Recently I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting up a regular feature that would highlight some of the films that I’ve run across in my film watching career that I adore for no discernible explanation. That is, no explanation until now.
For now I will highlight the competently ridiculous, the oddly perverse and hopefully the drug-addled genius of some truly awful movies that hurt so good. For these movies truly represent the greatest moments in cinema history.
Our inaugural edition highlights one of the most bizarre and possibly frightening films you are bound to encounter. A film so vile, so lewd and so inspired that it could only come from a man who was destined to become one of the biggest director’s in Hollywood, that being Peter Jackson. This movie marks both his creative peak AND nadir, resulting in a movie that is bound to fell anyone without the strongest of stomachs, though a complete lack of morals can only improve your viewing experience.
For those unaware of Meet the Feebles, the plot is rather simple, a troupe of Muppets is trying to put together one big television broadcast special, in the hopes of landing a syndicated series. But as the big day approaches a series of disasters threaten to ruin everything they’ve worked so hard for. Of course that also leaves out the sex addicted rabbit dying from AIDS, the massive drug ring that the show’s producer runs in the theatre’s back alley, or nasal sex, which sounds almost as disgusting as it actually is.
But the highlight of the film is the pinnacle song and dance number as a homosexual fox sings about his love for, you guessed it, sodomy, all while a manic depressive hippopotamus attempts to murder every performer with a machine gun, thus marking this as one of the Greatest Moments in Cinema History with a bullet.
Just in time for the upcoming Oscars, shocking I know, several theatres here in the Twin Cities have decided to host some movie marathons of films nominated for this year’s Oscars, from Live Action and Animated short films, to Documentary to every Best Picture nominee, you can find them somewhere in the Cities this weekend and next.
Live Action and Animated Short Films The Lagoon Cinema
Animated – 2:50 & 7:15 (Daily)
Live Action – 5:10 & 9:30 (Daily)
Matinee $7 | General $9
Twin Cities Gold Film Festival Woodbury 10 Theatre
The Most Dangerous Man in America – Sat @ 7:00 (Twin Cities Premiere)
Food Inc – Fri @ 1:00 | Sat @ 5:00 | Sun @ 3:00
Burma VJ – Fri @ 3:00 & 9:00 | Sat @ 3:00 | Sun @ 1:00
Which Way Home – Fri @ 7:00 | Sat @ 9:00 | Sun @ 5:00 (Twin Cities Premiere)
The Cove – Fri @ 5:00 | Sat @ 1:00 | Sun @ 7:00
Tickets $6 | Festival Pass $25
Best Picture Marathon Day 1 (Feb 27th)
AMC Eden Prairie 18
10:30 – Avatar
1:45 – Up
3:45 – A Serious Man
6:30 – Precious
8:45 – District 9
AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & AMC Rosedale 14
10:30 – Avatar
1:45 – Up in the Air
4:00 – Precious
6:45 – The Blind Side
9:15 – Inglourious Basterds
Day 2 (March 6)
AMC Eden Prairie 18
10:30 – An Education
12:45 – The Hurt Locker
3:25 – Up in the Air
6:00 – The Blind Side
8:30 – Inglourious Basterds
AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & AMC Rosedale 14
10:30 – Up
12:45 – A Serious Man
2:45 – The Hurt Locker
6:00 – An Education
8:00 – District 9
I’ve made it relatively clear that I am a fan of genre films, up to and including exploitation films. I grew up on these movies and they have helped shape my future movie watching habits, so I have enjoyed quite a bit the recent bit of mainstream love for grindhouse films.
Now, coming on the heels of the outstanding Ozploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood, comes a film devoted to the American exploitation films of the same time. Now the film does not look to have quite the same level of frenzied adoration as its Australian counterpart, but with its massive cast of interviewees it should prove to be a fascinating look at one of my favorite parts of cinema history.
Special thanks to The Documentary Blog for the heads up on this film.
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Its been sometime since I’ve been able to post a recent Coming Soon list so you’ll notice that a vast majority of the movies listed are labeled new additions. With the sheer number of new additions I didn’t have the time to go through and check out trailers and reviews for some of them but I did try to label as many of those as I could as recommended. The Red Riding trilogy coming in March is certainly one that I have an eye on, as I’ve heard excellent things about it.
Of course the movie I’m most excited about on the whole sheet is the one being re-released this weekend at The Uptown, that being Rashomon, the breakout International hit for my favorite director, Akira Kurosawa. If you haven’t had the chance to see it yet, now is the perfect time to swing by The Uptown and watch one of the greatest films ever made.
*** – Denotes recommended viewing
All dates subject to change
2/12 Rashomon (Restored Print) Uptown***
2/12 Creation Edina
2/19 North Face Uptown ***
2/19 Oscar Nominated Shorts Lagoon ***
2/19 District B13: Ultimatum Lagoon
2/26 44 Inch Chest Lagoon***
2/26 Saint John of Las Vegas Lagoon***
3/05 The Ghost Writer Lagoon (tentative)
3/12 A Prophet Uptown
3/12 Red Riding: 1974 Lagoon (NEW)***
3/12 Red Riding: 1980 Lagoon (NEW)***
3/12 Red Riding: 1983 Lagoon (NEW)***
3/12 A Town Called Panic Lagoon ***
3/12 The Art of the Steal Edina
3/12 The Yellow Handkerchief Edina (NEW)
3/19 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Uptown (NEW)
3/19 Mother Lagoon (NEW)***
3/19 The Runaways Lagoon (NEW)
3/19 Fish Tank Lagoon ***
3/26 Terribly Happy Lagoon (NEW)
3/26 Chloe Edina (NEW)
3/26 City Island Edina (NEW)
4/02 Police, Adjective Lagoon
4/09 The Most Dangerous Man in America Lagoon (NEW)***
4/09 The Greatest Edina (NEW)
4/16 Sweetgrass Lagoon (NEW)
4/23 The Square Lagoon ***
4/30 Warlords Lagoon ***
5/07 Mid-August Lunch Lagoon (NEW)
5/14 The Good, The Bad, and The Weird Lagoon (NEW)
Now Indie film making isn’t exactly all that interesting to most people, that is, not until the next Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes out and blows people away. Most people are content to simply ignore Indie films until the bandwagon no longer allows them to. Suffering a similar, if even more ignominious fate is Indie publishing, specifically comic book publishing. The mainstream couldn’t care less what the virginal, pimple-faced nerds are reading. So it comes as little of a surprise that barely anyone is covering the announcement that Top Shelf Productions, arguably the best Indie comic publisher currently in operation, has made a deal with the Indie film company Likely Story for partial interest in Top Shelf Productions. The reason for this? To start putting Top Shelf comics into film production.
Top Shelf co-founders Chris Staros and Brett Warnock still have controlling interest in the company, but now entrepreneur John S. Johnson and independent film producer Anthony Bregman (owners of Likely Story) now have the option to hand select which Top Shelf products they’d like to produce for film or television, essentially granting them exclusive rights to hand select from the Top Shelf catalog, whereas before Top Shelf simply allowed Hollywood to come to them for adaptations like Surrogates.
And word has it that the first project has already been selected, a film adaptation of Alex Robinson’sToo Cool To Be Forgotten (recently named one of Amazon.com’s Top Ten Graphic Novels of the Year), a story of a man who tries to battle his cigarette addiction by traveling back in time to the first time he ever smoked, High School. Its a great comic and one that should translate rather easily to the silver screen which only excites me at the possibilities of Top Shelf finally getting the mainstream recognition and acclaim that it so richly deserves.
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