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.

You know the doldrums of the summer blockbuster season are finally over when interesting movies start to trickle back into theaters…

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010): A mystery/action epic set in a fantastical steampunk China; the titular detective investigates a spontaneous human combustion plague.  Many are saying this is a return to form for once-great director Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China, Zu Warriors).  Opening in New York and LA, with playdates in major North American cities throughout September.  Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame official site.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life [Gainsbourg: Vie Heroique] (2010):  Biopic about the dashing chanteur who slept with Bardot and Birkin; it includes surrealistic elements (Gainsbourg’s libido, a grotesque, giant-nosed puppet, shares screen time with him).  This one is currently buried deep in the reader-suggestion bin.  Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life official site.

Love Exposure (2008): Shion Sono’s 4 hour (!) comedy epic involves Roman Catholicism, candid panty photos, and a butt-kicking, man-hating schoolgirl.  It’s playing this week at Cinema Village in Greenwich Village, with future screenings highly unlikely.  We’re hoping this exhibition is a harbinger of an imminent Region 1 DVD release.  No official site, but this IFC News review (which describes the movie as ” totally bugs**t insane”) may get your juices flowing.

NEW ON DVD:

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990): In one of his final movies, the world-class director films eight of his own dreams, including one where he enters the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (who’s played by none other than Martin Scorsese).  Normally, a re-release of Dreams would be cause to celebrate, but in this case it’s not.  Here’s why: this is a “Warner Archives” release, which means an overpriced, features-free DV-R (the “Archives” are where Warners sends niche movies, such a silent films, that they conclude won’t make enough money to justify pressing DVDs).  Further, the announcement page ominously warns that the film is not restored and has been made from the “best-quality video master currently available.”  Since Warner’s 2003 DVD release is out of print, relegating Dreams to the Archives suggests they have no interest in investing in a quality production of this important film anytime in the near future.  Buy Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (DV-R). You can also rent or buy Dreams via Video-on-Demand.

“The Complete Jean Vigo”: Truth in advertising: the Criterion Collection has packaged up the complete film works of Vigo, the son of an anarchist who died at 29 of a lung infection after completing his first feature film.  That film, of course, was L’Atalante (1934), the lightly surrealist tale about newlyweds living on a barge; also of interest is the then-controversial 41 minute short Zero de Conduite, a revolutionary tale about a French boarding school that was banned by the French censors until 1946. Buy “The Complete Jean Vigo” (The Criterion Collection).

Face to Face [Ansikte mot Ansikte] (1976):  This neglected Ingmar Bergman movie about a psychiatrist hallucinating and undergoing a nervous breakdown has long been unavailable, despite the fact that both Bergman and star Liv Ulman were nominated for Oscars in 1977.  The movie has been compared to the Certified Weird Repulsion, among other tales of feminine madness.  Olive films snapped it up while the Criterion Collection was looking the other way. Buy Face to Face.

Norwegian Ninja [Kommandør Treholt & ninjatroppen] (2010):  An alternate-history story that re-imagines the career of diplomat Arne Treholt (who was convicted of treason for selling secrets to the Soviets) as a top ninja in a secret Scandinavian spy squad!  We suspect a lot of the jokes in this absurdist political satire will go over the heads of non-Norwegians, but how can a weird movie site not at least mention a film entitled “Norwegian Ninja“? Buy Norwegian Ninja.

Orpheus [Orphée] (1950):  Frankly, there have not been a lot of weird new releases in 2011 (as compared to the banner year of 2010), but the Criterion Collection has had us working overtime with their special edition re-releases of old classics.  Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, an update of the Greek myth about the poet who travels to the underworld in search of his lost love, is one of Surrealism’s greatest achievements.  Dig those wavy mirrors.  Another film currently languishing in our reader-suggested review queue (that should get bumped up with this release). Buy Orpheus (Criterion Collection).

Wrecked (2011): Psychological thriller starring Adrien Brody as a man who wakes up trapped in a wrecked car with no memory of who he is or how he got there.  He hallucinates a lot.  The fact this bravura one-man show performance by relatively big star Brody went straight to DVD does not bode well; hopefully, it was just too weird to be released in theaters. Buy Wrecked.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Coen Brothers Collection”: Of course we love the Coen Brothers, but the only film in this four movie collection that might even be called mildly “weird” is Raising Arizona, the ultra-quirky story of a cop and a crook who get married, find out they’re infertile, and kidnap a baby.  The other three movies—the neo-noir Blood Simple, the period gangster film Miller’s Crossing, and the hit black comedy Fargo—are all very accomplished, but fairly conventional.  A 2007 DVD box set from MGM (buy) contained the same four films, but threw in the Certified Weird Barton Fink as the cherry on top.  We’re hoping (probably in vain) that Fink‘s exclusion from this set means someone has plans to release it on Blu-ray separately. Buy the “Coen Brothers Collection” [Blu-ray].

“The Complete Jean Vigo”: See description in DVD above. Buy “The Complete Jean Vigo” [Blu-ray].

Deadgirl (2008):  Read our capsule review.  This controversial film explores what happens when two horny teenage boys find a beautiful undead woman on a slab and decide to keep her as a sex slave.  Is it misogynist, feminist, or just plain exploitation-ist? Buy Deadgirl [Blu-ray].

If… (1968): The first film in the Lindsay Anderson/Malcolm McDowell “Mick Travis” saga (which continued with the Certified Weird O Lucky Man! and wrapped up with Britannia Hospital) is set at a British boarding school, and is one of the greatest (and weirdest) anti-authority howls of the 1960s & 70s.  This Criterion Blu-ray adds no new features over and above what was on the 2007 2-disc DVD. Buy If . . . [Blu-ray].

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D (1993):  Read our review.  This is the basically the same as Disney’s existing DVD/Blu-ray release, except that it adds 3-D capability for the few TVs that are set up for a third dimension.  Note that Nightmare was not originally released in 3-D.  The release includes a 3-D Blu-ray, a regular Blu-ray, a DVD and a digital copy. Buy The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D [Blu-ray].

Orpheus [Orphée] (1950):  See description in DVD above. Buy Orpheus [Blu-ray].

“Radley Metzger’s Erotica Psychedelica”: Three of Metzger’s well-shot, pre-hardcore features: Camille 2000 (1969), The Lickerish Quartet (1970), and Score (1972).  We can confirm that The Lickerish Quartet, at least, is pretty psychedelic.  This three-disc limited edition (3,500 units) from Cult Epics comes with a soundtrack and “collectible lenticular artwork” (?) Buy “Radley Metzger’s Erotica Psychedelica” [Blu-ray].

Raising Arizona (1975): If you want to skip the non-weird films in the Coen Brothers collection listed above, you can buy this single disc offering from Fox. Buy Raising Arizona [Blu-ray].

Wrecked (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Wrecked [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.

We’ll be covering a strange lineup of movies next week—but what else would you expect us to do?  First up is a reader review of the Korean arthouse hit, 3-Iron (2004); we’ll finish up our look at the currently available features from Spanish underground auteur Carlos Atanes with his Dick-ian sci-fi tale, Proxima (2007); then we’ll travel back in time (courtesy of the Criterion collection) to try to make sense of Louis Malle‘s long-neglected surreal slapstick comedy Zazie dans le Metro (1960); and Alfred starts a new series on the avant-garde renditions of Mozart operas at the 2006 Salzburg festival with The Marriage of Figaro.

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the revelation of our “Weirdest Search Term of the Week.”  For the third or fourth week in a row we’re going to pass over “wierd lumpy movie short,” but don’t think we don’t notice your effort, searcher.  In the “how could you possibly think Google would know the answer to this?” file goes the query “why won’t my wife rent gummo”?  We liked the term “surreal seed salesman” but, just like the person who was searching for something “like necrophilia but weirder,” we’re looking for something, well, weirder.  We found it in this odd request for “all the list of movies related to humans as veterinarian sea shows and friendship with mermaid.”  Congratulations, fan of movies related to humans as veterinarian sea shows, you win the coveted title of “Weirdest Search Term of the Week”!

Here’s the long-suffering reader suggested review queue for your perusal: Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; The Seventh Seal; Primer; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland  Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

Next week we take a look at a couple of recent releases: we’ll discuss the big time Mickey Rourke/Megan Fox arthouse flop Passion Play (2010), while on the other end of the spectrum 366 Underground uncovers a weird one with the insane micro-budget comedy Frankie in Blunderland (2011).  We’ll also officially inaugurate the winner of the second readers’ choice poll, Pink Floyd the Wall (1982), onto the List of the 366 Best Weird movies ever made.

As the site grows and Google indexes more and more of our peculiar pages, the number of weird search terms we see in the logs piles up and it becomes a chore to slog through them looking for the most bizarre.  Nonetheless, we will gladly report on the strangest of the strange for your amusement.  Pervert searchers are usually good for a chuckle or two, but the guy looking for a “rape man-eating scull necrophilic brain porn video” was a little too creepy even for us.  As odd and disturbingly specialized as his porn fetish is, however, we think he might have more luck than the guy looking for “medieval christian pornography.”  And speaking of perverts, the possible suggestions for the person looking for “weird movies to masterbate to” are only limited by your imagination: My Dinner with Andre? Bambi?  Eraserhead?  We also have to mention the guy who came here searching for “weird drench movies”: we like to think he meant to type “weird French movies,” but these days you never know.  Still, the absolute weirdest search term of the week was, without question, “366′!&-!4%8$,” which sounds  like something Sarge might say if he caught Beetle Bailey reading our site on Army time.

Here’s the ridiculously-long-and-ever growing reader-suggested review queue: Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake;  The Seventh Seal;  Primer; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland  Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

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):

3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy: Well, this is weird.  The world’s first (widely released) 3-D softcore sex movie is a remake of Michael Mak’s surreal 1991 sex comedy Sex and Zen, which featured a bungled horse penis transplant as its comedic centerpiece.  In Hong Kong, 3-D Sex had a record-setting opening and had already outgrossed Titanic and Avatar.  It’s playing Austin, TX at the storied Alamo Drafthouse, but no word on other venues.  3-D Sex and Zen official site (warning: explicit content and annoying music!).

Griff the Invisible: A clerk who moonlights as a masked vigilante meets a girl lost in daydreams in this Australian romantic comedy.  Half the reviewers who’ve seen it use some form of the word “quirk” to describe it (and one even uses a form of “weird”).  Griff the Invisible official site.

The Last Circus [Balada triste de trompeta]:  Read our festival report.  Though we didn’t think Álex de la Iglesia’s allegorical tale of harlequin havoc was quite weird enough to be inaugurated onto the List, we can guarantee many readers are going to make it a point to attend this Circus.  Those of you in New York City will have the chance to catch it this week, while readers in a dozen other US cities will have to keep their eyes out.  The Last Circus official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Cul-de-sac (1966): Roman Polanski‘s followup to Repulsion is another tense, eccentric and psychological tale about a gangster who hides out in a castle and terrorizes (at first) a wimpy Englishman and his French wife.  It’s always cause for celebration when the Criterion Collection restores another neglected Polanski classic. Buy Cul-de-sac [Criterion Collection].

Elvira’s Movie Macabre: The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) /The Manster (1959):  In 2010, horror hostess Elvira relaunched her 1980s franchise show “Movie Macabre” in syndication; this DVD matches up two of the weirder b-horrors she featured.  The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is the incredibly sleazy (by early sixties standards) story of a mad doctor shopping for a body for his decapitated girlfriend; The Manster describes what happens when an American journalist lets a Tokyo scientist experiment on him and grows an extra, evil, head.  Not to spoil anyone’s good clean cleavage-based fun, but you do realize Cassandra Peterson is now your grandmother’s age, don’t you?  Buy Elvira’s Movie Macabre: The Brain That Wouldn’t Die / The Manster.

The Ward (2010): Psychological thriller about a woman who sees a ghost after she’s involuntarily committed to an asylum.  John Carpenter’s first film since 2001’s Ghosts of Mars was not the comeback hit he hoped for, but fans may want to check it out anyway. Buy John Carpenter’s The Ward.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Cul-de-sac (1966): See description in DVD above. Buy Cul-de-sac [Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

The Ward (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy John Carpenter’s The Ward [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959):  OK, perhaps Ed Wood’s opus about aliens who come to Earth to raise the dead so that stupid humans won’t learn how to blow up sunlight isn’t that weird—but you know you want to see it anyway.  It’s a notorious and hilarious anti-masterpiece that everyone needs to see at least once to complete their cinematic education.  Watch Plan 9 from Outer Space 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.