Check in next week to finally see our report on the eagerly anticipated dark fairy tale Ink, which is burning up the torrent sites and already has “cult movie” written all over it. We’ll also be taking a look at the 2006 Frankenstein variation Subject Two. Other reviews that could pop up to fill out the week include Absurdistan (2008) and The Box (2009).
As far as the weirdest search term used to locate the site last week, we’ll go with “weird two worded movies.” Still wondering whether searcher is only interested in weird movies which have two word titles, or in which only two words are spoken.
The reader suggested review queue now looks like this: Greaser’s Palace (substituted for Institute Benjamenta), Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, Inland Empire, Monday (assuming I can find an English language version), The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Barton Fink, What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams), Meatball Machine, Xtro, Basket Case, Suicide Club, O Lucky Man!, Trash Humpers (when/if released), Gozu, Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Wayward Cloud, Kwaidan, Six-String Samurai, Andy Warhol’s Trash, Altered States, Memento, Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gothic, The Attic Expeditions, After Last Season, Getting Any?, Performance, Being John Malkovich, The Apple, Southland Tales, Arizona Dream, Spider (2002), Songs From The Second Floor, Singapore Sling, Alice [Neco z Alenky], Dark Country, Necromania (1971, Ed Wood), Hour of the Wolf, and MirrorMask. We know this thing has been languishing, but we promise to start whittling it down once January comes around.
We’re working behind the scenes on a few surprises for the end of the year. Sorry we can’t be less cryptic, but we have some ambitious plans—look for an announcement in the coming weeks.
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):
The Lovely Bones: Visionary, and sentimental looking, tale about a little murdered girl who watches over her family from the afterlife. Once weird Peter (Meet the Feebles) Jackson’s fantasy/drama opens to mixed reviews, and given the talent involved and Jackson’s Hollywood cred, it’s a bit surprising that it’s only getting a limited release. Starring young Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Marky Mark, Rachel (The Brothers Bloom) Weisz, and Susan Sarandon. The Lovely Bones official site.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?: An actor who’s killed his mother holds a family hostage while a detective investigates his bizarre personal history. Sounds like it could be a mundane tale of descent into madness, except that it comes from a weird dream team: directed by Werner (Even Dwarfs Started Small) Herzog, and executive produced by David Lynch! With that pedigree, coupled with mystified early reviews, My Son sounds like a good candidate for weirdest film of 2009—although it’s likely too late to the party to get a mention here until 2010. Debuting in NYC Dec. 11, in LA Dec. 18, and hopefully following soon to the rest of the country. My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done? official site.
SCREENINGS (DEC. 11 & 12, NEW YORK CITY):
Coming Soon (2006/2008): See our review. The controversial bestiality mockumentary makes its U.S. debut at The Living Theater. This is your second and final notice; if you attend, feel free to report back to us on the experience. Expect one weird crowd.
NEW ON DVD:
AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa: The Criterion Collection busts out this massive film geek’s wet dream just in time for the holidays. Contains the intermittently weird Rashomon (1950) along with non-weird, but essential, Kurosawa classics like Stray Dog (1949), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), and nineteen others. We wish the Master’s most unabashedly surreal work, Dreams (1990), was included in the set, but how can anyone really complain that a treasure trove is missing a pearl? Buy AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa from Amazon.
Beautiful Losers (2008): A documentary examining the DIY skatepunk art movement in New York City in the early 1990s. Among those profiled is weird director Harmony Korine. Buy Beautiful Losers from Amazon.
World’s Greatest Dad (2009): Robin Williams stars in this dark comedy about a failed writer turned high school poetry teacher who gets a shot at fame late in life. Plot descriptions are circumspect, but we can tell that there is a twist in there, and it’s described as a very black one. Directed by the always outrageous Bobcat (Shakes the Clown) Goldwaith. It had a token theatrical release after a film festival run, but is essentially straight-to-DVD. Buy World’s Greatest Dad from Amazon
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
The Alphabet Killer (2007): A schizophrenic female detective freaks out while investigating a brutal series of murders. Hallucinations ensue. Buy The Alphabet Killer from Amazon.
Rebirth of Mothra II (1997): With his miniature princess guardians, Mothra was always one of the weirdest of the kaiju (giant Japanese monsters). Here, Mothra fights a monster genetically engineered to eat garbage. It’s a modernized Mothra, but it features old school ridiculous dubbing. Watch Rebirth of Mothra II 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.
What’s up with Netflix? They tell me the #1 movie in my queue, Ink, which I desperately wanted to review for next week, is available NOW. Then, they send me the #2 movie in my queue instead. So, you won’t get that Ink review this week. Instead, you’ll get a review of Powder, as well as that great double-feature that gets to the heart of Havana soul, Cuban Story and Cuban Rebel Girls. Throw in some mix of reviews of Uwe Boll’s House of the Dead, Absurdistan, Richard Kelly’s The Box, and the undead baby flick Grace, and you’ve got yourself a week.
As for the weirdest search term used to locate the site this week, we’ll go with “www.doctor.assess.movies.com.” I can only guess that the searcher was looking for a very specific website of film reviews by a M.D.; sadly, it doesn’t seem to exist. Hope you liked our site instead.
In related news, we’re proud to say that last week we came up #1 on Google for the popular search term, “weirdest sex movies.” Surely people searching for that phrase are hoping to find descriptions of Lucia y el Sexo and Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay. It marks a refreshing change from all the people who accidentally stumble on the site looking for porn.
Here’s the depressingly long reader review queue: Greaser’s Palace (substituted for Institute Benjamenta), Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, Inland Empire, Monday (assuming I can find an English language version), The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Barton Fink, What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams), Meatball Machine, Xtro, Basket Case, Suicide Club, O Lucky Man!, Trash Humpers (when/if released), Gozu, Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Wayward Cloud, Kwaidan, Six-String Samurai, Andy Warhol’s Trash, Altered States, Memento, Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gothic, The Attic Expeditions, After Last Season, Getting Any?, Performance, Being John Malkovich, The Apple, Southland Tales, Arizona Dream, Spider (2002), Songs From The Second Floor, Singapore Sling, Alice [Neco z Alenky], Dark Country, Necromania (1971, Ed Wood, unless the original requester gets back to me to clarify what he or she meant), and Hour of the Wolf.
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.
Looking over this week’s big-screen offerings, it occurs to me that once 366 Enterprises becomes a multi-million dollar corporation, we’re going to have to relocate our offices to New York City; that’s the only place in America you can see two exclusive, unavailable-anywhere-else weird films in one week. Right now, we can’t afford the cost of Manhattan popcorn, much less rent.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Big River Man: Documentary about Martin Strel, a hard-drinking, overweight, eccentric Slovenian, and his unprecedented attempt to swim the length of the Amazon river. By their very nature, documentaries start behind the eight ball in terms of weirdness, but Strel is such a character that this doc is being labeled “strange,” “insane,” and “surreal” and “bizarre.” Appears to be playing NYC only. Big River Man official site.
Film ist: A Girl and a Gun: A montage of silent-film footage arranged into a “a highly suggestive, quasi-narrative, but essentially enigmatic mosaic.” Playing this week at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City only. No official site, but see Anthology Film Archives for more information.
SCREENINGS (DEC. 11 & 12, NEW YORK CITY):
Coming Soon (2006/2008): See our review. The controversial bestiality mockumentary makes its U.S. debut at The Living Theater. Mark your calendars, and expect one weird crowd.
NEW ON DVD:
The Brooklyn Heist [AKA Capers] (2008): Three teams of criminals each plan to rip off the same Brooklyn pawnbroker on the same night in this caper spoof; the twist is that each team is living in a different cinematic reality, including a gang apparently based on the French New Wave whose scenes are shot in black and white. This comedy slipped under our radar, but reviews and film festival audience reactions were both positive. Looks worth a shot. Buy Brooklyn Heist from Amazon.
WEB EXCLUSIVES:
Creepy Christmas Film Fest: 25 short films, one for every day from Dec. 1st to Dec. 25th, each built around a different creepy Christmas toy selected by artist Beck Underwood from her grandmother’s collection. The subtly disturbing films come from Larry Fessenden, Voltaire, Graham Reznick, and Ti West, among others. A couple of these shorts will be featured on these pages in the coming month; for the other 23, you’ll have to go to creepychristmas.net. It’s a recommended visit.
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.
Graham Reznick is the director of the extremely weird 2008 feature I Can See You, described as “a psychedelic campfire tale” and certified by us as one of the 366 Best Weird Movies of All Time. Graham’s personal homepage is here, and you can find I Can See You‘s official site here. [UPDATE 3/11/2011: Just over a year later, we note that three of Graham’s suggestions—Performance, Altered States and Hausu—have been certified as among the weirdest of all time, with more to come, we’re sure.]
I am honored to have been asked to provide a list of Weird Movies for 366 Weird Movies.com! For my list, I decided I would compile a group of weird films that I always feel like watching, no matter what my mood, or how many times I’ve seen them. They may not be the “best” movies, or even the strangest—but they all contain at least a touch of the sublime (except, perhaps, #10), and they’re all my favorite weird films. Many of these I saw when I was young, and are major influences on my own work and approach to filmmaking. Some may not, at first glance, even seem that weird—but I hope within this context you’ll be able to enjoy and appreciate them for the inherent weirdness that they contain!
It’s hard to even describe what makes this movie so special. A gangster on the run hides out with a formerly passionate rock star (Mick Jagger in his first, and perhaps best, role) in swingin’ 60’s London. Sounds simple, but it’s so wrought with the cultural tensions of 1968 that it becomes an ultra dense diamond of sheer psychedelic freak out. Several viewings encouraged!
I could probably put Lynch’s entire catalogue on here so for simplicity’s sake I’ll just pick one. I oscillate daily on my favorite David Lynch movie/production, yet more often than not I end up here: FIRE WALK WITH ME was the first Lynch film I saw, when I was about 13, and it was the first time I understood that movies could be weird AND good. If you’ve seen the show, this movie is NOT like the show. The show can GET dark at times, while exploring the wake left in a troubled teen’s death, but this film is DIRECTLY FROM the subjective, paranoid, and dysfunctionally emotional perspective of that troubled teen – in the six days leading up to her death. It is the HEART of the mystery that forms the show, and it’s an amazing experience that can at once be read as a strange criss-crossing of inter-dimensional signals, or a beautifully moving metaphor for harrowing sexual molestation. It’s never failed to give me chills.
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