TiVoPlex
By John Seal
May 2, 2011
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 5/3/11
12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Innocence (2000 AUS): TCM tips their hat to the wonders of Ebertfest this evening. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Ebertfest is exactly what it sounds like: a Chicago-area festival at which critic Roger Ebert screens a selection of films he considers underappreciated or overlooked. In other words, Ebertfest is very much like TiVoPlex! As for Innocence, it’s a tender tale of love postponed which Ebert described as “ the most passionate and tender love story in many years, so touching because it is not about a story, not about stars, not about a plot, not about sex, not about nudity, but about love itself. True, timeless, undefeated love…” I can’t say it any better than that, but will add that the film succeeds primarily because of the magnificent lead performances of veteran actors Julia Blake and Charles "Bud" Tingwell.
10:15 AM More Max
The Kids Are All Right (2010 USA): This film puzzled me from the get-go. Why would The Who remake their classic 1980 rockumentary? Why would they change the word "Alright" to "All Right" in the title? And why would they replace John Entwistle and Keith Moon with Julianne Moore and Annette Bening? That’s a serious downgrade in the rhythm department, not to mention the driving-a-Rolls-Royce-into-a-swimming-pool department. About half way through Lisa Cholodenko’s film — making its small screen debut this morning — I realized The Kids Are All Right was actually about artificial insemination and not Armenia, City in the Sky. Nominated for four Academy Awards — including one for Bening’s performance — The Kids Are All Right doesn’t exactly rock, but is a pretty decent film nonetheless.
4:55 PM Sundance
Ghost (1990 USA): This isn’t the sort of film you expect to pop up either on Sundance or in the TiVoPlex, but here’s a dirty little secret...I actually kinda, sorta like Ghost. Oh, I know...it gets rightly ridiculed for that stupid scene where Demi Moore molds the clay pot whilst The Righteous Brothers croon Ebb Tide...but overall, Ghost is a very successful piece of Hollywood hokum. And be honest...can you resist a film in which Vincent Schiavelli plays a spook haunting the New York City subways? Of course not.
Wednesday 5/4/11
2:10 AM HBO
Critters 3 (1992 USA): 17-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio made his film debut in this dreadful sequel to the not much better Critters and Critters 2 — films which were themselves inferior knockoffs of E.T. and Ghoulies (and Ghoulies wasn’t such great shakes to begin with). The fresh-faced DiCaprio plays Josh, a floppy-haired skater dude whose middle-of-nowhere existence is enlivened by the presence of "Krites," bizarre and hairy little creatures that get up to all sorts of mischief. DiCaprio displays none of the acting skills he later developed, but that probably didn’t matter to the teenyboppers who ponied up for Critters 3 back in the day. If you were 15-years-old in 1992, you may get some nostalgic mileage from this film: all others can probably give it a miss. Also airs at 5:10 AM.
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