Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 6/28/2019

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Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Verotika (2019): A horror anthology sponsored by metalhead Glenn Danzig, inspired by his line of adult horror comics; the title is a portmanteau of “violent” and “erotica.” A couple of horror outlets  have hailed it as “insane,” while more mainstream critics are calling it unintentionally funny. Previewing in Los Angeles this week and hoping for a wider release around Halloween. Glenn Danzig official site.

NETFLIX:

Anima (2019): If Danzig’s effort is getting mostly jeers, fellow musician Thom Yorke’s latest short film is earning near-universal cheers. It helps that it’s directed by multi-Oscar nominee (and director of the Canonically Weird Inherent Vice) . It’s only fifteen minutes long and is being described as “dreamlike.” Anima on Netflix.

FILM FESTIVALS – Karlov Vary International Film Festival (Karlov Vary, Czech Republic, June 28- July 6):

Though in it’s 54th year, Karlovy Vary is overshadowed by other, bigger summer European film festivals. Despite being held in out-of-the-way Karlov Vary, the festival manages to snag some major releases (the new Spider-Man even has its regional debut there this year). It also features a fine slate of restorations and repertory pics, often of Czech classics. We’ve noted a couple of films screening here before: s fashion horror In Fabric and the Danish fairy tale horror Koko-di Koko-da. Here is some new (and old) stuff of potential interest we spotted in the program:

  • The Cremator – World premiere of the new “digital restoration” of the Canonically Weird Czech New Wave classic about a strange Tibetan Book of the Dead-obsessed cremator who eventually becomes a Nazi collaborator.  Screening 6/29-6/30, 7/3.
  • Die Kinder Der Toten –  Elfriede Jelinek’s respected Austrian literary horror novel is given an over-the-top Super 8 silent movie treatment by a couple of New Yorkers. 6/28, 6/30, 7/2, or 7/4.
  • The Flames of Royal Love – A seldom-screened film from 1990 chronicling the love affair of a prince and a commoner, described by programmers as a “peculiar cinematic hallucination.” Catch it on 6/30 or 7/2.
  • Happy End (2015) – A short animated movie presented in reverse chronological order, this seems inspired by obscure Czech New Wave film of the same title. 7/5 or, 7/3, 6/29 screening.
  • In the Arms of Morpheus – This Dutch documentary uses surreal imagery to explore the condition of chronic insomniacs. 7/3, 7/4, or 7/6.
  • The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea – A “dreamlike” thriller about a resentful female cop banished to a middle-of-nowhere Greek town, starring Greek Weird Wave icon . 6/28, 7/1, 7/3, & 7/5.
  • Monos – Enigmatic Colombian film about a purposeless group of soldiers camped in a fog-shrouded jungle. On 6/29, 7/2, 7/4, or 7/6.
  • Satantango – ‘s slow-paced, epic opus about hucksters bleeding a poor Hungarian village. Set aside eight hours to see it on 6/28 or 7/6.

Karlov Vary Film Festival official home page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Birdy (1984): A Vietnam vet tries to help a shell-shocked comrade who believes he’s a bird. An early turn for and and ‘s immediate post-Pink Floyd the Wall (1982) film. Previously on DVD; now on Blu-ray (and VOD). Buy Birdy.

“Divorced Dad” (2018): A newly divorced dad hosts a 1980s-era public access self-help show that inevitably devolves into chaos. Originally conceived of by the odd Canadian comedy ensemble as a webseries, banned from YouTube (for an ISIS joke), and now assembled on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, with unseen episodes and shorts to round out the package. Buy “Divorced Dad”.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001): Read the Canonically Weird review! The Criterion Collection releases this wigged-out gender-bending musical on Blu-ray (or 2 DVDs) with a suite of extras both new and repurposed. Buy Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Lost Highway (1997): Read the Canonically Weird review! Those holding out for a Criterion edition of ‘s utterly surreal mid-period film will have to make do with this Kino Lorber Blu-ray instead, which comes with no special features and has been slammed by Lynch himself because it wasn’t restored from his original negatives (although independent reviewers have praised the quality). Buy Lost Highway.

Transit (2018): As the Fascists crack down in France, a man assumes the identity of a dead man whose papers he’s stolen and attempts to flee the country. Director Christian Petzold took a novel set in WWII and adapted it to present times, an anachronistic experiment with an effect described as “dreamlike.” On Blu-ray and VOD (no DVD release). Buy Transit.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE MOVIES ON BREAKER:

Perfect (2018): A troubled young man is sent to a clinic where he is given various implants to remove his imperfections. We haven’t tried Breaker yet, but his release is not (yet) available in any other format that we can find. Requires an app download and the code “perfect.” No warranties from us. Watch Perfect free on Breaker.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week Giles Edwards clears out his files as he preps for his third annual trip north to the Fantasia festival in July. So, expect to see his takes on Terry Gilliam‘s curse-breaking project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and on the mildly strange 1975 Dutch softcore thriller My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie. Onward and weirdward!

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.

List Candidates

APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD (1977)

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DIRECTED BY: Charles Swenson, Fred Wolf

FEATURING: Voices of , Joan Gerber, , Andy Devine, Frank Nelson

PLOT: A young clockwork mouse and his father find themselves lost in the world, encountering a host of eccentric characters.

Still from The Mouse and His Child (1977)

WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Taking on the appearance of a standard-issue children’s animation, The Mouse and His Child casually delves into such topics as philosophy, destiny, and the search for infinity, all represented through a world absurd even by the standards of cartoon logic.

COMMENTS: The 1970s were a tumultuous time for animated cinema in the west. was making his scandalous debut, and films like Coonskin and Fritz the Cat were introducing the once-unthinkable notion that animated films clearly crafted for adults could, in fact, not only exist, but have a genuine market. Animated movies aimed at children remained dominated by Disney, who didn’t exactly release their most iconic features in this particular decade. Younger upstarts like Pixar and (ugh) Dreamworks hadn’t yet emerged to contest Disney’s place as the prime source of children’s animation.

That’s one of the reasons why The Mouse and His Child is so noteworthy. Not only did it have the audacity to enter into the heavily monopolized animation market, but it did so with a movie that took a vastly different approach to children’s entertainment.

It ought to be said that kids, especially ones raised on today’s media, probably won’t enjoy The Mouse and His Child all that much. But as a curiosity piece—an example of just how remarkably eccentric children’s animation can be while still technically fitting into that category—it’s really quite priceless.

I’ve not read the book that this movie was based on, nor have I read any of Russell Hoban’s other works; but if this adaptation is a faithful reflection of the source material, it’s hardly surprising that it was penned by an author who also dabbled in magical realism and had extensive experience writing for adults. Themes well outside the interests of any child dominate the narrative, and the film’s approach to the nature and structure of reality is one that, while not exactly elaborate, has more depth to it than is normal for a children’s film.

The story opens in a toy shop, where the titular mouse and his child—a pair of clockwork toys—have newly arrived. Here, all the clockwork mechanisms live under the strict leadership of a ghostly grandfather clock, who robotically instructs them that they are to do only what they are “wound to do” and that love, family, and free thought are not accommodated for under “clockwork rules.” It isn’t long, however, before an accidental spill off the table and into a bin sends the mice accidentally carted off out into the world, where they head off on a clearly allegorical quest to become “self-winding.”

On their journey, the Mouse and his Child encounter the various oddities of this world, which might be best described as akin to The Animals of Farthing Wood if Farthing Wood happened to be the campus of a liberal arts university. A crooked rat cons and swindles his way through the movie (like any good cartoon rodent) while delivering every line with a thespian trill. A would-be clairvoyant frog struggles to reconcile his sincere belief in the concept of destiny with his fraudulent fortune-telling racket. A shrew resides in a hole by a pond, obsessing over abstract mechanical theories whilst shrugging off the plight of the forlorn clockwork creatures whom his talents could aid. And in a lake, an aged turtle ponders furiously over the Droste image on the label of a discarded dog food tin, convinced that some great universal truth lies beyond “the last visible dog”.

What really sets The Mouse and His Child apart is not the barriers it breaks, but rather the absurd middle ground that it occupies, one so difficult to precisely pin down that it could be considered the sole example of its own sub-genre. Far too introspective and philosophical for children’s entertainment, yet never approaching the edginess and vulgarity typical of “adult” animation, it resembles, more than anything else, an absurd experiment: a bold attempt to marry philosophy and animation. Mixing these two was unheard of at the time, and even in our more explorative day and age, there are few folks out there who flirt with the notion of exploring infinity and universal truth within the format of children’s animation. How well it works is a matter of debate better left to those better versed in philosophical matters than I; but there is little denying that, even now, over four decades later, with the boundaries of animation pushed much farther than once they were, there are still very few—if any—films quite like this one.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…a curious mishmash overall, well animated yet not entirely satisfying, whether you have read the book or not. The sense that there’s a lot going on underneath the surface lingers, however, a need to find meaning in it all.”–Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

Capsules

CAPSULE: SERENITY (2019)

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DIRECTED BY: Steven Knight

FEATURING: , , Jason Clarke

PLOT: A crusty commercial fisherman entertains an offer from his ex-wife to kill her current husband, an abusive alcoholic multi-millionaire.

Still from Serenty (2019)


WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: It’s a noir/mindscrew oddity that inspires a reaction of “huh” more than anything else.

COMMENTS: “Serenity” is the name of Baker Dill’s fishing boat and, one presumes, the state of mind to which he aspires. “Justice” is the name of the tuna (!) he obsessively pursues. A game Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Baker broadly and brashly—although not quite reaching levels of transcendent camp. He exhibits remnants of post-Iraq PTSD, has a psychic connection to the son he left behind, pulls a knife on his own fishing tour customers, acts as a part-time gigolo and cat-catcher when not trawling for tuna or slamming shots of rum, and shows off his taut butt every chance he gets: swimming nude, showering, or rising from bed for a smoke after pleasuring Diane Lane. Femme fatale Anne Hathaway (temporarily blonde for this role) saunters in at the end of the first act to swerve the narrative into noir territory. There’s also a bespectacled man with a briefcase bumbling around on Baker’s trail, always missing him by a few seconds. The action occurs on Plymouth Island, a small scenic isle in—the Caribbean? The Florida Keys? (It was actually filmed in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius, a paradise of translucent blue seas.) The locals are rugged individualists given to saying things like “You fish for the tuna. That’s a tuna that’s only in your head.”

And then comes that twist. It’s weird, yes, but somewhat telegraphed, and revealed in its entirety by the halfway point. You can see why audiences felt cheated by this sudden switch to the metaphysical. It’s not just that it’s unexpected; it’s unsatisfying. (“Preposterous” is a less flattering term that comes to mind.)

You won’t be confused about what happens in Serenity, but you might be puzzled as to why this strange script was greenlit. That’s not to say it’s terrible, exactly, it’s just… un-Hollywood. Director Steven Knight, the writer of the hits Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises and co-creator of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” had enough credibility to get a studio to back this commercial folly; when McConaughey and Hathaway signed on, it was a go. Unfortunately, their gamble on Serenity won’t do anybody’s career any favors; the film is already showing up on “worst of 2019” lists.

It’s not that bad; at least Serenity takes chances and is never boring, although neither does it ever exactly work as intended. The sunny postcard setting makes for balmy viewing, and McConnaughey’s gruff, committed performance is fun, if a bit fishy. That said—oh, that twist! It troubles our Serenity.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“… if you like seeing authentically unusual movies, then ignore the haters: In its fusion of disparate genres, its sentimentality, and its weirdness, Serenity is actually worth watching.”–Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic (contemporaneous)

(This movie was nominated for review by Mike B, who speculated “…it smells like a potential candidate. So far, the reviewers have no idea what the hell to make of it, which is usually a good sign.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)

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