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 on the official site links.
SCREENINGS – (Berlin, Sun., June 21):
Rustam Khamdamov retrospective: Here’s a rare opportunity to view the works of Rustam Khamdamov, whose surreal art-house movies are generally unknown outside the Russian-speaking world. On the menu is The Jewel of Rustam Khamdamov, a short documentary by Vladislav Yö about the making of Khamdamov’s latest film, Rubies. Murder; his 2010 short Diamonds. Theft; My Heart is in the Highlands, his absurdist 40-minute adaptation of the William Saroyan book; and his operatic feature The Vocal Parallels. Lovers of Russian surrealism in the Berlin area should make it a point to check this out. At Kino Krododil (German); here’s a descriptive blog post from the sponsors (in English) and the event’s Facebook page.
SCREENINGS – (Los Angeles, CA, Tues. June 25):
That’s Sexploitation! (2013): From the vaults of Something Weird Video and the twisted mind of Frank Henenlotter comes this documentary covering the most bizarre and salacious moments of the sleazy pre-hardcore film genre, from “birth of a baby” films to nudie-cuties to roughies. Aside from the glimpses of females flesh, most of this stuff was pretty boring and it plays best as short clips of the wildest moments. Note: cery few movies make their world premier on a Tuesday night. That’s Sexploitation! world premier at Cinefamily.
NEW ON DVD:
Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan: Kids at a boot-camp learn the homicidal real history of the beloved American legend, firsthand. Dan (“Grizzly Adams”) Haggerty and Joe (brother of Martin Sheen) Estevez head the cast. Buy Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan
The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (2012): Juvenile delinquents who have been exiled to outer space make their way to Earth in this 1950s-style musical spoof. The tagline promises “a truly mad concoction!” Buy The Ghastly Love of Johnny X
Stoker (2013): Read our capsule review. Chan-wook Park‘s first English-language film is a psychothriller that plays like a more perverted (well, more explicitly perverted) Hitchcock film. Buy Stoker
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Lifeforce (1985): Read our capsule review. A very silly movie about nude space vampires, but Mathilda May in hi-def is definitely tempting. Buy Lifeforce [Blu-Ray/DVD Combo]
Stoker (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Stoker [Blu-ray]
NEPOTISM CORNER:
“Roald Dahl on Film”: Frequent contributor Scott Sentinella wrote a piece on the film adaptations of children’s novelist Roald (Willy Wonka) Dahl for “A Living Dog.” Check out his rundown here.
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.