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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.
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.
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!