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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 04/01/08

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Fools' Parade (1971 USA): James Stewart, Kurt Russell, and Strother Martin star as three ex-cons trying to stay on the straight and narrow in this unusual period piece from action director Andrew V. McLaglen. Set in rural West Virginia during the 1930s, Fools' Parade features Stewart as Mattie Appleyard, whose savings account has grown considerably during his 40-year stint in The Big House. (Apparently the Great Depression didn't have much effect in the Appalachians.) Now footloose and fancy-free, Matty decides to use his wealth to open and operate a general store with his felonious friends — but he runs into small town corruption in the form of banker Homer Grindstaff (David Huddleston) and prison warden Doc Council (George Kennedy). Stewart plays up his homespun folkiness to full effect, and Kennedy channels his Cool Hand Luke character, rendering Fools' Parade a corny if enjoyable slice of cinematic comfort food.

10:15 PM HBO Signature
Azuloscurocasinegro (2006 ESP): Try saying it three times fast. Heck, try saying it ONE time fast — or just use the slightly more assonant English language title, Darkbluealmostblack, instead. The unfortunately named Quim (short for Joaquim) Gutierrez stars as Jorge, a 20-something janitor who takes care of his ailing father by day and mops floors by night. His brother Antonio (Antonio de la Torre) is doing a prison stretch, and (as he is infertile) asks Jorge to impregnate his girlfriend (Marta Etura) on his behalf. To top it all off, Jorge's best bud Israel (Raul Arevalo) is, ahem, 'sexually confused' and not sure how to cope with it. Though Azuloscurocasinegro suffers from an overstuffed plot, it's never boring, and writer-director Daniel Sanchez Arevalo's screenplay blends comic and dramatic threads to reasonable effect.

10:50 PM HBO
TV Junkie (2006 USA): Who, me? No, I can quit watching any time I like. I don't watch because I HAVE to — I watch because I WANT to. No problem. Now this guy Rick Kirkham — a former 'broadcast journalist' whose success as a TV talking head drove him to alcoholism, drug abuse, and despair — HE'S got problems. Not me. Kirkham began documenting his life in his teens and parlayed an early love for the video camera into assignments on the Las Vegas crime beat and a turn as an intrepid reporter for syndicated 'news show' Inside Edition. Culled from thousands of hours of home video footage shot by the protagonist, TV Junkie details the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of Kirkham, whose twin addictions — crack cocaine and chronicling his flaws for all to see — are on full display throughout this not entirely pleasant 90-minute documentary. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to watching Oprah. Also airs 4/2 at 1:50 AM.

Wednesday 04/02/08

3:00 AM IFC
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962 FRA): The absurdly gorgeous Corinne Marchand (seen most recently in the excellent French coming-of-age drama Innocence) stars as the titular character in this memorable feature from director Agnes Varda. It's the tale of Cleo, a nightclub singer who, after an unfortunate turn of the tarot deck, has convinced herself she has cancer. The film details 90 minutes of Cleo's evening as she awaits her doctor's diagnosis, an hour and a half spent visiting colleagues (including composer Michel Legrand), shopping, and partaking of an innocent fling with a soldier (Antoine Bourseiller) about to depart for Algeria. Our pre-feminist heroine begins the film as a shallow, navel-gazing pop star, but by film's end has begun the transformation from overgrown little girl to mature woman. Despite the heavy subject matter, the film is not a depressing exercise in ennui, and it's as entertaining as it is enlightening. Also airs at 8:35 AM and 2:15 PM.

11:15 AM Starz Edge
Offside (2006 IRA): One generally doesn't associate comedy with Iranian cinema, but here's a light-hearted look at gender segregation that will generate a few chuckles and smiles of recognition from Anglophone audiences. Directed by Jafar Panahi, whose beautifully made 1995 feature The White Balloon offered a brilliant and subtle criticism of the Islamic Republic's attitude towards women, Offside tackles the big issue: why can't women be allowed to attend sporting events with men? (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, who is stereotyped as a hidebound reactionary in western circles, briefly desegregated stadiums in 2006 before his superiors on the Expediency Council overturned his decision.) The film focuses on a group of cross-dressing girls who try to sneak into Iran's World Cup qualifying match against Bahrain. Though disguised in baggy clothing and daubed in patriotic war-paint, the lasses are soon lassoed by the authorities, who corral them within the bowels of the stadium in order to prevent vice and promote virtue. Filmed during the actual match (though the game itself is never seen), Offside is an improvisational gem, and as long as you don't anticipate Adam Sandler-style goofiness or Rowan Atkinson-esque pratfalls, you'll enjoy it.

Thursday 04/03/08

1:00 AM Encore Mystery
Children of the Living Dead (2005 USA): This terrible straight to video horror film is not part of George Romero's still ongoing (and still surprisingly good) Living Dead series. It was, however, produced by original NOTLD screenwriter John Russo, shot by original NOTLD zombie Bill Hinzman (you know, the guy who is coming to get you, Barbara), and features long-time Romero collaborator Tom Savini in the lead role of Deputy Hughes, a lawmaker who doubles as a prodigious zombie killer in his afterhours. None of this makes the misleadingly titled Children of the Living Dead any better — it's pretty much a zombie bottom feeder, if you will — but it does render it an item of interest for hardcore horror buffs.

2:25 AM IFC
Children of Paradise (1945 FRA): April 3rd is children's day in the 'Plex! Of course, the characters in Marcel Carne's epic tale of love and tragedy in 19th century France don't bear much resemblance to gut-munching zombies, but, heck, I'm rarely loathe to draw inappropriate parallels. Shot surreptitiously during World War II and released post-liberation, Children of Paradise relates the tale of mime Baptiste's (Jean-Louis Barrault) unrequited love for the beauteous Garance (Arletty), an actress and society gal being wooed simultaneously by fellow thespian Frederick (Pierre Brasseur), criminal Lacenaire (bewhiskered Marcel Herrand), and high society nobleman Count de Montray (Louis Salou). Garance has seen and done it all, and enjoys the attention she gets from her many admirers — but when Baptiste saves her from a criminal charge, she learns that true love may come in pantaloons and a painted face. An amazing accomplishment considering the circumstances of its production and a great film regardless, the epic-length Children of Paradise remains one of the most beloved of French films and was a reliable fixture on the repertory circuit for decades. If you never had the opportunity to see it on the big screen, you have my condolences — but it's one of the essentials in any format, so don't miss it this morning.

Friday 04/04/08

12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Ecstasy (1933 SWE): Dripping with symbolism and filled with marvelous cinematography, Ecstasy features Hedy Lamarr as a woman who refuses to settle for an unhappy marriage. It's almost a silent film, with what little dialogue there is in highly simplified German that even I can understand, and anyone with even a little high school level Deutsch can easily dispense with the subtitles. The story is of minor importance anyway, and Ecstasy succeeds on a cinematic level, not a narrative one. Symbols of fecundity and the power of nature overwhelm the human characters — there are scenes where flowers obscure the face of supposed star Hedy Lamarr — and there are moments here reminiscent of Dreyer, Vertov, and Riefenstahl. If the film has any message to convey, it's a political one: bourgeois man is timid and impotent; working class man is a happy, productive creature; and woman is the creator, destined to be unfulfilled until she has borne a child. This blend of Soviet socialist realism and National Socialist dogma doesn't overwhelm the film by any means — it's a beauty to watch from beginning to end — but it does place it in a very distinct artistic niche. And, oh yeah, Hedy does get nekkid.

9:10 PM Encore Love Stories
Lila Says (2004 FRA): I haven't seen this film about out of control teen sexuality in the Marseilles banlieues, but director Ziad Doueiri's first effort, West Beirut, was excellent, and Lila Says should be worth watching. I'll overlook the fact that Doueiri got his start as an assistant cameraman for Quentin Tarantino.

Saturday 04/05/08

6:00 PM The Movie Channel
Roman (2006 USA): One of my favorite indies of recent vintage was director Lucky McKee's 2002 production May, the creepy tale of a deeply shy veterinarian (Angela Bettis) trying to overcome her reticence and establish a relationship with a friendly mechanic (Jeremy Sisto). Four years later the roles were reversed, with Bettis behind and McKee in front of the cameras for Roman, a masculine take on the tropes developed in May. McKee plays Roman, a withdrawn welder with a crush on his next door neighbor (Kristen Bell). Unable to approach the object of his affection, the socially inept Roman begins to spy on her — leading, naturellement, to tragedy and a memorable shower scene. McKee is not as good an actor as Bettis, and the film does bear some rather discomfiting similarities to 1999's voyeuristic chiller Buddy Boy, but it's still worth a look.

Sunday 04/06/08

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Tomorrow (1972 USA): Robert Duvall stars as Jackson Fentry, a slow-witted mill-hand with a heart of gold, in this deliberately paced drama based on a William Faulkner short story. The son of a Mississippi sharecropper, Fentry lives in a backwoods shotgun shack when he's not sawing logs down at mill. When he meets pregnant Sarah (Olga Bellin) and learns she's been abandoned by her husband, he takes her in and shares what little he has, and love slowly — very slowly — begins to bloom. Beautifully shot in black and white, Tomorrow seems more European than American in tone, and the performances are remarkably restrained (perhaps too much so). It's also one of the very few films to accurately reflect the Faulkner aesthetic via its meticulous depiction of poor Southerners scraping out an existence in an unforgiving environment.

9:00 PM Sundance
Bright Future (2004 JAP): Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, one of the elder statesmen of the J-Horror movement, Bright Future thankfully avoids many of the genre's now tiresome clichés in favor of something a little more cerebral. The film features Jo Odagiri and Tadanobu Asano as Yuji and Mamoru, two pals who earn a living working in a pre-moistened towelette factory somewhere in Tokyo. The inseparable best buds keep a venomous jellyfish for a pet in Mamoru's apartment, and after a not-so-accidental mishap takes the life of their boss (Takashi Sasano), Yuji releases the critter into the city water supply. Will an army of incandescent jellies emerge from the waves to flatten Tokyo? Well, no — this is more psychological thriller than kaiju, as Kurosawa's characters are blank slates who act in illogical or aimless ways as they lurch through life in search of something — anything — to give their lives meaning. In other words, there are no giant jellyfish here — and no dripping wet ghost girls, either.

Monday 04/07/08

6:00 PM IFC
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976 USA): Barbara Kopple's Academy Award winning documentary returns to television tonight after a very long and thoroughly undeserved absence. The film depicts the hardscrabble existence of Kentucky miners living through a particularly contentious strike, during which shots were fired and bystanders badly beaten (including Kopple and cameraman Hart Perry). Originally intended as a film about a United Mineworkers of America election, Harlan County U.S.A. changed shape when the strike began, and is rightfully considered one of the finest documentaries ever made about the American working class.