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Monday 09/07/09

5:25 AM IFC
Startup.com (2001 USA): Directed by War Room main man Chris Hegedus, this riveting documentary examines the brief history of start-up govworks.com, a website intended to serve as a one-stop information source for businesses trying to win municipal contracts. The internet bubble had burst by the time I first saw this, but since then we've had the real estate bubble burst, too, rendering the earlier bubble insignificant in comparison - but Startup.com will still leave you feeling ever so slightly sad about the failures of its generally likable if overly ambitious subjects, Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman. And if you feel like owning the govworks domain, it's still available!

8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Uncle Silas (1948 GB): Jean Simmons stars in this enjoyable, little known British thriller set during the reign of Victoria. She plays Caroline Ruthyn, a 17-year-old taking care of her dear, dying daddy (Reginald Tate), and who, after Pop passes on, learns she is now the ward of troublesome Uncle Silas (Derrick de Marney). Silas has previously been cleared of murder charges, and his intentions are less than honorable: he has his eye on the family fortune Caroline will inherit when she comes of age, and with the assistance of the scheming Madame de la Rougierre (Katina Paxinou), is plotting to make sure it makes its way into his coffers. Based on a story by Sheridan le Fanu, this is a well-made Gothic meller of the old school and will be appreciated by fans of Laura, Dragonwyck, and suchlike.

6:00 PM Sundance
Beyond Belief (2007 USA): How can those 9/11 widows be so forgiving? We know how Ann Coulter feels about them, but the ladies themselves - or at least two of them - get their day in court in this tear-stained doc. Bostonians Susan Retik and Patti Quigley overcame their grief and traveled to Afghanistan to raise money for...war widows. Call ‘em naïve, but hey: it's more constructive than dropping bombs on wedding parties and funerals.

7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
I'm Not Scared (2003 ITA): This Italian thriller was heavily promoted in art-house cinemas, but its trailer tended to undersell it, portraying it as a run-of-the-mill melodrama with a Tuscan twist. It's actually an intelligent and insightful exploration of the fears and wonders of childhood as seen through the eyes of Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano), a ten-year-old boy who stumbles across a nasty little secret beneath some sheet metal near an abandoned farmhouse. Set in bucolic rural Italy at the height of that country's kidnapping wave of the 1970s, I'm Not Scared is a subtle blend of scares and pastoral beauty and will have panicked mothers and fathers checking their children's beds after the movie is over. Best of all, it's making its widescreen television debut this evening. It's followed at 9:00 PM by The Ascent, a 1977 feature from the Soviet Union about wartime partisans operating behind enemy lines. I've never seen it, but it sounds great.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Rain People (1969 USA): A little known Francis Ford Coppola drama, The Rain People stars James Caan and Shirley Knight as Natalie and Kilgannon, two young people desperately searching for happiness and personal fulfilment in the turbulent late ‘60s. Unhappily married and pregnant Long Islander Natalie picks up hitchhiking Kilgannon, a former football player who's taken one too many blows to the noggin, and the two embark on a cross-nation road trip to find themselves. That's a simple and familiar recipe, but Coppola cooks up a sturdy dish with it, with fine acting and superb cinematography from Bill Butler, who would shoot the equally intriguing Jack Nicholson vehicle Drive, He Said only two years later.

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