TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, January 1, 2008 through Monday, January 7, 2008
By John Seal
January 1, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 01/01/08
7pm Flix
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976 GB): It's been quite a while since Nicolas Roeg's science-fiction shaggy dog tale has been on TV, so we'll avert our eyes, hold our nose, and try to ignore the fact that it's airing in pan-and-scan tonight. At the peak of his powers, David Bowie stars as the titular visitor from outer space, a pasty-faced ET who arrives on the Big Blue Marble in search of water for his troubled home planet. Instead he finds himself mystified, corrupted, and eventually subsumed by the sinful nature of our Edenic paradise. The plot is frequently ludicrous, and Bowie plays up his Thin White Duke persona to full effect, rendering it a challenge to overlook the fact that you're watching a big rock star strutting his stuff onscreen. The Man Who Fell to Earth is not an easy film to enjoy, especially in pan-and-scan, but if you're an admirer of either Roeg or Bowie, you have to see it at least once.
10:30pm Sundance
La Moustache (2005 FRA): The mystique of masculine facial hair is explored in this amusing Charlie Kaufman-esque fable from director Emmanuel Carrere. Vincent Lindon stars as Marc, a Parisian Everyman who decides to shave off his upper lip's facial fuzz one day after apparently gaining the approval of wife Agnes (Emmanuelle Devos). He looks forward to gauging the reaction of his closest friends at a forthcoming dinner party but is baffled when they don't seem to notice the change, and then actively deny that he ever had a moustache in the first place. The dispute evolves into a serious argument that threatens to destroy his long-term relationship with Agnes, and Marc heads off on a solo trip to the Far East to rediscover himself and find the solution to the mystery. Baffling, enigmatic, and thought-provoking, La Moustache also features an elegiac Philip Glass score. Airs again at 1/2 at 10am.
Wednesday 01/02/08
1am Encore Love Stories
Mouth-to-Mouth (1995 ESP): Javier Bardem plays Victor, an aspiring actor who hopes a phone-sex gig will give him a leg up in his thesping career, in this bawdy Iberian comedy. Instead he finds himself falling in love with one of his female customers, only to learn that he has also been providing sensual services to her husband, leading, of course, to outrageous complications. Mouth-to-Mouth is no classic, but as far as sex comedies go, it's vastly superior to Spike Lee's similarly-themed misogynist misfire Girl 6.
1:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Warriors (1979 USA): Walter Hill's testosterone-drenched gang warfare flick makes its wide-screen American television premiere tonight on TCM Underground. Set in an almost-but-not-quite recognizable near future, the film features Roger Hill as New York Mob boss Cyrus, who's convened a gathering of the clans in an effort to assert as much authority as possible over the city. When Cyrus is assassinated at the meeting, the blame is falsely placed upon Coney Island punks The Warriors, who must flee the rally and return to their home hustings via the subway system, where danger lurks around every ticket barrier. The film suffers a little from its outré costuming and proto-80s hairstyles, but as a crackerjack action pic it's hard to beat. Look for future Chuck Norris foil Steve James as a member of the Baseball Furies gang, one of the outfits determined to stop The Warriors from returning to their safe space.
9:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Living Ghost (1942 USA): The war years were truly a fallow period for horror films, with crypto-chillers constantly undermined by comedic pratfalls and unwelcome outbursts of "logic". Here's one of those ubiquitous faux-fear films, this one a rarely-seen Monogram cheapie starring James Dunn as private eye Nick Trayne, on the trail of kidnapped industrialist Walter Craig (Gus Glassmire), who turns up in glassy-eyed, "zombiefied" condition. Can Nick and perky sidekick Billie Hilton (Joan Woodbury) bring the fiend responsible to justice, or will they find their own grey matter excised against their will? Basically a murder mystery without a murder victim and some terror trappings layered on to middling effect, The Living Ghost remains one of those strangely enjoyable Poverty Row features helmed by the always busy William "One-Shot" Beaudine.
6pm IFC
The Burning (1981 USA): Heard the one about the badly-burned counselor stalking the summer camp and getting his revenge on the teens responsible for his horrific disfigurement? Yeah, I thought you had, and this is it: a mediocre slasher making its wide-screen boob tube debut this evening on IFC's Grindhouse. The Burning includes the big-screen debuts of both Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter (both with full heads of hair) and also airs at 9:15pm and 1/3 at 1:35am.
10:20pm HBO Signature
El Método (2005 ESP): If you've ever suffered through a particularly intense job interview, you'll enjoy El Método (The Method), a Spanish comedy about the grueling hiring procedures utilized by a Madrid corporation. Set against the backdrop of anti-globalization protests, the film focuses on seven hopefuls competing for a single position. Amongst the candidates are brown-noser Enrique (Ernesto Altiero), male chauvinist pig Fernando (Eduard Fernández), ladies' man Carlos (Eduardo Noriega), corporate secretary Montse (Natalia Verbeke), and an undercover mole in their midst tasked with winnowing the field from within. A blunt critique of the bloody battlefields of modern capitalism, El Método was a huge hit at Spanish-language film festivals around the world and richly deserves the wider audience it will finally receive tonight.
Thursday 01/031/08
6:20am Encore Action
The Killer Elite (1976 USA): James Caan plays a CIA contractor out for revenge in Sam Peckinpah's tale of perfidy and deceit in the underworld of international intrigue. Caan is freelance spy Mike Locken, whose betrayal at the hands of old chum Hansen (Robert Duvall) has left him physically crippled. Toddling around on a cane, Locken is hired to pull off a complex job in San Francisco, where, by happy coincidence, erstwhile pal Hansen has been hired by The Other Side. The proceedings are overly complex and surprisingly talky for a Peckinpah flick, but Caan is very good, the City by the Bay looks terrific, and the supporting cast outstanding (Gig Young, Burt Young, Mako, Sondra Blake, Bo Hopkins, and Victor Sen Yung).
8:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Red Mill (1927 USA): Though Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's legal troubles (which culminated in a 1923 acquittal) ended his onscreen career, the husky-sized funny man was still occasionally hired to work behind the cameras. The Red Mill is one of the films that paid Fatty's bills during the last troubled years of his life, and though it's only a modest effort, remains fascinating for its cast. Unjustly maligned starlet Marion Davies stars as little Dutch girl Tina, who works at the eponymous tavern and falls in love with transient Dennis (Owen Moore). Their quick-‘n'-torrid affair goes off the rails thanks to Tina's scheme to help local lass Gretchen (Louise Fazenda), whose arranged marriage has left her deeply unhappy, but she soon skates her way back into Dennis' heart for the requisite happy ending. Also on hand are plug-ugly Karl Dane and silent comic Snitz Edwards, as well as 19-year-old Sally Eilers in her film debut, rendering The Red Mill of considerable interest to silent film fans.
6pm Sundance
Adam's Apples (2005 DEN): This darkest of black comedies features Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale's Le Chiffre) as Ivan, a small-town Danish priest whose ministry - helping rehabilitate ex-cons and other assorted no-goodniks - threatens to run aground on the shoals of recovering neo-Nazi skinhead Adam (Festen's Ulrich Thomson). Adam is resolutely uncooperative, and to make matters worse, Ivan is woefully inept at his chosen calling, ignoring the tasks at hand in favor of time spent communing with his favorite Bee Gees tape. Co-starring Dogme regular Paprika Steen as a nymphomaniac struggling with abortion issues, Adam's Apples is a deeply cynical and wickedly funny examination of the human condition. Also airs 1/4 at 1am.
Friday 01/04/08
1:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Crime by Night (1944 USA): Perennial smoothie Jerome Cowan stars as PI Sam Campbell in this very enjoyable Warner Bros second feature. Campbell is hired by Larry Borden (Stuart Crawford), a mild-mannered type destined to be suspect number one after the murder of his father-in-law unless he can find the killer first. Aided by gal Friday Robbie Vance (Jane Wyman), Campbell ingratiates himself with the locals, proves Borden's innocence, AND uncovers a nefarious Nazi spy ring, all within a brisk 70-minute running time. If you're a fan of Cowan's oily sub-William Powell charms, too rarely seen in lead roles, don't miss this one.
9pm IFC
Eaten Alive (1976 USA): Tobe Hooper's follow-up to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive is a bit of a letdown, but good fun nonetheless, especially if you appreciate Neville Brand and/or giant killer reptiles. Set in the deepest backwoods of Louisiana, the film features a gurning Brand as Judd, the crazed redneck proprietor of a rural motel and the proud owner of both a monkey in a cage AND an alligator in the backyard. After Judd flips his lid one time too often and murders local lady of the night Faye (TCM's Marilyn Burns), he takes scythe in hand and sets out to provide his beloved animal companion with some human sushi. Amongst the threatened is tenant Harvey (schlock veteran Mel Ferrer), nosey parker Hattie (Morticia Addams herself, Carolyn Jones), hapless Sheriff Martin (Stuart Whitman), and a young Robert Englund makes an unforgettable and foul-mouthed impression as Faye's unfortunate customer Buck. Eaten Alive doesn't share Texas Chainsaw Massacre's reputation, but for my money it's a heck of a lot more fun, and so far hasn't spawned any annoying sequels. Also airs 1/5 at midnight.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Skidoo (1968 USA): I never thought I'd live to see the day Skidoo would appear again on television, and in all honesty, I'm a bit disturbed at the prospect. After all, this is the midnight movie to end all midnight movies, so obscure and deeply buried in the vaults that its extremely rare big-screen appearances are the stuff of legend (the last time I saw it was probably 15 years ago at San Francisco's Red Vic, a dilapidated but wonderful rep house with sofas for seats and a good line in concession stand chocolate). It's the infamous film in which Jackie Gleason takes an acid trip, and that's probably reason enough to watch, though the remarkable supporting cast also provides a strong argument: Carol Channing (as Jackie's wife), Groucho Marx, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, George Raft, Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, Slim Pickens, Mickey Rooney, Richard Kiel, Harry Nilsson, and (the final icing on the cake) Arnold Stang, the TiVoPlex cult fave whose career runs the gamut from The Man With the Golden Arm to Courage the Cowardly Dog and beyond! Directed by Otto Preminger, Skidoo is the ne plus ultra of old Hollywood's attempts to acknowledge and interpret the counterculture and, simply put, is a terrible movie. If you miss it tonight, however, you may regret it for the rest of your life, as there's still no indication that a home video release is in the offing. Now, can TCM next pry The Day the Clown Cried from Jerry Lewis' clammy grip??
Saturday 01/05/08
12:45am Turner Classic Movies
The Love-Ins (1967 USA): Après moi, le déluge...if you haven't sated yourself on the countercultural blowback of Skidoo, stay tuned for Columbia's hippie-sploitationer The Love-Ins, featuring straight arrow Richard Todd as a college professor whose radical lesson plan encourages his students to agitate, educate, and organize. Directed by hack of all trades Arthur Dreifuss, it's a straight (sic) drama that suffers from a tin-eared screenplay (co-written by Dreifuss and Hal Collins) that completely and utterly fails to understand anything about the late ‘60s youth movement. This was one of the last films produced by the legendary Sam Katzman, who never stopped trying to jump on a trend, even if the end product was invariably terrible. The presence of San Jose psychedelic punks The Chocolate Watchband make The Love-Ins required viewing for period music fans.
1:40am The Movie Channel
Small-Town Gay Bar (2006 USA): Gays and lesbians may be winning slow and grudging acceptance in big-city America, but in the heart of Mississippi it still takes a brave man or woman to openly step out of the closet. This excellent documentary takes a look at Rumors and Crossroads, two oases of tolerance in the sea of Bible Belt bigotry, that miraculously exist in two small and not terribly open-minded burgs. Featuring interviews with patrons, friends, and enemies of the establishments - including Rev. Fred Phelps, the Tall Man of evangelical nuttiness - Small-Town Gay Bar won Jury Awards at both the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the LA Outfest. Also airs at 4:40am.
Sunday 01/06/08
9:30pm Encore Dramatic Stories
The Proposition (2005 AUS): This extremely bloody Australian Western was written by rock musician Nick Cave, who also provided the film with its outstanding ethereal score. Set deep in the outback, the film stars Ray Winstone as police officer Captain Stanley, in determined pursuit of the villainous Burns brothers, who have been robbing and raping their way across Queensland. When Stanley captures half-wit brother Mike (Richard Wilson) and handsome brother Charlie (Guy Pearce), he blackmails Charlie into helping him capture gang leader Arthur (Danny Huston), still on the loose and willing to do anything to stay out of the law's clutches. Not a film for the squeamish, The Proposition features superb performances from all concerned (with especial kudos for Huston) and magnificent cinematography - in burnt hues of brown and orange - from DP Benoit Delhomme.