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GRAHAM REZNICK’S 10 FAVORITE WEIRD FILMS

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Graham Reznick is the director of the extremely weird 2008 feature I Can See You, described as “a psychedelic campfire tale” and certified by us as one of the 366 Best Weird Movies of All Time. Graham’s personal homepage is here, and you can find I Can See You‘s official site here. [UPDATE 3/11/2011: Just over a year later, we note that three of Graham’s suggestions—Performance, Altered States and Hausu—have been certified as among the weirdest of all time, with more to come, we’re sure.]

I am honored to have been asked to provide a list of Weird Movies for 366 Weird Movies.com!  For my list, I decided I would compile a group of weird films that I always feel like watching, no matter what my mood, or how many times I’ve seen them.  They may not be the “best” movies, or even the strangest—but they all contain at least a touch of the sublime (except, perhaps, #10), and they’re all my favorite weird films.  Many of these I saw when I was young, and are major influences on my own work and approach to filmmaking.  Some may not, at first glance, even seem that weird—but I hope within this context you’ll be able to enjoy and appreciate them for the inherent weirdness that they contain!

Listed in no particular order:

1) PERFORMANCE (Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg, 1968-70, UK)

It’s hard to even describe what makes this movie so special.  A gangster on the run hides out with a formerly passionate rock star (Mick Jagger in his first, and perhaps best, role) in swingin’ 60’s London.  Sounds simple, but it’s so wrought with the cultural tensions of 1968 that it becomes an ultra dense diamond of sheer psychedelic freak out.  Several viewings encouraged!

2) TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (David Lynch, 1994, USA)

I could probably put Lynch’s entire catalogue on here so for simplicity’s sake I’ll just pick one.  I oscillate daily on my favorite David Lynch movie/production, yet more often than not I end up here:  FIRE WALK WITH ME was the first Lynch film I saw, when I was about 13, and it was the first time I understood that movies could be weird AND good.  If you’ve seen the show, this movie is NOT like the show.  The show can GET dark at times, while exploring the wake left in a troubled teen’s death, but this film is DIRECTLY FROM the subjective, paranoid, and dysfunctionally emotional perspective of that troubled teen – in the six days leading up to her death.  It is the HEART of the mystery that forms the show, and it’s an amazing experience that can at once be read as a strange criss-crossing of inter-dimensional signals, or a beautifully moving metaphor for harrowing sexual molestation.  It’s never failed to give me chills.

3) VIDEODROME (David Cronenberg, 1983, CANADA)

“Because it has something that you don’t have, Max. It has a philosophy. And that is Continue reading GRAHAM REZNICK’S 10 FAVORITE WEIRD FILMS →

Miscellanea

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE

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Next week we will review two unrelated vampire movies with the same name: Thirst (1979) and Thirst (2009).  There’s also a good chance we may get up a review of Richard Kelly‘s latest, The Box (2009): there’s sure to be a difference of opinion among our writers on this one!  Also, on Thursday Alfred gives us 10 weird Yuletide choices, so start trying to work up some holiday spirit, won’t you?

Though you can probably see it in the post above this one, I’d like to point out that we have another top 10 list, this one by Graham Reznick, director of the certified weird movie I Can See You.  We love to see what others think is weird and why, so we’re thrilled to have this new contribution!

In terms of the weirdest search term used to locate the site last week: we fall into a little trap with this one.  Talk just once about rape movies or pony riding cults when you’re picking up on unusual search terms, and the search engines pick it up and the next week you’re hit with 100 requests along the same line.  So, we had plenty of pretty pony fans stumbling onto the site last week, and probably leaving disappointed.   This week we’re going with a non-fetish choice: “”hours of productivity independent movie explode.”  You could make a true statement by rearranging those words slightly: “independent movies explode hours of productivity.”  At least, I’ve found that to be true.

The ever-growing, sadly neglected reader-suggested review queue now looks like this: Greaser’s Palace (substituted for Institute Benjamenta), Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, Inland Empire, Monday (assuming I can find an English language version), The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Barton Fink, What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams), Meatball Machine, Xtro, Basket Case, Suicide Club, O Lucky Man!, Trash Humpers (when/if released), Gozu, Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Wayward Cloud, Kwaidan, Six-String Samurai, Andy Warhol’s Trash, Altered States, Memento, Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gothic, The Attic Expeditions, After Last Season, Getting Any?, Performance, Being John Malkovich, The Apple, Southland Tales, Arizona Dream, Spider (2002), Songs From The Second Floor, Singapore Sling, Alice [Neco z Alenky], and Dark Country.  After Last Season and Dark Country are most likely to jump ahead in the review queue as we continue to focus on covering 2009 releases before 2010 rolls around.

Saturday Short, Shorts

SATURDAY SHORT: BETWEEN TWO FERNS (2008)

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Give Zach Galifianakis a late night show, and this is what you’ll get: sketch comedy that’s too absurd for TV.  This is the first of seven episodes of Zach’s web series, “Between Two Ferns”.  In it Zach interviews Michael Cera about acting in the comedy film Superbad (2007).

For more episodes of “Between Two Ferns” visit: http://www.funnyordie.com/between_two_ferns. Keep in mind that many of these episodes contain language that viewers may find offensive.

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 11/27/09

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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):

Home (2008):  When a busy highway opens next to a rural Swiss homestead, the insular family takes increasingly desperate and bizarre measures to block out the intrusion of the outside world.  Starring Isabelle Huppert, this Swiss entry for the 2009 foreign language Academy Award is receiving fantastic reviews.  No official site located. The trailer below makes it look like a wacky comedy, but reviewers make it sound like a disturbing parable.

NEW ON DVD:

Shorts (2009): Robert Rodriguez directed kiddie fantasy about a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes.  Critics describe it as hyperactive and unfocused: Toby Young of the Times goes so far as to say that it’s “[S]o structurally complicated that it almost qualifies as an experimental film.” Buy from Amazon.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Shorts (2009): See DVD review above. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.

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.

Capsules

CAPSULE: KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)

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DIRECTED BY: Stephen Chiodo

FEATURING: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson,

PLOT: Aliens from outer space, who look exactly like circus clowns, land their carnival-tent spacecraft near a rural town and begin abducting humans for unknown purposes.

Still from Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Killer Klowns is actually a very conventional spoof with an unusual gimmick that’s well-executed; it’s a bit offbeat, but as far as weird goes, it’s strictly entry level stuff.

COMMENTS: Although Killer Klown‘s kultists will doubtlessly be offended, this movie is gimmicky, rather than original. It’s a shameless retread of the old aliens-invade-the-earth-and-interrupt-teen-makeout-sessions plot with killer clowns substituting for a killer blob. Every standard plot cliche is squarely parodied, right down to the drunken coot who thinks the landing spacecraft is a shooting star and the fact that the cops assume the teen witnesses are pulling a prank. Switching out one-eyed scaly monsters for clowns is nothing but a gimmick, but it’s a good one, and it makes this formulaic exercise watchable. The movie is so stuffed with circus gags that just when you’re certain the script has run out, a new one emerges, like yet another harlequin squeezing out of an impossibly tiny car. Popcorn, cotton candy, balloon animals, shadow puppets, and banana creme pies all become implements of doom that threaten humanity’s very existence. These jokes should be enough to keep you reasonably entertained, but the costume and set design will vie for your attention. The garish, oversized grinning clown heads evoke a campy coulrophobia. The interior of the big-top mothership is a candy-colored wonderland, with skewed funhouse sets that are even vaguely reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (and the eye-searingly bright colors and low-tech ingenuity anticipate the following year’s Dr. Caligari ). It’s also fun to see veteran character actor John Vernon ham it up as the crotchety kid-hating cop. All in all, it’s nothing earthshattering, but it’s a good time if your in the mood for a light, lightly bizarre comedy.

This film has a very powerful cult following, with Killer Klowns t-shirts and paraphernalia selling briskly to this day. I admit, I can’t quite understand why its fans show such a depth of devotion to this likable but lightweight flick. It might have to do with the fact that many people first see this movie when they are young and impressionable, when the concept of a comedy involving evil space clowns seems shockingly original and even subversive.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“This krazy, kooky movie strings together the creature feature with the alien movie, and pumps it full of dark humour, using that icon of innocent fun, the clown… Patchy but mostly fun, the basic clowns/circus/theme park-like fun idea is expanded as far as possible and worked to death…”–Andrew L. Urban, Urbancinefile.com (DVD)

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