New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Wednesday 07/09/08

10:45 AM Encore Love
Solas (1999 ESP): There's quite a crop of Spanish-language cinema on offer this week, starting with this quietly effective tale of a mother and daughter re-connecting in the wake of a family crisis. Solas stars Ana Fernandez as Maria, a young woman who has fled her stiflingly small home town for the big city of Seville, where she promptly finds herself pregnant, alone, and living in a flea pit. After her martinet of a father (Paco de Osca) is hospitalized nearby, Maria's mother (Maria Galiana) moves in with her offspring, leading to unanticipated consequences, heartbreak, and reconciliation. A massive hit on the festival circuit and a five-gong winner at the Goyas (Spain's equivalent of the Academy Awards), Solas comes strongly recommended to admirers of Victor Erice or Ermanno Olmi.

2:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Everything's Ducky! (1961 USA): Did you hear the one about the talking duck? No, I'm not talking about Howard the Duck — I'm referring to Scuttlebutt the Duck, the mouthy water fowl who gets sailors Admiral Jones and Beetle McKay (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney) into hot water in this absurd and very rarely seen Columbia comedy. Scuttlebutt also likes to drink martinis and impersonate celebrities, and when the top brass learn of his special skills, they become determined to get their hands on the bird and, ahem, cut his brain out. This doesn't sit well with Admiral and Beetle, who engage in a series of wacky escapades in order to save their beloved pet from a fate worse than a frontal lobotomy. Everything's Ducky is decidedly not, but, in addition to featuring Jackie Cooper and TiVoPlex fave Richard Deacon in supporting roles, is making its American widescreen television debut this afternoon.

9:00 PM Sundance
Tulse Luper Suitcases Part 2 (2003 GB): The second part of Peter Greenaway's Tulse Luper trilogy debuts this evening. Subtitled Vaux to the Sea, the film continues the avant-garde adventures of our hero and his hand luggage.

Thursday 07/10/08

6:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Winter A-Go-Go (1965 USA): One of the worst teensploitation films ever mde, Winter-A-Go-Go was Columbia's attempt to cash in on the AIP Beach Party craze. William Wellman, Jr. (here proving that sometimes the acorn actually falls quite a distance from the tree) stars as Jeff Forrester, a vaguely teenage type who inherits a Tahoe ski lodge and promptly tries to turn it into a cool resort for the younger set. It's ninety minutes of contrived situations, unfunny funny bits, and bland music courtesy The Nooney Rickett Four and The Reflections. As bad as AIP's Ski Party was, at least Sam Arkoff anted up for James Brown and Lesley Gore! Unavailable on home video, Winter-A-Go-Go is yet another feature making its first widescreen television appearance this week.

9:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Violent Saturday (1955 USA): Violent it is, especially for a film from the mid 1950s. Certainly the onscreen carnage is stronger than anything else I've seen from the period, with the possible exception of Richard Widmark shoving the wheelchaired elderly lady down the stairs in Kiss of Death (1947). There are definitely hints of the soon-coming Hollywood of Sam Peckinpah and Co. in Violent Saturday — the sadistic Lee Marvin grinding a little boy's hand into the ground, and a bearded Ernest Borgnine skewering Lee with a pitchfork towards the final reel — but it's all rather surprising coming from talented but non-controversial director Richard Fleischer. Screenwriter Sydney Boehm was also responsible for gritty films such as The Big Heat (1953) and Rogue Cop (1954), so I expect we must blame him for coarsening the cultural atmosphere and poisoning the artistic well. Do James Dobson and Bill Donohue know about this guy?

4:00 PM Sundance
Lights in the Dusk (2006 FIN): The most recent feature effort from renegade filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America), Lights in the Dusk was selected to represent Finland at the 2007 Academy Awards — then Kaurismaki voiced his objections, and the film was withdrawn from competition, leaving Nokia Nation unrepresented. Artistic sensibilities aside, that's a shame, because it surely would have given the film greater international exposure, which it certainly deserved. A mordant black comedy, Lights in the Dusk stars Janne Hyytiainen as Koistinen, a poker-faced Helsinki security guard charged with protecting a block of shops, one of which is a particularly tempting jewelry store. He becomes the target of gangster Lindholm (Ilkka Koivula), who recognizes Koistinen as a lonely soul in need of companionship and foists his own moll (the icily beautiful Maria Jarvenhelmi) on him in an effort to pry loose the jeweler's security codes. Fans of Kaurismaki will recognize many of his themes, memes, and bugaboos here — others may find Lights in the Dusk a baffling but beautifully made exercise in Scandinavian minimalism (and miserabilism). I like it.

9:30 PM Fox Movie Channel
Vanishing Point (1971 USA): Now thankfully also available on home video, Richard Sarafian's hyperkinetic Vanishing Point makes a rare wide-screen appearance today on Fox. In a film I like to think of as Bennies and the Vet, Barry Newman plays a hopped up Vietnam veteran speeding across America in a souped-up Dodge Challenger. He's ably supported from afar by blind DJ Cleavon Little, who provides play-by-play commentary as Newman eludes numerous state police departments in his attempt to get from Colorado to San Francisco in 15 hours. It's sheer excitement from the get-go, brilliantly lensed by John Alonzo, and features a pumping soundtrack from Jimmy Bowen. Look for John Amos (Good Times) in a small role as Cleavon's on-air engineer.

Continued:       1       2       3