TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 22, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 09/22/09
5pm Encore
Children of the Corn (1984 USA): The film that launched a thousand sequels - none of them even remotely good - returns to the small screen this evening after the passage of many harvests. Based on a short story by the fecund Stephen King, the story unfolds in Gatlin, a small Nebraska town dominated by child preacher Isaac (John Franklin). Isaac is a fire-and-brimstone sort whose flock of pre-pubescent followers has murdered all the local adults and now worship at his altar of mystic maize. Into this madness arrive an unsuspecting couple (Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton) in transit to a new job in Seattle, but destined to reap what others have previously sown in the cornfields of America's heartland. Though he seems to owe fealty to some sort of animistic idol, Isaac's motivation is never really explained and the film plays out like a very low-rent Wicker Man. Compared to the rest of the films in the series, however, this is Oscar-worthy material. Also airs at 8pm.
5pm Encore Westerns
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943 USA): I've recommended this one in the past, but as it may well be my favorite American-made Western of all time, I don't feel too bad about giving it another plug. I've only ever read two Western novels in my life: this one, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and the decidedly pulpier Destry Rides Again, by Max Brand. Their cinematic adaptations match the aspirations of their print precursors, with Destry being a solid, big-budget piece of Golden-Age Hollywood entertainment, and The Ox-Bow Incident being a bleak, existential look at justice - or the lack thereof - in the Old West. Henry Fonda and Harry (Henry) Morgan star as a pair of cowhands caught up in a fever of lynch-mob justice after a local farmer is murdered. Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and William Eythe are the threesome accused by vigilantes of the crime whilst Fonda fills his regular role as the conscience of the crowd, but this relentlessly downbeat and grimly realistic film doesn't provide much, if any, catharsis for its audience (unless, of course, you're on the side of the lynch mob). Directed by the great William Wellman, and co-starring Jane Darwell, Leigh Whipper, and Marc Lawrence, it's one of the finest American films of the 1940s, and an artistic triumph that has never really received the recognition it deserves.
Wednesday 09/23/09
11:15am IFC
Max (2002 USA): A somewhat controversial art-house hit in 2002, Max returns to television in wide-screen this morning. Starring Noah Taylor (who played an ambitious Jewish peasant in 1999's Simon Magus) as Adolf Hitler and John Cusack as his art-dealer friend during the immediate post-World War I years, the film generated critical heat for presenting Hitler as less than the fully-formed monster he was to become by the 1920s. If you missed its week-long run at the local art-plex, here's an opportunity to make up your own mind: is Max a tasteless example of historical revisionism, or a bold statement about the power of art?
9pm IFC
Pi (1997 USA): Director Darren Aronofsky has since gone on to greater things (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler), but Pi was one of the first cinematic seedlings to sprout from his exceedingly furrowed intellectual brow. Sean Gullette plays math nerd Maximilian, a migraine-stricken genius who finds patterns in numbers where others find only chaos. He's determined to discover how numbers make the stock market tick, but when Wall Street brokers and an Hasidic rabbi get wind of his equations, his paranoia rockets off the charts and he burrows deeper into his obsessions within his grimy Manhattan apartment. Shot in extremely grainy black-and-white, Pi isn't easy going and doesn't deliver much in the way of a payoff, but at 84 minutes it never wears out its welcome and will keep your attention whilst you try to figure out what the heck's going on.
Thursday 09/24/09
6:30am Turner Classic Movies
Young Billy Young (1969 USA): Robert Mitchum stars as a reluctant lawman in this old-fashioned oater from genre specialist Burt Kennedy. Mitchum is Sam Kane, sheriff of the town of Lordsburg, where his responsibilities include hunting for the man who killed his son and flirting with saloon gal Lily (Angie Dickinson). Kane meets Young Billy (biker-movie vet Robert Walker, Jr.), and the two buddy up to keep the peace, at least until complete rotter Fred Boone (John Anderson) and his gang of miscreants ride into town one fateful day. It's pretty routine stuff, but Mitchum is good as always, and the supporting cast (including David Carradine, Parley Baer, and Deana "daughter of Dean" Martin) can't be beat.
Friday 09/25/09
4:15am Turner Classic Movies
Ann Carver's Profession (1933 USA): Wimmin lawyers: can't litigate with ‘em, can't litigate without ‘em. Fay Wray takes the lead as the titular jurisprudent, whose courtroom skills trump hubby Bill's (Gene Raymond) desire to keep her barefoot and pregnant. In fact, Ann rapidly rises to the top of the legal biz whilst Bill's architectural career goes nowhere fast, causing him to set down his slide rule and take up a gig crooning in a nightclub. His proximity to dipso diva Carole (Claire Dodd) further exacerbates the Carver marriage's seemingly irreconcilable differences, but not to worry; Ann and Bill come to an understanding by film's end that allows him to reclaim his manhood AND get his name into Vanity Fair. This rarely seen Columbia program offers additional proof that the delightful Ms. Wray was far more than just another screaming automaton in King Kong's paw.
Saturday 09/26/09
6am Turner Classic Movies
Dick Tracy, Chapters 7 and 8 (1937 USA): The mid-point of the series is reached with chapters provocatively entitled The Ghost Town Mystery and Battle of the Clouds.
11:05am Encore Mystery
Brazil (1985 GB): The archives suggest I've never previously recommended this Terry Gilliam dystopian classic. Frankly, I think the archives are lying through their teeth (and lying badly, as well), but there's never a good reason NOT to watch Brazil, especially when it airs in its original aspect ratio, as it does this morning. For the two or three sentient beings not yet aware of the story, Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, an Everyman employee of a vast bureaucracy who learns that Things Are Not Quite As They Appear to Be when a clerical error flags him as an enemy of the state. Visually audacious and wickedly funny, Brazil is one of Gilliam's best films, and co-stars Michael Palin, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, and Ian "He's Only Three Feet Tall" Holm.
6pm Starz!
Cadillac Records (2008 USA): There's a lot to like, and much to disdain, in this period drama detailing music-biz history of the 1950s and ‘60s. We'll start with the good stuff: the Chess Brothers were geniuses who established one of the most important pop music labels of the 20th Century and released some of the greatest sides ever recorded, so it's nice their work finally gets some cinematic recognition. Beyonce ain't bad as Etta James, Jeffrey Wright is near brilliant as Muddy Waters, and the music is, of course, great. Now the not-so-good: if you're going to make a movie about Chess Records, why not call it Chess Records? And if you're going to make a movie about Chess Records, why not mention the fact that it was founded and operated by brothers? Rock historians and Chess fans will also be disturbed by other factual inaccuracies, such as Chuck Berry (Mos Def) being released from jail to find that the Beach Boys have rendered him irrelevant (in fact, Berry would have some of his biggest hits during 1964 and 1965). For the casual moviegoer, Cadillac Records is a well-made, if fairly typical, plod through the chapters of recent popular music history, but for the cognoscenti, it's a frequently maddening exercise in mis-information. Also airs at 9pm.
11:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Beasts of Marseilles (1957 GB): You can't beat "Beasts of Marseilles' as a title, but the film itself doesn't quite live up to expectations inspired by such florid word-smithery. The Beasts moniker was, in fact, attached to the US release of a movie released in its native UK as Seven Thunders, which is still a pretty good title, though not nearly as evocative. So how's the film, you ask? Well, pretty darn good, actually, and certainly not in need of a title more redolent of the grindhouse than the arthouse. Irish-born Stephen Boyd plays Brit POW Dave, who's escaped from his friendly neighborhood Stalag and made his way to the southern port city of Marseilles, where he hopes to hop a boat and sail to freedom. Whilst awaiting rescue, Dave tries to blend into the background, but finds the locals, including James Robertson Justice and Kathleen Harrison, not always as cooperative as he might like. Directed by journeyman Hugo Fregonese and superbly lensed by Wilkie Cooper, this is a surprising and unusual entry in the "great escape" genre.
Sunday 09/27/09
5pm Turner Classic Movies
Green Promise (1949 USA): With that title, you'd think this would be an eco-doc destined for the Sundance Channel. Instead, it's a rather loopy religio-agrarian drama featuring Natalie Wood as a young girl searching for spiritual satisfaction on the family farm. It's not really my cup of tea, but sometimes the TiVoPlex moves in mysterious ways.
9pm Sundance
Dorm (2006 THA): I haven't seen this week's Asia Extreme feature yet, but the story apparently revolves around a Thai youngster's special relationship with his boarding school roommate: the spirit of a former student who came to an unfortunate and tragically early demise during a previous term. Online synopses make this one sound a bit like a Southeast Asian Sixth Sense, which is more than enough to inspire interest in these quarters.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
The Flowers of St Francis (1950 ITA): Director Roberto Rossellini completed his transition from leftist neo-realist to atheist apologist for Catholicism in this cinematic tribute to the patron saint of animals. The filmmaker's next project after his abjectly miserable and deeply spiritual Stromboli, which primarily consists of two hours of Ingrid Bergman looking like she's ready to slit her wrists, The Flowers of St. Francis is much lighter and easily digestible fare. I consider it rather charming, but your mileage will depend on your tolerance for whimsical humor and religious silliness. Co-written by Federico Fellini, it's a film that exists a million miles from Rossellini's groundbreaking Open City.
Monday 09/28/09
6:20am Sundance
Secrecy (2008 USA): We are lied to every minute of every day by our government, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in power. The government then conceals those lies by claiming that to reveal the truth to the unwashed masses would endanger national security. This brilliant documentary takes a look at the pernicious spread of the culture of secrecy, starting with the 1948 Waycross, Georgia, plane crash that led to the Supreme Court's decision establishing the state-secrets privilege. Now we are at the point where the Feds claim that entire court cases cannot proceed because of this so-called privilege. The Bush administration honed the use of the SSP to a fine art; unfortunately, the Obama administration shows no interest in reversing that policy. And why should they? As this film makes quite clear, once you cede power to the executive branch, why would the executive branch choose to surrender it? And why should we, the serfs of neo-liberal capitalism, expect any less from our wise masters? Every person who has any interest in constitutional government, democracy, and freedom needs to see this film.
8:45pm Turner Classic Movies
See No Evil (1971 GB): Willowy Mia Farrow is stalked by a killer in the English countryside in this excellent thriller from director Richard Fleischer. She plays Sarah, a blind young woman who returns to her manorial home only to discover her family seems to have left her to her own devices. Only they haven't; they've all been done in by a psychotic killer, who's quite eager to leave no witness behind, even if she can't see him. Written by Avengers scribe Brian Clemens, this is a taut and satisfying feature with an excellent Elmer Bernstein score. It's followed at 10:30pm by the delightfully titled yet disappointing thriller A Dandy in Aspic, in which Mia plays second fiddle to Laurence Harvey and Tom Courtenay.