The most recent Pure Cinema Podcast was about mind-meltingly bonkers movies. There are a lot of ways to go with this, but here are my "five because."
RUBBER (2010) (trailer)
Most of this movie is a classic slasher setup, except that the killer in this case is a rubber tire. That's not a euphemism. An actual rubber tire. We see it come to life, learn how to roll, and eventually learn that it can destroy things -- first by rolling over them and crushing them, then when it encounters larger objects and even humans, by psychically causing them to explode. There aren't many things I love more than when a filmmaker gets some harebrained idea and commits to it utterly and completely, and this is absolutely one of those movies. I'm not as in love with the framing device of the in-universe "audience" watching the proceedings from afar (though it does give us the line "Hey, wait! It's not the end! He's been reincarnated as a tricycle!" aka one of my favorite lines of dialogue EVER), but director Quentin Dupieux made a story about a serial killer rubber tire WAY more compelling than it has any right to be. (available to rent on Amazon)
THE BABY (1973) (trailer)
This movie only could have been made in the 1970s. A social worker begins working with "Baby" -- a physically grown male who is kept in a large crib and wears a diaper. He supposedly suffers from a developmental disorder, but we eventually learn that his mother and sisters have been doing this to him -- perversely denying him even the most basic conditioning and development. They torture him to discourage him from attempting to stand, walk and talk, keeping him in a perpetual infantile state (Baby's "dialogue" is even dubbed by an actual cooing infant - GAH). And one of his sisters (played by Messiah of Evil's Marianna Hill) occasionally sneaks into his room at night for ... you know, we're not shown exactly what, and I'm pretty thankful for that, but it doesn't take much guesswork. The social worker, it turns out, has designs of her own, and the climax, while admittedly batshit insane, actually makes sense and does a good job of tying everything together. (available to rent on Amazon)
FATEFUL FINDINGS (2012) (trailer)
A master class in what a friend of mine calls "anti-timing" (what is the exact wrong moment to cut? what is the exact wrong time to deliver a line, and the exact wrong line to deliver?), this movie is the work of Neil Breen, former Las Vegas real estate agent and architect turned auteur. In addition to producing, writing, directing and editing the film, Breen stars as Dylan, a man who is imbued with supernatural powers after finding a mysterious rock as a child and who uses his hacking skills to uncover "secret government and corporate secrets." This movie contains several "love" scenes between people who clearly don't want to touch each other, an amazing scene in which Breen's character tearfully tells his friend who's just apparently committed suicide that he can't get him out of this jam, and a climax in which a number of generic "corporate types" in power suits take their lives in various ways after having their secrets exposed (though the film never troubles itself with exactly what those secrets are). I know a lot of people don't have much patience for movies like this, made by people who are not "real filmmakers" and don't have any level of fluency in cinematic language. But I'm fascinated by people like Breen who have a dream and just go for it, not caring what anyone else thinks or even if they know what they're doing. And I kind of love getting a peek into Breen's mind and trying to piece together what he's trying to say. #NOMOREBOOKS (available to rent on YouTube)
HAUSU (1977) (trailer)
Save us, Kung-Fu! One of the best entries in the "fantasy horror" subgenre, Hausu is absolutely bazonkers and the kind of stew you'd get if you put together "Pee Wee's Playhouse," The Shining, Suspiria, The Grudge and the boat ride scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who prior to this was best known for his TV ads (including the Charles Bronson-starring Mandom commercials), was inspired by his young daughter's descriptions of her strange dreams to create this wackadoo film about a group of girls who go to a house for the summer and who each meet their untimely demise when the house "eats" them in various and utterly insane ways (one girl is literally eaten by a piano). There are no male heroes to save the day here; the few male characters in the movie are all ineffectual and have little or no impact on the story -- though they contribute to the overall hysteria. The closest thing to a "masculine hero" in the movie gets his butt stuck in a bucket and ultimately is turned into -- I'm not kidding -- a giant, roughly man-shaped pile of bananas. BANANAS. (streaming on FilmStruck)
GOODBYE UNCLE TOM (1971) (trailer - NSFW)
The other four movies on this list are "fun" bonkers. This one is utterly outrageous in a very different way and not fun at all. Nevertheless, it's horrifyingly compelling and I suspect pretty historically accurate (the last 10 minutes or so notwithstanding). If you liked 12 Years a Slave but didn't think it went quite far enough to show the atrocities of slavery in America, check out this film and afterwards go punch a Confederate flag-waving alt-righter in the face (bonus points for screaming "BECAUSE YOU'RE WHITE" like the guy at the end of this movie). Perhaps the most bonkers thing about this movie is how it was made. The filmmakers, Franco Prosperi and Gaultiero Jacopetti, were mostly known for shockumentaries like Mondo Cane and Addio Africa, and turned their documentarists' eyes toward the American slave trade, shooting the movie as if they had gone back in time (seriously!) to the antebellum South and were just filming what was going on in front of them. Meaning that they staged (with underpaid Haitian actors) the most degrading, humiliating acts of oppression imaginable as if they were current events. From the opening scene, where a black child is fed scraps under the dinner table as if he were a dog, to a scene near the end of the film, where a young slave girl "offers herself" to one of the filmmakers (saying that she prefers white men because they're "smaller"), this movie is Off. The. Charts. And just when you think it can't get crazier, the present-day (1970s) coda pushes it right over the edge. (available to rent on Amazon and iTunes, if you dare -- be sure to get the English version)
