader-suggested review queue (which now goes hundreds of titles deep, so we’ve hidden the complete List after the jump for those who are truly interested): Songs From The Second Floor; Possession; Wild Zero; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Faust; Sublime; Battle Royale; Pink Floyd: The Wall; 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.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

You Won’t Miss Me (2008): Experimental—meaning utilizing various film stocks and non-linear storytelling—mumblecore about a confused, arty, promiscuous twenty-something gal in NYC.  After Rotten Tomatoes incorrectly listed it as being released several weeks ago, we now have the actual play dates to give you: it debuts this week at Cinema Village in NYC, with a date next week at Facets in Chicago.  You Won’t Miss Me official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Cronos (1993): Guillermo del Toro‘s independent Spanish-language debut is a horror about a mysterious antique scarab that is said to grant its owner eternal life.  Not necessarily weird, but interesting and different, and another nice genre/cult movie choice for Criterion Collection treatment. Buy Cronos (Criterion Collection).

Fox 75th Anniversary Collection:  We’re not really expecting anyone to buy this 75 DVD gimmick celebrating Fox Studio’s anniversary.  But we do find it interesting to look at how many weirdish films made the set: one Certified Weird movie (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and three interestingly offbeat films (The Phantom of the Paradise, Raising Arizona, and Moulin Rouge).  Frankly, that’s a lot more strangeness than we ever expected to see in a prestige collection like this. Buy Fox 75th Anniversary Collection.

Inception (2010):  Read our capsule review.  Christopher Nolan‘s dream thriller was screamingly weird by Hollywood blockbuster standards, but readers here shouldn’t expect anything truly bizarre: it’s a well-made, mainstream movie with mild psychological thriller elements. Buy Inception.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Cronos (1993): See entry in DVD above. Buy Cronos (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

Inception (2010):  See entry in DVD above. Buy Inception (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy).

Videodrome (1983):  David Cronenberg‘s sadomasochistic, surreal take on TV culture gets a digital upgrade from Criterion.  A big, bizarre Blu-ray bonanza. Buy Videodrome (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

CABLE TELEVISION: TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES:

Performance (1970): Read the Certified Weird entry.  Here’s your chance to check out the crazy psychedelic gangster identity crisis flick co-directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg via the great TCM Underground series.  Starring Mick Jagger and Mick Jagger, and James Fox and James Fox.   2 AM EST, Dec 11 (Saturday night-Sunday morning).

Santa Claus (1959)/The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953):  What a fantastic, demented children’s double feature, thoughtfully slotted in the overnight hours where it can’t damage youngster’s tender minds!  First up is K. G0rdon Murray’s Mexican Santa Claus (“Santa Claus enlists Merlin to help him save Christmas from the devil”).  If you can stand it, follow that one up with Dr. Seuss’ surrealist nightmare for kids, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (“A young boy dreams that his piano teacher is a super-villain out to rule the world”).  The double feature starts at 2 AM EST, Dec 10 (Friday night-Saturday morning).

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.

Don’t forget to vote in the reader’s choice poll to pick the next two movies to go on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies of all time!  Currently, the leaders are Adaptation (a small surprise over the early leader, Visitor Q) and Svankmejer’s surreal stop-motion Alice (no surprise there; Dead Man is a distant second).

In December, we’ll be focusing on wrapping up our coverage of 2010 in film and DVD.  To that end, you can look for reviews for the indie rock ghost story All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (fans of the band Califone will perk up at this one); the Western rap spoof Big Money Rustlas (fans of the band Insane Clown Posse will perk up at this one); and we’ll also cover Marina de Van‘s psychological thriller Don’t Look Back [Ne te retourne pas] (no band associated with this one, but fans of French beauties Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci will perk up anyway).

Weird search terms used to locate the site were a bit down this past week, but we did get “elizabeth browning was a subpar poet,” (true enough, I guess, but why come here for confirmation?), “i don’t know what you see in her i’m watching nightmare theater,” (which made us feel like we were coming into the middle of a conversation), and “lucky man breastfeeding” (actually a perfectly appropriate search term for the site, but it sounds weird out of context).   Our selection for weirdest search term of the week, however,  is “super spook cartoon of the 366”: super spook cartoons are weird enough by themselves, but why drag us into the query?

Here’s the longish reader-suggested review queue: Songs From The Second Floor; Possession; Wild Zero; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Perfume: The Story of a 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.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Black Swan: The psychological thriller event of the year comes from Darren Aronofsky (Pi), and involves two ballerinas (Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis) competing for a starring role in Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”  Early reviews are generally excellent and frequently include words the make us perk up our ears: “absurd,” “strange,” and even “Cronenbergian.”  We’re shocked that this award-winning film isn’t getting a wider release: are American audiences so timid they won’t go see something the slightest bit weird-sounding, even though it has Natalie freakin’ Portman in it?  Black Swan official site.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale: Santa Claus is kidnapped and held for ransom, but the kidnappers didn’t reckon on his cadre of killer elves in this Finnish production that has “cult movie” written all over it. Scrooges will flock to the theaters to catch this humbug.  Rare Exports official site.

ON THE WEB:

“Tales from Beyond the Pale” – Radio Plays for the Digital Age:  Here’s reason #38 why we love Larry Fessenden.  There’s nothing this guy won’t try, as long as it raises goose bumps.   His latest project revives and re-invents the lost art of the radio play, focusing on the macabre (think “Inner Sanctum“).  Voice talent includes James Le Gros, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Angus Scrimm; an upcoming episode, “The Grandfather,” is written by Graham Reznick (I Can See You), and there’s a cool animated promo by goth favorite Voltaire.  Tales from Beyond the Pale home page.

NEW ON DVD:

Fantasia (1940)/Fantasia 2000 (1999): 1940’s Fantasia was Walt Disney‘s pet project: a series of animations to accompany famous classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, and others. The spectacle was stupendous: compositions were illustrated by abstract notes or new story lines involving Mickey Mouse, centaurs and dancing hippos (Stravinsky was reportedly outraged by dinosaurs acting out his pagan ballet “The Rites of Spring”). The sixty-year followup Fantasia 2000 was, as might be expected, more of the same, only less effective; it was welcome nonetheless. A very cool release which contains, as an extra, Destino: a short film collaboration between Disney and Salvador Dalí, completed 50 years after it was conceived! Buy Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 (Special Edition).

Sid & Marty Krofft’s Saturday Morning Hits: The Krofft brothers pioneered a unique brand of campy, fantasy-oriented children’s programming from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The corny, surrealistic nonsense of their puppet-based productions made their shows hits with tots and acidheads alike. This sampler disc collects the “best” (one episode each) of “H.R. Puffinstuff,” “Sigmund the Sea Monster,” “Bugaloos,” “Electra Woman & Dyna Girl,” “Wonderbug,” and “Bigfoot & Wild Boy.” Buy “Sid & Marty Kroffts Saturday Morning Hits”.

Valhalla Rising (2010): Dark Ages tale of a mute, one-eyed slave who escapes his Scottish master and joins with a group of Viking renegades; their ship is wrecked and washes up on a strange island.  Critics are using adjectives like “trippy,”  “crazy,” “hallucinatory,” and “poetic.”  From director Nicholas Winding Refn, who already struck weird gold with Bronson (2008).  We missed this in theaters but we’re going to make it a priority now! Buy Valhalla Rising.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Fantasia (1940)/Fantasia 2000 (1999): See description in DVD above. This release includes a superfluous DVD copy. Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 (Four-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo).

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.