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Friday 2/24/12

5:40 AM HBO Signature
Sin Retorno (2010 ARG): Leonardo Sparaglia headlines this top-notch Argentinean meller about a man accused of a crime he didn’t commit - in this case, a fatal hit and run accident. Innocent driver Federico Samaniego (Sbaraglia) has taken the rap, but there’s a wrinkle: Federico initially did hit bicyclist Pablo (Agustin Vazquez) but a mysterious second driver finished the job. The victim’s father (Pan’s Labyrinth’s Federico Luppi), however, wants someone to take responsibility for his son’s death, and Federico is a convenient goat. An assured debut for director Miguel Cohan, Sin Retorno earned him the "Best First Work" prize at the Argentinean Oscars.

11:50 AM Showtime
Freakonomics (2011 USA): It didn’t get the best critical reception, but this documentary adaptation of the best-seller of the same name strikes me as being more than adequate. Some folks may have been put off by the anthology format, as the film consists of six stylistically similar but substantively different short subjects. The highlight for me is Morgan Spurlock’s A Roshanda By Any Other Name, which examines how names effect perception and treatment of individuals. Let’s just say calling your child "Temptress" is not going to do that child any favors once adulthood arrives. Alex Gibney’s entry, Pure Corruption, also offers fascinating and unexpected insight into the world of sumo wrestling. The conceit binding the shorts together may be an artificial one, but that doesn’t make Freakonomics any less interesting. Also airs at 2:50 PM.

3:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Bless the Beasts and the Children (1971 USA): Though I’ve never seen this film, I am quite familiar with its Oscar-nominated, Carpenters-performed theme song. Even though it wasn’t a top ten hit, that thing seemed to be all over the radio back in 1971, and though I probably haven’t heard it in the 40 years since, it permanently imprinted itself on my impressionable little nine-year-old brain. I can still sing it today, and odds are it’ll be what I’m singing as I sink into an Alzheimer's-induced haze some 30 or 40 years hence. As for the film, it was directed by Stanley Kramer and stars Billy Mumy as a teenage boy partial to bison. No, neither in the sexual nor gustatory sense.

Sunday 2/26/12

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Pieces of Dreams (1970 USA): Pieces of Dreams plays like an afterschool special writ large or an overambitious TV movie of the week. Robert Forster is a hip young priest in Albuquerque, Lauren Hutton an attractive young social worker, and together they make beautiful if decidedly profane music. Forster tries to balance his love for Hutton with his love for the Church, but must come to terms with his pledge of celibacy (a rule that the Monsignor, played by Will Geer, confidently predicts will soon be changed or eliminated!). The film tries to be honest and earnest but is predictable every step of the way, complete with happy ending and cloying theme song (which somehow lucked into an Oscar nomination). There's even an acid head in granny glasses waiting to be saved by Forster. Overall, it’s a relatively painless but not terribly inspiring 90 minutes.

Monday 2/27/12

3:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The House of the Seven Gables (1940 USA): Vincent Price stars in this excellent adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. Price plays Clifford Pyncheon, a forward-looking young composer who wants to sell the gloomy old family pile he and his brother have inherited. Unfortunately for Clifford, elder brother Jaffray (George Sanders at his oily and malicious apex) wants to keep the house, and is willing to go to any lengths - including framing his brother for the murder of their father (Gilbert Emery) - to do so. And then there’s cousin Hepzibah (Margaret Lindsay), who has her own ideas about the real estate. Twenty years later, Clifford is freed from jail, but Jaffray isn’t done with him yet, and he schemes anew to send his sibling to an insane asylum. Directed by Austrian émigré Joe May (The Indian Tomb), this is a ripe and entertaining piece of American Gothic.

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