366 Weird Movies

366weirdmovies.com is back! September 26, 2018

CAPSULE: “DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY,” SEASON 2 September 25, 2018

DIRECTED BY: Douglas Mackinnon (episodes 1 & 2), Michael Patrick Jann (ep. 3 & 4), Richard Laxton (ep. 5 & 6), Wayne Yip (ep. 7 & 8), Alrick Riley (ep. 9 & 10)

FEATURING: Elijah Wood, Samuel Barnett, Jade Eshete, Amanda Walsh, Hannah Marks, Fiona Dourif, Mpho Koaho, Dustin Milligan, John Hannah, Alan Tudyk

PLOT: After the events of Season 1, Todd and Farrah are on the run and Dirk is a prisoner in a secret military facility; a new mystery begins when a visitor from the magical land of Wendimoor reveals that Dirk is prophesied to save their world from an evil Mage.

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: TV series, not movie. But it’s a series you may want to take note of: otherwise, we wouldn’t be reporting on it, would we? “Dirk Gently”’s mix of absurd humor, bewildering but addictively complex plotting, and fanboy-friendly sci-fantasy tropes was just intriguing enough that that BBC America took a chance on it as potential cult item, but also so weird and difficult that it was cancelled after only two seasons.

COMMENTS: “Have you noticed an acceleration of strangeness in your life?”

The following synopsis may not make much sense to a lot of you. This includes veterans of “Dirk Gently Season 1” as well as newcomers to the series. The one advantage Season 1 viewers have over total neophytes is that they understand “Gently”’s method—throw about a dozen subplots and random events at the viewer in episode 1, then spend the rest of the season slowly connecting the dots, with every little detail merging in a “holistic” (and fantastic) fashion. So, I’ll just lay it out: season 2 introduces a gay pink-haired hero with a scissor sword. A train in the sky. A fishing boat run aground in a field in Montana. A friendly, sort of slow sheriff and his hard-partying deputy. A beleaguered middle-aged woman with a limp, a crummy son, a crummy husband, and a crummy job at the quarry where her crummy boss is making shady deals. A dashing gangster in a snappy white suit with a black tattooed hand and a fabulous mustache. A magic wand. A car stuck in a tree. (The literal Purple People Eater won’t show up until episode 4).

It does all connect, naturally. This high-fantasy based plot is perhaps not as satisfying as Season 1’s time-travel yarn, but on the other hand the show devotes more time to building up its underlying infrastructure, dropping hints about Project Blackwing and introducing new “anomalous individuals” like Dirk and the Rowdy 3. (They’re all sort of a team of metaphysical X-Men gone renegade.) Rather than dominating the plot with his clueless exuberance, Samuel Barnett’s Gently is sidelined a bit this season, moping through most of the story in an existential crisis. He and Elijah Wood’s Todd Brotzman invert their Season 1 dynamic, with Todd now eager to solve the case for his own reasons, dragging the reluctant detective along with him. Other characters pursue their own arcs. Farrah shows more vulnerability, and there are hints of burgeoning romance between her and Todd. Todd’s sister Amanda develops magical powers, making her character more relevant–although this development feels a little forced. Ken is set up for a heel turn. And holistic assassin Bart (Fiona Dourif) remains the most fascinating entity. Her fans will be thrilled with her opportunities to prove she is the ultimate badass killing machine, and she gets by far the best lines: “I think that sometimes when you’re killing people they don’t like it, and it makes them unhappy, and scared, and also dead, which they don’t like, I don’t think…” If that monologue doesn’t intrigue you, then “Dirk Gently” isn’t the show for you.

Unfortunately, the series has been canceled, and we’ll never get to see where creator Max Landis was ultimately headed with all of this. The most bittersweet part of what turned out to be the series finale is that the last shot sets Bart up for a dramatically increased role in the unmade Season 3.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…a show where weird things happen in literally every frame…”–Hahn Nguyen, IndieWire (season premier)

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 9/21/2018 September 23, 2018

This is a repost of the column originally published on 366weirdmovies.com on Friday, 9/21, just before the site crash occurred. Some links will necessarily be broken.

Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.

FILM FESTIVALS – Fantastic Fest (Austin, TX, 9/20-9/27):

The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX may be America’s coolest movie theater. Their brand has grown so big that now they have franchised Drafthouses, and even distribute their own (generally weird) movies. One of the Alamo’s hippest projects is Fantastic Fest, going into its thirteenth year. As per usual, there is a fantastic slate of weird movies and some neato revivals here; this year, they are adding satellite screenings of select features in their Denver, Brooklyn and San Francisco locations. Coming at the tail end of the film festival season, much of the movies are retreads, but the Drafthouse folks always find a way to save some surprise debuts. Giles Edwards reported on Cam, Chained for Life, Luz, One Cut of the Dead, Under the Silver Lake and Violence Voyager for his Fantasia Festival 2018 coverage. We noted Gaspar Noé‘s LSD orgy Climax, Jim Hosking‘s “romantic comedy” An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, Peter Strickland’s fashion horror In Fabric, and Terry Gilliam‘s long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote at earlier festivals. Here are the new-to-us films we’ll be tracking:

• All the Gods in the Sky – A man waits for aliens to come and save him and his disabled sister. Screening Sep. 23 & 25.
• Angel – An Argentine teen turns into a violent criminal, but sees his crimes as fantasy sequences. Sep. 25.
• Between Worlds – Mandy isn’t Nicolas Cage‘s only strange and over-the-top role of the year; there’s also this one, where he must defend himself from the ghost of his wife, who’s jealous of his new relationship with a medium. See it Sep. 25.
• Blood Lake (1987) – A slasher movie made by a cast of Oklahoman amateurs during summer vacation at a lake, it’s supposedly so bad it’s weird. Sep 23, with the director in attendance.
• Deadwax – This story about a possessed record that drives people mad was shown on Shudder in 15 minute episodes; it’s presented as a full movie here. From Graham Reznick (who will be at the screening on Sep 23), so you know it will be weird.
• Dog – French black comedy about a man who thinks he’s turning into a dog. Sep. 21 & 24.
• Fugue – Agnieszka Smoczynska‘s followup to her Certified Weird The Lure is about a woman with total memory loss. Don’t forget to check it out on Sep 21 or 27.
• Keep an Eye Out – Quentin Dupieux returns with a comedy set during an all-night interrogation. Sep. 27.
• Ladyworld – Eight teenage girls are trapped in a house by an earthquake in a surreal distaff take on “Lord of the Flies.” Sep. 24.
• Laika – Stop-motion Czech musical positing that a dog the Soviets shot into space in 1957 actually landed on an alien planet. Sep. 26.
• Lords of Chaos – The true story of the infamous Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, but with dream sequences. Screens Sep. 27.
• Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club – An aging temptress is ordered to bring one final date to her feminist cannibal club, but starts to fall for her prey. Sep. 24.
• May the Devil Take You – The Devil comes to claim the father of an estranged daughter in this Indonesian horror. Sep. 23 & 25.
• Murder Me, Monster – The chief suspect in a series of decapitations claims he’s in telepathic contact with the monster who is the real killer. Sep. 23 & 26.
• Starfish – Things go from bad to worse for young Aubrey when her best friend dies, and then the apocalypse arrives soon after. On Sep. 27.
• Strike, Dear Mistress, and Cure His Heart – Surreal microbudget drama based on Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, and recommended to connoisseurs of the “strange and unusual.” Sep. 25.
• When the Trees Fall – Ukrainian tale of young lovers and a life of crime, with bursts of magical realism. Sep-23-24.
• White Fire (1984) – Oddity about a gang of diamond smugglers after a massive jewel that burns anyone who touches it. The Sep 20 screening may be the first time anyone’s seen it in 34 years.
• The Wolf House [La Casa Lobo] – Disturbing stop-motion feature about a girl who’s punished by being forced to spend 100 nights alone in a cabin in the woods.
  

Fantastic Fest home page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Cabin Boy (1994): A “fancy lad” takes a job as a cabin boy on a fishing ship. This absurdist comedy from Chris Elliot (of the David Letterman show) went way over the heads of 1994 audiences and flopped like a mackerel, but it’s gained a cult following sense. Now on DVD and Blu-ray with many extras including a commentary track from Elliot and director Adam Resnick. Buy Cabin Boy.

Damsel (2018): A cowboy (Robert Pattinson) journeys across the frontier, miniature horse in tow, to join his strong-willed bride-to-be (Mia Wasikowska). This somewhat bizarre Western died quietly at the box office and now is out in bare-bones DVD or VOD (no Blu-ray, sorry). Buy Damsel.

Horrors of Malformed Men (1969): An escaped mental patient assumes the identity of his own doppelganger and winds up on a mad doctor’s island. Teruo Ishii devised this macabre tale by merging several Edogawa Rampo stories, now restored and out in a deluxe edition from Arrow Video (the Criterion Collection of schlock film). Buy Horrors of Malformed Men.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

• Bloomington, IN, 9/23 – Persona (1966). At Indiana University Cinema.
• Chicago, IL, 9/24 & 9/27 – 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). At Music Box Theater.
• Denver, CO, 9/23 – Suspiria (1977). At Alamo Drafthouse.
• Los Angeles, CA, 9/21 (midnight) – Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001). At the Nuart Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 9/23 – Lisztomania (1975). At the Aero Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 9/27 – The Wicker Man (1973). At the Egyptian Theater.
• New York City, NY, 9/21-9/22 – Daisies [Sedmikrásky] (1966). At Film Society of Lincoln Center.
• New York City, NY, 9/21-9/27 – Suspiria (1977). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 9/22 & 9/25 – Suspiria (1977). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 9/24-9/27 – Perfect Blue (1997). At the Metrograph.
• Pittsburgh, PA, 9/21-9/27 – Akira (1988). At Row House Cinema.
• Pittsburgh, PA, 9/21-9/27 – Perfect Blue (1997). At Row House Cinema.
• San Francisco, CA, 9/22-9/23 – Perfect Blue (1997). At the Roxie.
• Vancouver, BC, Canada, 9/24 – Perfect Blue (1997) with Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (2017) (double feature). At the Rio Theater.
• Yonkers, NY, 9/25 – After Hours (1985). At the Alamo Drafthouse.

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.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE September 23, 2018

In regards to the title of this post: it’s tough to know. The big news, obviously, is that the main site—366weirdmovies.com—is currently down. This is not our fault this time: our web host had a major data disaster that’s affected 1,000s of websites, and we just got caught up in it. (It’s particularly bad timing for us, considering how we’re trying to build momentum for those final 20 Certified Weird movies!) The host is now predicting all websites will be restored within 48 hours, but we don’t know where we are in the queue. The host has been so apologetic that I almost feel sorrier for him then I do for us.

So I’m working from memory as to what will be posting next week when the site is restored. First off, it should be Part 2 of Alfred Eaker’s survey of Bela Lugosi’s “Monogram 9” Poverty Row horrors. We should also see El Rob Hubbard review Felidae, the 1994 German animated film about a feline detective pursuing a serial killer. Then, why not coverage of the second (and final) season of the bizarre comedy-mystery-fantasy series, “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” and a second look at Spain’s Birdboy: The Forgotten Children. I mean, why not?

Due to the circumstances, we’re not going to print our Weirdest Search Terms of the Week, or re-list the reader-suggested review queue. Those beloved features should return next week.

In the meantime, if you are religious, we are accepting prayers for the quick restoration of the website. Entreat God, Allah, Krishna, Satan, the Goddess, Cthulhu, or even ‘Bob’… let’s make it a competition and see which deity can get the job done!