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.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Radio Free Albemuth (2010): A record-store clerk receives a communication from a mysterious entity he calls VALIS that prompts him to try to overthrow the U.S. government. This is an adaptation of the Philip K. (“A Scanner Darkly”) Dick novel of the same name (Dick really believed that he had been contacted by aliens). Radio Free Albemuth official site.
Snowpiercer (2013): The remnants of humanity survive on a perpetual motion train after an environmental disaster freezes the globe. We Americans finally get to see the movie the rest of the world has been talking about for a year (at least, some of us do, given the limited release). Snowpiercer official site.
NEW ON DVD:
Enemy (2013): Read our review! Unfortunately there’s no commentary on the DVD, meaning no insight into the movie’s mysterious ending (although maybe that’s for the best). Buy Enemy
Faust (2011): Alexandr (Russian Ark) Sokurov’s minimalist, hallucinatory retelling of Goethe’s phantasmagorical classic about Mephistopheles tempting the titular doctor. Though it’s definitely in an arthouse vein, Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York called it a “triumph of the weird.” Buy Faust
A Hard Day’s Night (1964): America was surprised when the first feature film by Mop Top Pop sensations was a plotless mockumentary filled with absurd humor. Director Richard Lester would later bring us the surreal post-apocalyptic comedy The Bed Sitting Room (1969). Criterion natural includes documentary extras on the film and Beatlemania in general, although note that you’ll need to spring for the Blu-ray/DVD combo package to get the whole lot. Buy A Hard Day’s Night [Criterion Collection]
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Enemy (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Enemy [Blu-ray]
A Hard Day’s Night (1964): See description in DVD above. This is a DVD/Blu-ray combo, but note: this set includes a disc of extra features, including Lester’s surrealist comedy short “The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film” (starring Peter Sellers), that are not available on the single disc DVD. Buy A Hard Day’s Night [Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD]
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.