Category Archives: Top 10 Lists

POD 366, EP. 99: THE BEST AND WEIRDEST AND BEST WEIRD MOVIES OF 2024

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Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

Adult Swim Yule Log (2022): Read the Apocryphally Weird  entry! ‘s original gonzo Christmas horror flick, now out of limited release and available to everyone in a standard Blu-ray edition; you’ll miss out on the special lenticular slipcase but score all the other extra features (commentaries, FX descriptions, actual Yule log, etc). Buy Adult Swim Yule Log.

EPISODE SPOILER! The 366 Weird Movies’ staff consensus top 10 Weird Movies of 2024.

9/10 (tie).  The Eternal Recurrence/Katernica

8. Daaaaaali!: “A journalist attempts to interview Salvador Dalí, but the painter’s erratic behavior and demands constantly cut her attempts short… While other directors resort to bemused realism to tackle the Surrealist icon’s notoriously slippery persona, Dupieux is a kindred spirit who fearlessly jumps right in to what makes Dalí tick: the irrational, the nonsensical, the dreamlike.–Gregory J. Smalley

7. Abruptio: “Recovering alcoholic Les Hackels finds himself compelled to follow murderous instructions or a bomb implanted in his neck will detonate… Violent twists accumulate to breaking point as the plot lurches toward a supernatural conspiracy, with all its hapless character-victims played by humans-as-puppets.”–Giles Edwards

6. Kinds of Kindness: “A triptych of twisted modern fables from Yorgos Lanthimos: a boss dictates every aspect of his employee’s life; after his missing wife returns, a police officer suspects that she’s been replaced by a close copy; two cult members search for their messiah… John McEnroe’s broken racket will be gifted (and stolen), Emma Stone will cry ‘lick me again!’ (not what you think), and dogs will (mostly) have a blast on the beach.”–Gregory J. Smalley

5. The Absence of Milk in the Mouths of the Lost: “A mysterious milkman helps a grieving mother deal with the loss of her child… Some of the imagery is arresting: the cigar-smoking demons are as brilliantly conceived as they are easily achieved, and sequences like the woman who pierces her milk-bag bra (!) with a knife are hard to forget.”–Gregory J. Smalley

4. I Saw the TV Glow: “Two misfit teenagers become obsessed with a paranormal TV show, leading them into delusions that persist into adulthood… By the film’s end, imagery merging humans and TVs, reminiscent of Videodrome, reinforces the focus on pathological fandom in the face of pervasive media—but leaves a crack for Schoenbrun’s underlying metaphor to shine through.”–Gregory J. Smalley

Continue reading POD 366, EP. 99: THE BEST AND WEIRDEST AND BEST WEIRD MOVIES OF 2024

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2024: MAINSTREAM EDITION

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Here is my obligatory/traditional annual top 10 list of movies, ranked according to mainstream standards. In other words, weird movies are allowed on this list, but I attempt to rank the 2024 releases according to their general cinematic merit, intended for people who don’t specialize in the surrealer genres. We will announce our staff consensus top 10 weird movies of 2024 on this week’s Pod 366 released on Friday (print list to follow).

There are a fair number of films that might have made this list but for the fact that I didn’t have time to get to them in 2024, including, most notably, Sean Baker’s Anora and Nosferatu. I expect to see them, and maybe some other worthy movies I hadn’t considered, before awards voting season concludes in mid-January. Some of them may end up deserving inclusion here.

Before the official top ten starts, here are ten honorable mentions, in alphabetical order: Alien: Romulus, Animalia, Daaaaalí!, Juror #2, Kinds of Kindness, Megalopolis, Rumours, Santosh, Strange Darling, and The Wild Robot.

And now, the official list:

10. Hit Man: An undercover cop posing as a hit man falls for a woman who solicits his murder-for-hire services. Sounds like a fine film noir premise—and there is tension in the climax—but it plays out like a black romantic comedy. Solidly directed by , but the discussion rightfully revolves around the performance of Glen Powell, who dresses up (at one point donning a wig) to portray a dozen or so individual killers. Briefly released to theaters in order to qualify for the Academy Awards, but most people who saw it did so on Netflix. (There is some controversy in the film world about Netflix’s recent failure to give their projects decent theatrical runs, preferring instead to use even their prestige pictures as digital inventory). Based (very loosely!) on a true story, in that there are no such things as killers-for-hire: they are all undercover law enforcement agents. Think about that when considering how you want to bump off your spouse (just another friendly tip from 366 Weird Movies!)

9. Challengers: Tennis prodigies Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) meet the enchanting, and even more talented, Tashi (Zendaya) as teens; the trio’s careers take different paths as they form a love triangle over a decade, until Patrick and Art find themselves matched in the finals of a U.S. Open qualifying tournament for their first head-to-head meeting as professionals. The script serves up all the angles with these characters, and you can form a case for rooting for or against any of them. I side with audiences who find the inconclusive ending a bit disappointing, but it doesn’t undo all the good points that came before. The match sequences are thrilling, brilliantly edited and shot from unusual angles, Zendaya is scorchingly hot in a tennis skirt, and there’s a pretty obvious homoerotic subtext for those who dig that kind of thing. From .

8. Mars Express: A pair of private detectives on terraformed Mars investigate the death of a cybernetics student, which (naturally) Continue reading TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2024: MAINSTREAM EDITION

TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES OF 2023

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2023 is officially in the books, and we’re still here, against all odds.

Actually, for the purposes of weird movie accounting, we put 2023 to bed last month. Our annual movie calendar traditionally ends on the last day of November. We’re usually not missing out on much; December releases are typically limited to Oscar bait dramas and extended-universe tentpoles. This year, however, a pair of major weird releases dropped in December, too late to qualify for this list: ‘s animated fantasy The Boy and the Heron and ‘ horror/sci-fi satire Poor Things. I have a feeling that, based on their performance in my overall 2023 list (which, confusingly, does include December releases), you will see both of them place high in next year’s weird movie list.

Once Within a Time, Weirdest Movie of 2023As always, there were hard cuts at the bottom of the list. struck again with another absurdist comedy, the picaresque, kaiju-esque Smoking Causes Coughing. Dream Scenario gave a mainstream prestige role, but still allowed him the chance to explore a nerdier shade of weird.  A New Old Play, which was made in 2021 but didn’t screen in the U.S. until this year, was a phantasmagorical trip  through Chinese history (and into Chinese Hell). Minimalist surrealism found expression(ism) in the low budget, mythologically-sourced Leda. And Zapper!, another microbudget psychedelic marvel with flying moose heads and banana guns, was the final film to miss the top 10 cut.

This year, this is my personal list, with no input from the rest of the staff—although you can see Giles Edwards‘ and El Rob Hubbard‘s choices at the bottom of this post (along with a composite from the three of us), and also in our most recent episode of Pod 366. Therefore, if you feel that it’s a crime that your favorite came in at #3 when any idiot can see it obviously deserves to be #1, I am the idiot to blame. When ranking, I use a secret proprietary formula that accounts for cinematic craftsmanship, the degree of surrealism/weirdness, and the perceived prestige in the weird movie community based on buzz and reader feedback, then I shuffle them into whatever arbitrary order I momentarily feel like without regard to any of that.

So, on to the official Weirdest Movies of 2023 List! As always, films are listed in random order—the weirdest of orders.

1. Once Within a Time: Also coming in at #10 on my overall 2023 top Continue reading TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES OF 2023

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2023: MAINSTREAM EDITION

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

Here is my obligatory/traditional annual top 10 list of movies, ranked according to mainstream standards. In other words, weird movies are allowed on this list, but I attempt to rank the 2023 releases according to their general cinematic merit, intended for people who don’t specialize in the surrealer genres. If you want an advance peek at the weird list (coming tomorrow), check out our latest episode of Pod 366.

There are a fair number of films that might have made this list but for the fact that I didn’t have time to get to them in 2023. Notably, I wasn’t able to screen awards contenders All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, American Symphony, Anatomy of a Fall, Apolonia Apolonia, The Color Purple, Fallen Leaves, Ferrari, Four Daughters, Maestro, May December, The Mother of All Lies, Rustin, Saltburn, Society of the Snow, The Taste of Things, or The Zone of Interest before drafting this list. I expect to see most of these before awards voting season concludes, and some of them may end up deserving inclusion here.

Before the official top ten starts, here are 2023’s numerous honorable mentions, in alphabetical order: Beau is Afraid, Beyond Utopia, Blackberry, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, Dream Scenario, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Give Me Pity!, John Wick 4, Killers of the Flower Moon, Lynch/Oz, Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Past Lives, Robot Dreams, Suzume, Talk to Me, Unicorn Wars, Unidentified Objects, and When Evil Lurks.

Before commenting on this list, take a look here and see if your comment fits into one of these predefined categories.

And now, the official list:

10. Once Within a Time: Curtains open on a glowing, chanting golden tree woman, then children watch a couple with wicker cages around their heads wander through incidents of apocalypse, technology, and wonder. Simultaneously ancient and hyper-modern, Godfrey  Reggio‘s visually-stunning surrealist experimental feature is as an apocalyptic dispatch from the far reaches of reality and a major cinematic event of 2023. With a new Philip Glass score, Iranian vocalist Sussan Deyhim as a tree-mother-goddess-spirit with a glowing heart, and a very special guest star as a pied piper who speaks in saxophone solos. Under an hour long, but because of its esoteric nature (Reggio dubs it a “bardic fairy tale”) its exposure was limited to museums and major art-house venues; hopefully it will find it’s way onto disc/streaming services soon.

9. The Origin of Evil [L’Origine du mal]: A sardine factory worker (a ruthless but needy Laure Calamy) reconnects with her rich, estranged father, who lives in an isolated mansion with four women, each of whom have their own secrets and schemes. A meticulously plotted French film where no one may be who they seem, slowly unraveling a great deal of nasty behavior amidst a sprinkling of satire and split screens. You’ll be wondering who’s plotting against whom— Continue reading TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2023: MAINSTREAM EDITION

TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES OF 2022

2022 is officially in the books, and we’re still here, against all odds.

Actually, for the purposes of weird movie accounting, we put 2022 to bed last month. Our annual movie calendar ends on the last day of November, to allow 366 Weird Movies Yearbooks to go out in December. We’re not missing out on much; usually, December releases are limited to extended universe entries and Oscar bait dramas. This year, however, we do have to apologize to one movie that got caught in the late November rush: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead‘s low-budget supernatural paranoid thriller Something in the Dirt. It might have the weirdo qualities necessary to make this list, but I confess I still haven’t seen it. So much to see!

mad god (2021) posterAs always, there were hard cuts at the bottom of the list. The eerie Finnish feathery horror Hatching was the last film cut from the top ten list. The whimsical dream auditing romance Strawberry Mansion also scored strong with our staff—when it was released in early 2022, I assumed it would finish in the top 10, but the weird movies just kept flowing in and passing it by.

I personally finalize this list. The staff here has input, but I set the voting rules, create the universe of candidates, and break all ties. Therefore, if you feel that it’s a crime that fan-favorite Everything Everywhere All at Once came in at a measly #3 when any idiot can see it obviously deserves to be #1, I am the idiot to blame. When ranking, I use a secret proprietary formula that accounts for cinematic craftsmanship, the degree of surrealism/weirdness, and the perceived prestige in the weird movie community based on buzz and reader feedback, then I shuffle them into whatever arbitrary order I momentarily feel like without regard to any of that.

So, on to the official Weirdest Movies of 2022 List! As always, films are listed in random order—the weirdest of orders.

7. Neptune Frost – In an alternate-reality Rwanda, an escaped coltan miner teams up with an intersexed refugee to hack global information systems through their dreams. This Afro-surrealist feature is also a musical (and the music is its most successful element). There’s almost too much to process here in this intellectualized film that deals with politics (global, local and imaginary), the intersection of technology and mysticism, gender identity, and more. It’s part of a larger independent universe that includes a concept album, “MartyrLoserKing,” from co-writer/composer Saul Williams.

2. Flux Gourmet – A “culinary performance” art troupe (e.g. a woman smears herself with tomato soup while a pair of DJs mike up her digestive tract and mix it with the sound of a blender) perform a one-month residency, where cutthroat rivalries and digestive problems Continue reading TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES OF 2022