Obviously there’s lots of weird trash in the direct to VHS/DVD/streaming ecosystems, but when it comes to something that actually got a first run theater release, what is your strangest?
For me, it’s Southland Tales. I actually kind of love this movie but it’s difficult to recommend because people you recommend it to might not look at you the same afterwards. The cast is positively stacked with big names, the movie looks great, and there’s a fantastic and really sad musical number half way through. This is the only movie that has truly captured the vibe of reading the biblical book of Revelation in that it’s making you go “wait, what?” every five minutes as it spirals into either intensely meaningful imagery or schizophrenia manifest on 35mm.
Napoleon Dynamite. The first time I watched it, I came out of the theater wanting my money back. By the third, I was hoping there would be a sequel.
Pi
This is actually a good movie though. I think Aronofsky peaked with this one.
It’s incredible, but it’s weird as fuck.
The strangest was Flow (2024), a Latvian animation film about a cat trying to survive during an apocalypse.
There’s not a single line of dialog in the whole movie, since there are no humans.I watched it 3 times. Seriously, go check it out, it’s absolutely awesome.
Animated entirely with Blender too which is a free app
I wouldn’t call it anywhere near the strangest that I have seen, but it was a very good movie. Very emotional.
Seen it. Tremendous piece of work.
Splice. It was a surprise screening, we didn’t know what movie we were watching and none knew about it before hand.
At some point when they hybrid starts seducing the main character the girl beside me as just “what the fuck is going on with this movie??”
As a movie I don’t revving l recommend, but the experience was great.
I loved that movie. I gather there aren’t many of us.
don’t revving
What does this mean?
Means I need to read what I write before sending :)
Swipe failed to recognize recommend and I failed to removed the result
Kinda the same, 2/3 the way through I’m just like “so he wants to fuck it? The hell?”
Movie then fell apart…
Kung Pao: Enter the Fist
I’ve never seen sooo many people walk out of a theater before.
Still waiting for the sequel
I say “we trained him wrong as a joke” any time a coworker fucks something up.
One of my favorite! I quote it near daily. (Also, it’s Kung Pow: Enter the Fist)
It works for both of us…
Wiuiiuuuiiiii
Qwaaah!
I can’t purchase any nuts without saying/thinking “that’s a lot of nuts!” to this day.
Taco Bell, Taco Bell… Product placement with Taco Bell.
I just watched Zardoz with Sean Connery last night. I’m pretty sure it got a mainstream release back in 1974. My buddy described it as “an acid-trip.”
It did, and it is
Bubba Ho-Tep is the winner for me. Elvis, still alive and kicking in a retirement home, needs to team up with JFK (who the CIA dyed black) to stop an Egyptian mummy that is eating the souls of the elderly.
I knew exactly what I was in for, and I had an absolute blast. I took my father with me, and his response was, “What the hell did I just watch?”
Still wish we’d actually gotten the prequel Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires.
The Gods Must Be Crazy
I love this movie. It’s one of the few we had on VHS in my house growing up.
Strangest has to be The Quiet Earth. I don’t remember what exactly caught my attention years ago when I downloaded and watched it
See, I liked Southland Tales, too.
But, for me, and I’ve seen some pretty strange theatre releases:
Baise-Moi (2000): It was banned, for glaringly obvious reasons. But, the theatre got an injunction and we went to one of the only showings.
Happiness (1998): Todd Solondz makes everything awkward.
The Cell (2000): Tarsem’s Jennifer Lopez starring sci-fi mind trip.
House of 1000 Corpses: Rob Zombie. I’m not a horror-movie person, yet, somehow, I saw this.
하녀 (The Housemaid, 2010): one of the wildest endings I have ever witnessed. Bar none.
Irreversible (2002): My first film by Gaspar Nöe.
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990): This is what happens when you can make literally whatever you want. And, you’re one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers.
Freddy Got Fingered, my mom took me. OMG.
Tom greene was millennial tiktok.
Dude invented a whole genre of comedy.
He was way ahead of his time. If he released that movie half a decade to a decade later in early Adult Swim days, it would have been very well-received. Instead, it was one of the worst-reviewed (in my opinion) great movies ever made.
The Room
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller version) 2013. It is also my favorite movie. It is strange because the whole movie or most of it is his imagination.
Have you ever read the original story?
No, didn’t know there was one. I will check it out.
Upstream Color. I was so hyped for the 2nd feature from the director of Primer, that I went to a premiere with Shane doing a QnA at the end. Despite him talking about it, I have no idea what the movie was about, and I have yet to figure it out. It was more like an experimental film student thesis than a movie.
Saw this. Liked it. Not as much as Primer, but still, it was good to me.
2001: A space Odyssey.
Probably the weirdest mainstream movie I’ve seen. It was bloody awful, too. Perhaps it’s not fair, because I watched it on an airplane, because apparently some people like it. It’s an absolute trip, about 5 lines of dialogue in the whole thing and about 90 minutes of content that should have stayed on the cutting room floor.
I’m sure there’s other movies that are weird (and many that are bad) that I’ve seen but this one sticks in my memory.
The look of the film is amazing. However, even as someone who loves sci-fi, it’s way too long. I know, it’s slow on purpose. It makes you feel more like you’re there. However, fuck that. I can waste my time in a lot more enjoyable ways.
I feel the same about the original Blade Runner. It had an incredible impact on the look of a sci-fi dystopia, especially Cyberpunk, but man is it slow. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the inspiration, treads most of the same ground, and even has things that aren’t included in the movie, in the format of a short story. BR is drawn out just to be drawn out.
I appreciate what these movies did, and the messages they are trying to tell. I think they’re very flawed though, with particular emphasis on them being long but not doing anything with that time. I don’t want action sequences or anything. I just don’t want to sit around effectively watching people do nothing.
Perhaps it’s not fair, because I watched it on an airplane
I genuinely can’t think of a worse movie to try and watch on an airplane.
Snakes on a Plane? Alive?
Along this thread, Flight.
My partner will never forgive me for showing her the inversion scene a week before we had 13 h of flying to do to get home from one of the Gulf States.
Snakes on a Plane
I consider this part of a genre of cynically made movies that rely on a great poster and catchy premise to get butts in seats, and then the movie itself is just sort of slapped together. It’s what I imagine has dudebros telling eachother is “Dude this movie is soooo crazy.”
Aye, I’ve never actually seen it, because as you say, it’s essentially a title and a poster. I can’t imagine the movie is able to do anything particularly unexpected or interesting beyond that.
Similarly, I’ve not seen The Human Centipede, because I know what the gist of it is from the title alone. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it seems unlikely that it’s going to really get to the core of helping us to understand the human condition. Unless you happen to be a human who’s been surgically attached to the anus of another human.
See, to me, “thems fightin’ words.”
Well… Not actually. More, like, I’ll plead a case.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968!) will always be one of my favourite film experiences because it is epic AND subtle. Arrival (2016) comes close, as do Her (2013) and Advantageous (2009).
It spans eons, megaparsecs, and bends the concept of reality itself. Meanwhile, it’s also two guys on a ship with a talking computer. Some neat camera tricks and big scale sets. Some very creative storytelling and a reminder that we’re sophisticated monkeys compared to a, potentially, cosmic-level intelligence.
Imagine Bezos or Musk digging up a 4 billion year old alien data center on the moon — one that pointed to Jupiter. What would follow would be, exactly, 2001. Everyone involved in a slipshod attempt to fly to Jupiter would die. Everyone. The AI would kill them all.
Also, note: the sheer impact a single secret has on an Artificial Intelligence system. And to top it off, a single, poorly told lie.
This film made me love film.
For me, the movie is a prime example that, just because something is a classic, that doesn’t mean it is universally enjoyable. It left me with an overwhelming sense of “what did I just watch?” And not in a good way
It’s made to be artsy more than it’s made to be entertaining. I think that’s what makes it a polarizing film.
Those bits that should have “stayed on the cutting room floor” are all shot and framed in a spectacularly consistent and artistically pleasing way. If you’re the type that enjoys video essays on blocking, you probably love 2001. If not, it’s likely not your movie.
I’ve made a concerted effort to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey two or three times and I have yet to successfully make it through the entire opening scene let alone the entire move.
It gets way better after the opening sequence with the apes
People love it so much - I think I’ve only once made it past the first 25 minutes until the first spoken dialogue without falling asleep…
I fell asleep and woke up 20 min later nothing had happened. I know this because the poor sod in front of me was also watching it, about 45 min behind and I glanced over a few times to see if I’d missed anything.
