Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998): Read Giles Edwards’ review. This nightmarish Stalinist satire has long been hard-to-find; Arrow Academy to the rescue with another “special edition” Blu-ray with a new restoration and Criterion Collection-style extras. Also now on VOD. Buy Khrustalyov, My Car!
Serenity (2019): A commercial fisherman accepts a noirish bargain to bump off an ex-flame’s current husband, and then things get weird. Bombed at the box office, where it confounded viewers expecting a less metaphysical twist, but made it into our “reader suggestion” queue—so expect a review soon. On DVD. Blu-ray, and VOD. Buy Serenity
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.
- Boston, MA, 5/3 (midnight) – The Black Cat (1934). At Coolidge Corner Theatre.
- Chicago, IL, 5/3 & 5/5 – The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953). At Gene Siskel Film Center.
- Los Angeles, CA, 5/4 (midnight) – The Love Witch (2016). At the New Beverly Cinema.
- Los Angeles, CA, 5/5 – The City of Lost Children [La cité des enfants perdus] (1995) with Delicatessen (1991) (double feature), with Q&A with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Ron Perlman. At the Aero Theatre.
- New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – El Topo (1970). At IFC Center.
- New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – Female Trouble (1974). At IFC Center.
- New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – Fight Club (1999). At IFC Center.
- Oakland, CA, 5/9 – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). At the New Parkway Theater.
- Santa Ana, CA, 5/5 – Time Bandits (1981). At the Frida Cinema.
- Toronto, Ont., Canada, 5/6 – How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). At the Royal.
- Vancouver, BC, Canada, 5/4 & 5/9 – Perfect Blue (1997). At the Rio Theatre.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week, Pete Trbovich considers the psychedelic screensaver aesthetic of the 2019 assassin-in-a-coma flop Against the Clock, and fishes into the depths of the reader-suggested review queue and comes out with 1976’s mystery drama The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Of course, you’ll also get a new Saturday Short tomorrow and this column one week from today. Who knows, we might just throw something else in there, too. Onward and weirdward!
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.
Mercy, not just a Giles Edwards review for “Khrustalyov, My Car!”, but my very first review for the site! I’m sure once everyone has watched this 2 & 3/4-hour grim-scape they’ll be clamoring for a belated Apocrypha recognition.
(P.S.: Tarkovsky ain’t got nothin’ on Alexei German.)
I found another canonically weird reportary screening courtesy of Fathom Events! Celebrating Batman’s 80th anniversary, they’re bringing back all of the “classic” ’90s Batman films back into theaters. Batman Returns “comes back” on May 6th @ 7pm, thus delighting all the cool weirdos/cult movie fanatics and horrifying everyone else.
Here’s the link for proof- no, I’m thankfully not a salesperson or else I’d be recommending the dreadful Batman and Robin: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/batman-returns-event?date=2019-05-06
If Fathoms want to make even more money, they should revive all the canonically weird films into theaters and falsely advertise them as normal movies. [cue evil laughter, unicorns, love witches, chalk-outlined dogs, soul-eating kitties and snarky robots]
Great find, thank you!