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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/1/2019

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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):

Climax (2018): Dancers discover their sangria has been spiked with LSD. A24 picked up Gaspar Noé‘s Cannes sensation for a limited Stateside run this spring. Climax official site.

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Transit (2018): As the Fascists crack down in France, a man assumes the identity of a dead man whose papers he’s stolen and attempts to flee the country. Director Christian Petzold took a novel set in WWII and adapted it to present times, an anachronistic experiment with an effect described as “dreamlike.” Transit official Facebook page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Between Worlds (2018): must defend himself from the ghost of his wife, who’s jealous of his new relationship with a medium. Cage’s other weird movie of 2018 is finally here (on DVD only). Buy Between Worlds.

Border (2018): A woman with a “chromosomal abnormality” works as a customs agent due to her supernatural ability to sniff out smugglers; one day, she meets a man with a similar Neanderthal appearance.. We actually listed this late-arrival as the fifth weirdest movie released in 2018, but decided to wait until its Blu-ray release to write it up. That day is here (though the review is still pending…) Buy Border.

Sicilian Ghost Story (2017): A teenage girl goes after her missing crush in this magical realist story set in mafia country. A lightly weird, critically acclaimed work that has garnered some comparisons to the work of . Buy Sicilian Ghost Story.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984): Read the Canonically Weird entry! turned a popular television romantic comic anime about an alien and a would-be ladies’ man into a weird Twilight Zone episode that begins when the characters discover the same day is repeating over and over. You’ll have to deal with the dubbing, though. Watch Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Very soon (as soon as today) we’re going to start our March Mad Movie Madness ultimate tournament. This ambitious project will allow us to rank all 366 Canonically Weird movies according to popularity with you, the readers (or at least, the ones who vote during the open voting period). Don’t miss it!

We’ll also be continuing our regular review slate with Pete Trbovich introducing you to the strange horror that is bad movie impressario ‘s final film, Frankenstein Island. We’ll also cover two Netflix exclusives you might have missed: Giles Edwards takes on Paris Is Us while G. Smalley handles The Cloverfield Paradox. Onward and weirdward!

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.

Capsules

CAPSULE: AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN (2018)

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366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , , Craig Robinson, ,

PLOT: Lulu is unhappy with her cappuccino-store managing husband, so she runs off with a man who stole money from him to go see an old flame’s “one night only” performance at a nearby hotel.

Still from An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Though advertised in-film as a “magical” evening with Beverly Luff Linn, the onscreen evening is not so much “magical” as “eccentric.” Luff Linn is a hulking teddy bear, leaking stuffing, and with one eye holding on by a thread. It stays surprisingly true to romantic comedy conventions while employing light, sub-Brechtian alienation techniques.

COMMENTS: For a few viewers, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn will be their first exposure to the weird world of Jim Hosking. Most, especially readers of this site, will be drawn to it to see what the director of 2016’s transgressive The Greasy Strangler would come up with given a bigger budget and professional actors. The answer is that he compromised by scaling back the most aggressively bizarre elements of his shock debut, while still indulging in enough skewed reality to keep the comedy firmly on the surreal side of the ledger. So, for example, in Luff Linn you will see cigarette snuffed out in an absurdly oversized meatball, but no baths in vats of half-congealed grease; a couple of characters repeating the word “immediately” across scenes, but no painfully extended “bullshit artist” segments; Craig Robinson in a 40s-style one-piece bathing suit, but no full-frontal prosthetic nudity. Whereas Strangler felt a little dangerous, like  meets , Beverly is more like a  awkward/quirky concoction, slightly out of step with reality, but without the offal and outrageousness. The results are not entirely satisfactory, but they are also not nearly as much of a sell-out as they might have been.

The plot, although a bit shaggy, is not so bad, with Lulu’s urge to reconnect with a younger and more vital romance bumping up against a couple of subplots in her husband’s suburban gangsta theft of a cashbox and Luff Lin’s mysterious melancholy (which results in his only being able to communicate in Frankenstein grunts for the much of the movie). Aubrey Plaza’s sarcastic resentment, Jermaine Clement’s clueless earnestness, and Emile Hirsch’s petty criminality are perfect matches to the material, but Craig Robinson doesn’t come over as the kind of charismatic mentor Lulu would fall for (which is perhaps part of the joke), and Matt Berry makes little impression as Luff Lin’s platonic partner/manager. Hoskins sprinkles in supporting performances from a couple of his regular stock company: Sky Elobar as a cappuccino-store henchman and Sam “potato” Dissanayake as an angry yet polite convenience store owner. He also finds a few more odd-faced weirdos to add freaky texture in a moon-faced toady and a hulking, pasty hotel clerk with a Ren-faire hairstyle. Though set in the present day, the anachronistic circa 1970s wardrobe choices—Colin’s turtleneck sweater and amber-tinted tinted eyeglasses—garb a world out of whack. It’s the kind of movie where three amateur robbers go on a robbery wearing women’s wigs as disguises, but never bother to cover their familiar faces. Low synths lay a doomy horror movie soundtrack over what is basically a light comedy, adding yet another level of alienation.

And yet, for all its absurdist insouciance, Luff Linn surprisingly has heart—something conspicuously lacking in Greasy Strangler. The boy gets the girl—the right boy gets the girl. The sentimentality may be a put-on, or it may be a concession, but it feels like an honest choice.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“It’s not perfect, and it certainly isn’t for everyone, but oddballs who love weirdo cinema will probably get a kick out of An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn.”–Diedre Crimmins, High-Def Digest (festival screening)

An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn [Blu-ray]

An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn [Blu-ray]
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Capsules

CAPSULE: THE LAST MOVIE (1971)

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DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , Stella Garcia,

PLOT: A stuntman stays on in Peru with his mistress after his American movie crew has moved on, and is involuntarily cast in a movie the locals are making with fake cameras.

Still from The Last Movie (1971)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: The initial critical assessment of The Last Movie said it was a stumbling, self-indulgent mess of random, stoned footage that director/star Dennis Hopper tried (and failed) to salvage by editing it into something resembling a ian Western. Now that years have passed and we can reappraise the work from a more sober perspective, we can see that this knee-jerk reaction was absolutely correct. It’s half-baked Surrealism, with the emphasis on the “baked.”

COMMENTS: So here’s how I like to imagine the making of The Last Movie went. “Dennis, you’re a genius, and ‘Easy Rider’ made a gazillion dollars, so let’s fly to Peru and make a Western about Hollywood types going to Peru to make a Western!” (Puff.) “Get a crate of whiskey! He can play the director.” (Glug.) “Great! Sam, now shoot a bunch of Western-type scenes, put a guy in jail, get some dancing girls to do the can-can, blow some stuff up. Doesn’t matter what you shoot, there’s no plot. It’s not a real movie.” (Puff.) “Kris, can you play us ‘Me and Booby McGee’ while Dennis rides a horse? Cool.” (Glug.) “OK, everybody get drunk and we’ll film it. Dennis, cry a little.” (Puff.) “Wait, it’s been 25 minutes, did we remember the opening credits? Throw ’em up on screen while Dennis and his chick kiss in a field.” (Puff.) “OK, now let’s have the villagers film some scenes using cameras made out of bamboo… see, they can’t tell the difference between reality and the movies anymore. Did I just blow your mind?” (Snort.) “Damn, that’s some fine Peruvian coke. Get that chick naked in that waterfall, Dennis wants to make out with her!” (Puff.) “Throw in a ‘scene missing’ intertitle at random. Remind ’em it’s a movie.”  (Puff.) “I know what we need: a gold mining subplot! It’ll be, like, a metaphor for Hollywood!” (Glug.) “Let’s all get drunk and go to a brothel.” (Next day.) “Let’s film a scene where everyone gets drunk and goes to a brothel.” (Sniff.) “Wait, is that ether? Let’s have Dennis try to get a fur coat from this guy’s wifuuuh sajkagkudsigkuytadijah… bluh… panties.” (Puff.) “We still got some time? Gold mining expedition montage.” (Sip, looong puff.) “I think I’m peaking… what was in that tea? Anyway now the villagers are shooting the movie for real with live ammo and they put Dennis in jail and shoot him while he rides away on his horse and he gets drunk and slaps some whores and no one will believe he’s actually in a movie cause they’re too busy making a movie and he stumbles into a church and then a woman lactates on his face and the villagers throw a fiesta with fireworks and let’s have Dennis confess to the priest that he sinned ‘in movies,’ and then everyone gets drunk and Dennis dies for their sins, but he does a couple of takes, because it’s a movie.” (Puff, glug.) “Did we remember to tie up that gold mining subplot? Let’s close with a scene with two guys by a campfire talking about whether you need mercury to pan for gold. Just improvise. Has anyone seen my Quaaludes?”

And then Dennis Hopper takes all the footage back to his shack in New Mexico and drops acid and starts editing it together. Then his good friend shows up and looks at the rough cut and says “Dennis, it’s good, but it makes too much sense. You need to put all these scenes in random order.” And then Dennis passes out on the editing machine.

I kid The Last Movie, but there’s one thing that can be said for it: absolutely no drugs were spared in its making.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…one of the all-time classics of pretentiously incomprehensible cinema.”–Radio Times

(This movie was nominated for review by “Cletus.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)

Capsules

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 2/15/2019

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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):

Mega Time Squad (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ mini-review and listen to his interview with director Tim Van Dammen. A New Zealand set time-travel caper comedy. Unknown where it is playing, but Rotten Tomatoes assures us it’s going up on a screen somewhere this week. Mega Time Squad official site.

Ruben Brandt, Collector (2018): A psychotherapists commissions thefts of famous paintings, believing he will stop having nightmares about the artworks once he owns them. Intellectual, mildly surreal adult animation from Hungary. Ruben Brandt, Collector official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Big Shark (2019): attempts to extend his 15 minutes of fame to the 18-minute mark with this effort exploiting 2013’s hot topic, sharks. It is pretty much guaranteed to be awful, but since Tommy’s mumbling his way through it, it will still probably be better than The Meg. The Big Shark official site currently redirects to a site selling Wiseau-branded boxer shorts with no mention of Big Shark.

Cristina (est. 2019): A woman is plagued by the demon raised by her Satanist father. Per the director, it’s a “fascinating and terrifying amalgam of classic theological horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, but armed with a hefty dose of surrealism.” Set to begin principal photography in the spring. No official site yet.

Kung Fu Hustle 2 (20??):  has announced that he has begun work on the sequel to 2004’s Canonically Weird Kung Fu Hustle. The sequel will take place in the present day, and Chow, now 56, will not star (but may appear in a cameo). “Martial Arts Action Cinema” appears to have broken the news in the English-speaking world, based on a Chow interview (in Chinese).

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Audition [Ôdishon] (1999): Read the Certified Weird review! ‘s terrifying masterpiece of anti-erotic extremity comes to Region A Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video, from a 2016 restoration, with most of the same features on the old Shout! Factory release plus  a new commentary track by Tom Mes, a new introduction from and interview with Miike, and more (first pressing includes an exclusive booklet, too). Buy Audition.

Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980): A prisoner is released in 1926 Weimar Germany and vows to go straight, but is sucked back into a life of crime. Rainer Weiner Fassbinder’s 15-hour miniseries is told straight for most of its running, but ends with a surreal epilogue. A Criterion Collection upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray. Buy Berlin Alexanderplatz.

Horror Express (1972): Read Otto Black’s review. A frozen “ape-man” turns out to be a body-possessing alien who causes trouble on the trans-Siberian express. Although this horror is (famously) in the public domain, true fans may want to purchase this Arrow Blu-ray for the restoration, commentary track, interviews, and first-pressing collectible booklet. Buy Horror Express.

Possum (2018): A puppeteer returns home to face his stepfather and secrets from his past. The script is from a short story the British director originally wrote for an anthology exploring Freud’s notion of the uncanny. On DVD or VOD. Buy Possum.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Night Train to Terror (1985): Read the Certified Weird entry! If everybody’s got something to do—everybody but you—then maybe you can watch this to horror anthology, made from three unreleased features cut down to the point of incoherence and linked by a framing story about God and Satan arguing about the fate of the characters while a teenage lipsynching New Wave band practices in the next train compartment. Watch Night Train to Terror free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week we’ll announce the winner of 366 Weird Movies’ biggest fan contest (still time to enter!) In terms of reviews, Pete Trbovich will go into the reader-suggested review queue for 1973’s Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural, while G. Smalley brings you a long-delayed review of ‘s psychedelic flop The Last Movie (at last!) plus The Greasy Strangler ‘s  ‘s sophomore feature (a romantic comedy, of all things), An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. And, we’ll reveal the winners of the 9th Annual Weirdcademy Awards (there’s still time to vote in that, too, although the only contests that are actually competitive are Weirdest Short Film and Weirdest Scene).

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.

Capsules

CAPSULE: LORDS OF CHAOS (2018)

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DIRECTED BY: Jonas Åkerlund

FEATURING: Rory Culkin, , Jack Kilmer, Sky Ferreira, Jon Øigarden, Valter Skarsgård

PLOT: The founder of True Norwegian Black Metal, Euronymous, narrates his rise and fall from beyond the grave in a tale of music, church burning, metal, and marketing.

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Lords of Chaos is a well-crafted biopic/docudrama about some very weird people. Graphic suicide and murder notwithstanding, this is an eminently mainstream, straightforward piece of high-quality cinema. Fans of True Norwegian Black Metal will want to upgrade this from a “recommended” to a “” rating.

COMMENTS: Norway: the land of Ski Queen cheese, smiling people in bright sweaters, and True Norwegian Black Metal. For the last of those three things, you can thank “Euronymous” (née Øystein Aarseth), founder of the band Mayhem and, if Lords of Chaos is to be believed, something of a marketing genius. Jonas Åkerlund, no stranger to the metal scene of the late ’80s, brings the dramatic tale of Euronymous’ journey from upper-middle-class rocker bad-boy to tragic murder victim to an English-speaking audience in this docudrama. With a sure touch and an unlikely sense of humor, Åkerlund spins a formidable yarn about some troubled lads spiraling out of control.

From his omnipotent afterlife perch, Øystein (Rory Culkin) narrates his early roots—appropriately subterranean in his parents’ basement. Graduating quickly from the status of inept musicians riding around in their parents Volvos, the metal group Mayhem enjoys a series of lucky breaks accompanied by implied Faustian bargains. They find a frontman, Death (an eerie Jack Kilmer), who rockets them to sub-fame before blasting his brains out. Death’s replacement is even darker: an impressionable, awkward young man named Christian (Emory Cohen), who changes his name to Varg after he buys into the whole death-cult-Satanist-nihilist shtick that Øystein has fabricated. Varg starts burning down churches, and the other band members’ moral fabric disintegrates as a horrible contest of one-upmanship rips them apart. As his vision of commercial glory begins to unravel, Øystein is forced to come to terms with the beast he’s created.

While many films directed by Music Video People obviously show their signature markings, Jonas Åkerlund stays his hand stylistically. His story is about the people behind the image, not a love letter to the presumed madness and evil of True Norwegian Black Metal. On the occasions that he does indulge in his fast-dreamy editing, the effect is that much more striking: Øystein’s recurring daydreams/nightmares of traveling through the woods, looking for his first friend and leading man are unsettling and touching. The music, most of it performed by the (non-Norwegian, non-metal) band Sigur Rós, alternately haunts and pummels. And the acting transforms these aspiring metal caricatures into realistic portraits of young outcasts.

Which brings me to Rory Culkin. Yes, he is from the same brood as the famous (to some of us older types) Macaulay Culkin, but in Lords of Chaos he seems to be channeling a young (carried in no small part by his eyes and his near-constant, “What the Hell is wrong with you people?” tone of voice). Culkin carries this picture. His joyful cynicism is underscored as his post-death montage wraps up, “No. Fuck. Stop this sentimental shit.” Though he may call himself “Euronymous”, Øystein remains Øystein: a cheeky, ambitious nerd with a flair for publicity. Lords of Chaos rubs elbows with the countless musical biopics that have streamed forth from the movie industry since time immemorial. It’s one of the few, though, to capture melodrama, mundanity, and hilarity so capably and with such strong disregard for nostalgia.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“Despite Åkerlund’s refusal to lionize these immature kids, ‘Lords of Chaos’ is tremendous fun. Caveat: one must be able to handle severed pig heads, cat torture, and casual Nazism.” –Amy Nicholson, Variety