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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 11/16/10

11:30 AM HBO
Pootie Tang (2001 USA): Every once in a while a sublimely silly comedy comes along that I simply can’t resist. In recent years there’s been Let’s Go to Prison and The Ringer (Father forgive me, for I have sinned and enjoyed a Johnny Knoxville movie), but in 2001 it was all about Pootie Tang. Lance Crouther headlines as the title character, an African-American ghetto folk hero who speaks in a unique and barely decipherable patois, whilst Chris Rock essays three roles, including that of Pootie’s father, who bequeathes a special mojo-laden belt to his son. Years later, corporate boss Dick Lecter (Robert Vaughn) determines to use the Tang family mojo by having our hero endorse products that, intentionally or otherwise, will poison the minds and bodies of African-American youth. When Pootie succumbs to temptation, his mojo is lost, and he becomes a pariah to his people - until he redeems himself and puts The Man in his proper place. Also featuring the wonderful Wanda Sykes as lady of the night and Greek chorus Biggie Shorty, Pootie Tang may be silly, but it isn’t dumb. Also airs at 2:30 PM.

7:00 PM Showtime 3
The Killer Inside Me (2010 USA): The critical knives came out quickly for Michael Winterbottom’s latest film, The Killer Inside Me, which briefly played arthouses earlier this year. An adaptation of hardboiled novelist Jim Thompson’s most famous work, Winterbottom’s film was accused of looking kindly upon violence against women, and (worst of all) suggesting victims may be complicit in the crimes committed against them. If there’s blame to be apportioned, however, assign it to the source material– The Killer Inside Me is extremely faithful to the novel, and there’s nothing here that Thompson didn’t put on paper almost 60 years ago. Casey Affleck (the Affleck it’s okay to like) stars as Lou Ford, deputy sheriff in a small West Texas town circa the mid-1950s. Lou seems like the straightest of straight arrows, and his ostensibly gentle touch gets him assigned the task of running prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba) out of town. But Lou has a well-concealed mean streak, and when Joyce angrily slaps him after he rejects her advances, he answers in kind. The two swiftly develop a sado-masochistic relationship in which violence and sex are inextricably intertwined. According to Robert Polito’s magisterial Jim Thompson biography, the appropriately titled Savage Art, director Stanley Kubrick once described The Killer Inside Me as “probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered”. I’d second Mr. Kubrick’s opinion, while also noting that Michael Winterbottom’s film is the best big-screen literary adaptation I’ve seen since Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist. If you’re a fan of Thompson, you won’t be disappointed. Also airs 11/18 on Showtime 2 at 8:00 PM.

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