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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 12/13/11

1:10 AM HBO Signature
Carancho (2010 ARG): In the mood for a movie about traffic accidents? Then you’ll be pumped about Carancho, an Argentinean drama concerning insurance scams in the Pampas. Grizzled Ricardo Darin stars as Sosa, a lawyer on the skids now chasing ambulances for a living. Though it puts food on the table, Sosa doesn’t really enjoy the work, and his pangs of conscience grow more insistent after he meets Lujan (Martina Gusman), a beautiful doctor who keeps frowning at him in the emergency room. Will romance compel Sosa to take up a more honest, if less lucrative, trade? Or will his shady clients force him to stay in the grimy world of insurance fraud? Written and directed by Pablo Trapero, Carancho offers further proof that Darin (Nine Queens, The Secret in Their Eyes) is in the front rank of non-English speaking screen actors.

9:00 AM HBO Signature
Libertador Morales, el Justiciero (2009 VEN): Crime is a big problem in Venezuela (and by the way, this is TiVoPlex’s first Venezuelan film! Yay!), and sometimes it’s up to the average citizen to step up and enforce the law themselves. Such is the case in this slight but amusing comedy about Libertador Morales (Rafael Gil), a cop turned motorbike-taxi driver who dons a mask during his off hours and becomes el Justiciero, a super-hero of sorts who takes on a gang of Caracas robbers with an assist from homeless buddy Palo (Alberto Gonzalez). It’s an uphill battle made all the more difficult when Libertador discovers his son is also joining a gang, but don’t worry - this is a comedy, and all’s well that ends well.

8:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Great Rupert (1950 USA): Here’s a Christmas movie about a squirrel who helps brings the spirit of the season to a small-town family. I haven’t seen The Great Rupert since I was a child and have memories of the squirrel conversing with the film’s human characters, but I’m either hallucinating or getting my anthropomorphic critters confused: according to IMDb, Rupert is animated but definitely not capable of speech. Naturally I’m disappointed, as I was quite looking forward to seeing the film again and now must settle for watching star Jimmy Durante talk instead of the rodent. Ha-cha-cha-chaaa! Next they’ll be telling me Santa isn’t real.

Wednesday 12/14/11

3:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Blue Bird (1919 USA): I’m thoroughly familiar with both the Shirley Temple and Liz Taylor versions of this classic (but in 1919 quite recent) Maurice Maeterlinck play, but have never seen this silent one. Directed by the great Maurice (father of Jacques) Tourneur, this Blue Bird has an excellent reputation and promises to be a real treat for fans of the fantastic. It’s followed at 4:45 AM by The Valiant (1929), a similarly obscure feature which was nominated for a pair of Academy Awards and then forgotten for the next 80 years. Lead Paul Muni was nominated for Best Actor for his performance as James Dyke, a murderer with a clear conscience who gives himself up to the police.

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