A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
There’s nothing weird debuting in theaters this week… though you may want to check out The Tree of Life if you haven’t already. Frankly, summer blockbuster season can’t end soon enough for us. Fortunately, it’s a huge week for home video releases, so we don’t mind the drought at the cinemas so much.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Alma (est. 2011-2015): The creepy short film by former Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas about a little girl sucked into a bizarre soul-stealing toy store has been greenlighted by Dreamworks, thanks to the intervention of new DW collaborator Guillermo del Toro, who will executive produce while Blaas directs. Something about this career path—young animator with a cute/macabre style makes award-winning unreleased short, gets shot at making feature—reminds us of the story of a young Tim Burton, except that the studio is behind the artist this time. Read the story at the LA Times. The original short can be viewed below.
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (est. 2011): Ever since it worked for Little Shop of Horrors, everyone is convinced they can take any crazy old B-movie and turn it into a hit musical. The incredibly stupid and confusing Hitler’s Brain is the next target of this trend (which has already seen movies like Evil Dead and The Toxic Avenger turned into off-Broadway song-and-dance fests). We can just hear the libretto in our heads: “Heil, heil Hitler, you’re just a head/No house to live in, use this jar instead!” It’s listed as a 2011 production on the IMDB, but there hasn’t been any official news since the project was announced in 2008.
NEW ON DVD:
The Baby (1973): “Sick” black comedy/horror about a family who keeps their thumb-sucking, mentally-disabled 21-year-old son in a crib and diapers. The DVD box cover proudly quotes DVD Drive-In as saying, “One of the most bizarre films to come out of Hollywood in the 1970s!” This title is also currently in our reader-suggested review queue, so you can expect to see a review in the coming weeks. Buy The Baby
Black Moon (1975): A girl flees a land where the sexes are literally at war (with guns and tanks) and escapes to a farmhouse where she meets a unicorn, among other strange creatures, in this extremely surreal film. Big-time weirdness from a cinema master (Louis Malle) brought to us by the Criterion Collection. Buy Black Moon [The Criterion Collection]
“ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition”: 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. Now the entire series is available in this 9 disc box set. Buy “ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition”
Sucker Punch (2011): Read our capsule review. A young girl invents a fantasy world in this video game style spectacle. Buy Sucker Punch
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009): A man begins to transform into a machine, to a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails. We certify Tetsuo: The Iron Man weird on Wednesday, and the second sequel/remake just happens to have been released to DVD the day before… coincidence? Yes! Buy Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
White Lightnin’ (2009): Biopic of Jesco White, outlaw, clog-dancer, gas-huffer, and perhaps the wildest of the insane Appalachian clan profiled in the surprise documentary hit The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009). Mentioned here because it was filmed in an experimental style with hallucinations and ends with a descent into madness that left some viewers scratching their heads. Buy White Lightnin’
Zazie dans le metro (1960): Speaking of Louis Malle, weird, and the Criterion Collection, Zazie isn’t as aggressively surreal as Black Moon but it’s also of interest. It’s a wacky, absurd, whimsical, and totally unreal slapstick satire of Paris. Buy Zazie dans le metro [The Criterion Collection]
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Black Moon (1975): See description in DVD above. Buy Black Moon [Blu-ray]
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001): Mindbending science-fiction anime about post-apocalyptic bounty hunters on the trail of a bio-terrorist. Fans of the anime series will doubtlessly be thrilled by this Blu-ray debut, but word is the film stands up well as a standalone piece for those who never watched an episode of the TV show. Buy Cowboy Bebop: The Movie [Blu-ray]
Sucker Punch (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Sucker Punch (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Zazie dans le metro (1960): See description in DVD above. Buy Zazie dans le metro [Blu-ray]
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.