POD 366, EPISODE 60: RUMOURS OF THE END OF THE POOR PRESIDENT’S CONSCIOUSNESS

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Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

The End of Evangelion (1997) theatrical rerelease: Discussion begins. Read the Canonically Weird entry! ‘s wacko second (of three) takes on ending his Evangelion cycle is a psychedelic burst of mysticism, psychology, and giant robots. It became a cult hit here on DVD, but was never released to theaters in the U.S., so this upcoming theatrical release on March 17 and 20 will be a major event for domestic otaku. Check the link for a site near you. The End of Evangelion re-release by GKids.

Poor Things (2023): Discussion begins. Read the Apocryphally Weird entry! A Poor Things Blu-ray dropped on the very same day Lanthimos‘ Frankenstein variation was inaugurated into our Apocryphally Weird list. Coincidence? Buy Poor Things.

The President’s Analyst (1967): Discussion begins. The U.S. president’s personal psychoanalyst () develops paranoia, goes on the run, and discovers a esque conspiracy involving the Phone Company. Previously available in a low quality bare-bones DVD, KL Studio Classics releases this minor cult film on Blu-ray in a brand new transfer with two commentary tracks. Buy The President’s Analyst.

Rumours (202?): Discussion begins. (with collaborators Galen and ) has a new one that should be available soon (the best we can tell, filming was done in October 2023). Big name stars and Alicia Vikander will appear as G7 leaders who get lost in the woods during a summit meeting. Here’s an article from The Wrap.

State of Consciousness (2024): Discussion begins. headlines this psychological thriller about an accused murderer who undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to hallucinate. From Lionsgate, it’s screening in a few theaters but will make its main impact on VOD.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

No guest scheduled for next week’s Pod 366, but Giles and Greg will return to discuss the week’s new releases. Also on YouTube, Pete Trbovich takes on a little item called The Item (1999), and wishes he hadn’t. In written reviews, Shane Wilson takes on another one that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue with Tout va bien (1972), one of ‘s more watchable Jean-Pierre Gorin collaborations; Giles Edwards explores a new State of Consciousness (see above); and Gregory J. Smalley decides that Space Is the Place (the third time Sun Ra’s movie has been reviewed on this site, after Alfred Eaker’s report and Pete Trbovich’s video review). Onward and weirdward!

WEIRD VIEW CREW: ANDY WARHOL’S BAD (1977)

A pitch-black, campy comedy about murder for hire in which the victims include babies and puppies, starring cult icons Carroll Baker and . Directed by one Jed Johnson (Warhol’s lover at the time). Before , there was . Pete thinks this one is deserving of Apocrypha status.

(This movie was nominated for review by Christian McLaughlin of Westgate Gallery, who called this “astonishingly ahead-of-its-time 1977 black comedy” his “#1 choice” for the list, but also warned “it’s almost impossible to see a decent & uncut print.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)

IT CAME FROM THE READER-SUGGESTED QUEUE: WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN (2006)

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DIRECTED BY: Cam Archer

FEATURING: Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, Max Paradise,

PLOT: Logan, a junior high school student, explores his own identity and sexuality, developing a crush on a slightly older “bad boy”.

Still from "Wild Tigers I Have Known" (2006)

COMMENTS: The administrators are good at irrelevancy; the mother is good at volatility; the classmates are good at bigotry; and Logan is good at maintaining his solitude. He watches old movies, listens to late-night radio, and thinks. He thinks about death, he thinks about his peers, and lately he’s been thinking a good deal about Rodeo, a cynically charismatic, older schoolmate. Cam Archer’s feature debut, Wild Tigers I Have Known, is above all thoughtful. As it meditates on its protagonist, the narrative flow is meandering, with Logan approaching daily challenges and joys and starting to form an underlying identity.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this movie should have hovered closer to “barely endurable” for me. However, it did not. (Had this been from a French filmmaker, I blanch at the prospect of my tirades about entrenched boredom and hack-handed pretension.) The variation in its filming style helps. Shots of Logan’s quotidian activities—unpleasant locker-room encounters, sudden outbursts from his mother, the respite he finds in old media—are intercut with more abstract cinematic representations: of memories, sexual fantasies, and day-dreams. The gauzier surrealism of these interludes occasionally bleeds into the realism of this boy’s life, but never smothers it.

Mostly, though, Wild Tigers I Have Known succeeded in maintaining my active interest because of its charming leads, genuine tenderness, and fitting ambiguity. It is unclear just what path Logan embarks upon, appropriate for someone of his age. Is he gay? He claims otherwise. Is he something different? Maybe. His relationship with an older boy hovers somewhere between friend and lover (never made quite clear), and Logan’s self-awareness evolves as the background metaphor (beware the mountain lions) plays out like an iron fist in a velvet glove.

Perhaps more than anything else, the closing shot won me over. This genre is (understandingly) populated by movies with depressing overtones and even more depressing endings. Wild Tigers I Have Known has a good share of setbacks for Logan, and ambient cruelty. But there are lights in his life, and though he may not quite know who he is or what he’s after, his dreams and memories begin to merge, if only a little, by the end. Cam Archer explores a slice of life before leaving his character to develop away from our prying eyes. Logan bids us a fond farewell, waving gaily at the camera before traipsing over the crest of a hill.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“A surreal, fragmented masturbatory fantasy whose vision of adolescence borrows elements from Elephant, Tarnation, Mysterious Skin and Donnie Darko…”—Stephen Holden, The New York Times (contemporaneous)

(This movie was nominated for review by “Henner,” who called it a “Strangely told coming-of-age story” with “Strong imagery and lots of dreamy stream-of-consciousness scenes.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)

44*. POOR THINGS (2023)

“Nature gives children great emotional resilience to help them survive the oppressions of being small, but these oppressions still make them into slightly insane adults, either mad to seize all the power they once lacked or (more usually) mad to avoid it.”― Alasdair Gray, Poor Things

DIRECTED BY: Yorgos Lanthimos

FEATURING: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef

PLOT: When a pregnant woman throws herself off a bridge, scientist Godwin Baxter spots an opportunity to conduct an unprecedented science experiment by transplanting the fetal brain into her mother’s body. The result is Bella, a woman with a grown-up physique and an infantile mind, who develops at a rapid rate and soon discovers many adult pleasures not otherwise accessible to an impressionable youth. Speaking with a frankness about herself and others that flies in the face of standards for propriety, she leaves home to explore the world, first in the company of caddish attorney Duncan Wedderburn and later as an employee in a Parisian bordello, returning  home  to discover that a figure from her past has located her.

Still from poor things (2023)

BACKGROUND:

INDELIBLE IMAGE: Bella’s very raison d’etre is to explore the world on her terms, following her bliss and flagrantly disregarding social niceties. Nothing better expresses this impulse than her spin on the dance floor, staggering about in full thrall to the music, limbs flung in every direction, and doing so with such verve and joy that even Mark Ruffalo’s Duncan is compelled to join in.

TWO WEIRD THINGS: Bubble burps; “I have to go punch that baby”

WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: A spectacular blend of quirky plot, offbeat setting, and demented execution, Poor Things is joyously inappropriate. In a film where virtually nobody behaves according to convention, the heroine is someone who casts aside any semblance of decorum in favor of a life lived as she chooses. The result is an unexpected blend of Frankenstein, Big, Candide, and The Opening of Misty Beethoven.

Official trailer for Poor Things

COMMENTS: The most dreaded phase for parents rearing a child is Continue reading 44*. POOR THINGS (2023)

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