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The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man is coming. It’s possible that you already knew about this, but I’ve only just learned about the forthcoming limited release of this docu-comedy about a real-life bit of modern Toronto history, a guy who wandered around with buckets of pee pee and poo poo (obviously) and dumped them on unsuspecting college students circa 2019. Definitely not funny if you were a victim—but also ridiculous enough that you might just laugh, especially at a movie starring Kids in the Hall‘s Paul Bellini and Spencer Rice from Kenny vs. Spenny. Look for it in theaters soon, or not, depending on how well it does in limited release.
If you can’t wait for the Pee Pee Poo Poo Man to come to your town, or, better yet, you can’t believe that I didn’t just entirely make up the existence of a movie called The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man, you might enjoy some other films that go beyond “How did this get made?” and enter into the realm of “Are you sure you didn’t dream that, you enormous weirdo?”
So: ready for a truly weird-ass movie marathon? Here we go.
The Fanatic (2019)
You might not be aware, but beloved Limp Bizkit frontman and Vladimir Putin-enthusiast Fred Durst has a bit of a sideline in independent filmmaking, attracting some big names in movies like The Education of Charlie Banks (with Jesse Eisenberg) and The Longshots (Keke Palmer), while also garnering mixed (at best) reviews. This serious-minded examination of fan culture stars John Travolta as a man dangerously obsessed with his favorite actor, played by Devon Sawa. Which would all be fine, were Travolta’s character not also autistic, which is treated here less as a common form of neurodivergence possessed by actual human people than as an excuse for Travolta to fully commit to Battlefield Earth-levels of overacting in the worst haircut that’s ever been committed to the motion picture screen. If any of that’s too subtle for you, there’s some incredibly on-the-nose narration to guide you through.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi
Even Dwarfs Start Small (1970)
I’m willing to assume there are interpretive layers here, given that it was directed by Werner Herzog, one of our finest directors of the absurd. If it hadn’t been, I think we’d be much more inclined to assume that Even Dwarfs StartSmall is just goofery. The film depicts a revolt in a mental institution populated entirely by little people—the staff and guards, for that matter, are also short of stature, even though the furniture and rooms are of more typical size. The residents smash dishes, send trucks driving in circles, set fires, mock a camel (for some reason), and perform a mock crucifixion on a monkey. What’s the larger meaning? Who knows, and perhaps it’s all just absurdity for absurdity’s sake.
Where to stream: Tubi, digital rental
Swiss Army Man (2016)
I mean, yeah you can believe that this exists, because it stars Daniel Radcliffe and therefore you’ve probably heard of it. Here he plays flatulent corpse Manny, whose erections serve as an aid to navigation and whose farts allow the film’s living lead, Hank (Paul Dano), to travel through the water as though on a dead-body jet ski. What’s so wildly impressive, and frankly unbelievable, about Swiss Army Man is not just how funny it is, but how sweet. (Co-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s followed this up with Everything Everywhere All At Once.)
Where to stream: digital rental
Krippendorf’s Tribe (1998)
There’s talent to spare in this movie from director Todd Holland, having just come off a long run directing The Larry Sanders Show. Richard Dreyfus stars, as do Jenna Elfman, Natasha Lyonne, Elaine Stritch, and Lily Tomlin—all of whom signed on for a movie in which Dreyfus plays the leader of a New Guinea tribe. Well, sort of: He actually plays down-on-his-luck anthropologist James Krippendorf, who fakes the existence of the tribe to bolster his failing career, playing the lead in a series of fraudulent videos documenting the existence of the supposed tribe. It’s funny, you see, because indigenous people are quite silly in very stereotypical ways (I feel like we knew better than this in 1998). What’s even worse is that Dreyfus is only ever the hero of the story and, when dastardly rival Lily Tomlin threatens to expose his fraud, some actual New Guineans step in to cover for him. Even the movie’s poster is pretty horrifying.
Where to stream: digital rental
Boxing Helena (1993)
Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut was so maligned that she didn’t return to the director’s chair for 15 years. Plenty of wild concepts soar in the execution—but that’s not so much the case here. Julian Sands and Sherilynn Fenn star as Nick Cavanaugh, an Atlanta surgeon, and the title’s Helena, whom Nick kidnaps. The title here isn’t entirely metaphorical; obsessed Nick amputates Helena’s legs and then, still finding her unaccommodating, takes her arms, as well. The movie takes pains to establish a relationship between the two, which only heightens the surreal weirdness of the core premise.
Where to stream: Kanopy
The Lobster (2015)
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ dystopian dark comedy, single people get exactly 45 days to find romantic partners—otherwise they’re turned into animals. This is, of course, the same Yorgos Lanthimos who went on to become a well-deserved Oscar darling for movies The Favourite and Poor Things, and even earned a screenplay nomination for this one. All of which makes it that much weirder, and more impressive, that this social satire is about people who turn into animals when they can’t get a date.
Where to stream: digital rental
Love & Air Sex (2019)
This is less, perhaps, surprising that this movie exists than that it’s based around an actual thing called “Air Sex.” In general, the movie is a likable, but fairly by-the-numbers, post-college slacker comedy about 20-somethings trying to figure themselves out in a world of blah blah blah. But it’s set in Austin and structured around the world Air Sex championships, a competitive event in which fully clothed people simulate graphic sex acts to suggestive music (it’s big in Japan). Jeff (Zach Cregger) decides that he’s going for the grand prize (a month of free booze) in an event that winds up being a lot less interesting than it sounds.
Where to stream: Tubi, Peacock, digital rental
Basket Case (1982)
So, what if you had a brother that went everywhere with you? That’s the sweet question asked by this cult classic, which then asks: “what if that brother lived in a basket and you used to be conjoined but were separated and now you’re both murderous and vengeful while sharing a telepathic link?” The end result is a sleazy concoction with an oddly bittersweet charm in the relationship between Duane (who got the body when the two were separated) and basket-bound brother Belial.
Where to stream: Shudder, Tubi, digital rental
Arizona Dream (1993)
Studios threw a fair bit of money at Yugoslavian director Emir Kusturica’s first (and also last) American film, a movie that assembles and all-time incongruous cast that includes Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Vincent Gallo, and Paulina Porizkova. The movie blends bizarre dream imagery (a fish with eyes on one side flying through the desert is the most memorable, though we can mourn a 12-minute cut sequence involving Jerry Lewis flying to the moon in a Cadillac) with a more down-to-Earth story of Depp’s character traveling to Arizona for a wedding and winding up in a relationship with an older woman (Dunaway) and her depressed daughter (Lili Taylor).
Where to stream: digital rental
Slack Bay (2016)
The wealthy and very inbred van Peteghems live just across the bay from poor fisherfolk, the Bruforts. Slack Bay is an absolutely savage comedy of manners and class involving cannibal fisherfolk, incest, and an inexplicably floating police inspector—with Juliette Binoche! It’s glorious, and a favorite of mine, even if I don’t know exactly what it’s about.
Where to stream: digital rental
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987)
Here’s one for the snooker fanatics among you. Who like musicals but also vampire movies? Based, very loosely, on a famous (well, as these things go) snooker rivalry (between Ray Reardon and Jimmy White, naturally), the movie finds us in a tense tournament involving vampires in a minimalist hellscape. If you’re not entirely sure what snooker is, don’t worry—you will by the end of a film that builds to a rousing climax reminding us that “Heaven’s covered in green baize!”
Where to stream: Tubi, digital rental
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
Look, I know that we’ve all heard of this Dutch indie. It didn’t make much money (nor did its sequels), but it definitely penetrated the zeitgeist for a handful of years there. Nevertheless, it remains slightly unbelievable that significant portion of early-aughts movie discourse were spent in contemplation of a movie in which a doctor attaches people’s mouths to other people’s buttholes, resulting in a lot of poop winding up where poop generally ought not be (or am I being too parochial in my view?). There’s more plot than that, sorta, but that’s honestly the biggest takeaway.
Where to stream: AMC+, digital rental
Nekromantik (1987)
It was shocking, in 1988, that a cinematic couple might want to open their relationship to a third—but even in our less-judgmental(?) era, I’m not sure we’re ready for that third to be a corpse. Or, like, several corpses…because they don’t always last as long as you might like. A stirring social commentary and an attack on bourgeoisie values? Or a splatter film in which necrophilia scenes are shot using all the techniques of soft-core porn? Why choose?
Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
Dr. Seuss co-wrote the story here, along with the screenplay and lyrics, which might make what follows slightly less surprising. But only slightly. A young boy’s well-meaning, but overbearing, mother forces him to practice on the piano when all he really wants to do is go outside and play. What follows is a spectacular, nearly movie-length dream sequence in which Bart (Tommy Rettig) winds up in the institute of Doctor Terwilliger (Hans Conried), who keeps the boy’s mother hypnotized while planning to capture and enthrall 500 other boys to play his giant, 5,000-keyed piano (there are themes here about the dangers of authoritarianism, so it’s not all silliness). Only a giant atomic noise-sucker can save them all in the end. Though its reputation is far better now, it was an enormous flop at the time, with legend holding that all but one viewer walked out of the premiere screening.
Where to stream: digital rental
The Apple (1980)
Directed by Menahem Golan, producer/director behind ’80s classics like Masters of the Universe, Delta Force, Over the Top, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the vibe here is Rocky Horror, but disco. The music is only sporadically catchy and is sometimes barely listenable, while the plot (about Adam and Eve analogues making a Faustian bargain in the future world of 1994 to win a global song contest) makes almost no sense. Still, there’s a g-string riddled vision of hell by way of glam rock here, and the sense that the filmmakers were committed to making something that they believed was absolutely going to be a global mega-hit.
Where to stream: Pluto TV, Apple TV+
The Wayward Cloud (2005)
In the midst of a severe water shortage, watermelons are still somehow wildly abundant, and the cast of The Wayward Cloud frequently seen gorging on, as well as fucking, them. Porn filmmaker Hsiao-kang (played by Lee Kang-sheng) begins a relationship with an old friend, Shiang-chyi, who only gradually learns of his profession. Before the end, what started out cute becomes horrifyingly dystopian. Tsai Ming-liang’s musical is fascinating and surreal, its charm giving way to horror by the end.
Where to stream: Tubi
Aline (2021)
Another celebrity biopic? Uh..not quite. Director/writer/star Valérie Lemercier plays Canadian megastar “Aline Dieu,” who is, of course, a thinly veiled Celine Dion. That’s a little weird in and of itself, but where Aline really excels in strangeness is in its central conceit: Solidly middle-aged Lemercier plays Aline throughout her life, from early childhood on. Digitally, she’s shrunk, re-enlarged, and face-tuned like wild to fit her into every stage of the semi-fictional popstar’s life. It’s never entirely clear if we’re supposed to notice?
Where to stream: Prime Video
Skidoo (1968)
The movie that almost singlehandedly ruined legendary director Otto Preminger’s career, Skidoo is a hippie drug comedy of the kind that were very popular in the late 1960s—but, instead of the usual teenagers, it involves middle-aged Hollywood stars. Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney are among the cast members along for the trip, with Groucho Marx in his last role as a gangster known only as “God” (Marx apparently did a bunch of LSD to prepare for the role). The highlight is almost certainly Carol Channing’s performance in the climax, leading a flotilla of hippies to rescue her husband (Gleason) wearing the uniform of a very sexy sea captain.
Where to stream: Plex
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