Category Archives: Miscellanea

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 4/4/2014

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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):

Under the Skin: Scarlett Johansson stars as a beautiful alien who lures men to their death in Scotland in this science fiction experiment with avant-garde visuals. By bringing us this one just after unleashing ‘s baffling doppelganger thriller Enemy on unsuspecting audiences, new distributor A24 is fast becoming the go-to outlet for limited-release weirdness. Under the Skin official site.

FILM FESTIVALS – Kansas City FilmFest (Kansas City, MO, Apr. 5-13):

Although there’s not much that’s newly weird at this heartland festival—we’ll only be highlighting one film that’s escaped our notice thus far in the festival season—there are a couple of very interesting themed programs of older movies running here. The first, dubbed “Afrofuturism,” features Sun Ra’s uncategorizable 1974 oddity Space is the Place (a sort of blaxploitation sci-fi musical from the avant-garde jazz orchestra leader who claimed to be an alien from Saturn) along with the satire Destination Planet Negro (about what might have happened if George Washington Carver had built a spaceship to colonize Mars) and a smattering of other films in this very small and specialized subgenre. The other notable program is an impressive animation slate that’s anchored by ‘s latest, Cheatin’, and Ari Folman’s long-awaited dystopian adaptation The Congress. Add to those a mid-1970s retrospective featuring Heavy Traffic (1973), the racially explosive Coonskin (1975), and Wizards (1977), and you have a truly weird series going. As to our new discovery:

  • Coherence – Described as “part cerebral sci-fi and part relationship drama,” this reality-bending debut is garnering comparisons to ‘s Primer for its mix of hard science and low budget. Screens April 10 & 12.

    .

Kansas City FilmFest home page.

NEW ON DVD:

L’immortelle (1963): A Frenchman vacationing in Istanbul falls in love with a woman who may be involved in the white slave trade. Redemption Video continues to slowly release their treasure trove Alain Robbe-Grillet’s playful, surreal and sadomasochistic movies. Buy L’Immortelle.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

L’immortelle (1963): See description in DVD above. Buy L’Imortelle [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.

Miscellanea

CAPSULE: MUSHY VEGETABLES (2006)

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DIRECTED BY: Ivan Tabifulinyu (as Charlie White)

FEATURING: Svetlana Avrora (as Lindsay Linton), Lazar Sukhorukov, Ray Romano (as Andrei Romanov)

April Fool's Day movie

PLOT: This film has not been translated into English, and in fact I suspect the dialogue is delivered in a made-up language (the alien “speaks” in a voice that sounds like out-of-pitch alto saxophone with a broken reed fed through a vocoder), so the plot is somewhat difficult to figure out, to say the least. It appears to involve an alien ad executive living in Tallinn who accidentally causes a woman at a cocktail party to miscarry by touching her swollen belly, and is then kidnapped and put through various psychological tortures by a gang before escaping to an orgy where he is eventually ripped limb from limb.

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: I never thought I would say this, but this thing is actually too weird and incomprehensible to even be considered for the List. There is a reason this movie has never been picked up by a distributor, and it’s not just because Ray Romano’s agent reportedly asked to have all the negatives burned. This is pure weird-for-the-sake-of-weird nonsense, and we refuse to have any part in promoting it by placing it on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies of All Time.

COMMENTS: Nobody will love Raymond anymore after seeing him cheer on the dairy-based psychological torture of an innocent lifeform in Mushy Vegetables, an irritating Estonian exercise in arthouse provocation. What was family-friendly comedian Ray Romano (working under the obvious pseudonym Andrei Romanov) thinking when he agreed to take a small part as an alien-terrorizing sadist in this Baltic bowel movement? My theory is that it was a short-sighted tax dodge, a way to write off a vacation in Tallinn as a work expense. At any rate, I lend no credence to the rumor that his people are responsible for Mushy Vegetables‘ unavailability; the movie is quite capable of being ignored on its own lack of merit. Crisp cinematography and clever creature design on the genitalia-free E.T. are the only positives in this utterly pretentious science-fiction experiment from conceptual artist Tabifulinyu, who should have stuck to his original enterprise of creating a line of women’s lingerie fashioned from his toenail clippings held together by hot glue. Film making is not in the artist’s blood, as evidenced by his decision to forgo an intelligible story for a series of tableaux designed to shock and irritate the viewer. Key moments include an grotesque miscarriage scored to an avant-garde jazz rendition of “Pop Goes the Weasel,” an alien whose digestive process is reversed (he sits on a recently-used toilet and suctions up the deposit, pooping eggs from his mouth), and a final (explicitly pornographic) orgy sequence where the alien is torn limb from limb (the blood that spatters on the naked revelers looks like beef gravy). All of this is far more nauseating to watch than it reads on the page, and the sickening feeling isn’t helped any by the screetchy soundtrack which mixes incessant nonsense blabber with wailing horns. Many of our readers will doubtlessly take the description above as a dare to watch the film, but trust me: you can’t sit through this one.

I received a DVD-R of this film personally mailed to me from Estonia by the director, with postage due. Thanks a lot, Estonian jerkface. Although the still reprinted above has circulated in the Internet for years, there’s hasn’t been any interest in pirating or bootlegging this impenetrable and grotesque movie. You won’t find Mushy Vegetables available for download on any torrent site. For all I know, the copy previously in my possession (I threw it out with this morning’s trash) was the last copy of the film in existence, other than the director’s master. The Cremaster series is readily available by comparison.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“Absolute crap, like what would come out of the other end of Harmony Korine if he’d eaten an expired Christ allegory for dinner.”–Lou Ebert (Roger Ebert’s less well-known, less successful, estranged half-brother), “Lou’s Views” (private communication)

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/28/2014

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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):

Go Down Death (2013): Stories of a town full of captive soldiers, blind prostitutes and child gravediggers, adapted from the works of fictional amputee poet Jonathan Mallory Sinus; there’s a definite influence at work here. We never expected this film to see any form of distribution, so it’s nice to see it playing for a week at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn (Friday and Saturday nights’ midnight showings are even in Smell-O-Vision). Go Down Death official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Phantasm V: Ravager (2014?): After the divisive fourth installment of the Phantasm franchise ended on a cliffhanger, official word has come down that there will be a fifth (and final) entry in the series. According to Bloody Disgusting David Hartman scripts and directs; produces. More at the Phantasm series official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Crave (2012): A disillusioned crime scene photographer retreats into a world of vigilante revenge fantasies. The ad copy spoke of an “inner world of dark fantasies” and “dangerous visions,” but the reviewers spoke of “empty movie-shout-out posturing” and “a misleading, long-winded chore.” Ouch. Buy Crave.

Disco Exorcist (2011): See description in VHS below. This is a VHS/DVD combo pack (!) with two different sets of cover art. Buy Disco Exorcist [VHS/DVD Combo Pack].

“Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXIX”: Nothing extremely weird in this particular set, but a trip to the Satellite of Love for some B-movie badness is always welcome. Episodes included are Mamie Van Doren running wild in Untamed Youth, the standard sword-and-sandaler Hercules and the Captive Women, the seemingly interminable The Thing That Wouldn’t Die, and the strangest film in the set, the ultra-rare Italian superhero epic Pumaman. Buy “Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXIX”.

Persona (1966): Read the Certified Weird entry! As opposed to Warner’s indifference to Performance (see below), the Criterion Collection releases their weird Per- title with appropriate respect. This restored version of the film includes the usual suite of interviews, archival footage and extra features (including the full-length documentary Liv & Ingmar) you expect from a Criterion release. Buy Persona [Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD combo].

The Swimmer (1968): Read our review. This dreamlike vehicle adapted from a John Cheever story gets an elaborate special edition courtesy of… Grindhouse Releasing? Yep. Buy The Swimmer [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

The Truth About Emanuel (2013): Read out capsule review. Yet another in a long line of movies that chose not to use our quote on their box cover (c’mon—I think “‘the movie as a whole feels very slow-developing’–366 Weird Movies” has a nice ring to it). Buy The Truth About Emanuel.

Wonderwall (1968): A professor drills peepholes in his wall to spy on his fashion model neighbor and sees psychedelic visions. This collector’s edition includes the original theatrical version and a re-edited director’s cut with unused footage. Music by George Harrison. Buy Wonderwall.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Performance (1968/1970): Read the Certified Weird entry! Amazon and other outlets list Warner Archive (normally known for DVD-R’s of deep catalog titles) as releasing this classic on Blu-ray on March 25, but as of this writing it is listed as out-of-stock everywhere. Buy Performance [Blu-ray].

Persona (1966): See description in DVD above. Buy Persona [Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD combo].

The Swimmer (1968): See description in DVD above. Buy The Swimmer [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

The Truth About Emanuel (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy The Truth About Emanuel [Blu-ray].

Wonderwall (1968): See description in DVD above. Buy Wonderwall [Blu-ray].

NEW ON VHS:

Disco Exorcist (2011): A Seventies swinger is cursed when he spurns a voodoo priestess. Releasing this throwback movie in an inferior format at a higher price is either a stroke of marketing genius, or idiocy. If it’s a clamshell case, though, I’ll take one. Buy Disco Exorcist [VHS].

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.

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/21/2014

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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):

Falcon Song (2014): Judging from the trailer, it’s about a guitar-playing drifter who meets a telekinetic hottie who’s involved in a land dispute with the Masons. No one has seen it yet, but co-star Rainey Qualley, who’s Andie McDowell’s daughter, has movie star looks. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her show up in something more prominent soon. Falcon Song official site.

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013): This documentary covers ‘s failed attempt to adapt Frank Hebert’s cult sci-fi novel to the big screen (a task later completed less than admirably by ). This documentary is getting more buzz than Jodorowsky’s actual new release, The Dance of Reality, which suggests that the general public likes the idea of Alejandro Jodorowsky better than they like the reality. Opening in New York City this week, future dates unknown. Jodorowsky’s Dune official site.

Maladies (2012): A retired, mentally ill soap opera star (James Franco) loses his grip on reality and hears voices as he lives with his equally deranged sister. Directed by “internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Carter,” it has currently earned a o% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Maladies official site.

FILM FESTIVALS – Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor, MI, Mar. 25-30):

Ann Arbor is the destination of choice for experimental filmmakers whose work is too academic, obscure and/or weird to screen at mainstream film festivals. As usual, we recognize almost none of the featured titles. The program that catches our eye is next Friday’s (3/28) “Animated Films in Competition” slate, which features a new stop-motion short from the and “Sangre de Unicornio,” a Spanish-language cartoon about teddy bears hunting unicorns. We’re sure there’s other good stuff there, too. Why not go there and find it for us, Michiganders? Ann Arbor Film Festival home page.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Forbidden Zone 2 (201?): After years of talk about a sequel to 1980’s trip to the groovy, cartoonishly Satanic 6th Dimension, the time for talk is over. is putting his money where his mouth is… or rather, he’s putting your money where his mouth is, with a crowd-sourcing campaign on Indiegogo. Per the synopsis, an angry clown, interracial love affair, a princess in pasties, and an army of pinheads figure heavily in the new plot, along with an all-new score from brother Danny Elfman. The FZ fanbase is big enough that this one is certain to be funded; at this writing they’ve earned about a third of their $100,000 goal, with more than a month left to go. Forbidden Zone 2 at Indiegogo.

Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem (201?): A blasphemous gore comedy from Spain that will feature Jesus chopping up zombies and mutants with the skeleton of a giant fish. The trailer reveals an absurd level of carnage that approaches Tokyo Gore Police: Spanish . It’s an expanded version of the successful festival short “Fist of Jesus,” that featured the Messiah botching the resurrection of Lazarus and inadvertently creating a plague of zombies. Raising money via Kickstarter, they filmmakers are asking for an ambitious $150,000, and have raised $11,000 in pledges with a month and a half to go. Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem at Kickstarter.

NEW ON DVD:

“Is This a Zombie?” (Season 1) (2011): See description in DVD below.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Is This a Zombie?” (Season 1) (2011): A teen is killed by a serial killer, resurrected by a zombie, then killed again by a chainsaw-wielding magical girl and resurrected as a female magical zombie… The plot description of this 13 episode gender-bending harem/zombie anime caught our eye in a week with few home video releases to consider. Buy “Is this a Zombie?” (Season 1) [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

Mysterious Skin (2004): A teen who believes he was abducted by aliens tracks down a childhood pal, now a hustler in New York City, while investigating the source of his amnesia. This searing drama is generally considered ‘s best work. Buy Mysterious Skin [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Broad Daylight (2004): More madness from Memphis’ John Michael McCarthy (Teenage Tupelo). This one is simple nostalgia: a recreation of Bettie Page-style burlesque loops (featuring garters and stockings, pasties and feather boas) shot in washed out 8mm Kodachrome color, set to psychobilly music. It’s still kinda weird. Watch Broad Daylight 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.

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/14/14

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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):

Enemy: Jake Gyllenhaal tracks down a man he sees in a movie who looks just like him, with reality-bending results. This psychological thriller from was one of several doppelganger-themed flicks playing film festivals last season (see also The Double with Jesse Eisenberg). Enemy official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

A Crack Up At The Race Riots (rumored): In 1998 released a book called “A Crack-Up at the Race Riots,” which was essentially a ‘zine-y series of scrapbook entries (including fill-in-the-blank suicide notes and a list of Tupac Shakur’s favorite novels) set in a world where MC Hammer has ignited a race war against the forces of whiteness (led by Vanilla Ice). Apparently, 2013 Weirdest Actor Winner James Franco plans to adapt this supremely unadaptable work into a movie (also featuring his Spring Breakers co-stars “the Atlanta Twins”). Whether this is a serious project or a Shia LaBeouf style prank is anyone’s guess at this point, but Indiewire thought the rumor had enough legs to post about it.

Kung Fury (est. 2014): When the partner of 1980s karate cop Kung Fury is killed by time-traveling assassin Adolph Hitler, Kung decides to go back in time to kill Der Führer, but miscalculates and winds up in Viking times instead. This Kickstarter project missed its $1,000,000 feature film goal, but earned a solid $630,000 towards finishing the 30 minute prototype. It’s supposed to be released for free online when competed. It hardly seems possible to live up to the promise of the trailer. Kung Fury official site (production company Laser Unicorns’ Facebook page should have more up-to-date information).

NEW ON DVD:

Iron Sky (Director’s Cut) (2012): We never got around to reviewing this would-be cult film about Nazis on the moon, but maybe this “director’s cut” will give us an excuse to get to it. It’s twenty minutes longer than the previously released cut. Available in a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack only. Buy Iron Sky (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray/DVD combo].

Thirst (1979): See description in DVD below.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Iron Sky (Director’s Cut) (2012): See description in DVD above.

Shutter Island (2010)/Aviator (2004): Read our review of Shutter Island. A /Leonardo DiCaprio double feature that pairs Marty’s weird-ish psychological thriller with an Oscar-bait yawner. Buy Shutter Island/Aviator [Blu-ray].

Thirst (1979): Read our capsule review. This Blu-ray of the odd Australian film about vampire ranchers lists the same content as Synapse’s 2008 DVD release (which is bundled with the Blu). Buy Thirst [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Teenage Tupelo (1995): Before grindhouse rehashes became trendy, an amateur filmmaker named John Michael McCarthy was putting together postmodern pastiches that drew their inspiration from trash culture of the 1930s to early 1960s. This one features lesbian girl gangs, a rockabilly singer who can only hit two notes, graphic “birth of a baby” footage, and a sexploitation star in edible panties. Originally released by Something Weird video, they dropped it because it was too weird. Obviously, it’s intended for adults only. Watch Teenage Tupelo 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.