TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, January 29, 2008 through Monday, February 4, 2008
By John Seal
January 28, 2008
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 01/29/08
7:15pm Turner Classic Movies
The Mad Genius (1931 USA): John Barrymore treads Svengali territory in this ripe but enjoyable melodrama from director Michael Curtiz. He plays Vladimir Tsarakov, a puppeteer who over-compensates for his club foot by training young Fedor (Donald Cook) to be the world's greatest dancer. Fedor soon rises to the top of his profession, and, as young men are wont to do, falls in love with a beautiful woman (Marian Marsh) - but Vladimir is also smitten with her and will do anything, including destroying his protégé, to win her heart. As Bela Lugosi once said, "Pull the string! Pull the string!", and our puppet-master is soon knee deep in manipulative mayhem. The Mad Genius is a bald-faced remake of Svengali (released only six months earlier), in which Barrymore had portrayed the eponymous music teacher of impressionable waif Trilby (played by...Marian Marsh!), so I don't recommend watching the two films back-to-back. Look for Boris Karloff's uncredited appearance as Fedor's extremely unpleasant biological father.
6pm Sundance
In the Pit (2005 MEX): Mexican construction workers get their day in the sun in this excellent film, which took home the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance 2006. Filmed over several months as workers put the finishing touches on a massive freeway project running through polluted Mexico City, In the Pit avoids political commentary and focuses on the day-to-day challenges facing these men, who engage in physical labor that is both dangerous and boring, a deadly combination. This is a film about the dignity of labor and of the men who engage in that labor, regardless of the cost, in order to put food on the family table. Also airs at 11pm.
Wednesday 01/30/08
5:15am Turner Classic Movies
Horror Castle (1963 ITA): Fans of classic Italian horror will want to tune in this morning for a double blast of Gothic goodness. First up is Horror Castle, a chiller about a deranged Holocaust survivor who works through his issues by torturing women in the dungeon of a seedy medieval castle. The dungeon is still fully equipped with its (very retro) enhanced interrogation devices (including everyone's favorite, the Iron Maiden), destined to come in extra handy when they're discovered by the newlywed wife (Rosanna Podestà) of the castle's owner (Georges Rivière). Christopher Lee is in fine (de) form as war-scarred chauffeur Eric, whilst maid Marta (Anny Degli Uberti) rolls her eyes and wrings her hands to great effect. Released originally as The Virgin of Nuremberg, Horror Castle was an early triumph for director Antonio Margheriti (he'd later go on to direct the even better Castle of Blood a year later), and remains surprisingly strong stuff even today. It's followed at 6:30am by Castle of the Living Dead (1964 ITA), a less successful but still enjoyable black-and-white thriller featuring Chris Lee as Count Drago, an amateur taxidermist with very special plans for some travelers who drop by the castle one day.
Thursday 01/31/08
3am Sundance
Gilane (2005 IRA): Gilane is another incredibly moving and powerful Iranian film, this time examining the after effects of the Iran/Iraq War of the 1980s as filtered through the more recent "shock and awe" campaign waged by the United States against the Saddam Hussein regime. Fatemah Motamed-Aria is magnificent as the title character, who we see caring for her pregnant daughter-in-law in the film's first act, and for her mentally- and physically-scarred war veteran son Ismael (Bahram Radan) in the second. Just imagine: certain members of our crypto-fascist Western governments want to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Age", and if that happens, you can be sure that we will kill some of the amazing film artists the Islamic Republic has developed over the last few decades. Read the headlines and weep, and then show this remarkable film to the neo-conservative next door. Also airs at 11:40am.
12:30pm IFC
Strange Invaders (1983 USA): We're deep in guilty pleasures territory with this low-budget science fiction entry. A bit of a cult favorite, Strange Invaders features Paul Le Mat as Charlie Bigelow, a professor investigating the mysterious disappearance of his ex-wife. Returning to the little town of Centerville, Illinois to find her, he uncovers an alien invasion of long-standing, if not epic, proportions: these strange invaders have been running the town for the last quarter century! Alerted to their presence and presumably evil, if slothful, intentions, Charlie takes the case to the FBI but the aliens, alerted to his presence, are on his tail all the way. Not as good as it sounds, the film can't decide if it's a comedy, a satire, or a thriller, and fails on all counts. Nonetheless, there's something oddly engaging about it, and an interesting supporting cast - including Kenneth Tobey, June Lockhart, Louise Fletcher, and Wallace Shawn - moves this one into the "if you've got nothing better to do, give it a look" category. It was also an early screenwriting assignment for Bill Condon, who has gone on to far better things with films such as Gods and Monsters and Kinsey.
6pm Sundance
Red Road (2006 GB): Did this film even get an American theatrical release? Well, it played a bunch of festivals, but aside from that never seemed to make it into any local bijous. That's a shame AND a scandal, as it was one of the best British films of 2006, but at least it's now available on DVD and is making its terrestrial television debut this evening. Set in Glasgow, Red Road stars Kate Dickie as Jackie, a closed-circuit TV operator charged with keeping a watchful eye out for Mr. and Mrs. McCitizen as they take care of business on a ramshackle housing estate. Jackie's a cog in the Big Brother surveillance machine, and is supposed to carry out her duties with utmost objectivity, but when she spies old adversary Clyde (Tony Curran) one day, she begins to neglect the task at hand in favor of tracking his activities. An assured feature debut from Andrea Arnold (whose 2003 short Wasp won an Academy Award), Red Road will appeal to fans of the Danish New Wave, Michael Haneke, and, of course, George Orwell. Also airs 2/1 at 1am.
11:15pm Showtime
The Boys (1998 AUS): I would have completely overlooked this film if not for the soundtrack album, which happened my way thanks to the good folks at San Francisco's Aquarius Records (www.aquariusrecords.org). The score was composed by avant-garde outfit The Necks, who tempered their more extreme elements to produce the vaguely jazzy, vaguely unsettling but most evocative music that accompanies The Boys. As for the film itself, it stars ever-marvelous Toni Collette as Michelle, the paramour of ex-con Brett (David Wenham), newly released from prison and back to assert his authority on the home front. What he finds is not to his liking: his brothers have turned to drink, his mother is constantly battling them, and there's a pregnant girlfriend to contend with, too. Tensions build and tempers fray, leading to a horrifying drug-addled climax. It's powerful but bracing medicine, and airs again 2/1 at 2:15am.
Friday 02/01/08
12:10am Encore Love Stores
Breezy (1973 USA): William Holden and Kay Lenz star as lovers in this unlikely May/December romance from - of all people - director Clint Eastwood! Lenz plays hippie chick Breezy, who escapes an over-amorous admirer by hiding from him on the property of Frank Harmon (Holden), a cranky old businessman cut from the same cloth as most contemporary Eastwood characters. The two slowly begin to fall for each other, raising the inevitable question: can a hippie and a straight find true love, or is it just a one-night stand? Slightly marred by a cloying conclusion, Breezy is nevertheless considerably better than you might think, especially if you can overlook Lenz's penchant for sunny optimism and New Age glad-handing.
10:45am Turner Classic Movies
Krakatoa, East of Java (1969 USA): I was seven years old in 1969. Until then, my movie-going experiences revolved around whatever films my parents chose to take me to: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, Ring of Bright Water, Blackbeard's Ghost, and (oddly) Carry On Up the Khyber. Just a normal pop-culture diet for a Lancashire lad in the late ‘60s, but then came Krakatoa, East of Java! Here was the first film with a marketing strategy that really burnt itself into my extremely impressionable brain. To be blunt, the trailer and the posters all scared the crap out of me. You mean mountains can explode and destroy whole communities and entire islands? Can this be true? Needless to say, I avoided the film for years (no, my parents didn't take me to see it), only catching up on it many moons later after our relocation to the US and our acquisition of a color TV, at which point I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the creaky 19th-century proceedings. Now I get the chance to lay this ghost for good, as TCM is giving Krakatoa (infamously, actually WEST of Java) a very rare wide-screen airing tonight. The film won't be any better, but at least I'll get an inkling of what it would have looked like to a terrified seven-year-old in 1969.
9pm IFC
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986 USA): This searing drama (loosely based on the exploits of real-life murderer Henry Lee Lucas) used to play constantly on cable, but it's been a while since it last made an appearance. Directed by John McNaughton, who would parlay its critical success into a long career in television, the film also made a brief star of Michael Rooker, whose remarkable portrayal of Henry is overshadowed by Tom Towles completely whacked performance as serial killer-enabler Otis. Though it provides all the blood, gore, and grit you might expect from a grindhouse flick and has long-standing appeal for the Goth crowd, this is not an exploitation movie per se; there are no Tarantino-esque gags or hapless teenagers to disembowel. Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer is unrelenting stuff, and is not recommended for small children, puppies, or anyone likely to be upset at the sight of remorseless homicidal maniacs.
Saturday 02/02/08
7pm Starz!
Astronaut Farmer (2007 USA): It sank pretty quickly at the box office in early 2007, but this Polish Brothers production deserved a better fate. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Charles Farmer, a Texan everyman with an unusual dream: to build and pilot his own rocket ship. He's aided in his quixotic task by loyal wife Audie (terrific Virginia Madsen) and his adorable children, who will stand by their man until he leaves Earth's atmosphere or gets himself institutionalized for his troubles. Though the film threatens to veer into outright sentimentality or overindulgent quirkiness, it manages to maintain an even keel and keep the focus on Farmer and his relationship with his devoted family. Sadly, The Astronaut Farmer's PG rating was the kiss of death, and though it received good reviews, grossed less than $11 million before blasting off into Home Video Heaven. It airs again at 10pm and throughout the month, so don't miss it as it orbits around the TiVoPlex.
8:10pm Flix
Fargo (1996 USA): The film that made the Coen Brothers famous (and earned them the first of their Academy Award nominations), Fargo features Frances McDormand as tenacious police officer Marge Gunderson, whose dogged persistence pays off when a tricky murder case comes her way. The villain of the piece is car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), who's hired two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife and hold her for ransom, which (he imagines) will be promptly paid by his wealthy father-in-law, saving him from bankruptcy and the embarrassment of asking for a family loan in one fell swoop. Of course, the kidnapping goes very wrong, and our heroine slowly begins to piece the clues together. Marge goes about her business with almost Columbo-like inevitability, but there's fun to be had watching her go through the motions, and in watching Jerry start to sweat as she begins to tighten the noose around his neck. OAR fanatics should note that Fargo is making its wide-screen television debut this evening.
Sunday 02/03/08
7:30am Flix
The Big Bang (1989 USA): What is the meaning of life and how was the universe created? Those are two of the big questions posed by this obscure, James Toback-helmed documentary. Featuring interviews with over a dozen non-experts - including a small girl, a model, a boxer, and an NBA player, as well as an astronomer and a nun, who presumably know a thing or two about such matters) - The Big Bang is a very small film trying to tackle some sizable conundrums. You probably won't find the answers you're looking for, but you'll enjoy comparing and contrasting the opinions offered herein.
5:45pm IFC
Thin Red Line (1998 USA): Back in the mists of time, I wrote a lengthy review of this Terrence Malick feature for the then-nascent BOP. That review seems to have long since been deleted from the archives, but the gist of my review remains in my memory banks: it's a marvelous-looking film with some incredible performances and great action sequences, but with a hollow core that prevents the viewer from connecting deeply with what they're watching (as well as a truly wretched and distracting John Travolta cameo in the early going). It returns to the small screen tonight in its absolutely essential original aspect ratio and airs again 2/4 at midnight.
8:40pm Flix
The Executioner (1974 JAP): I haven't seen this Sonny Chiba action vehicle, but apparently it's a Quentin Tarantino favorite. As much as I dislike Tarantino's films, the man DOES have reasonably good (and catholic) taste in films, so even though this appears to be a pan-and-scan (and probably dubbed) print, I'll be giving it a look. As, of course, should you.
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