November @ 366 Weird Movies: TREE OF LIFE (2), MELANCHOLIA, FORGOTTEN DREAMS...

[Rev. Powell]

Here begins the Halloween hangover...

MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001): CERTIFIED WEIRD! "...the monster behind the Winkie’s, a Spanish version of Roy Orbison’s 'Crying' delivered by a woman who collapses onstage, and a mafia-style media syndicate run by a deformed dwarf who uses an eyebrowless cowboy as his right-hand man will convince you that we are deep in that subconscious pit of eroticism, kitsch and weirdness that can only go by the name Lynchland."

DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (2011): "From the skyscraper-sized Buddha being built for the Empress’ coronation to the flooded underground city where lowlifes go to hide when the heat is on to the everyday pageantry of the Chinese imperial court, Dee is a fantastic looking film, and it’s always a pleasure to watch the film’s ass-kicking characters cavort across these carefully rendered backdrops."

THREE GUY MADDIN SHORTS: "At their best these mini-movies are like a shot of pure rye whiskey: they burn going down, but they give your soul a jolt, and you want another as soon as you’ve digested the first."

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921): "While The Phantom Carriage does not take the easy route of escapist fantasy for adolescent boys, that does not mean it is lacking in intensity.  One scene clearly seeded Stanley Kubrick‘s idea for Jack Torrance in the unsettling 'Here’s Johnny' scene from The Shining (1980) ."-AE

[Rev. Powell]

Up next:

THE RUM DIARY (2011): "The tone of muted madness here doesn’t do justice to Thompson’s gonzo spirit.  Call it 'Mild Concern and Dislike in San Juan.'"

ZENITH (2010): "More confusing than weird, Zenith is at the same time a laudable and thought-provoking, but forced and undramatic, attempt to create a cult-y reality-bender along the lines of more organic puzzle movies like Primer."

ZERO DE CONDUITE (1933): "With it’s dwarf headmaster, disappearing balls and drawings that come to life, the film is as playful and experimental as a mock rebellion staged by schoolboys before Sunday dinner."

THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932): "Of course, in every Eden there’s a rotten apple or two, and here it’s Parker’s abroad girlfriend (Leila Hyams, from Freaks) and the Beast Men, Moreau’s ungrateful children who hold a grudge against their creator for little things like torture, brutality, and vivisection."-AE

[Rev. Powell]

A couple of interesting ones for bad movie fans here, including your first look at the Troma-distributed FATHER'S DAY, coming to theaters in 2012.

FATHER'S DAY (2011): "An eye-patched vigilante, a topless stripper with a chainsaw, a nearsighted cannibal rapist, incest, demonic possession, trips to both heaven and hell, a non sequitur commercial for low-budget sci-fi “Star Raiders,” hallucinogenic berries: Father’s Day has a lot of weirdness to recommend it."-AK

JACKBOOTS ON WHITEHALL (2010): "Hitler’s transvestite cameo is emblematic of the problem with Jackboots.  The joke is never developed; the movie just trots out the dictator dressed as the Queen of England, with a pearl-handled Luger, and expects us to laugh."

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! (2010): "Your reaction to the doc depends on your level of exploitation sophistication.  It could serve as a fond trip down memory lane, or a giddy introduction to a new world of malarial movie madness."

THE MERRY WIDOW (1925): "The film was so successful that it was remade in 1934 by Ernst Lubitsch (as a musical...) and in a best-forgotten 1952 version starring Lana Turner.  Despite a studio mandated, ill-fitting happy ending, von Stroheim’s silent version is, predictably, the most bizarre. "-AE

[Rev. Powell]

It's feast week at 366 Weird Movies!

IDIOTS AND ANGELS (2008): Certified Weird! "He's the kind of guy who is only genuinely happy when he can feel the guts of the butterfly he's just squished between his fingers."

OBLIVION (1994): "...it’s a real tribute to George Takei that he somehow manages to out-overact everyone in the film in his role as a falling-down drunk doctor/robot repairman with a thick Southern drawl.  From his first moment onscreen, when he staggers into frame hoisting a bottle of whiskey and declares, 'Jim Beam me up!' it’s clear that he’s playing on a level all his own."-SW

CARLOS ATANES INTERVIEW & TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIE LIST: "His official website describes his ideal fan as one who likes 'fantasy, weirdness and oddity' and is 'part of that public who has a good time with risky and different things and with the cinema that recreates alternative and personal universes.'  Since that description fits 366 Weird Movies readers perfectly, we figured we would play matchmaker between Carlos Atanes and our fans..."

OLIVER PY'S LULU (2011): "As Schon reveals Lulu’s true nature to the Painter, death appears from above as a well-endowed topless woman in a black miniskirt and a death’s head mask."-AE

[Rev. Powell]

November leftovers:

THE TREE OF LIFE (2011): Now Certified Weird!  "Sometimes, when you spend your cinematic time immersed in the surrealistic worlds of David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky, it’s easy to forget how uncompromisingly radical and bizarre a film like The Tree of Life appears to someone whose idea of an 'out there' movie is of Cowboys and Aliens."

MELANCHOLIA (2011): "Weird movie fans will surely appreciate the gorgeous surrealistic imagery peppered throughout, but at its heart Melancholia is a serious examination of mental illness and family ties in the shadow of a cataclysmic event."-AK

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2010): "In the quiet finale the camera lingers over the detailed panels depicting cave lions and horses, remarkably rendered figures etched one on top of the other to suggest movement, while Ernst Reijseger's mystical score of cellos, flutes and a droning choir plays an imaginary primordial liturgy.  It's an intense tribute, and even a little trippy. "

THE UNCOMPROMISING ALBAN BERG: CALIXTO BIEITO’S WOZZECK (2006): "...a powerfully reprehensible staging of a powerfully reprehensible opera."-AE