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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 6/21/11

4:10 AM Encore Mystery
Crimewave (1985 USA): In between producing the Evil Dead movies and taking his first tentative steps towards America’s multiplexes via Darkman, director Sam Raimi delivered this odd, somewhat out of character Three Stooges inspired comedy, penned — believe it or not — by the Coen Brothers! Produced by Columbia — who immediately took a disliking to their new wunderkind — Crimewave relates the last minute memories of Vic Ajax (Reed Birney), a death row inmate about to fry for some murders he didn’t commit. Needless to say, those memories are a little out of the ordinary, and involve such bizarre elements as rodent extermination and burglar alarms. Crimewave is ultimately less than the sum of its parts and only mildly amusing, but remains a curate’s egg well worth investigating thank to its fantastic cast, which includes Brion James, Antonio Fargas, Louise Lasser, Stooges veteran Emil Sitka, Julius Harris, Frances McDormand (as a nun) and (of course) Bruce Campbell.

11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Wild on the Beach (1965 USA): For those looking for a Beach Party knock-off shot in black and white, look no further! This Fox cheapie stars Frankie Randall and Sherry Jackson as Frankie and Annette — er, Adam and Lee — two young people fighting over possession of a beach house. One wants to rent its rooms to boys, the other to girls, and before you can say Eric von Zipper battle (and, eventually, romance) commences. Musical highlights are provided by Sonny and Cher, The Astronauts, and Sandy Nelson. Dramatic highlights are provided by no one.

Wednesday 6/22/11

12:05 PM Flix
Grey Gardens (1975 USA): The Maysles Brothers are rightly revered for their documentary classics Salesman and Gimme Shelter, but this left-field examination of old age on Long Island is just as good. It's a deceptively simple cinema verite look at the lives of Jackie Kennedy’s aged aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale (no relation to Marge Bouvier), and her minder and daughter, "Little" Edie. The two lived for 20 years in a decaying East Hamptons mansion, slowly and perhaps inadvertently withdrawing into an increasingly small world of creeping neglect and eccentric behavior. Over the decades, both the Beales and their home went to seed (apparently, the house is now owned by former Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee and has presumably been renovated), with portions of the estate overrun by wildlife and the rest of it much the worse for wear. Originally intended as background material for a feature about Jackie O and Lee Radziwell, the Maysles decided the Bouvier footage was much more interesting subject matter, and turned it into Grey Gardens. Tracing the inexorable path from youthful promise to disappointment and decay - an arc that almost all of us will trace, regardless of social position or wealth - this is bittersweet and powerful testimony to the inexorable toll taken by the passage of time. The film was remade in 2009 as a docudrama starring Drew Barrymore; I didn’t see that film but can’t imagine it’s as good as this one.

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