200 Motels has been officially added to the List of the 366 Weirdest Movies. Comments are closed on this post; please comment on the official Certified Weird entry.
PLOT: 200 Motels is a series of sketches, experiments and concert footage loosely organized as a reflection on the mixture of insanity and tedium experienced by a rock and roll band on tour.
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: The movie’s wild visuals, absurd jokes and attention deficit disorder pacing are enough to bring it to our attention. But if anything sets 200 Motels apart from the other psychedelic cinematic noodlings of the hippie era, it’s Frank Zappa’s extraordinarily weird music—a unique mix of jazz-inflected blues/rock, avant-garde 12-tone classical music, and junior high school sex jokes.
COMMENTS: Ringo Starr plays Larry the Large Dwarf, portraying Frank Zappa. The Who drummer Keith Moon is a female groupie dressed like Sally Field in “The Flying Nun.” Theodore Bickel plays an omniscient Master of Ceremonies who brings Zappa’s band, the Mothers of Invention, a cheeseburger, and demands they sign for the delivery—in blood. Bickel’s character (or at least one of them) also explains the movie’s philosophy to the band: “You must remember that within the conceptual framework of this filmic event, nothing really matters. It is entirely possible for several subjective realities to coexist.” Zappa himself is barely in the movie and never speaks (or sings). He’s only briefly glimpsed in concert footage—although the other band members reference him as a godlike figure who spies on them through an empty beer bottle. Other than appeasing the great god Frank, the Mothers only care about three things—scoring dope, getting paid, and getting laid. The characters in this “surrealistic documentary” drift in and out of various skits, animations, and drug trips, and also find time to perform numbers like “Mystery Roach,” “Lonesome Cowboy Burt,” and an oratorio in praise of the penis. One highlight sees lead singers Kaylan and Volman taking a “trip” to everytown “Centerville,” which is full of churches and liquor stores and bathed in wavy zebra stripes that lysergically distort Continue reading LIST CANDIDATE: 200 MOTELS (1971)→
PLOT: On the night before the world is to be swallowed up by a black hole, a man discovers a world underneath his bed ruled by a chess-obsessed dominatrix queen.
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Carlos Atanes is a defiantly, and proudly, surrealistic director, and his brief filmography (three features and dozens of bizarre shorts) already constitutes a body of weird work that could be worthy of recognition on this List. With its wardrobe of black leather and chrome dental restraints along with a powerful musical score that ranges from 40s show tunes to 80s synth pop, Maximum Shame is perhaps Atanes’ most ambitious and polished—not to mention weirdest—feature work.
COMMENTS: You have to love the tagline for Maximum Shame, which describes the movie as “an apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird feature movie.” The surprising thing is that the film, which plays like a combination of “Alice in Wonderland” and the Orpheus legend staged by refugees from a leather bar in a deserted warehouse, largely lives up to that description. The words “apocalyptic,” fetish,” and “chess” define the three motifs that keep the film (somewhat) grounded. The story, such as it is, takes place as a black hole is encroaching on earth (or so we are told), and characters mention the total destruction of the world sometimes as an imminent cataclysm, and sometimes as a disaster that’s already come to pass. The film’s s&m/b&d fetishism is obvious from the costuming, most notably the deviant dental equipment used to keep slaves’ mouths perpetually splayed. (Although the Queen plays games of dominance and submission, there is no overt sexuality in the film—which, together with its alienating weirdness, makes it of only marginal interest to the bondage crowd). All of the characters have, or are given, the names of chess pieces, and talk of gambits and sacrificing rooks makes up a large part of the plot. “Horror” and “sci-fi” turn out to be the least accurate of the descriptors. The film does speak of black holes and invokes a theory of infinite parallel universes in a throwaway bid to explain the inexplicable Continue reading LIST CANDIDATE: MAXIMUM SHAME (2010)→
Here’s what we have lined up for next week: the lowdown on Carlos Atanes‘ latest weird feature, Maximum Shame, a surreal apocalyptic fetish movie; from the reader-suggested review queue, we’ll grab Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels (Ringo Starr is Larry the Dwarf as Frank Zappa!); and a report on Tabloid, Errol Morris’ latest kinky documentary about the “Mormon sex in chains” scandal. And, in the spirit of Halloween, Alfred will take a break from writing about Mozart to pay tribute to a different kind of genius: Boris Karloff.
For the past few weeks, someone has repeatedly been searching for “weird lumpy movie shorts” in hopes of being named 366 Weird Movies “Weirdest Search Term of the Week.” Each week we mentioned that search term as an honorable mention, but found something weirder worthy of the grand prize. Well, this week the competition is weaker, meaning that “weird lumpy movie shorts” would finally get its chance to be named Weirdest Search Term of the Week… except for the fact that the searcher gave up on finding lumpy shorts just this week. (We refuse to acknowledge the possibility that he may have found lumpy shorts at some other site). That leaves us, instead, to consider the following searches for the prize, beginning with “hot woman with bag briss feed min milk moves.” (What min doesn’t love a woman with bag briss?) The choice of word order can sometimes turn a perfectly ordinary search term into something strange-looking; this week’s illustration of that principle is “horror movie guy makes fat women eat netflix.” (Along similar lines is the search for a “bizarre movie about a tv that orders to kill a french movie.”) We found “japan girl biting something to drink in man movies” flatly incomprehensible. But our official Weirdest Search Term of the Week had nothing to do with cinema at all (at least, as far as we can tell): “watching the oiled reflections chime and swim.” That would be a beautiful, poetic image, if only it made a lick of sense.
As always on a Sunday, we provide you with the ridiculously long reader-suggested review queue for your perusal: 200 Motels (next week!); Kairo [AKA Pulse]; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE→
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):
Bunraku (2010): A cowboy and a samurai team up to battle evil in this alternate reality actioner starring Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson (as a mystical bartender), Ron Perlman and Demi Moore. The setup and cast are intriguing, but reviewers warn that it’s style over substance. Bunraku official site.
My Joy (2010): A Ukrainian truck driver begins his day trying to make a delivery, runs into absurd bureaucracy and corruption, and ends up trapped in a strange timeless village. Critical response has been favorable. Opens in New York with only a few dates across the country to follow. My Joy official site (US).
Take Shelter: Michael Shannon plays a crazy guy (daring casting, that) whose dreams of impending tempests are so lifelike that he cashes in his savings to build an elaborate storm shelter. Fresh off a successful festival run, Jeff (Shotgun Stories) Nicholls second feature opens in New York and Los Angeles this week, and has a full card of future dates across the country (thanks to being picked up by Sony Classics). Take Shelter official site.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil: Not so weird, but noteworthy: a horror movie/slasher spoof where the loner hillbillies in the middle of nowhere actually don’t want to carve up the hot collegians on spring break with chainsaws—though they’d have a hard time convincing anyone of their beneficence. This independent Canadian production is getting fine reviews and somewhat predictable comparisons to Shaun of the Dead. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil official site.
NEW ON DVD:
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964): Tony Randall plays eight (or is it nine?) different roles (mostly mythological characters like Pan and the Abominable Snowman) in this fantasy about a magical circus that comes to a Western town. This is in our reader-suggested review queue. It’s being re-released on DVD-R by Warner Archives, rather than in a nice new edition, unfortunately. Buy 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
Baby Jane? (2010): Remember the catty camp classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Well, here’s a (nearly shot for shot?) remake. The gimmick? Joan Crawford’s and Bette Davis’ roles go to female impersonators. Buy Baby Jane?
The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (2010): Heavily stylized Chinese action comedy about a mythical blade that is melted down and made into a kitchen knife, and passes down through three different owners. Could this be a slight stirring in the crazy corpse of the Hong Kong New Wave we detect? Buy The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman.
Heathers (1988): The hilarious cult black comedy about wholesale slaughter in high school, starring Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater. The good news is that Heathers was, surprisingly, out of print. The bad news is that this re-issue comes from Image Entertainment, who are known for releasing cheap bare-bones DVDs from substandard prints. There are no reports on any extras, which suggests there are none. A true fan might go looking for a used copy of the 20th High School Reunion Edition; this cheap release is aimed at casual fans and bargain hunters. Buy Heathers.
Herschell Gordon Lewis: Godfather of Gore (2010): The title says it all. Cool folks like John Waters, Joe Bob Briggs, and Frank Henenlotter are interviewed on the Blood Feast auteur’s impact on the sleaze scene. From Something Weird video by way of Image Entertainment. Buy Herschell Gordon Lewis: Godfather of Gore.
Maximum Shame (2010): From Carlos Atanes comes a release described as a “apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird underground feature movie.” Surprisingly, that description is completely accurate. We’ll have a review of this coming shortly. Available on DVD-R only. Buy Maximum Shame.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991): A man with superhuman strength is sent to jail for avenging the rape of his girlfriend, and once there system pushes him too hard and he must rip out his tormentors’ intestines. Tokyo Shock originally released this insane gore spectacle in 2000; no word on whether there are any upgrades this time, or if they’re just reissuing it with new cover art to capitalize on the film’s Blu-ray debut in two weeks. Buy Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky.
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Basket Case (1982): Read our capsule review! This strange, scratchy grindhouse monster flick doesn’t seem like it would benefit from high definition, but here it is anyway. The abundant special features all appear to be ported over from Something Weird’s previous DVD release. Buy Basket Case [Blu-ray].
“The Blood Trilogy”: Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ foundational gore films on one disc: the ridiculous Blood Feast (1963), the extremely nasty Two Thousand Maniacs (1964), and also-ran Color Me Blood Red (1965). Another entry in the new Something Weird/Image Entertainment partnership. Buy “The Blood Trilogy” [Blu-ray].
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