The print version of the 2020 Yearbook is now live for purchase. You can click here to buy it (in the U.S.; in other countries you will want to search your local Amazon branch).
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Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Black Bear: A couple host a filmmaker at their lakeside retreat; drama and mind games ensue. Producers are keeping the plot details obscure, but it’s been described as “mind-bending.” In theaters somewhere, but due to the pandemic, expect VOD to be the main venue. Black Bear official site.
FILM FESTIVALS – Slamdance (Online, Feb. 12-25, 2021):
While we await announcement of the 2021 Sundance lineup (which will be held virtually and at scattered venues across the USA), Slamdance, Park City’s younger, punkier counterpart that’s restricted to films with budgets under $1 million, has finalized its plans. This year’s festival will be held largely online, with a couple of drive-in debuts at Joshua Tree and Los Angeles. But the best part is, it’s free to the public—if you sign up before December 31. (It’s $10 for an online festival pass thereafter).
As usual, it can be hard to tell what might be weird based on just the one-sentence synopsis, but we hold out some hope for the following entries:
Hurrah, we are still alive! – An artistic commune of filmmakers awaits the return of the Director, who disappeared without a trace, despite his absence, the Director seems to control all of the troupe’s actions
Man Under Table – In an anachronistic dystopian landscape, a beleaguered young man attempts to navigate his way through the indie film scene in LA.
“Wisteria” (2021?): That’s the working title for a new David Lynch series to screen on Netflix. There are basically no other details than this—not enough for solid speculation, at least. It’s probably not a new season of “Twin Peaks,” as Mark Frost has denied any participation in the project. We’ll just have to wait and see. A few more details at What’s on Netflix.
The Fifth Element (1997): Read our review. Testifying to its continued power and popularity, Luc Besson‘s wildly overstuffed sci-fi cult film is now released on 4K Ultra disc (with a standard Blu-ray included). Buy The Fifth Element.
Greatland (2020): A timely, low budget psychedelic satire pitching itself as “the most WTF film of 2020,” starring an (unrecognizable) Eric Roberts. The trailer got almost half-a-million views, but it just recently showed up on Amazon Prime (free to subscribers) with no fanfare. Watch or rent Greatland.
Theaters across North America are shuttering-up again as a new wave of coronavirus hits, and we’re down to a single canonically weird drive-in screening to report. If things don’t get worse, they’ll get better next week.
Akira (1988): Read the canonically weird entry! The seminal weird anime export about a telekinetic maniac wrecking neo-Tokyo. Dubbed version only, and not from the newly restored print, unfortunately. Listed as “leaving soon.” Watch Akira free on Tubi.tv.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: As you hopefully already read, our 2020 Yearbook is now out—on Kindle only. (The print version should be ready next week, and hopefully/possibly as early as this weekend.) You can read more about it in our announcement post, or if you’d like to purchase the Kindle version immediately and without further thought you can do so through this link.
Also, you have until Sunday to nominate a film for our December Netflix watch party. You can do so here.
With the Yearbook out of the way, next week we’ll be returning to a full lineup of reviews. Pete Trbovich catches us up on one of the Hayao Miyazaki classics we have yet to cover, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Giles Edwards can’t resist anything with Nicolas Cage, so he jumps at the chance to review the jejune Jiu Jitsu (2020). And Gregory J. Smalley will dip into the long-neglected reader-suggested review queue for a peek at the 2004 serial killer comedy (?), Lucky. Onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
Last year, for the first time ever, we actually debuted our annual Yearbook before the middle of the following year. (We changed our calendar year to run from November to November—December is usually a light month for weird movies anyway.)
This year, we’re keeping pace. In fact, the Kindle version debuted yesterday, and the print version should be ready in just a few days. If you can’t wait for print, here’s a link to buy our Kindle.
Besides being out on time, we’re continuing the format changes from last year’s edition of the Yearbook, which will hopefully increase the already inestimable pleasure you take from each annual:
An advance peek at the top 10 weird movies of 2020, before the year is even over!
70+ reviews of 2020 releases and re-releases, plus coverage of innumerable (that means we didn’t bother to count them, right?) film festival favorites (and less-than-favorites).
A new never before published bonus review.
Previously unprinted transcript of our interview with Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway writer/director Miguel Llansó
All profits derived from your kind purchase will go towards paying our hosting costs. As always, any leftover monies will be wasted on our staff’s relentless and desperate pursuit of hedonistic excess. And, since it’s 2020, on toilet paper.
It’s been a crappy year. Buy this and make it just a little less crappy for both of us.
We’re currently sticking to our plan of one Netflix and one Amazon Prime watch party per month. It’s Netflix’s turn.
We’re open to suggestions for different starting times, dates, or methods of propagating the watch link.
Our next Netflix Party will be scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 12 at 10:15 PM. We’ll take nominations for movies to screen in the comments on this post up until next Sunday (Dec. 6), then put up a voting poll.
The content is identical to the Kindle version (described here), with the following exceptions:
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