We once again feature the work of twisted animator Cyriak, who this time takes cows (and spider-cows) as his musical subject.
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! Hideaki Anno‘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 (James Coburn) develops paranoia, goes on the run, and discovers a Pynchonesque 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. Guy Maddin (with collaborators Galen and Evan Johnson) has a new one that should be available soon (the best we can tell, filming was done in October 2023). Big name stars Cate Blanchett 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. Emile Hirsch 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 Jean-Luc Godard‘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 Susan Tyrrell. Directed by one Jed Johnson (Warhol’s lover at the time). Before John Waters, there was Andy Warhol. 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, Fairuza Balk
PLOT: Logan, a junior high school student, explores his own identity and sexuality, developing a crush on a slightly older “bad boy”.
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:
(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)
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.
BACKGROUND:
- Based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, of which Kirkus Reviews said, “Gray has not only pulled off a stylistic tour de force, but has slyly slipped in a stunning critique of the late-19th-century.”
- This is one of four screen collaborations between Lanthimos and Stone. She previously appeared in The Favourite and the short Bleat, and is part of the forthcoming anthology film Kinds of Kindness.
- This is Lanthimos’ first adaptation of existing source material, his first film shot on soundstages, and his first with an original score.
- Lanthimos suggested three films to screenwriter Tony McNamara as tonal references for the film: And The Ship Sails On, Belle de Jour, and Young Frankenstein.
- Egon Schiele’s 1911 painting “Nude Girl Standing With Long Black Hair & Blue-Black Drape” was an inspiration for Bella’s look.
- Nominated for three Weirdcademy Awards, including Weirdest Picture, and earning acting wins for Stone and Dafoe. Also recognized with 11 nominations by that other academy, taking home trophies for Stone, production design, costuming, and makeup and hairstyling. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
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)