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Audio only link (Soundcloud download)

Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

Megalopolis (2024): Discussion begins. Francis Ford Coppola announces his latest passion project, made with his own fortune, will screen in early 2024. The logline elliptically suggests “the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and dangerous love.” Coppola calls it “unusual” and star Adam Driver hints it “takes a risk.” We remain intrigued. Indiewire has more details.

Reflect (2023): Discussion begins. Trippy “New Age thriller” follows five women on a retreat at Sedona who find themselves menaced by shadow people. Now available on VOD. Reflect official site.

Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah, Jan. 18-28): Discussion begins. The 2024 film season officially kicks off at Sundance. Weird films will occasionally debut here, but it’s no sure thing; last year gave us only Infinity Pool, and this year’s feature slate does not look especially promising. Still, we’d take a flyer on the items below:

• I Saw the TV Glow – Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) returns with another examination of modern technology’s influence on youth—this time, a late-night TV show that introduces kids to a supernatural world. Midnight section.
• It’s What’s Inside – A man shows up at a party with a mysterious suitcase that holds ” an existential nightmare.” Midnight section.
• Little Death – the story of a screenwriter undergoing a midlife crisis and two opioid-addicted taco truck operators collide in an “idiosyncratic debut feature” with “bursts of surreal montage and oddball AI animation.” Screens in the NEXT section.
• “The Rainbow Bridge” – This short by 366-interview victim Dmitri Simakis (of Everything is Terrible!) and Suki-Rose is about human-pet telepathy and is certain to be one of the weirdest things playing at Sundance.

Sundance official homepage

Slamdance Film Festival (Jan. 19-25): Discussion begins. Slamdance, Sundance’s punk cousin, runs concurrently and, featuring lower-budgeted films from less well-established filmmakers, tends to make bolder programming choices. The downside, of course, is that Slamdance offerings are less likely to find meaningful distribution. Here’s what looks weird at this dance:

• The Bitcoin Car – A goat farmer faces the consequences of lending out her parent’s grave to a bitcoin miner. You read that right.
• The Complex Forms – A group of mostly elderly men pass time in a lavish villa, waiting for the unknown creatures to whom they have contractually sold their bodies to arrive.
  
• Darla in Space – Darla teams up with a sentient kombucha scoby…. and there’s more weird stuff.
• Love and Work – Two rebels seek jobs in an absurdist dystopia where work is illegal.
• Slide – Animated Western musical from Bill Plympton, sure to be one of the most hotly sought-after tickets at the dance.
  

Slamdance official homepage

NEPOTISM CORNER:

Deadoaks Mall: This new audio drama from Pete Trbovich, Giles Edwards and others is an absurdist/”Twilight Zone” type anthology set in an infinite, purgatorial mall with the slogan “you can find anything here…. except the exit!” Listen to “Dead Oaks Mall.”

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

Next week’s Pod 366 will largely focus on the films of José Mojica Marins, with the help of Rock! Shock! Pop!‘s Ian Jane. Our YouTube channel (please subscribe!) will become more crowded with the first of what will hopefully be a continuing series, as Pete Trbovich serves up a “Weird View Crew” video review of Space Is the Place (1974). In written reviews, Shane Wilson expands on our (almost complete) coverage of David Lynch with a review of his episodic experiment “Rabbits” (2002), Gregory J. Smalley gives you a somewhat late review of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ weird Oscar contender Poor Things, and Giles Edwards takes an equally delayed gander at Cory McAbee‘s collaborative freebie Deep Astronomy and the Romantic Sciences (available to watch free here, and check out our McAbee interview here). It’s another busy week at 366 Weird Movies! Onward and weirdward!

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

Audio only link (Soundcloud download)

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

Director G.B. Hajim (Strange Frame: Love & Sax, Mermaid’s Lament) will return to chat with us on next week’s Pod 366 (the first entry of 2024)!

In written content, Gregory J. Smalley will drop his year-end picks for both the years’ weirdest movies (similar to what you see above, but in prose form) and best overall movies of 2023; Shane Wilson takes on another that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue with the 2002 spoof Kung Pow: Enter the Fist; and we suspect there’s a non-zero chance Giles Edwards will cover E. Elias Merhige‘s serial killer psychological thriller Suspect Zero (2004). Onward and weirdward!

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

Since Pod 366 replaced our deprecated Weird Horizon column, it’s been a while (well, Thanksgiving) since we’ve posted one of these. But with no Pod this Christmas week, it’s back! And we have a number of last-minute home media releases to inform you of.

ONLINE DEBUTS:

The Sudbury Devil (2023): Read El Rob Hubbard’s review. Listen to our interview with director Andrew Rakich and producer Veronika Payton. Microbudget (but you’ll never notice) period horror about weird Puritan witchcraft practices and genocidal guilt. Self-distributed, so all the rental proceeds go to the folks who made it. Buy or rent The Sudbury Devil  on the official site.

HOME VIDEO:

Dream Scenario (2023): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. Schlemiel professor Nicolas Cage starts showing up in random people’s dreams—now on VOD. Buy Dream Scenario digitally (or wait for cheaper rental prices in a few weeks)

Les Vampires (1915): Read Alfred Eaker’s review. Irma Vep and her gang of miscreants terrorize Paris in these fantastique serials that influenced the burgeoning Surrealist movement. This is a Blu-ray reissue of an out-of-print set. Buy Les Vampires.

“Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films – Collector’s Edition”: A major release from Shout! Factory in collaboration with GKIDS. The five fantastic Yuasa features are the Canonically Weird Mind Game; the Apocryphally Weird Night Is Short, Walk on Girl; the kid-friendly Lu Over the Wall; Ride Your Wave; and his latest, the anachronistic historical musical Inu-Oh. Plus rare shorts, the previously unreleased-on-disc English-language dub of Night Is Short, and more extras. A truly special collector’s edition. Buy “Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films – Collector’s Edition.”

Mondo New York (1988): A late entry in the mondo craze, exploring bizarre and creepy behavior from the New York “underground” scene. Animal lovers beware, but you’ll also see junkies, transsexuals, and performance artists like Lydia Lunch and Karen Finley (sans yams). Now in Blu. Buy Mondo New York.

“Shaw Brothers Classics: Volume Four“: If you’re looking for a very late Christmas gift for some weirdo (or maybe for something on which to spend that cash your parents gave you), and you love goofy late-era kung fu, Arrow’s latest Shaw box may be the thing for you. Among the twelve programmers on offer here are some extra-crazy ones like Five Elements Ninjas and Holy Flame of the Martial World; as always, the Shawscope looks great and Arrow brings the extra features. Buy “Shaw Brothers Classics: Volume Four.”

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

On next week’s post-Christmas Pod 366, Gregory J. Smalley and Giles Edwards will run down their votes for Best Weird Movie of 2023.

In written reviews, Smalley revisits The Adult Swim Yule Log for the holidays; Shane Wilson travels with Werner Herzog on some Encounters at the End of the World (2007); and El Rob Hubbard takes a stroll with the giallo Death Walks at Midnight (1972). Onward and weirdward!