This is more about good weird than cheesy weird, but it could be cheesy weird too.
My daughter really loves weird movies. We give her a lot of freedom in what she can watch. As long as it isn’t really sexually explicit, like on a pornographic level, we let her watch it, which is how my parents were when I was her age and it worked out. This is how her favorite movie became Forbidden Zone, the weirdest movie you could make with cardboard sets and Oingo Boingo.
Since then, I’ve been on a quest to show her weird movies, with a range of successes. She has ADHD, so a lot of times we have to split a movie she watches in two. Also, she doesn’t enjoy riffing, so she doesn’t really like watching riffed versions of movies.
Anyway, here is what we have watched so far:
Brazil - Sat through half, didn’t want to go back.
Gas-s-s-s - Sort of enjoyed it, didn’t quite get into it.
Zardoz - Loved it.
Plan 9 From Outer Space - Too talky, didn’t get into it, gave up half-way through.
Casino Royale (1967) - Watched in two parts, loved it, especially the ending.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror - She sat through it in its entirety. Unriffed. And thought it was hilarious.
Fantastic Planet / La Planete Sauvage - She always loves animation, so she loved it.
Cabin Boy - Loved it.
Speed Racer - Loved it.
Flash Gordon - Got bored, gave up after about 45 minutes. I was disappointed.
Movies I think she’ll like that I have available:
Head
Hellzapoppin
Repo Man
Twelve Monkeys
Edward Scissorhands
Phase IV
After Hours
Paperhouse
A Hard Day’s Night
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A few I’m avoiding for various reasons:
Liquid Sky (just too sexually weird)
Videodrome (too explicit)
Pink Flamingos (I don’t even want to have to start explaining Pink Flamingos to her.)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, the Monty Python movies (Meaning of Life might be a bit much), Murder by Death, and possibly Up in Smoke if you don’t mind the whole drugs angle. Hell Comes to Frogtown was pretty weird, but may not be age appropriate. I haven’t seen it in years and can’t remember. Maybe Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat or My Name is Bruce?
Seconding the Marx Brothers or Abbot and Costello.
If we’re going that route, then we gotta go with The Illusionist by the same animation studio (not to be confused with the live-action The Illusionist with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti).
Too weird for her, too. She noped out at the guy’s giant thighs.
I didn’t really care for Napoleon Dynamite. Amelie is a possibility, although she didn’t get into City of Lost Children when I showed it to her… but it might have been long enough ago that she’s old enough to appreciate Jeunet now. I barely remember Big Fish.
As for Rocky Horror, should I just show it to her without the audience participation? It’s not really the same as riffing. It’s weird, but it’s not all that great. What elevates it is the participation. Maybe I can take her to a midnight showing sometime if they ever have one in this small town.
Oh, re Python- she saw half of Holy Grail, but she was not in a very good mood, so we will have to try again. I don’t think she’s old enough for Life of Brian yet. Not because of any explicit content, I just don’t think she’ll get a lot of it at her age.
The Triplets of Belleville was great. The Illusionist was exemplary.
It’s based off of an unproduced script by one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, Jacques Tati (you might want to look into his films for your purposes as well - they’re in another language, yeah, but there isn’t very much dialogue, since they’re more about sight gags and slapstick than anything else).
Toy Story 3 won the Best Animated Feature Oscar that year, but honestly? The Illusionist should have RUN with it. And I say that saying that Toy Story 3 was a hell of an accomplishment.
