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 (WIDE RELEASE):
The Adjustment Bureau: A Senatorial candidate accidentally gets a glimpse of what fate has in store for him—separation from the love of his life—and doesn’t like it; fate sends a couple of “adjustment bureau” agents to “persuade” him to go along with the grand plan. Starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt (a -2 for potential weirdness), but from a Phillip K. Dick story (a +1). So who knows? The Adjustment Bureau official site.
Rango: It’s a Pixar-style animated Western starring a lizard cowboy for kiddies; even with the voiceover talents of el muchahco bizarro Johnny Depp, how could it be weird? It’s probably not, by our standards, but mainstream critics found it delightfully odd: the Florida Times-Union called it “willfully weird” and efilmcritic.com went with “defiantly weird.” We weren’t planning to review this one, but we may have to teach these guys a thing or two about what constitutes “weird.” Rango official site.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
I Saw the Devil: When a serial killer whacks his pregnant fiancée, a special agent goes outside the law to get his revenge. Directed by Ji-Woon Kim (The Good, the Bad, the Weird) and starring Min-sik Choi (Oldboy) as the psychopath. Seems more likely to qualify as “extreme” than “weird,” but it has a good pedigree. I Saw the Devil official site.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010): Read Kevyn Knox’s review for 366. Even though the Palme D’Or winner is already out on DVD, selected U.S. cities will get a chance to catch it on the big screen. Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives official site (in German).
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter (scheduled 2011): The title alone’s weird enough to catch our eye. The plot revolves around an LSD-damaged goth-girl serial killer, and the trailer looks like something put together by Harmony Korine working for Troma studios. From the director of Frankenpimp. Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter trailer on MySpace video.
Untitled Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze project: Not exactly a scoop by us, but we wanted to be the first to tell you that postmodern screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and prankster director Spike Jonze—who made the Certified Weird Being John Malkovich and List Candidate Adaptation—are pitching a new project together, said to be a world conspiracy satire (though with these guys involved, who knows what it will really be about?) Kaufman is also working on a separate (autobiographical?) script entitled Frank or Francis, about a director and a blogger with vicious opinions of his work (we’re pretty sure we’re not the model here). Thanks to Being Charlie Kaufman for alerting us to these developments; Deadline.com supplies more info.
NEW ON DVD:
“ReBoot: Seasons One and Two” (1994): Anyone who caught this 1994 computer-animated kiddie show about a society that lives inside a desktop computer on a Saturday morning in 1994 might be forgiven for thinking they hadn’t yet come down from whatever substances they had consumed the night before. It continues the great Saturday morning cartoon tradition of simultaneously appealing to kids and adults who love a little light weirdness. Buy “ReBoot: Seasons One & Two”
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Daughters of Darkness (1971): Leave it to kinky Harry Kümel (Malpertuis) to make one of the strangest and artiest “lesbian vampire” movies of the 1970s. Daughters stars Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad, The Milky Way) as the undead Countess Elizabeth Bathory who, along with vampy gal pal sex slave Danielle Ouimet, focuses her attentions on a honeymooning couple in a deserted Belgian hotel resort. Surprises abound. Buy Daughters of Darkness [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000): We haven’t seen this sequel to the naughty 1981 animated sci-fi cult classic; it’s weirdness is fairly suspect and reviewers were not kind, but some may be interested nonetheless. Tell us if it’s any good. Watch Heavy Metal 2000 free on YouTube.
House of the Dead (2003): Read our capsule review. Uwe Boll‘s zombies-at-a-rave movie is bad—really bad—but is it “so bad it’s weird”? We’ll leave it to you to decide. Watch House of the Dead free on YouTube.
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.