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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 03/17/09

10:05 AM IFC
'Bama Girl (2008 USA): This fascinating documentary takes a look at the annual homecoming rites at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where a student body election determines who will be the belle of the ball. Until 2005, the process had been a tightly controlled insider game, with anointed (and generally white) favorites heavily promoted by "The Machine", a shadowy group of fraternities and sororities that also nurtured many Alabama power brokers - senators, congressmen, lawyers and the like - over the years. Tradition, however, didn't sit well with African-American student Jessica Thomas, who with some help from her own sorority sisters decided to run an independent candidacy, relying on a get out the vote effort aimed at student groups who traditionally had not been involved in the homecoming process. It's all a little reminiscent of the American democratic process in general. I won't give away the ending, but this is a wonderful little film that will keep your attention to the end.

7:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Young Cassidy (1965 USA): Rod Taylor stars in this rarely seen big screen adaptation of playwright Sean O'Casey's autobiography Mirror in My House. Taylor portrays the titular John Cassidy, a lower-middle class Dubliner who makes good by transforming his shabby genteel life experiences into plays at the legendary Abbey Theatre. Like most biopics, Young Cassidy is episodic, but as most of us probably aren't deeply familiar with the life of its subject, that's a minor complaint indeed. Let's focus instead on the film's impeccable pedigree: directed by the great Jack Cardiff, it's highlighted by Taylor's excellent performance and also features a cornucopia of British thesping talent amongst the ranks of its supporting cast, including Sir Michael Redgrave, Flora Robson, Maggie Smith, Edith Evans, Julie Christie, and Jack MacGowran. Interesting footnote: John Ford actually helmed two short scenes for this film.

11:50 PM More Max
The Promise (1979 USA): Now here's a TiVoPlex first: a film based on a Danielle Steele novel! Actually released to theatres in 1979, The Promise stars Kathleen Quinlan and Stephen Collins as Nancy and Michael, two creative types truly, madly, deeply in love with one another. They make a cliff-side promise to wed—but cold water is doused upon their engagement plans when Michael's harridan of a mother (Beatrice Straight) voices her objections. Enraged, the lovers elope, only to get into a terrible auto smash-up that leaves Nancy horribly disfigured (of course, it's the woman who's horribly disfigured). Can their relationship survive reconstructive facial surgery? This film actually earned an Academy Award nomination in 1980 for best song ("I'll Never Say Goodbye", and no, I don't remember it either), but ultimately lost out to "It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae (and no, I don't remember that one, either). The Promise is so-so at best, but unless you're going to pony up for Universal's four-movie, two-disc Danielle Steele DVD collection, this is your best option.

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