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7:00 PM Cinemax
Machete (2010 USA): Everyone’s favorite Spy Kids character Uncle Machete (Danny Trejo) finally got his own movie, and what a movie it is! Not only is it a cartoonish exercise in ultra-violence, it was also considered a warning by right-wing nativists across the land, who convinced themselves that director Robert Rodriguez was signaling "illegal immigrants" to pick up the nearest blade and start slicing up honkies. Sorry, Tom Tancredo - it’s only a movie. Also airs at 10:00 PM.

Sunday 7/10/11

1:40 PM Encore Action
Black Moon Rising (1986 USA): Remember a few weeks back when I waxed nostalgic about my dinner with Doug Curtis? If you missed it, here’s the short version: hoping to get me into showbiz, my father introduced me to the producer one evening. Didn’t happen, of course, but my parents maintained their contact with Mr. Curtis, who later invited them to attend the world premiere of Black Moon Rising! Attend they did, and my father swears it’s an okay movie. I’ve never seen it, but considering it was written by John Carpenter and stars Richard Jaeckel, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Vaughn, Linda Hamilton, Keenan Wynn, and Lee Ving, he might just be right.

11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Mabarosi (1995 JAP): Here’s another terrific feature from Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, also responsible for such outstanding films as After Life, Nobody Knows, and Still Walking. Mabarosi is the melancholic tale of Yumiko (Makiko Esumi), a young Japanese housewife whose perfect life is thrown into disarray when her husband commits suicide. Yumiko remarries, but the void in her heart remains unfilled, even after the passage of many years. The film is Koreeda’s tribute to director Yasujiro Ozu (it’s filled with symmetrically shot dialogue scenes and ground level camera work), and is appropriately followed at 1:15 AM by End of Summer (1961) — Ozu’s penultimate effort before his untimely demise in 1963.

Monday 7/11/11

9:30 AM Sundance
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2006 USA): An important fixture in the New York City music scene for almost two decades, late composer Arthur Russell gets his due in this informative and entertaining doc from Brooklyn-born neophyte filmmaker Matt Wolf. Russell was a Zelig-like presence in the Big Apple throughout the 1970s, leaving his mark on the disco, no wave, punk, and avant-garde music scenes before his death from AIDS in 1992. Featuring interviews from poet Allen Ginsberg, composer Philip Glass, singer-songwriter Jens Lekman, and many others (including Russell's parents), Wild Combination underscores the brilliance and breadth of the man's talents.

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