WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?: THE SPLATTER AMERICANA OF CALVIN LEE REEDER
A weekend celebration of the films and influences of the PNW’s strangest filmmaking son Calvin Lee Reeder!
Night #1: THE RAW, UNCUT REAL-DEAL GOOD SHIT STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE.
Night #2: INFLUENCES & INSPIRATIONS. ONE OF THE MORE PSYCHOTICALLY DERANGED WHIPLASH-INDUCING DOUBLE FEATURES OF ALL TIME.
Films in this Program
Calvin Lee Reeder
97 min
Dermot Mulroney stars as an ex-con just released from prison, kicked out of his trailer home, and gone on a cross-country journey to his long-lost brother’s pony ranch. But along the way, he’ll encounter a depraved American underbelly of dusty towns, bizarre strangers, sudden violence, and a device that can record dreams onto VHS. Lindsay Pulsipher and Natasha Lyonne co-star in this surreal sensation about shadowy pasts, questionable futures, and the deadpan traveling man known only as THE RAMBLER.
“If David Lynch and David Cronenberg teamed up with Werner Herzog early in their careers and made a movie together, it would have been Calvin Lee Reeder's THE RAMBLER.” - Twitch Film
“Like an Abel Ferrara Jr., Reeder meshes thought and design with genre storylines, like a Euro-filmmaker making ’70s drive-in films.” - Mike Plante
“Much in the way comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim push the boundaries of conventional humor with material seemingly culled from a schizophrenic’s fever dream, THE RAMBLER presents a similarly unusual, fucked-up approach to matters of cinematic form, storytelling, and everything in between. Sinister, comical, aggravating, and audacious, Reeder’s film is nothing short of an affront. But it’s refreshing and revitalizing to watch someone assertively rattle the cages of cinematic form.” - Drew Hunt, Slant
Accompanied by Reeder’s award-winning short film THE PROCEDURE:
A man is kidnapped and forced to endure a strange experiment. The 2016 Sundance Short Film Jury really was wild for giving this one their top award!
“If David Lynch and David Cronenberg teamed up with Werner Herzog early in their careers and made a movie together, it would have been Calvin Lee Reeder's THE RAMBLER.” - Twitch Film
“Like an Abel Ferrara Jr., Reeder meshes thought and design with genre storylines, like a Euro-filmmaker making ’70s drive-in films.” - Mike Plante
“Much in the way comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim push the boundaries of conventional humor with material seemingly culled from a schizophrenic’s fever dream, THE RAMBLER presents a similarly unusual, fucked-up approach to matters of cinematic form, storytelling, and everything in between. Sinister, comical, aggravating, and audacious, Reeder’s film is nothing short of an affront. But it’s refreshing and revitalizing to watch someone assertively rattle the cages of cinematic form.” - Drew Hunt, Slant
Accompanied by Reeder’s award-winning short film THE PROCEDURE:
A man is kidnapped and forced to endure a strange experiment. The 2016 Sundance Short Film Jury really was wild for giving this one their top award!
Calvin Lee Reeder
81 min
There is a place. A place where the skies are wide and the forests are thick—and strange. You can lose yourself forever in these woods. You’ll meet truckers with problems and old women with strange powers. You may even make a furry friend. Just be sure to stay quiet. Spend some time with a woman from Oregon who is lost on the road and running away from her past. Now she has a chance to experience everything the grotesque Northwest has to offer, whether she likes it or not. The debut film from local legend Calvin Lee Reeder, THE OREGONIAN remains the one true PNW psychotronic hypnodrone tribulation.
"Reeder remains one of the most promising young American directors. His command of the medium is undeniable." - Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Advocates of bad-trip cinema, you may commence cult-worshipping this warped nightmare now.” - David Fear, Time Out New York
Accompanied by Reeder’s latest short HARBOR ISLAND:
A van-living joke writer wanders Seattle’s industrial zone at night. He encounters ominous strangers and witnesses unnatural phenomena but that will hardly stop him from working up new material. Described by Scott Macauly in the pages of Filmmaker Magazine as "like watching Rupert Pupkin act in a U.S. version of RED DESERT.”
"Reeder remains one of the most promising young American directors. His command of the medium is undeniable." - Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“Advocates of bad-trip cinema, you may commence cult-worshipping this warped nightmare now.” - David Fear, Time Out New York
Accompanied by Reeder’s latest short HARBOR ISLAND:
A van-living joke writer wanders Seattle’s industrial zone at night. He encounters ominous strangers and witnesses unnatural phenomena but that will hardly stop him from working up new material. Described by Scott Macauly in the pages of Filmmaker Magazine as "like watching Rupert Pupkin act in a U.S. version of RED DESERT.”
Bruce Beresford
92 min
The often overlooked TENDER MERCIES is a beautifully low-key film about a broken musician trying to put his life back together. Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is a washed-up, alcoholic country and western singer who finds solace and affection with a widow and her 10-year-old son on a Texan prairie. It features a real tour-de-force performance by Duvall, but the film's true strength comes from Horton Foote's sensitively written screenplay. Foote refuses to approach the material as soap opera or drama: the movie unfolds quietly and simply, and the big emotional moments subtly sneak up on the audience leaving a deep impact.
“TENDER MERCIES is so good that it has the effect of rediscovering a kind of film fiction that has been debased over the decades by hack moviemakers.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times
“TENDER MERCIES' ultimate miracle is its faith in the audience. It assumes, perhaps unreasonably, that we are not so canned overblown effects that we cannot pick up on its quiet rhythms.” - Molly Haskell, Vogue
“TENDER MERCIES is so good that it has the effect of rediscovering a kind of film fiction that has been debased over the decades by hack moviemakers.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times
“TENDER MERCIES' ultimate miracle is its faith in the audience. It assumes, perhaps unreasonably, that we are not so canned overblown effects that we cannot pick up on its quiet rhythms.” - Molly Haskell, Vogue
Mark Goldblatt
86 min
Marginally-tough tough guys Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are Roger Mortis (ouch) and Doug Bigelow, two reckless LA cops suddenly embroiled in a white-collar zombie manufacturing scheme. When Roger is killed, he returns looking for answers… and vengeance! Armed to the teeth and rotting to pieces, he unleashes a fully automatic deathwave on the parties responsible. Possibly the most unreasonable action premise of the '80s, and DEAD HEAT delivers. Late greats Vincent Price and Darren McGavin add their solid gold to the mix, along with mutated bikers, mad scientists, endless explosions, decomposing flesh and a reanimated Asian meat market packed with decapitated chickens and gyrating sausages! You heard us.
“DEAD HEAT begs the question: when will Cocaine finally get an honorary Oscar for its contribution to the Silver Screen?” - Matt Christman
“DEAD HEAT begs the question: when will Cocaine finally get an honorary Oscar for its contribution to the Silver Screen?” - Matt Christman
