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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 05/26/09

4:00 PM IFC
New World Order (2009 USA): The world of right-wing conspiracy theorist and alternative medicine enthusiast Alex Jones is examined in this non-judgemental but revealing documentary. Jones, who runs the website Prisonplanet.com, believes that 9/11 was an inside job, that the participants in the annual Bilderberg conference are our real masters, and that the gubmint is coming for us so we'd better buy lots of guns and ammo, but New World Order doesn't examine the merits or demerits of each theory, preferring to concentrate on the obsessive behavior of its subject. As director Luke Myer has noted, this isn't a film designed to make people believe one theory or another: it's a film about those who resolutely reside far outside the parameters of the dominant paradigm and, right or wrong, have the courage to tell the world what they think it needs to hear. Also airs 5/30 at 1:00 PM.

7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Walk Proud (1979 USA): Here's what I said about Walk Proud last time it showed up TV: Feel free to ignore this recommendation. I repeat: FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS RECOMMENDATION. Sorry for shouting. But should you fail to heed my warning...well, gird your loins and prepare for one of the most jaw-droppingly bad motion picture experiences of all time. You see, Walk Proud stars nice Jewish boy Robby Benson - yes, he of Ice Castles and Two of a Kind fame - as a Chicano gang member looking to turn over a new leaf in the barrios of Los Angeles. Now, re-read that last sentence. Robby Benson. Chicano. Gang member. Barrios. And guess what? Robbie not only plays a Latino, he also sings the dreadful theme song, Adios Yesterday! If you haven't choked on your own vomit yet, you of course realize that this surely has to be one of the great casting blunders of cinema history, and as Walk Proud has been absent from the airwaves for what feels like forever, and of course is AWOL on home video, it's an artistic disaster you won't want to miss. Directed by TV specialist Robert Collins and written by Evan Hunter (Ed McBain, fer chrissakes), this astonishing piece of cinema flotsam reportedly set off riots in East LA bijous back in the day. You have carte blanche to smash your TV whilst watching it. All of that remains true, but here's what's new: Walk Proud airs tonight as part of TCM's Latino Images in Film series, so it will no doubt be put in context by co-host Chan Noriega, and it appears for the first time on the small screen in its correct aspect ratio. So don't smash your TV - watch and learn, and then continue to watch (at 9:00 PM) the widescreen television premiere of the similar but superior Boulevard Nights (1979), and (at 11:00 PM) by NYC cop drama Badge 373 (1973), sadly appearing in pan and scan.

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