Weird Movie Reviews
It occurred to us that those of you with a taste for the strange and macabre might be interested in some weird movie reviews. These are reviews of those films that screw with your head and leave you wondering WTF for the next few hours…but in a good way.
Some filmmakers only dabble in this market. Case in point: Peter Jackson directed a puppet porn/crime thriller called Meet the Feebles before moving on to more mainstream fare like The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and The Lovely Bones. On the other hand, some moviemakers are so good at weird movies that they hardly make any other kind. Here’s a look at some of those filmmakers and their unusual movies:
Blue Velvet: An unflinching look at the darker side of human nature, David Lynch’s 1986 cult classic revolves around a college kid (Kyle MacLachlan) who returns home to his ailing father’s bedside. When he discovers a severed human ear in the fields near his house, he gets caught up in the world of masochistic chanteuse Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Blue Velvet’s images are as surreal as you would expect from David Lynch, but his early work at least has an understandable narrative thread. To be totally confounded, check out some of his later work in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.
Donnie Darko: Almost everything about this movie is bizarre – from the slow pacing to the quirky soundtrack to the all-eyes face of its hero, Donnie (a then-undiscovered Jake Gyllenhaal). Not to mention the terrifying six-foot bunny named Frank that sends him on a local crime spree after he sleepwalks out his house, narrowly escaping death. Writer-director Richard Kelly’s most recent film The Box, was also pretty peculiar, although not nearly as good.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: This unusual love story is practically Disney by screenwriter Charlie Kaufman standards. It tells the story of Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), a couple whose romance sours. When it does, they decide to undergo a procedure to erase one another from their memories but the traces left behind cause some confusing complications. For more Kaufman mind trips, try Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Synecdoche, New York.
Cry-Baby: Don’t let the recent feel-good remake of Hairspray fool you. John Waters is a weird guy who makes some weird movies. In this film, Johnny Depp stars as the title character, a 1950s greaser-type who is only capable of crying a single tear. Surrounded by misfits and outcasts (he has a friend named Hatchet Face, enough said.), Cry-Baby is the normal one in the movie. Waters’ campy sense of humor makes this film prime fodder for our weird movie reviews roundup. For more from this kooky writer-director, check out the original Hairspray, Pecker, and Cecil B. Demented.
A Clockwork Orange: I’d love to offer an insightful review of this stellar example of Stanley Kubrick’s filmmaking, but the experience of watching this movie was so intense that I ended up on the bathroom floor puking my guts out for much of it. But then, Kubrick’s entire body of work is strange and intense. For further proof, you need look no further than Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove, and The Shining.
Edward Scissorhands: A mad scientist animates a boy to be his son and companion. When he dies before having the chance to equip him with human hands, Edward (Johnny Depp, really adept at these weird movie roles) must go out into the real world with giant hedge clippers for digits. Once there, he finds love, bigotry and a career in the salon business. This movie is an ideal showcase for Tim Burton’s knack for the simultaneously dark and comic, and for arresting imagery. Not weird enough for you? Try Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd, or Big Fish.
If you still can’t get enough weird movie reviews, check out these other sites for their takes.
And don’t forget that all the films listed above can be purchased through Amazon. They offer low prices, fast shipping, and a small commission to us for sending you there.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thanks for the plug for the site! I think that’s an excellent “starter” list for weird movies (though a Terry Gilliam movie like BRAZIL would have been a nice addition). BLUE VELVET is the most accessible “weird” Lynch, ETERNAL SUNSHINE the easiest Kaufman to get into, and so on. Folks who like the feeling these movies give them can then move on to the weirder Lynch movies, and explore Luis Bunuel, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Guy Maddin, Ken Russell… there’s more of this stuff out there than people realize!
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