TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, October 9, 2007 through Monday, October 15, 2007
By John Seal
October 9, 2007
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 10/09/07
Midnight HBO
Baghdad ER (2006 USA): An Emmy-award winning HBO original documentary, Baghdad ER was filmed on location with the 86th Combat Support Hospital during the summer of 2005. Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill were granted unprecedented access to the operating theatre, where doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to bring back grievously wounded soldiers from the brink of death. It's more anti-war propaganda from the liberal media, but you know I have a soft spot for this stuff, right?
9:00 PM Showtime
District B13(2004 FRA): Another American-style action feature from French bad boy Luc Besson — the filmmaker who can't decide whether or not he's finished with the picture business — District B13 stars Cyril Raffaelli (Live Free or Die Hard) as Damien Tomaso, an undercover cop trying to save Gay Parree from dark-skinned (and presumably Muslim), neutron-bomb wielding madman Taha (Bibi Naceri, who — unbelievably — co-wrote the film with Besson). Damien recruits reliably white former thug Leito (David Belle) to help him kick Islamic ass in the name of liberte, egalite, and fraternite, as well as to rescue Leito's kidnapped sister Lola (Dany Verissimo), who, for all we know, is on the fast track to white slavery. With the help of his trusty sidekick (and said sidekick's talent for parkour, the car-hopping urban 'martial art' featured in the first reel of last year's Casino Royale), Captain Tomaso must penetrate the walled-off confines of impoverished and anarchic District B13 and bring the righteous boot of Aryan justice to naughty Taha. If you can overlook its blatantly racist premise, you'll probably enjoy this over-the-top Francophone take on the Escape From New York meme, which is making its American television premiere this evening. Also airs 10/10 at midnight and 10/14 at 12:45 and 3:45 AM.
Wednesday 10/10/07
7:00 PM Sundance
Dead Man's Shoes (2004 GB): Featuring the great Paddy Considine, Dead Man's Shoes is another excellent feature from British director Shane Meadows, whose most recent production This Is England is shaping up to be my favorite film of 2007. Considine plays Richard, a demobbed squaddie out for revenge against local thugs who have spent their spare hours terrorizing his learning-disabled younger brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell). With little bro in tow, the increasingly bonkers Richard takes increasingly bloody revenge against the tormenters, who are led by nasty drug dealer Sonny (Gary Stretch), and whose relatively minor though mean-spirited cruelties are soon rewarded with bloody payback for all that's wrong in Richard's world. Shot in the Derbyshire Peak District, Dead Man's Shoes earned Meadows and producer Mark Herbert a nomination for Best British Film at the 2005 BAFTAs.
Thursday 10/11/07
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943 USA): I've recommended this one in the past, but as it may well be my favorite American Western of all time, I don't feel too bad about giving it another plug. I've only ever read two Western novels in my life: this one, by Walter van Tilburg Clark, and the decidedly pulpier Destry Rides Again, by Max Brand. Their cinematic adaptations match the aspirations of their print precursors, with Destry being a solid, big-budget piece of Golden Age Hollywood entertainment, and The Ox-Bow Incident being a bleak, existential look at justice — or the lack thereof — in the Old West. Henry Fonda and Harry (Henry) Morgan star as a pair of cowhands caught up in a fever of lynch-mob justice after a local farmer is murdered. Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and William Eythe are the threesome accused by vigilantes of the crime whilst Fonda fills his regular role as the conscience of the crowd, but this relentlessly downbeat and grimly realistic film doesn't provide much if any catharsis for its audience (unless, of course, you're on the side of the lynch-mob). Directed by the great William Wellman, and co-starring Jane Darwell and Marc Lawrence, it's one of the finest American films of the 1940s, and an artistic triumph that has never really received the recognition it deserves.
10:20 PM HBO Signature
Princesas (2005 ESP): From Fernando Leon de Aranoa, the director of the heralded Mondays In the Sun, comes this hard-edged look at the lives of a pair of Madrid prostitutes. Depicted by All About My Mother's Candela Pena and Nuyorican thespian Micaela Nevarez, Caye and Zulema are one-time competitors who unite in friendship after the former finds the latter bloodied and battered within an inch of her life by some pig of a man. Caye is on the street to save up for a boob bob, whilst Zulema is more interested in remitting money to her poverty-stricken family back in the Dominican Republic, and together they try to fulfil their dreams whilst staying one step ahead of the law. Aranoa manages to avoid most of the genre's heart of gold clichés but still ladles on the sentimentality, so keep a hanky handy.
Friday 10/12/07
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Wild, Wild Planet (1965 ITA): This is one of the undisputed camp classics of science fiction, right up there with Queen of Outer Space. The future, it turns out, will look very much like a mid-'60s Paris catwalk! There are some stunningly beautiful women wearing amazing clothes and mile-high bouffants in this "science crime fiction" tale of illicit medical experiments carried out on a space station. The story is nothing to write home about, but who cares when there's so much eye candy on screen? The bad guys - you'll know who they are because they wear black leather overcoats and sunglasses - are just an added treat in this retro delight, still unavailable on DVD and airing in widescreen this morning.
Saturday 10/13/07
4:!5 AM Turner Classic Movies
Woman on Pier 13 (1949 USA): One of many hysterical anti-Red screeds produced in a Cold War Hollywood scared of its own shadow, Woman on Pier 13 features Robert Ryan as an ex-card-carrying Commie whose past is about to catch up with him. He's Brad Collins, whose youthful dalliance in radical politics whilst working the docks has gone by the boards now that he's been promoted to an executive position at his shipping company. Brad is newly married to angelic Nan (Laraine Day), who remains ignorant of hubby's sordid past — until old comrades Christine (Janis Carter) and Vanning (Thomas Gomez) show up on the scene with an offer he surely won't refuse. Set in motion a strike on the dockyards, or suffer the indignity of having folks find out about what you got up to back in the day: will Brad make the right choice, or will he help stoke the fires of class warfare? This being a Howard Hughes production, you can probably guess the answer, but The Woman on Pier 13 (whose original title, I Married A Communist, was a Hughes favorite) is still worth a look for Ryan's performance and for its florid, overheated screenplay.
5:30 PM HBO
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Great Nation of Kazakhstan (2006 USA): Offensive and hilarious in equal measure, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat makes its American television premiere tonight. The film veers from the sublime (Borat serenading a crowd of crypto-fascist rodeo fanciers) to the ridiculous (the infamous nude wrestling scene) and leaves no stone unturned in its hunt for sacred cows worth slaughtering. Also airs at 8:30 PM and throughout the month.
Sunday 10/14/07
3:00 AM Encore Mystery
Cry For the Strangers (1982 USA): A ghost story lacking in supernatural chills, this pallid made-for-TV thriller won't raise many hairs on the back of your neck, but is still worth a look for a number of reasons. First up, it's the one and only John Saul adaptation to date, so if you're a fan of that horror author, it's essential viewing. Secondly, the film was directed by Peter Medak, the maddeningly inconsistent Hungarian director responsible for stone cold classics such as The Ruling Class and Negatives and less notable atrocities such as Ghost In the Noonday Sun and Zorro, the Gay Blade. And finally, the cast includes Brian Keith, Jeff Corey, Parley Baer, and Martin Kove, all of whom do their utmost with the material, which involves mysterious deaths in a California coastal resort, and the ancient Native American curse that may be causing them.
9:00 PM Sundance
Breaking News (2004 HK): This week's Asia Extreme entry is Breaking News, a recent effort from ever busy director Johnny To, who single-handedly seems to keep the Hong Kong gangster style a going concern. Starting with a bravura seven-minute scene shot without cuts or editing, the film follows a news crew as they cover a bank robbery as it's happening — as well as the ineffectual police response to the heist. Embarrassed by their poor performance, the constabulary immediately try to regain the upper hand by embedding the TV cameras when they pursue the crooks to their high-rise hideout. Alas, the villains are equally media savvy, and in addition to holding three hostages, also have a full array of web-cams and video equipment on hand to launch a media counterattack. The characters are engaging, the action plentiful, the sub-text intelligently developed — so if you've ever enjoyed a To film, you won't want to miss this one.
9:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Busher (1919 USA): More silent baseball thrills arrive on TCM this evening, commencing with The Busher, a five-reel Ince production about Ben Harding (Charles Ray), a minor league pitcher with big league aspirations. When the Minneapolis Pink Sox (!) get stranded in his backwoods town, young Ben proceeds to impress them during a pick up game against the local nine, and he soon finds himself in The Show. Alas, Ben's success goes to his head, and he soon finds his ERA swelling to match the size of his ego. Will the love of a good woman cure all—or does Ben need to go back to the bush leagues for a refresher course in humility? This marvelous relic is followed at 10:15 AM by 1914's Hearts and Diamonds, in which screen comic John Bunny tries to win the heart of a wealthy, baseball-mad woman by fielding his own team, and at 11:00 PM by 1926's Happy Days, in which child actor Billy Butts (still spry today at 88) tries to lead his kid team to victory.
Monday 10/15/07
1:35 PM Sundance
Kill Your Idols (2004 USA): Taking its title from an early Sonic Youth record, Kill Your Idols is a fascinating look at New York's underground music scene, with particular emphasis on the No Wave movement of the late '70s and very early '80s. Featuring interviews with long time scene-makers Michael Gira (Swans), Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks), Arto Lindsay (DNA), Jim (Foetus) Thirlwell, and many others, as well as with more recent bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Liars, the film does a decent (if too brief) job of capturing the tetchy edginess that made the Big Apple's music scene one of the most vital of recent vintage.
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