Strange Club
Exactly as the name suggests - strange & sublime, bizarre & beautiful, arthouse-leaning, unclassifiable. A pure mind melt, or just delightfully not-quite-right. Emphasis is on "stuff we actually like" rather than "so bad it's good," though exceptions are inevitable.
Posts for this club should be tagged: strange_club.
January 13
Movie: A Zed & Two Noughts
Oliver Deuce, a successful doctor, is shattered when his wife is killed in a freak car accident involving a car being driven by Alba Bewick colliding with a very large rare bird. His twin brother Oswald is researching how carcasses decay at the local zoo. Alba survives the accident although she loses one leg, and her sinister physician eventually removes the other 'because it looked so sad all alone'. Oswald and Oliver become involved in a menage a trois with Alba, and uncover very dubious trafficking in zoo property. But ultimately their only goal is to try and understand their mortal condition.
January 4
A Zed & Two Noughts
From director Peter Greenaway and currently streaming on Fandor. A Zed & Two Noughts is the inaugural film of the Strange Club 2018 winter season. [more inside]
January 2
The new 2018 Strange Club movie season!?!?
This is one of the biggest clubs on FanFare. I joined and then participated not one bit. Is anyone interested in say a 10 film series for the first half of 2018?
July 27
Movie: Kuso
Broadcasting through a makeshift network of discarded televisions, this story is tangled up in the aftermath of Los Angeles's worst earthquake nightmare. Travel between screens and aftershocks into the twisted lives of the survived. [more inside]
June 13
Movie: Tag (Sion Sono, 2015)
High school student Mitsuko is menaced by a malevolent breeze.
June 9
Strange Club movie for Monday: TAG (Sion Sono, 2015)
Hello, this Monday the post will go up for TAG, a Sion Sono movie that looks pretty entertaining (and extremely violent). Trailer. It's currently streaming on Netflix. Enjoy!
April 18
Movie: The Love Witch
A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, in a tribute to 1960s pulp novels and Technicolor melodramas. [more inside]
April 14
Strange Club movie for Monday: THE LOVE WITCH (Anna Biller, 2016)
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime, and often cited as one of the best films of 2016. [more inside]
March 20
Movie: The Devils
In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier seeks to protect the city of Loudun from the corrupt establishment of Cardinal Richelieu. Hysteria occurs within the city when he is accused of witchcraft by a sexually repressed nun. [more inside]
March 16
Strange Club Movie for Monday: THE DEVILS (Ken Russell, 1971)
This movie looks absolutely insane, blasphemous, reprehensible, and devoid of all merit. In other words, it's a perfect fit for Strange Club. It's also been super unavailable and impossible to track down in uncut form, UNTIL NOW: it appeared on the streaming service Shudder yesterday in a 109-minute unrated cut - "the most complete version of the film in existence." Lots of people are justifiably freaking out. Let's watch it. [more inside]
December 19
Movie: The Box
A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know.
December 15
Strange Club's Christmas movie for Monday: THE BOX (2009, Richard Kelly)
Richard Kelly is known for unusual films (Donnie Darko and especially Southland Tales, unquestionably one of my all time favorites). So even his touted attempt at a big "commercial" thriller, 2009's The Box, gets odd and confusing in a way that only he could manage. It was panned by critics and tanked at the box office, but it's pretty interesting and I think it's due for a reevaluation. This is our Strange Club off-kilter holiday pick of 2016. Post goes live Monday, Dec. 19.
November 15
Movie: Cemetery of Splendor
A group of soldiers in a small town on the Mekong River in northern Thailand are struck with a bizarre sleeping illness.
November 10
Movie scheduled for Monday: Cemetery of Splendor
Hey yall, the next film for Strange Club is Cemetery of Splendor, a 2015 Thai film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It's available for streaming on Netflix, and also available for digital rental from iTunes and Amazon. We'll be discussing it on Monday, November 14.
I haven't seen it yet, but I think it may be a good film to watch after such enormously upsetting events. Not that it's political; far from it. The director just has a way of slowing things down and placing you in a radically different frame of reality. I'm looking forward to it.
October 17
Movie: Felt
A woman creates an alter ego in hopes of overcoming the trauma inflicted by men in her life. [more inside]
October 2
Strange Club: the return
Hey all! So Strange Club was going well for a bit in 2015, and then dropped off the radar entirely in 2016. I'm feeling the itch to get it started back up again, though, after attending Fantastic Fest and having my love for inexplicable, visionary cinema rekindled. So let's get back in the saddle. [more inside]
March 3
Strange Club - organization, etc.
Discussion of Strange Club goings-on. Click for more inside-----> [more inside]
December 31
Movie: Survive Style 5+
A man continually trying and failing to get his wife to stay dead; a self-absorbed ad agency creative director who comes up with one unworkable inane idea after another; a British hitman who only wants to know everyone's function in life; and an unfortunate office worker and father whose brain is left scrambled after a stage hypnotist is murdered in mid-performance. Starting off as unrelated plot lines, they intertwine with each other as they continue on their respective ways.
December 21
Movie: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus. Finnish trailer , American trailer [more inside]
December 13
Strange Club: Holiday Movie Viewings
Two upcoming movies will have a holiday bent. 'Tis the season to get strange. [more inside]
December 3
Strange Club: Holiday Edition?
We have nothing in the Strange Club queue at the moment, but it makes sense to do one more movie to close out the year. For the selection, I'm seeking recommendations for strange cinema that has a holiday or Christmas element to it. Or just plain winter/snow/seasonal. The theme can be very loose. But it should be bizarre and/or cult and/or artsy. Please share your suggestions!
November 18
Movie: The Reflecting Skin
A young boy tries to cope with rural life circa 1950s and his fantasies become a way to interpret events.
November 8
Strange Club Announcement: The Reflecting Skin (1990)
Results are in! For Nov. 16, we'll be watching The Reflecting Skin, a British-Canadian horror-drama from 1990. It's about a young child growing up in rural Idaho in the 1950s. Anything more would be a spoiler. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it being rather psychologically harrowing, so heads up.
November 4
Strange Club: Vote for Next Viewing (closes Friday)
This was buried in a comment of the Hausu thread, so I'm just posting here to make it more visible:
Vote for the next viewing, which will be for 11/16/2015. The voting closes this Friday so don't delay. Thanks!
November 1
Movie: House (ハウス Hausu)
"How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet." Available on Criterion DVD & Blu-ray, Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon Instant Video. [more inside]
October 18
Halloween weekend: Let's watch HOUSE (ハウス Hausu)!
This Halloween, the Strange Club and the Criterion On Hulu club are teaming up for a joint discussion of the absolutely bonkers 1977 Japanese horror film House. [more inside]
October 12
Movie: My Winnipeg
Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba. [more inside]
October 9
Strange Club Reminder: My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) on Monday!
Just a reminder that the My Winnipeg discussion gets posted this Monday the 12th, so make sure to get your viewing in. Also, quick plug: due to the brilliant Chantal Akerman's recent passing, the Criterion On Hulu Club will be watching Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles on Friday, October 16. The film is definitely relevant to this club's interests, and I recommend it highly. Criterion is offering it for free streaming on Hulu.
Strange Club Reminder: My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) on Monday!
Just a reminder that the My Winnipeg discussion gets posted this Monday the 12th, so make sure to get your viewing in.
Also, quick plug: due to the brilliant Chantal Akerman's recent passing, the Criterion On Hulu Club will be watching Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles on Friday, October 16. The film is definitely relevant to this club's interests, and I recommend it highly. Criterion is offering it for free streaming on Hulu.
September 28
Movie: Morvern Callar
Following her boyfriend's suicide, supermarket clerk Morvern Callar passes off his unpublished novel as her own. With the money her boyfriend left for his funeral, she leaves Scotland for Ibiza where she travels with her closest friend. [more inside]
September 18
Strange Club Announcements: Morvern Callar, My Winnipeg, and more
Based on the votes, we're in a tie between Morvern Callar and My Winnipeg, so we'll go with one after the other. [more inside]
September 14
Movie: The Visitor
The soul of a young girl with telekinetic powers becomes the prize in a fight between forces of God and the Devil. [more inside]
September 11
Strange Club Movie Announcement: The Visitor (1979)
The results are in, and the next film will be The Visitor! (Also known as Stridulum.) [more inside]
August 31
Movie: A Field in England
Amid the Civil War in 17th-century England, a group of deserters flee from battle through an overgrown field. Captured by an alchemist, the men are forced to help him search to find a hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field. [more inside]
August 17
Movie: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee recalls his many past lives. [more inside]
August 12
Strange Club first viewing
The first viewing has been chosen, and is set to go live on Monday! And other administrative matters. [more inside]