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The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man is coming. It is attainable that you just already knew about this, however I’ve solely simply discovered concerning the forthcoming restricted launch of this docu-comedy a couple of real-life bit of recent Toronto historical past, a man who wandered round with buckets of pee pee and poo poo (clearly) and dumped them on unsuspecting faculty college students circa 2019. Undoubtedly not humorous if you happen to have been a sufferer—but in addition ridiculous sufficient that you just may simply snicker, particularly at a film starring Youngsters within the Corridor‘s Paul Bellini and Spencer Rice from Kenny vs. Spenny. Search for it in theaters quickly, or not, relying on how nicely it does in restricted launch.
If you cannot look forward to the Pee Pee Poo Poo Man to return to your city, or, higher but, you possibly can’t imagine that I did not simply fully make up the existence of a film referred to as The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man, you may get pleasure from another movies that transcend “How did this get made?” and enter into the realm of “Are you positive you did not dream that, you monumental weirdo?”
So: prepared for a really weird-ass film marathon? Right here we go.
The Fanatic (2019)
You won’t remember, however beloved Limp Bizkit frontman and Vladimir Putin-enthusiast Fred Durst has a little bit of a sideline in impartial filmmaking, attracting some large names in motion pictures like The Schooling of Charlie Banks (with Jesse Eisenberg) and The Longshots (Keke Palmer), whereas additionally garnering blended (at finest) evaluations. This serious-minded examination of fan tradition stars John Travolta as a person dangerously obsessed along with his favourite actor, performed by Devon Sawa. Which might all be superb, have been Travolta’s character not additionally autistic, which is handled right here much less as a typical type of neurodivergence possessed by precise human individuals than as an excuse for Travolta to completely decide to Battlefield Earth-levels of overacting within the worst haircut that is ever been dedicated to the movement image display screen. If any of that is too delicate for you, there’s some extremely on-the-nose narration to information you thru.
The place to stream: Prime Video, Tubi
Even Dwarfs Begin Small (1970)
I am keen to imagine there are interpretive layers right here, on condition that it was directed by Werner Herzog, one in every of our most interesting administrators of the absurd. If it hadn’t been, I feel we might be way more inclined to imagine that Even Dwarfs StartSmall is simply goofery. The movie depicts a revolt in a psychological establishment populated fully by little individuals—the workers and guards, for that matter, are additionally wanting stature, though the furnishings and rooms are of extra typical dimension. The residents smash dishes, ship vehicles driving in circles, set fires, mock a camel (for some purpose), and carry out a mock crucifixion on a monkey. What is the bigger which means? Who is aware of, and maybe it is all simply absurdity for absurdity’s sake.
The place to stream: Tubi, digital rental
Swiss Military Man (2016)
I imply, yeah you possibly can imagine that this exists, as a result of it stars Daniel Radcliffe and subsequently you have in all probability heard of it. Right here he performs flatulent corpse Manny, whose erections function an assist to navigation and whose farts enable the movie’s residing lead, Hank (Paul Dano), to journey by means of the water as if on a dead-body jet ski. What’s so wildly spectacular, and admittedly unbelievable, about Swiss Military Man is not only how humorous it’s, however how candy. (Co-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s adopted this up with Every little thing In all places All At As soon as.)
The place to stream: digital rental
Krippendorf’s Tribe (1998)
There’s expertise to spare on this film from director Todd Holland, having simply come off a future directing The Larry Sanders Present. Richard Dreyfus stars, as do Jenna Elfman, Natasha Lyonne, Elaine Stritch, and Lily Tomlin—all of whom signed on for a film through which Dreyfus performs the chief of a New Guinea tribe. Properly, kind of: He truly performs down-on-his-luck anthropologist James Krippendorf, who fakes the existence of the tribe to bolster his failing profession, enjoying the lead in a sequence of fraudulent movies documenting the existence of the supposed tribe. It is humorous, you see, as a result of indigenous persons are fairly foolish in very stereotypical methods (I really feel like we knew higher than this in 1998). What’s even worse is that Dreyfus is simply ever the hero of the story and, when dastardly rival Lily Tomlin threatens to reveal his fraud, some precise New Guineans step in to cowl for him. Even the film’s poster is fairly horrifying.
The place to stream: digital rental
Boxing Helena (1993)
Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut was so maligned that she did not return to the director’s chair for 15 years. Loads of wild ideas soar within the execution—however that is not a lot the case right here. Julian Sands and Sherilynn Fenn star as Nick Cavanaugh, an Atlanta surgeon, and the title’s Helena, whom Nick kidnaps. The title right here is not fully metaphorical; obsessed Nick amputates Helena’s legs after which, nonetheless discovering her unaccommodating, takes her arms, as nicely. The film takes pains to determine a relationship between the 2, which solely heightens the surreal weirdness of the core premise.
The place to stream: Kanopy
The Lobster (2015)
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ dystopian darkish comedy, single individuals get precisely 45 days to search out romantic companions—in any other case they’re become animals. That is, after all, the identical Yorgos Lanthimos who went on to change into a well-deserved Oscar darling for motion pictures The Favorite and Poor Issues, and even earned a screenplay nomination for this one. All of which makes it that a lot weirder, and extra spectacular, that this social satire is about individuals who flip into animals once they cannot get a date.
The place to stream: digital rental
Love & Air Intercourse (2019)
That is much less, maybe, shocking that this film exists than that it is based mostly round an precise factor referred to as “Air Intercourse.” Basically, the film is a likable, however pretty by-the-numbers, post-college slacker comedy about 20-somethings making an attempt to determine themselves out in a world of blah blah blah. But it surely’s set in Austin and structured world wide Air Intercourse championships, a aggressive occasion through which totally clothed individuals simulate graphic intercourse acts to suggestive music (it is large in Japan). Jeff (Zach Cregger) decides that he is going for the grand prize (a month of free booze) in an occasion that winds up being rather a lot much less attention-grabbing than it sounds.
The place to stream: Tubi, Peacock, digital rental
Basket Case (1982)
So, what if you happen to had a brother that went in every single place with you? That is the candy query requested by this cult basic, which then asks: “what if that brother lived in a basket and also you was conjoined however have been separated and now you are each murderous and vengeful whereas sharing a telepathic hyperlink?” The top result’s a sleazy concoction with an oddly bittersweet attraction within the relationship between Duane (who acquired the physique when the 2 have been separated) and basket-bound brother Belial.
The place to stream: Shudder, Tubi, digital rental
Arizona Dream (1993)
Studios threw a good bit of cash at Yugoslavian director Emir Kusturica’s first (and likewise final) American movie, a film that assembles and all-time incongruous forged that features Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Vincent Gallo, and Paulina Porizkova. The film blends weird dream imagery (a fish with eyes on one aspect flying by means of the desert is probably the most memorable, although we will mourn a 12-minute minimize sequence involving Jerry Lewis flying to the moon in a Cadillac) with a extra down-to-Earth story of Depp’s character touring to Arizona for a marriage and winding up in a relationship with an older lady (Dunaway) and her depressed daughter (Lili Taylor).
The place to stream: digital rental
Slack Bay (2016)
The rich and really inbred van Peteghems reside simply throughout the bay from poor fisherfolk, the Bruforts. Slack Bay is a completely savage comedy of manners and sophistication involving cannibal fisherfolk, incest, and an inexplicably floating police inspector—with Juliette Binoche! It’s wonderful, and a favourite of mine, even when I do not know precisely what it is about.
The place to stream: digital rental
Billy the Child and the Inexperienced Baize Vampire (1987)
Here is one for the snooker fanatics amongst you. Who like musicals but in addition vampire motion pictures? Based mostly, very loosely, on a well-known (nicely, as this stuff go) snooker rivalry (between Ray Reardon and Jimmy White, naturally), the film finds us in a tense event involving vampires in a minimalist hellscape. When you’re not fully positive what snooker is, don’t fear—you’ll by the top of a movie that builds to a rousing climax reminding us that “Heaven’s coated in inexperienced baize!”
The place to stream: Tubi, digital rental
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
Look, I do know that we have all heard of this Dutch indie. It did not make a lot cash (nor did its sequels), nevertheless it undoubtedly penetrated the zeitgeist for a handful of years there. However, it stays barely unbelievable that significant slice of early-aughts film discourse have been spent in contemplation of a film through which a physician attaches individuals’s mouths to different individuals’s buttholes, leading to a variety of poop winding up the place poop typically ought not be (or am I being too parochial for my part?). There’s extra plot than that, sorta, however that is actually the most important takeaway.
The place to stream: AMC+, digital rental
Nekromantik (1987)
It was stunning, in 1988, {that a} cinematic couple may wish to open their relationship to a 3rd—however even in our less-judgmental(?) period, I am unsure we’re prepared for that third to be a corpse. Or, like, a number of corpses…as a result of they do not all the time final so long as you may like. A stirring social commentary and an assault on bourgeoisie values? Or a splatter movie through which necrophilia scenes are shot utilizing all of the strategies of soft-core porn? Why select?
The place to stream: Shudder, AMC+
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
Dr. Seuss co-wrote the story right here, together with the screenplay and lyrics, which could make what follows barely much less shocking. However solely barely. A younger boy’s well-meaning, however overbearing, mom forces him to observe on the piano when all he actually desires to do is go outdoors and play. What follows is a spectacular, practically movie-length dream sequence through which Bart (Tommy Rettig) winds up within the institute of Physician Terwilliger (Hans Conried), who retains the boy’s mom hypnotized whereas planning to seize and enthrall 500 different boys to play his large, 5,000-keyed piano (there are themes right here concerning the risks of authoritarianism, so it isn’t all silliness). Solely a large atomic noise-sucker can save all of them in the long run. Although its fame is much better now, it was an unlimited flop on the time, with legend holding that each one however one viewer walked out of the premiere screening.
The place to stream: digital rental
The Apple (1980)
Directed by Menahem Golan, producer/director behind ’80s classics like Masters of the Universe, Delta Drive, Over the High, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the vibe right here is Rocky Horror, however disco. The music is simply sporadically catchy and is typically barely listenable, whereas the plot (about Adam and Eve analogues making a Faustian cut price sooner or later world of 1994 to win a world music contest) makes nearly no sense. Nonetheless, there is a g-string riddled imaginative and prescient of hell by the use of glam rock right here, and the sense that the filmmakers have been dedicated to creating one thing that they believed was completely going to be a world mega-hit.
The place to stream: Pluto TV, Apple TV+
The Wayward Cloud (2005)
Within the midst of a extreme water scarcity, watermelons are nonetheless by some means wildly ample, and the forged of The Wayward Cloud incessantly seen gorging on, in addition to fucking, them. Porn filmmaker Hsiao-kang (performed by Lee Kang-sheng) begins a relationship with an outdated buddy, Shiang-chyi, who solely step by step learns of his occupation. Earlier than the top, what began out cute turns into horrifyingly dystopian. Tsai Ming-liang’s musical is fascinating and surreal, its attraction giving option to horror by the top.
The place to stream: Tubi
Aline (2021)
One other movie star biopic? Uh..not fairly. Director/author/star Valérie Lemercier performs Canadian megastar “Aline Dieu,” who’s, after all, a thinly veiled Celine Dion. That is a bit bizarre in and of itself, however the place Aline actually excels in strangeness is in its central conceit: Solidly middle-aged Lemercier performs Aline all through her life, from early childhood on. Digitally, she’s shrunk, re-enlarged, and face-tuned like wild to suit her into each stage of the semi-fictional popstar’s life. It is by no means fully clear if we’re supposed to note?
The place to stream: Prime Video
Skidoo (1968)
The film that just about singlehandedly ruined legendary director Otto Preminger’s profession, Skidoo is a hippie drug comedy of the type that have been extremely popular within the late Nineteen Sixties—however, as a substitute of the same old youngsters, it includes middle-aged Hollywood stars. Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney are among the many forged members alongside for the journey, with Groucho Marx in his final function as a gangster identified solely as “God” (Marx apparently did a bunch of LSD to organize for the function). The spotlight is nearly definitely Carol Channing’s efficiency within the climax, main a flotilla of hippies to rescue her husband (Gleason) sporting the uniform of a really attractive sea captain.
The place to stream: Plex
