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 at the official site links.
SCREENINGS – (New York City, Lincoln Center, Friday, 1/15 at 9:00 PM):
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976): Read Andreas Stoehr’s review! Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade theater hosts this last-minute free (!) screening of Nicolas Roeg‘s science fiction fantasia to celebrate the legacy of the late, great David Bowie. NYC weirdos with no weekend plans may want to try to make it. The Man Who Fell to Earth at Lincoln Center.
SCREENINGS – (New York City, Videology Bar and Cinema, Saturday, 1/16 at Midnight):
Trash Humpers (2009): Read the Certified Weird review! Clearly, the best way to watch Harmony Korine‘s aggressively transgressive low-budget lark about viscous old people humping trash is at a bar. Trash Humpers at Videology Bar and Cinema.
NEW ON DVD:
Flutter (2011): A dog track gambler is suckered into increasingly surreal bets with a mysterious new female bookie. Never heard of this one before, but two out of three Amazon reviewers currently refer to it as “weird” (while the third simply calls it “creepy”). Buy Flutter
“Out 1” (1971/1974): Jacques (Celine and Julie Go Boating) Rivette’s rarely seen opus: a byzantine, confusing twelve-hour film (divided into 8 episodes) about rival experimental theater groups and an overarching conspiracy. This box set also includes Out 1: Spectre, the four-hour theatrical edit of the film and a feature length documentary, spread across six Blu-rays and seven DVDs, along with a thick booklet of essays and criticism. Buy “Out 1 (Limited Edition Box Set)”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990): Tom Stoppard directs the film adaptation of his own play focusing on two minor characters from “Hamlet,” depicted as bumbling rakes wandering through a artificial world that resembles Samuel Beckett more than Shakespeare. This Image Entertainment “25th Anniversary” release is not remastered but has an extended interview with Stoppard as a bonus. Buy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
The Bed Sitting Room (1969): Read our review! Richard Lester‘s vision of an absurd apocalypse makes it to Blu-ray for the first time (in the U.S.A.), but unfortunately without much in the way of extra features. Buy The Bed Sitting Room (1969) [Blu-ray]
Bolero (1984)/Ghosts Can’t Do It (1989): In the 1980s, director John Derek took his “10” wife Bo and slapped her into a couple of absurdly bad softcore “erotic” features. Bolero featured Bo as a virgin (!) who has to travel the world to find someone to sleep with her (!!), while the even dumber (!!!) Ghosts found Bo street-testing male bodies for her dear departed husband (Anthony Quinn!!!!) to possess. Buy Bolero/Ghosts Can’t Do It [Blu-ray]
How I Won the War (1967): An incompetent British officer gets most of his squad killed while trying to set up a cricket pitch behind enemy lines in this anti-war satire co-starring John Lennon. Part of a Kino Lorber Richard Lester dump that also includes The Bed Sitting Room (above) and the more conventional sex comedy The Knack (and How to Get It). Buy How I Won the War (1967) [Blu-ray]
“Out 1” (1971/1974): See description in DVD above. Buy “Out 1 (Limited Edition Box Set)”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990): See description in DVD above. Buy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead [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.