Enjoy the enjoyment of observing the observation, and reflecting on the reflection; exactly, exactly.
WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/2/2012
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):
American Animal (2011): Jimmy and James, two twenty-something trust-fund babies, live together in relative luxury, but unbalanced Jimmy becomes increasingly deranged when bookish James explains that he’s decided to grow up and get a job. We didn’t notice this when it played festivals last year, but quotes like the one from Slant’s Kenji Fujishima wondering if he “needed to be stoned in order to fully get on its bizarre wavelength” make us wonder if we missed a weird one. It was picked up for theatrical distribution by Screen Media Films, but we have no idea where this might be playing. American Animal official site.
Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (2012): Read our capsule review. Tim and Eric’s movie garnered lukewarm reactions (including ours) on its video-on-demand debut, but true fans will want to flock to the theaters to support the cult TV pair—won’t they? Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie official site.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Frankenweenie (post-production, debuts Oct. 2012): Read our review of the original short. We’ve been burnt too many times hoping for Tim Burton to recapture the magic he once had, so we’re not going to get excited about this stop-motion remake of the short Frankenstein parody that originally got him fired from Disney. Watch the just-released trailer and determine your own level of anticipation.
NEW ON DVD:
The Catechism Cataclysm (2011): Read our capsule review. Star Steve Little won a 2011 Weirdcademy Award for his portrayal of the geeky rock n’ roll priest on a canoe trip. Buy The Catechism Cataclysm
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Baba Yaga (1973): Read our capsule review. This witchy S&M giallo starring Carroll Baker is an unexpected, but welcome, edition to the Blu-ranks. Buy Baba Yaga [Blu-ray]
FREE WEIRD MOVIES ON THE WEB:
The Humping Pact (2012): We’ll let director Dmitry Paranyushkin describe this one in his own words: ” it’s a meditative contemplation on the persistence in the futile and simultaneous tribute to desolate spaces that have lost their creative potential. And it’s full of multiplied naked men.” He wasn’t kidding about the naked men. Don’t follow this link unless you appreciate the artistic appeal of multiple nude dudes furiously thrusting their pelvises. You’ve been warned. You may also join in the “Humping Pact” at their own website: the makers hope to send naked humping men to various world destinations, and even promise “guest humpers” (Harmony Korine seems the obvious choice). Watch The Humping Pact on Vimeo or get more humping info on humping at humpingpact.com.
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.
GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE (2012)
Who would have thought that Ed Wood ((With sincere apologies to the late Ed. You were never this dull and, at least, everything you did was stamped with your quirky personality and offered some fun by way of camp value.)) was:
1. Alive and Well?
2.Working for Marvel Comics?
3. Making a 3-D movie with a mega-budget?
Only Ed himself could have produced such trailer trash cinema out of the pages of a comic book character; he seems to be doing just that in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).
Forget the period nostalgia of Captain America (2011) or Robert Downey’s inimitable personality underneath the armor of Iron Man (2008); the future of superhero movies may well just degenerate into the guttural hodgepodge found in this un-stylish, witless follow up to 2007’s Ghost Rider.
It is little wonder that the indie movie scene, more often than not, offers nothing more than the most execrable rubbish that would make anyone either throw up or roll onto the floor laughing. Because it is Hollywood’s taste, class, and professional entertainment standards that offer them their role model.
The directing/writing team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have a resume straight from the Jerry Springer school of film (or, more aptly, music videos with bad music). Crank (2006), Gamer (2009), and Jonah Hex (2010) should have been warning enough. But, it does to go to show that with the right background and connections, together with the right deal, the most talentless, juvenile hacks can shmooze and ink their way into the latest Hollywood fads.
The Ghost Rider character, for those who care, is a sort of the Exorcist meets Evel Knieval. He’s a bottom-of-the-barrel superhero from Marvel Comics. The superhero tag is somewhat questionable—from what I recall of the 70’s comic, he was merely a leather clad flaming skull who rode a chopper from hell and hung out with Spiderman and the X-Men. Apart from his appearance, he fit right in with the rest of the tight-wearing crowd and battled super-villains. That’s not exactly fodder for a unique character, but a matter-of-fact demon as superhero, Continue reading GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE (2012)
CAPSULE: THE IRON ROSE [LA ROSE DE FER] (1973)
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DIRECTED BY: Jean Rollin
FEATURING: Françoise Pascal, Hugues Quester (as Pierre Dupont)
PLOT: Young lovers go mad when they are trapped in a cemetery overnight.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Iron Rose‘s wonderfully funereal setting and muted weirdness isn’t powerful enough to overcome its lack of events. The slow-paced visual poetry here is hit-or-miss, resonating strongly with some viewers while boring others stiff. I’m in the latter camp, I’m afraid; I believe there are brisker, more agreeable vehicles to represent Jean Rollin on the List.
COMMENTS: To many fans, La Rose de Fer represents the distilled essence of Jean Rollin: trancelike atmosphere, poetic visuals, and quiet, dreamy symbolism. With its couple making love all over a graveyard, rolling around in passion amongst the skulls and femurs, it’s also the most blatant example of the director’s desire to play matchmaker between Eros and Thanatos. And, while it’s correct to say Rose is pure Rollin, the very integrity of vision shown here exposes the director’s flaws even more than his virtues: his seeming indifference to character and story, his stilted faux-Symbolist dialogue, and, especially, his tortoise-influenced method of pacing. Rose begins on Rollin’s famous beach that appears in almost all of his movies; Françoise Pascal, the stunning and exotic half-Mauritanian actress/model, finds the titular mineral flower washed up on shore. She then walks through a field and a deserted French town; six minutes later, the plot begins as a young poet toasts her at a wedding reception with a ditty about death. The two arrange for a date and, after hitting it off quickly, end up in a magnificent French cemetery for a picnic and a little lovemaking inside a tomb (despite the girl’s initial reticence). The boneyard is almost deserted except for a few odd visitors, including a clown in full makeup who places flowers on a grave. When they emerge from the crypt in post-coital bliss, they find that night has fallen early, the boy has lost his watch, and the path they came in on appears to be missing. Although the scenario sounds like an promising blend of Freud and the Twilight Zone, it takes thirty minutes of plodding setup to reach this point, and when we finally do, Rollin offers us too little payoff for our patience. The boy Continue reading CAPSULE: THE IRON ROSE [LA ROSE DE FER] (1973)
LIST CANDIDATE: SCHIZOPOLIS (1996)
Schizopolis has been promoted onto the List of the 366 Weirdest Movies Ever Made. Comments on this post are closed. Please visit Schizopolis‘ official Certified Weird entry.
DIRECTED BY: Steven Soderbergh
FEATURING: Steven Soderbergh, Betsy Brantley, David Jensen, Mike Malone
PLOT: A series of absurdist sketches and nonsense dialogues linked together by a thin plot
about an office worker struggling with an assignment to write a major speech for a cultlike motivational speaker obviously based on L. Ron Hubbard.
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Hilarious witticism characterizing film’s oddness. Cautious disclaimer suggesting uneven satire undermines enjoyability, but granting nobility of purpose and peculiar appeal. Self-aggrandizing non sequitur.
COMMENTS: After Schizopolis bombed at Cannes, writer/director/star Steven Soderbergh appended a prologue where he stood on a stage and introduced the film. “In the event that you find certain sequences or ideas confusing, please bear in mind that this is your fault, not ours,” he advised. “You will need to see the picture again and again until you understand everything.” We are then thrown into the story of Fletcher Munson, a chronic office masturbator suffering from writer’s block as he attempts to pen a speech for “Eventualism” founder T. Azimuth Switters. A third of the way through the movie he meets (and sort of becomes) his exact double, an amorous dentist named Korchek who happens to be having an affair with Munson’s wife, but Korchek (or is it Munson inhabiting Korchek’s body?) falls in love with Munson’s wife’s doppelgänger, Attractive Woman #2. Then, in the movies final act we see the same scenes replayed from the perspective of Mrs. Munson. Interspersed with all of this are bits involving a pantsless old man running away from a pair of orderlies, news reports suggesting Rhode Island has been sold to a consortium of investors who want to turn it into a shopping mall, and a shot of a sign posted on a tree reading “idea missing.” Oh, and there’s also an exterminator who speaks gibberish and seduces local housewives. What’s there to possibly be confused about? Sorerbergh, who started his career with Sex, Lies and Videotape, the movie that launched the indie filmmaking revolution, made Schziopolis as a palette-cleanser after his big budget flop Underneath left a bad taste in his mouth (a fan cleverly described this as Soderbergh’s “second first film“). Working with his friends on a budget of only $250,000, it’s a loose, breezy, seemingly Continue reading LIST CANDIDATE: SCHIZOPOLIS (1996)