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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.

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