A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Summer blockbuster season is upon us; there’s nothing really weird in theaters right now (unless you find movies about a telepath and a shapeshifter teaming up with the CIA to recruit a squad of teenage mutants in order to head off the Cuban missile crisis “weird”—we don’t). That’s no surprise, considering the season, but there’s an unusual drought in offbeat video releases this week, too.  Don’t panic; there’s good stuff coming in the near future, we swear…

SCREENINGS (West Hollywood, CA, Laemmle Sunset 5, June 24):

Butterfly (2010): A deranged fan kidnaps a direct-to-DVD horror auteur to show him her line of avant-garde snuff films.  It looks like this will play the same theater again on 7/29 and 8/26, but we have no further information on future screenings or a DVD release.

NEW ON DVD:

Insignificance (1985):  In a week where we’re struggling to find weird things to watch, we may have to settle for Nic Roeg‘s 1985 adaptation of a play about an imaginary meeting between Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Senator Joe McCarthy.  Not too bizarre, but Roeg certainly has his weird fans—and it’s from Criterion, which is a plus.  Buy Insignificance [Criterion Collection].

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Heavy Metal (1981):  Eight animated tales involving busty spacewomen, loosely revolving around an evil glowing green rock.  Naughty, nerdy science fantasy animation set to a hard rock soundtrack, unapologetically aimed at young males; this piece of 1980s nostalgia is a guilty pleasure for many and a cult movie in the purest sense.  Buy Heavy Metal [Blu-ray].

Insignificance (1985): See description in DVD above. Buy Insignificance [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Thirteenth Floor (1999): A scientist must enter a computer-simulation of 1930s Los Angeles to discover the truth about a murder in this recursive virtual reality thriller that was overshadowed by The Matrix on release. The Detroit News called it “a film about deeply confused people that seems likely to put viewers in a state of deep confusion for most of its running time.” Watch The Thirteenth Floor 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.