Miscellanea

18TH ANNUAL ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY AWARDS (WITH OUR VOTES AND COMMENTS)

1 Comment

The 2014 Online Film Critics Society awards awards are out. As usual, weird films were not well represented this awards season. The Society chose to pass on a total of four outstanding acting jobs by  and Jesse Eisenberg in Enemy and The Double. ‘s autobiography earned a total of zero nominations; even urinating on her husband’s chest while singing an opera aria could not get Pamela Flores a Best Supporting Actress nod.

In somewhat more positive news for our favored genre, Birdman, the odd tale of an ex-superhero movie star levitating and hallucinating while trying to direct, star in, and produce a Broadway play, did take three awards.  The apocalyptic train movie Snowpiercer garnered a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and one for as Best Supporting Actress. The weirdish alien abduction feature Under the Skin was nominated for three awards including Best Picture, although was snubbed for a nomination as Weirdest—I mean, Best—Actress.

As always, despite the levity in my tone, I take my voting responsibility very seriously. Here is the list of this year’s winners, along with my choices and a touch of personal commentary.

BEST PICTURE

Winner: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Also Nominated: Boyhood; Ida; The Lego Movie; Mommy; Nightcrawler; Selma; Two Days, One Night; Under the Skin; Whiplash

G. Smalley’s Vote: Whiplash

Comments: I contend that 2014 has been a year of many very good, but no great, movies. I saw three movies I would consider masterpieces in 2013: The Act of Killing, Blancanieves, and The Wolf of Wall Street. In 2014 I have seen zero, although there are about a dozen films I would consider just a notch below that level. So, I have no problem with ‘s typically twee The Grand Budapest Hotel winning Best Picture, despite the fact that it comes in only at #11 on my personal top 10 list. Had it been nominated, I would have voted for Calvary, the Irish passion allegory in which one priest pays for the pedophilic sins of the Catholic Church. Of the nominees that made the ballot I favored Whiplash, which while conventional in form and content was the most intense cinematic experience of the year (yes, a movie about jazz drumming was intense).

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Winner: The Lego Movie

Also Nominated: Big Hero 6; The Boxtrolls; How to Train Your Dragon 2; The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

G. Smalley’s Vote: The Lego Movie

Comments: Lego charmed even Alfred Eaker‘s cold and cynical heart. Despite its product-placement premise, it was an inspired tribute to imagination, filled with humor, spectacle, shots at pop culture, and pathos. Its only serious competition came from the more artistic The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, an epic Studio Ghibli release based on a traditional Japanese folktale that contains some of the most beautiful hand-drawn cels you’ll see this year (much of the movie looks like Continue reading 18TH ANNUAL ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY AWARDS (WITH OUR VOTES AND COMMENTS) →

Capsules

CAPSULE: WETLANDS (2013)

Leave a comment

Feuchtgebiete

Recommended

DIRECTED BY: David Wnendt

FEATURING: Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Meret Becker, Axel Milberg

PLOT: A sexually precocious teen girl who is virulently anti-hygiene tries to seduce her male nurse when she is hospitalized with anal fissures.

Still from Wetlands (2013)
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Wetlands proudly advertises itself as “the most WTF, NSFW movie” of the year, and it is unique in that it’s the world’s first art-house gross-out romantic comedy. It’s worth a look for the way it blends cuteness and transgression with a peppering of magical realism moments, but it’s more provocative than weird in the end.

COMMENTS: I recently saw a Dutch study that came to the common-sense conclusion that sexual arousal overcomes feelings of disgust, allowing us to propagate the species despite the fact that the process of sexual intercourse involves a lot of foul smells and exchange of potentially deadly fluid-borne bacteria. So it’s no surprise that Wetlands makes its hemorrhoid-ridden heroine with the crusty panties a) horny and b) hot.  Helen may be unhygienic, but thankfully she’s photogenic. A movie about a fat, homely girl who disdains hygiene and trades tampons with her best friend would be far harder to (forgive me) swallow.

There are more than a few softcore (and some pretty hardcore) sex scenes here, and graphic “ick” moments that will remind you of illustrated versions kinds of stories teenage boys like to swap in locker rooms to make each other gag. There are also a sprinkling of hallucinatory scenes to catch weirdophiles interest, anchored by the moment where an aroused Helen sees a tree sprouting from her vagina. Perhaps even more visually impressive is the opening credits’ psychedelic trip through the rainbow forest of microflora and fauna growing on a filthy public toilet bowl. Helen confesses that she “often mixes up reality, lies and dreams,” which calls into question some of her more extreme exploits, but her hallucinations are always psychologically revealing, and sometimes dead-on satirical (as in the fantasy where her mother faces her greatest fear—being struck by a bus while wearing a pair of dirty underwear).

Wetlands intends to challenge what it contends are our irrational prejudices about the uncleanliness of our own bodies. But in knowingly pushing the audience’s gross-out buttons, it sometimes perforates the wall of absurdity to the point where its legitimate  message is lost. The pizza scene, in particular, seems like something that belongs in a Pink Flamingos sequel. The movie risks sweeping its argument about the irrationality of taboos away in a flood of menstrual blood, mucous, semen, and the miscellaneous fluids that pool on the floor of one particularly unhygienic public toilet. Wetlands is filled with womb and birth imagery that suggests that the process of becoming human is inescapably wet and smelly, and that  perhaps we should embrace that reality as joyously as our heroine does.  Yet, Helen confesses that she’s had herself secretly sterilized. The statement is made offhandedly, and maybe its one of the lies that Helen mixes up with truth, but it metaphorically cuts off the “life-affirming” reading. Still, although it might be a little thematically confused and try too hard to shock, Wetlands is bold and original in tone, and it boasts a brave and winning performance from Carla Juri (who convincingly captures the raunchy and rebellious charm of a free-spirited teenager despite being in her late twenties).

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…an aesthetically amped-up affair, full of segmented screens, oversaturated colors, trippy special effects, and drugged-out flashbacks and dream sequences…”–Nick Schager, The Village Voice (contemporaneous)

 

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 12/12/2014

Leave a comment

Our weekly 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 (WIDE RELEASE):

Inherent Vice (2014): A pot-smoking detective investigates a labyrinthine plot that eventually leads him to a mysterious organization of dentists known as the “Golden Fang” (among many other subplots). becomes the first director to adapt a novel, which is reason enough to salivate. Inherent Vice official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Frank (2014): Read G. Smalley’s review.  in a giant papier-mâché head. ‘Nuff said. Buy Frank.

Safe (1995): A wealthy woman flees to a New Age spa in the desert when she becomes afraid that she is “allergic to the 20th century.” From the man who brought us Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, so you know Safe is anything but. Buy Safe.

The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013): Read Alex Kittle’s review. Buy the DVD for the “reversible sleeve with uncensored artwork!” (We’re thinking that means nipples!) Buy The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Fox Searchlight Pictures: 20th Anniversary Collection”: Fox Searchlight does good work, but we’re always skeptical about collections of films that have nothing to do with each other except that they were released under the same studio imprint. Nonetheless, we’ll point out that you will find the Certified Weird Beasts of the Southern Wild and Black Swan among the 21 arthouse disks here (and that the price per Blu in this set turns out to be a bargain at $6 each). Buy “Fox Searchlight Pictures: 20th Anniversary Collection” [Blu-ray].

Frank (2014): See description in DVD above. Buy Frank [Blu-ray].

Natural Born Killers (1994): Woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis star as a pair of serial killers on a hallucinogenic rampage across a bloody pop-culture landscape. This “20th Anniversary” edition includes both the theatrical and director’s cuts and the new featurette “Natural Born Killers: Method in the Madness,” and comes in “Diamond Luxe” packaging. Buy Natural Born Killers [20th Anniversary Blu-ray]

Safe (1995): See description in DVD above. Buy Safe [Blu-ray].

The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears [Blu-ray].

Time Bandits (1981): Read the Certified Weird review! The Criterion Collection’s on again/off again affair with the rights to Terry Gilliam‘s movies is on again. This Blu features a lenticular cover. Buy Time Bandits [Blu-ray].

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.

Alfred Eaker's Fringe Cinema, Essays

RELIGULOUS (2008)

2 Comments

The following is not standard for 366 material, but given the controversial nature of the film, we feel it has an off the beaten path place here.

When Bill Maher’s Religulous (2008) premiered, it predictably opened to mixed reviews. Narrated by Maher and directed by Larry Charles, Religulous is a scathing criticism on what the filmmakers see as inherent ignorance and immorality within religion.

Critic Brian Orndorf wrote:

Most of the ammo is reserved for Christianity. Instead of confrontations that shatter myths and raise consciousness, Religulous goes for cheap laughs, manipulating footage to make the participants resemble complete boobs. Maher has the sense to pump the brakes around Islam, treading carefully. Salient points are made about this furiously hot-potato faith, but Maher is noticeably outgunned, challenging the history of Islamic bloodshed from behind the comfort of news clips and sheepish concessions. The way the Middle East rumbles these days, how could anyone blame him?

Indeed, the first third of Religulous concentrates solely on Christianity. However, Maher, who wrote the film, was raised as an American Catholic, though with a Jewish heritage. Often, writing is most effective when it focuses on what one knows, and Maher seems to know Christianity. Yet, what he primarily depicts is a particular variety of fundamentalist Christianity. While polls vary in regards to the percentages of American “liturgical” Christians in contrast to “fundamentalist” Christians, few would argue that the latter comprise the bulk of stereotypes of the faith.

ReligulousMaher’s perspective on Catholicism suggests he believes it resembles a Protestant evangelical faith. Most post-Vatican II Catholics today would not identify with such views. One could even question the extent of Maher’s exposure to Catholic education, even in a pre-Vatican II environment. His portrayal of Revelations as a literal doomsday book is undeniably filtered through an evangelical lens. Yet, from its earliest history, Catholic readings have predominantly interpreted it as a metaphorical work, written in a popular period genre. It is not viewed as prophecy but, rather, as a book of the past, which sounded a warning regarding the first great persecutor of Christians: Nero.

Neeley Tucker of the Washington Post addressed Maher’s rudimentary knowledge of religion:

One of the rules of satire is that you can’t mock things you don’t understand, and Religulous starts developing fault lines when it becomes clear that Maher’s view of religious faith is based on a sophomoric reading of the Scriptures and that he doesn’t understand that some thoughtful people actually do believe in some sort of spiritual life.

While Maher was not writing an academic paper, his film could have Continue reading RELIGULOUS (2008) →

Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!