Our weekly 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):

Altered States of Plaine: Here’s a new disease for you: in Altered States of Plaine, a man suffers from a condition that causes him to periodically teleport to a random geographic location, nude. Extremely low-budget, it’s playing in one Greenwich Village theater this week. Altered States of Plaine official site.

Mr. Jones: A couple of artists retreat to (where else?) a cabin in the woods, where they discover that their neighbor, a reclusive fellow artist known as “Mr. Jones,” is one strange dude. Apparently the movie drifts between being a found footage film and a standard narrative; most reviews were poor, but Felix Vasquez Jr. called it “nonsensical in a pretty good way.” Presumably playing somewhere, it’s also available now on instant video, and will be on DVD/Blu-ray next week. Mr. Jones official site at Anchor Bay.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

CoExistence (201?): After over twenty years of directorial silence, Jackie Kong—yes, that Jackie Kong—is back with a new horror movie, a vampire version of “Romeo and Juliet.” “You’ve all heard of Shakespeare in Love?,” she asks, rhetorically, in her Kickstarter pitch. “Well, get ready for Shakespeare in Blood.” This movie will reunite Blade Runner co-stars Rutger Hauer (in a vampire hunter role?) and Daryl Hannah (as Romeo’s mum). Just to put Kong’s absence from feature filmmaking in perspective, she released her most recent movie, Blood Diner, in 1987. CoExistence‘s “attached” Juliet, actress Bella Thorne, would be born ten years later. CoExistence official site.

NEW ON DVD:

“Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3”: The third installment of Olive’s collection features Fleischer Brothers’ cartoons from 1932-1938, with some of the great jazz shorts guest starring Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong. You know we love our Boop here at 366. Buy “Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3”.

Escape from Tomorrow (2013): Read our review(s). Turns out that our fears about Disney’s lawyers never allowing Randy Moore’s anti-Mouse surrealist satire to be released proved unfounded—though maybe you’ll want to grab a copy while you can, anyway. Buy Escape From Tomorrow.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3”: See description in DVD above. Buy “Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3 [Blu-ray].

“Gamera, Vol. 1”: Gamera, the giant, fanged, nuclear-powered flying turtle, was originally conceived of as Daiei studios answer to Tojo’s hit Godzilla. He was too bizarre to be taken seriously as a leading monster, however, and quickly turned into a campy kiddie-matinee idol. You can see his evolution in this four-movie set, which starts with his “serious” self titled movie and ends with Gamera vs. Viras [AKA Destroy All Planets], where the turtle teams up with boy scouts in short pants to fight a squid in a bumblebee spaceship. Buy “Gamera, Vol. 1” [Blu-ray].

“Gamera, Vol. 2”: The Gamera series gets even weirder as he fights a giant ginsu knife in Gamera vs. Guiron, retires in 1972’s Gamera vs. Zigra, then comes back for one last rock ’em sock ’em hurrah in 1980’s Gamera: Super Monster. Neither of Mill Creek’s Gamera sets contain any special features (with four movies stuffed onto one Blu-ray, there was no room). Buy “Gamera, Vol. 2” [Blu-ray].

NEPOTISM CORNER:

Visitors’ “Blueshift EP” (out 5/20/2014): Cameron Jorgensen does more than just watch weird videos and post them every Saturday. He also plays various rhythm instruments in various rock and roll bands. Here he is playing bass in the Salt Lake City band Visitors on their track “Ages.” If you like it (and who wouldn’t?), you can download this track at http://VisitorsOfficial.Bandcamp.com. You can also pre-order the EP at http://visitorstheband.bigcartel.com/.

While they certainly do rock, “Visitors” is a bit generic of a name. Actually, here are six bands named Visitors, none of whom are the group we’re interested in. I suggest we petition the guys to rename the band “Strange Visitors,” “Weird Visitors,” or—dare we hope?—“366 Weird Visitors.”

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.

Our weekly 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):

Ape (2012): An angry, pyromaniac stand-up comic has a nervous breakdown in this low-budget indie. One of the few critics who saw it said “[i]ts deep weirdness and punk-rock do-it-yourself modus operandi are not for everybody.” Playing for one week in New York (which qualifies it for awards consideration); it’s also available via video on demand. Ape official site.

Buttwhistle (2014): A young man rescues a girl from a suicide attempt, then wishes he hadn’t when she gets too attached to him (and gives him the nickname “buttwhistle”). A talking bar of soap supplies some surrealism. Not sure where it’s playing.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

“Stripping Shakespeare” (“Spring 2014”): What took so long for someone to come up with the idea of mixing Shakespeare and strippers? As one of the preview clips available on the website suggests, the Bard might well have come up with the dialogue from “The Taming of the Shrew” while receiving a lap dance. We’re not actually sure whether this is a movie, a series of video installations, or an advertisement for a gentleman’s club aimed at horny English teachers, but it’s odd enough that we wanted to bring it to your attention. Stripping Shakespeare official site.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

“Amžius – When all the lights will wane And all the eyes gaze blinded” (2014): Black suns dance in the sky and a necromancer holds a fistful of flame in this visually advanced 30-minute video from a Lithuanian black metal band. At times the music is way too “br00tal” for yours truly, but it’s interesting as a moving canvas.

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.

First off…

Next week, Alex Kittle will explore The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (Cattet & Forzani’s neo-giallo followup to Amer), while new contributor James Harben explains what the deal is with The Bothersome Man (2006). Bothersome is in our reader-suggested review queue, and G. Smalley will take a look at another film from that clan, an unassuming little flick you may have heard of called Pink Flamingos (1972). Thursday you can take a breather from that weirdness as Alfred Eaker faces The Gunfighter, another Gregory Peck oater from the 1950s.

And, believe it or not (and you have no reason not to), the publication of the 2013 Yearbook is right around the corner… we may interrupt regularly scheduled programming for an announcement.

We didn’t see the usual host of weird search terms this week. We blame spring fever: folks who’ve been cooped up all winter must be leaving behind their perverse, pasty keyboard exploits for some (yech!) fresh air and sunshine. Still, we’ll highlight what we can in our never-ending quest to bring you the Weirdest Search Term of the Week. We’ll start with “movie about a girl who cant get wet shes an alien”—see, we told you we were having a hard time coming up with weird search terms! Just a little bit weirder was the search for “obscure hirsute movies,” which is only strange because the searcher assumes there are commonplace hirsute movies, and wants no part of them. For our Weirdest Search Term of the Week, however, we’ll have to bite the bullet and go with “80s 90s movie with old guy mustache dwarf eats chicken.” Next week, you guys need to come inside and start looking up bizarre stuff on the Internet. The novelty of the outdoors wears off quickly.

Here’s how the ridiculously-long reader-suggested review queue currently stands: The Bothersome Man (next week!); Pink Flamingos (next week!); Celine and Julie Go Boating; Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd; Nightdreams; Rubin & Ed; The Real McCoy; Themroc; Candy (1968); Northfork; Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

Our weekly 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.

FILM FESTIVALS – Tribeca Film Festival (New York City, April 16-27):

Besides an April 26 special screening of Certified Weird classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which concludes with a scientific panel discussing the possibility of the film’s memory-erasure technology becoming a future reality) and a suite of shorts collectively titled “Totally Twisted” (programmers describe the set as “Fun. Creepy. Weird.”), there’s only one film playing at Tribeca this year which looks to have some potential bizarre impact:

• Der Samurai – A small German town believes itis being menaced by a wolf, but onepoliceman discovers the killer is actually a samurai (in lipstick). Screens Apr. 19, 22 & 24.

Tribeca Film Festival official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

The Lobster (est. 2104): Dogtooth auteur Giorgos Lanthimos‘ first English language movie involves a “Hotel” where singles are forced to find a mate in 45 days or be transformed into an animal of their choosing. The latest news is that John C. Reilly joined an ensemble cast that already included Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz along with Lanthimos regulars Aggeliki Papoulia and Ariane Labed. Read the latest news at Variety.

NEW ON DVD:

The End of Time (2012): An experimental documentary on the nature of time. Looks to be in the same cinematography-centric vein as Koyaanisqatsi and its progeny. Buy The End of Time.

Wrong Cops (2013): Quentin Dupieux‘s third feature is an absurdist comedy about cops-gone-wrong entitled, oddly enough, Wrong Cops. The cast includes Eric Wareheim, Marilyn Manson, and former “Twin Peaks” spouses Grace Zabriske and Ray Wise. Buy Wrong Cops.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Alice [Neco z Alenky] (1988): Read the certified weird entry! Jan Svankmajer‘s stop-motion surrealist version of “Alice in Wonderland” is a crucial addition to the Blu-ray ranks, even though the First Run Features disc arrives sans extras. Buy Alice [Blu-ray].

Touch of Evil (1958):  Orson Welles’ overheated noir about a Mexican lawman (Charlton Heston!) who uncovers border town corruption, embodied in the massive, commanding personality of bad cop Hank Quinlan (Welles).  Maybe it’s not completely weird, but if you’ve never seen it you’ll likely be amazed at the ornate camerawork, frighteningly quirky characters, Code-challenging evocations of drugs and rape, and general ahead-of-its-time style. This Blu-ray contains the same content as the 2-disc “50th Anniversary” DVD, including three separate cuts of the film and four (!) commentaries. Buy Touch of Evil [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.

Our weekly 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):

Only Lovers Left Alive: Jim Jarmusch’s latest tackles vampires in love; with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton (as vampires named “Adam” and “Eve”) and Mia Wasikowska in a rare villainous role. It seems like we’ve been waiting forever for this one to come to theaters. Only Lovers Left Alive official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Glilgamesh (post-production, estimated release November 2014): An expedition accidentally releases Innana, the Sumerian goddess of lust. The U.S. government plans to use the divinity as a weapon of mass destruction, while Communists plot a coup, and immortal Gilgamesh decides whether to intervene. With a plot like that it could be weird. From the writer/director of Scrooge in the Hood. No official page but updates appear on production company Boston Film Family’s Facebook page.

Way Down in Chinatown (2013, seeking distribution): A playwright and a theater director flee to a sexually surreal underground world to escape the apocalypse. I think. There’s no question this one will be weird. Way Down in Chinatown official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Apocalypse Kiss (2014): On the eve of a future apocalypse, a miffed serial killer assists a detective in tracking down a thrill-killing couple whose sloppy murders are being falsely attributed to him. Lloyd Kaufman plays the President in a cameo. Buy Apocalypse Kiss.

A Field in England (2013): Read our review! Historically, far too few psychedelic freakout movies have been set in 17th century England; Ben Wheatley‘s latest seeks to rectify that oversight. Buy A Field in England.

I Am Divine (2013): A documentary on the world’s favorite 300-pound copraphagiac transvestite, Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as Divine. Likely to be an un-weird doc on a very weird guy. Buy I Am Divine.

The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012): A filmmaker searches for his missing transvestite friend in Macao and uncovers a shadowy conspiracy. The description makes it sound like your typical gay-interest sci-fi documentary/noir hybrid. Buy The Last Time I Saw Macao.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

A Field in England (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy A Field in England [Blu-ray].

FREE MOVIES ON CRACKLE:

Run Lola Run (1998): Read the Certified Weird entry! We’re not crazy about the idea of watching movies with commercials—especially this one, which depends on relentless momentum for its effect—but free is free. Not the ideal way to see Lola for the first time, but maybe a good chance to catch up with her. Watch Run Lola Run free on Crackle.

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.