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.
posted by mumblelard at 5:40 AM - 2 comments

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]
posted by mumblelard at 7:56 AM - 5 comments

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?
posted by mumblelard at 1:24 PM - 5 comments

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]
posted by naju at 12:30 PM - 2 comments

June 13

Movie: Tag (Sion Sono, 2015)

High school student Mitsuko is menaced by a malevolent breeze.
posted by naju at 6:56 AM - 8 comments

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!
posted by naju at 12:38 PM - 1 comment

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]
posted by naju at 2:19 PM - 13 comments

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]
posted by naju at 12:55 PM - 0 comments

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]
posted by naju at 7:52 PM - 4 comments

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]
posted by naju at 8:18 PM - 1 comment

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.
posted by naju at 12:19 AM - 21 comments

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.
posted by naju at 2:55 PM - 0 comments

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.
posted by naju at 12:11 AM - 2 comments

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.
posted by naju at 4:48 PM - 0 comments

October 17

Movie: Felt

A woman creates an alter ego in hopes of overcoming the trauma inflicted by men in her life. [more inside]
posted by naju at 3:28 PM - 4 comments

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]
posted by naju at 6:54 PM - 3 comments

March 3

Strange Club - organization, etc.

Discussion of Strange Club goings-on. Click for more inside-----> [more inside]
posted by naju at 10:47 AM - 4 comments

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.
posted by naju at 1:29 PM - 9 comments

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]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:30 PM - 8 comments

December 13

Strange Club: Holiday Movie Viewings

Two upcoming movies will have a holiday bent. 'Tis the season to get strange. [more inside]
posted by naju at 11:36 AM - 1 comment

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!
posted by naju at 7:00 PM - 6 comments

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.
posted by naju at 6:58 AM - 6 comments

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.
posted by naju at 6:11 PM - 0 comments

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!
posted by naju at 2:07 PM - 2 comments

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]
posted by Ian A.T. at 11:06 AM - 14 comments

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]
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:29 PM - 7 comments

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]
posted by naju at 4:37 PM - 9 comments

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.
posted by naju at 1:27 PM - 0 comments

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.
posted by naju at 1:24 PM - 0 comments

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]
posted by naju at 12:29 PM - 10 comments

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]
posted by naju at 1:10 PM - 3 comments

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]
posted by naju at 10:33 AM - 10 comments

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]
posted by naju at 6:57 PM - 2 comments

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]
posted by naju at 9:41 AM - 22 comments

August 17

Movie: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee recalls his many past lives. [more inside]
posted by naju at 11:55 AM - 25 comments

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]
posted by naju at 11:03 AM - 5 comments