CAPSULE: KINETTA (2005)
October 6, 2020 Giles Edwards	4 Comments
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
DIRECTED BY: Giorgos Lanthimos
FEATURING: Evangelia Randou, Aris Servetalis, Costas Xikominos
PLOT: "At a Greek hotel in the off-season, a chamber maid, a man obsessed with BMWs, and a photo-store clerk attempt to film and photograph various badly reenacted struggles between a man and a woman."
COMMENTS: If I am reviewing a film I enjoy or respect (or better yet, both), I am often apprehensive when I sit down to write about it. This is because, despite having written hundreds of reviews by now, I am always fearful I won't find my "window" into the movie: that first sentence, or first idea, that opens up the rest of my thoughts as I write. If I am reviewing a film that I did not care for, this is not a problem, as there's usually at least one withering put-down that acts as my window. With Kinetta, I was spoiled for choices. A high point in the movie came early on when I was relieved to find that I wouldn't, as I was fearing, have to make use of "Closed Caption" subtitles: it turned out the film already had standard subtitles pre-rigged in the stream. This resolved, I watched and took notes; to my right, my cat, Goose, did the sensible thing and slept soundly through the entire film.
Whoever provided the summary on IMDb (which I lifted straight from the site, for the second time only), is a very well-spoken person. That is exactly what Kinetta is "about", and no amount of "walk time" padding or shaky-cam "fight" footage can stop my train of thought from slapping quotations around everything in a vain attempt to convey how mind-numbingly pointless this cinematic exercise is. Of the three leads, the least charismatic (the "BMW"-fanboy, who may be a cop [?]) gets by far and away the most dialogue. Cameraman, with beard, has perhaps half a dozen short lines, but comes across as the only reasonable person of the bunch. The scene in which he saves the hotel maid character from a drug overdose makes for the only worthwhile stretch of movie—right in the final minutes. But well before that point, a question came unbidden to my mind, "Why don't the MST3K or RiffTrax people make better use of their skills by tearing art-house garbage to pieces?"
I dove into this review because it was put out there by Management toward the top of the to-do pile. Though I've seen one of the director's more recent movies (with other 366ers, no less), I was totally unfamiliar with his name. So I say to you, Mr. Lanthimos, as I am sure you are reading a review of your (kind of) feature debut from fifteen years ago: good job on overcoming the naysayers. While the likes of The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Lobster prove you know how to make really good movies, Kinetta stands as proof-in-celluloid that you can make a really horrible one if you put your mind to it.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
"Viewing 'Kinetta' with the benefit of hindsight, you can see inklings of visual and staging ideas that Lanthimos would explore more fully later on… But time hasn't made it more than a cryptic curiosity."–Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times (2019 revival)
2005ArthouseBewareExperimentalGiorgos LanthimosGreekMinimalist
APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: EXECUTIVE KOALA (2005)
April 9, 2020 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies)	3 Comments
DIRECTED BY: Minoru Kawasaki
FEATURING: Elli-Rose, Hironobu Nomura1
PLOT: A koala in a business suit who works for a Japanese pickle company is accused of killing his wife and girlfriend, and can't defend himself because he's got selective amnesia.
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: Consider this "Apocrypha Candidate" designation a placeholder for Minoru Kawasaki. This is the first of his movies we've seen, and we're impressed with his manic-yet-deadpan sense of absurdity; it suggests something of his will be worthy of an honorable mention designation on our weird movie canon. Is Executive Koala the one, though? Or should Calimari Wrestler or Rug Cop occupy that slot?
COMMENTS: There's a point in Executive Koala where a pretty woman (Japanese singer Shôko Nakagawa, making her first movie appearance) sees our hero Tamura buy a sack of groceries from a frog-headed convenience store clerk and quizzically comments, "A koala? A frog?" Aside from the occasional background double-take from a passerby in the street (suggesting scenes shot guerilla-style in the wild), this is the only time anyone notices anything odd about the man in the business suit with a giant round fuzzy head and claws, or the frog, or the bunny rabbit president of Rabource Pickling Co., Ltd. It's a kind of fourth-wall breaking moment: Nakagawa addresses the audience indirectly, acknowledging the absurdity of a world that apparently contains a total of three anthropomorphic animals whose existence otherwise surprises no one.
Aside from one montage of paintings depicting a surreal Australian koala massacre, complete with crucified marsupials, little is made of the fact that Tamura's a koala; he might as well be Korean. So, viewed from one angle, Tamura's koalaness adds little to the script: Koala could have been a competent psychological thriller without the gimmick (at least, until the story devolves into complete goofy chaos at the climax). The resulting film would have been serviceable, but forgettable, parody riff on American Psycho.
But there's just something about casting a cute fuzzy mammal as the lead in your serial killer thriller that lets the audience know not to take anything too seriously, you know? The casting ensures that every frame of film is stained with absurdity that can't be scrubbed off. Considering the fact that the only part of Tamura's face that moves (and sometimes light up) are his eyes, the actors that wear the koala suit do a remarkable job in bringing the executive to life through head shakes, claw gesticulations, and simple props like a handkerchief used to mop his furry brow when he's nervous. Tamura's uncredited voiceover actor deserves praise, too, because we quickly come to accept this character's reality (within his world). At times, we too forget that he's of another species, and simply see him as a harried salaryman fretting about putting together a deal with a Korean kimchi magnate while under investigation for the murder of his wife and girlfriend.
Although the acting is deadpan, the film doesn't simply play its premise as a straightforward thriller that happens to star a koala. Although it builds its absurdity slowly, it gradually accrues dream sequences, a martial arts demonstration against a bacon backdrop, more fakeout dream sequences and false memories, behind-the-scenes footage hidden inside the actual movie, a musical trial, and extensive koala kung fu. Oh, and believe it or not, there might be a few plot holes and loose ends flying around, too—like just who the hell was the frog? It may not all add up, but all in all, you get your entertainment dollar's worth from Executive Koala. He may even deserve a raise.
"While funny in the 'boy, that's odd' sense more than the 'laugh 'til you ache' sense, the film is fast-paced and freewheeling… This is a director who makes movies designed to leave audiences saying, 'I watched the weirdest thing last night.'"–Noel Murray, The A.V. Club (DVD box set)
(This movie was nominated for review by AlgusUnderdunk, who described it as "a strange Japanese film I still can't quite describe…" Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)
2005AbsurdistAmnesiaComedyJapaneseMinoru KawasakiMysteryPsychological ThrillerSerial killer
CAPSULE: BRICK (2005)
January 30, 2020 Shane Wilson	3 Comments
DIRECTED BY: Rian Johnson
FEATURING: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Meagan Good, Richard Roundtree
PLOT: A disaffected teenager investigates the mysterious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, confronting untrustworthy allies and vicious enemies to uncover the truth.
 COMMENTS: For reasons that can only be attributed to a breathtaking lack of imagination, a surprisingly large number of contemporary reviewers of Brick made a direct comparison not to the large number of noir classics from which Rian Johnson's debut feature clearly takes its inspiration, but instead go all the way back to 1976 for the cult oddity Bugsy Malone, a gangster pastiche in which all the parts are played by minors (including Jodie Foster and Scott Baio) wielding Tommy guns that shoot whipped cream. The thinking, one imagines, is that just as one film mocked the conventions of the gangster picture by populating it with children, so does the other diminish the power of noir by setting it in a high school.
The comparison is stunningly short-sighted and backwards. Johnson's high school noir draws its power not from the dissonance of substance and style but from their harmony. It's often said that everything in high school feels like a life-and-death situation, when in reality things couldn't be less serious. But the stakes in Brick are no joke at all. Blood is spilled, bodies drop, and nearly everyone is laden with secrets and lies. Those feelings you had as a teenager? Brick makes them all very real.
Famously edited on a Macintosh back when that was a symbol of scrappiness and indie cred, Brick is a debut of astonishing power and confidence. Johnson is not necessarily a visual stylist. (By way of illustration, this parody pinches his entire shot list while placing a discussion of the fallout over the filmmaker's foray into the Star Wars universe into all of Brick's locations.) But his vision is so self-assured, it's absolutely easy to see the rich career that lay ahead of him.
Someone who must have spied Johnson's talent even earlier is lead Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who had to have recognized that he had been gifted with the role of his dreams (and he has been appropriately grateful, taking a starring role in Looper and offering voice cameos to The Last Jedi and Knives Out). He manages to walk the line between embodying a hard-bitten detective while looking like a bookish 17-year-old. His perfectly weathered burgundy shoes and increasingly bruised face make him a worthy successor to Sam Spade, which makes him a natural focal point for the film's rich and quirky cast of characters. In particular, he gives tremendous power to Zehetner, a Continue reading CAPSULE: BRICK (2005) →
2005Joseph Gordon-LevittMust seeMysteryNeo NoirRian Johnson
CAPSULE: REVOLVER (2005)
January 28, 2020 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies)	2 Comments
DIRECTED BY: Guy Ritchie
FEATURING: Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Andre Benjamin, Vincent Pastore
PLOT: Jake Green is released from prison and sets out to settle scores with the crime boss responsible for his sentence; two mysterious loan sharks who seem to know the future offer to help him, but Jake senses he's being conned.
 COMMENTS: Quite naturally, there are lots of guns and gunplay in Guy Ritchie's Revolver, but there's no pistol playing a featured role. The title might instead refer to the way the plot spins your head around. Personally, I suspect Ritchie chose Revolver to draw a comparison to the Beatles album of the same name. Prompted by newfound mystical awakening (via psychoanalysis, rather than the Hinduism that affected the Fab Four), he's announcing his intention to turn to serious and experimental work after having mastered a simpler form. If so, savage critical notices and flaccid box office returns quickly prompted Ritchie to return to conventional narratives, making Revolver the curiosity in his oeuvre rather than the departure point.
For fans of snappy, stylish gangster films hoping for another Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch, Revolver begins promisingly enough. Haggard-but-handsome Jake Green (Statham) is released from captivity in an atmospheric downpour, which causes oily-but-elegant Macha (Liotta, very good here) a twinge of concern when he hears the news on a limo ride. Armed with conman wisdom he garnered from two cellmates in the slammer, Green sidles into Macha's casino with long-game revenge on his mind. When the story pulls back, a twisted underworld comes into view: Macha strikes a dangerous deal with unseen kingpin "Mr. Gold," while two loan sharks save Green's life from assassins and put him to work for them, on their terms. They're hatching a plan that involves some Yojimbo-style sabotage of Macha's drug deal with a Chinese gang, and everything seems primed for a nice twisty thriller.
But don't get too invested in that plot. Hints of something metaphysical keep screwing with the audience: precognitive warnings on business cards, twelve dollar bills, and the fact that the action inexplicably becomes partly animated during one caper. These bits set up one hell of an ambitious twist; but the problem with it is, it makes all of the preceding events arbitrary and meaningless. Really, there's not even a point to Jake Green being a gangster; Ritchie could have written him as a politician, a car salesman… or even a film director. The misdirection here goes so far afield it feels like cheating—an especially distressing development because the film is presented and structured as a game. The effect is not like being surprised by an opponent's intricately plotted chess move, but like learning that your opponent was playing a different game all along, and that all the moves you both made were completely irrelevant. You see, the movie's all symbolic and deep; but Ritchie manages to fumble the reveal so that it's somehow simultaneously confusing and obvious. Allegories work best when they play fair in their own narrative worlds; they usually falter when they go out of their way to announce themselves (Ritchie even appends clips of a bunch of psychologists talking over the credits, explaining the basic concepts underlying the movie's "mind blowing" theme). There's a difference between subverting an audience's expectations and betraying them. Early on, Green's internal monologue informs us that "in every con, there is always a victim. The trick is to know when you're the latter…" At the end of Revolver, you'll know you've been the victim of Guy's jejune "gotcha!"
Revolver was the kind of self-indulgent mess that could easily have ended Ritchie's career, particularly following as it did on the heels of another huge flop (the romantic comedy Swept Away). If nothing else, it's a testament to the director's perseverance that he's still cranking out films for major studios today. He certainly hasn't dared to try anything this outside-the-box since.
"Ritchie may still be working within his beloved cockney gangster milieu, but he does to it something akin to what Alejandro Jodorowsky did to the Western with El Topo, or to the slasher flick with Santa Sangre. In short, Revolver is a strange trip that dazzles the eye and exercises the brain, amply rewarding multiple viewings and certainly worthy of critical reevaluation."–Anton Bitel, Eye for Film (contemporaneous)
(This movie was nominated for review by Daniel wiram, who called it an "outstandingly [weird] but great movie." Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)
2005ActionBritishFlopGangsterGuy RitchieJason StathamMindbenderMysticalPhilosophicalPsychological ThrillerSelf-IndulgentTwist ending
CAPSULE: NEXT DOOR [NABOER] (2005)
January 27, 2020 Giles Edwards	Leave a comment
Naboer
DIRECTED BY: Pål Sletaune
FEATURING: Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie Mosli, Julia Schacht, Anna Bache-Wiig
PLOT: John has just been dumped by his girlfriend; after he helps his neighbors move a cabinet, he slowly learns that his breakup was not what it seems.
 COMMENTS: Once I describe this movie as a psychological thriller, I'm not giving much away when I tell you that yes, there is a twist, and that yes, aficionados of the genre will see it coming. Lucky for me, though, I can be pretty naïve when it comes to watching movies, and so it was a good while into the film before I sussed just what was going on. (It's a wonder, then, why I don't watch more thrillers.) Suffice it to say, Next Door is one of those nice little finds that makes no pretense at greatness, but capably gets its job—providing unnerving entertainment—done.
After Ingrid leaves him, John (Kristoffer Joner) is a solitary wreck until he makes the acquaintance of the two (possibly) sisters next door. Anne (Julia Schacht) needs a cabinet moved, and John agrees to help—finding that her apartment is, shall we say, rather lived in, and stocked full of food. He discovers that Anne's sister Kim (Julia Schacht, channeling a troublingly splintered femme fatale) has recently been sexually assaulted and become agorophobic. John and Kim have a strangely violent sexual encounter in an unsettlingly tidy room tucked away in a labyrinth of corridors in the apartment's deep recesses. John feels guilty for his violent responses to Kim's violent flirtations, and slowly begins to realize that his life hasn't quite been going exactly as he's opted to remember it.
The exact term I'm looking for to describe this film evades me, but I'll go with the phrase "character movie." Like a character actor, Next Door is not aiming for lofty accolades or fame, but is doing the good work of being entertaining, memorable, and not overstaying its welcome. (The runtime is a mere 75 minutes.) Pål Sletaune, who also wrote the script, has crafted a clean and confusing chamber drama that breaks no new ground, but hits all the correct notes: unreliable story-telling, charismatic leads, and, this being an adult thriller, enough unsettling sex to convey an aura of carnal tension without becoming tawdry. Interestingly enough, this movie was picked up by TLA Releasing, an outfit that primarily distributes LGBT films. With this, it would seem they also cater to the BDSM crowd. You've been warned.
"…bizarre head-scratcher…"–Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid (DVD)
(This movie was nominated for review by Gerardo. Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)
2005NorwegianPål SletaunePsychological ThrillerRecommendedSadomasochismSex
Saturday Short, Shorts
SATURDAY SHORT: LOOKING AT A CLOUD (2005)
November 23, 2019 Cameron Jorgensen	2 Comments
It only becomes weird when the cloud looks back.
2005AnimationBlack and WhiteExperimentalJapaneseNaoyuki Tsuji
CAPSULE: BATTLE IN HEAVEN (2005)
March 28, 2019 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies)	1 Comment
DIRECTED BY: Carlos Reygadas
FEATURING: Marcos Hernández, Anapola Mushkadiz, Bertha Ruiz
PLOT: A chauffeur falls in love with his boss' daughter, who is secretly a prostitute, and confesses a terrible secret to her.
WHY IT WON'T MAKE THE LIST: Battle in Heaven really only gets "weird" in its final act; up until then, it qualifies more as "insufferable."
COMMENTS: Battle in Heaven begins with a paunchy nude middle aged man standing against a blank background as an equally naked young woman kneels before him, her blonde dreadlocks bobbing ever so slightly. The camera pans teasingly, blocking the action for as long as possible as it slowly pans around to reveal the "money" shot.
Daring? Sure, especially for a Mexican film of the period. But like this shot, Battle in Heaven lacks any sort of discernible moral or purpose. The movie is technically accomplished, but as empty as the featureless room where the contextless oral sex takes place. The movie is not about sex—although there is a good deal of sex in it—or about the relationship between the two mismatched characters in the opening (which never becomes convincing). The best one might be able to say about it is that it's about a man, Marcos, and his working class ennui—although the tragedy that follows is driven not so much by existential angst or sociopolitical oppression as by a series of perversely stupid choices.
Battle in Heaven is one of those self-important "quiet" films with lots of lingering shots of expressionless faces, where evoking boredom is seen as a brand of authenticity. There are long, drawn-out scenes of people we don't particularly know or care about driving through Mexico City, talking on cell phones to characters we'll never meet about nothing in particular. One can only imagine the director starting each scene by calling out "lights, camera, inaction!" And while that would normally be cause to assign a Beware rating, the truth is that the technical qualities of Battle are too advanced for us to slam the film. Although most people in the audience will not care, the camerawork is excellent, featuring one 360 pan that abandons a lovemaking couple and travels outside their apartment window to survey the local neighborhood in a long unbroken shot before peeking back in to find them spent. There is no real purpose behind the virtuoso shot, but it will be appreciated by some. Even better is a scene where Marcos stops at a gas station which is blasting Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 over its loudspeakers (!); as the driver wanders towards the street, that music is overlaid with, then yields to, the sound of a parade where the marchers sing a patriotic anthem. That crossfade is the aural equivalent of the camera's 360 pan. These moments remind us that Carlos Reygadas has real filmmaking talent—it's just that this script has no direction.
As far as weirdness goes, there's not much, up until Marcos starts masturbating while watching a futbol match (for some reason, Reygadas spares us the explicit details, although this seems to be exactly the kind of taboo he generally gets keyed up to commit to film). The protagonist then wanders off onto a hilltop, performs an unspeakable act, and joins a band of Catholic pilgrims in repentance. Some guys ring the cathedral bell that makes no sound, and then a bunch of soldiers take down and fold up a Mexican flag that's as large as a house to signal the end of the film.
If watching a middle-aged man's penis detumesce in real time is what you look for in a movie, then Battle in Heaven has got you covered. If you're looking for any of the other things we normally seek out in movies—a story, an emotional connection, thought-provoking developments—then you may find it more of a hellish experience.
"The pic's strangeness becomes its strength, as it is aesthetically pleasing and then some, even if not completely satisfying in a rational narrative sense."–Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
(This movie was nominated for review by "Christoper." Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)
2005ArthouseCarlos ReygadasDramaExplicit sexMexican
karcsi on 226. CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE (1996)