TiVoPlex for Tuesday January 18 through Monday January 24 2005
By John Seal
January 18, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 01/18/05
4am IFC
An Affair of Love (1999 FRA): I'm not overly fond of French art-house erotica, but I'll make an exception for this Last Tango in Paris wannabe, released provocatively in its homeland as Une Liaison Pornographique. If the title isn't enticement enough, consider the presence of the great Sergi Lopez (With a Friend Like Harry, Dirty Pretty Things), here playing Lui, a 40-something man who places an ad in the personals and hooks up with sweet middle-aged thing Elle (Nathalie Baye) for an anonymous tryst. This is definitely one of those languid continental features with long, lingering gazes and contemplative musings in between the bonking - which, with a single exception, stays removed from the camera's gaze - but Lopez makes it all worthwhile, and at 80 minutes, the film doesn't wear out its welcome.
9:30am The Movie Channel
It's a Bikini World (1967 USA): The last of a dying breed, It's a Bikini World is a teenage surfside saga so cheap the producers couldn't even afford Frankie and Annette. It also appears to have been completed at least 18 months prior to its theatrical release, as the male cast all sport short hair and the ladies are clad in distinctly pre-Summer of Love fashions. Nonetheless, there are reasons to scope out It's a Bikini World, especially if you're a '60s music fan. This is the only feature film to include a clip of the legendary Castaways (here performing - what else - the sublime Liar Liar), but also on hand are The Animals (featuring an extremely bored-looking Eric Burdon miming his way through We Gotta Get Out of This Place), soul sirens The Toys, and The Gentrys. The story is the usual fluff about a beach bum (Tommy Kirk, trying unconvincingly to be butch) wooing a reluctant beach bunny (Deborah Walley). Look for beloved character actor Sid Haig as local scene-maker Daddy. Also airs at 12:30pm.
5pm Encore Westerns
Tombstone (1993 USA): Encore's airing a wide-screen print of this revisionist western, and it looks absolutely awesome. Superbly shot by William Fraker (Rosemary's Baby), Tombstone features sweeping western vistas, excellent action sequences, and…well, not a lot more, really. Bruce Broughton's unambitious soundtrack reflects his experience with made-for-TV movies, and Kevin Jarre's screenplay can't sustain the film's epic 130-minute running time. Action specialist George Pan Cosmatos was clearly the wrong choice for the film, which pauses frequently for long dissertations from its cast, but the film benefits from Robert Mitchum's agreeably grumpy narration. Happily, there are also plenty of good performances on-screen: Kurt Russell is, as usual, excellent as retired sheriff Wyatt Earp, Sam Elliott is appropriately leathery as brother Virgil, and Michael Biehn makes a great villain. On the debit side, Val Kilmer's comic-book take on Doc Holliday is a bit over-the-top for me, and Billy Bob Thornton looks uncomfortable under a beard. I'd advise keeping your finger poised on the fast forward button, but Tombstone does offer some pleasures for genre fans, and did I mention it looks great? Also airs at 10:40pm.
Wednesday 01/19/05
3:30am Showtime 2
Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter (1995 USA): Hey, everyone loves a Sasquatch movie, not least me. This one is aimed squarely at the kiddie market, and features Zachery Ty Bryan as Cody, a peril-stricken youngster whose fate rests in the animatronic hands of the Abominable Snowman (A gent named Gary Maloncon is credited with playing the creature, but I don't think all the footage actually involves a man in a yeti suit). Naturally the locals are out to trap and kill poor old Bigfoot, and it's up to spunky young Cody to save the hirsute hero's life, even if he has to step in a bear trap to get the job done! Parents, set the recorder for this one; your pre-teen offspring will thank you.
Thursday 01/20/05
10:45am The Movie Channel
Heartaches (1981 CAN): Heartaches isn't a great film, but it is relatively obscure and is getting its wide-screen television debut this morning. Boob tube favorite Annie Potts stars as a pregnant woman too embarrassed to admit to her husband (Robert Carradine) that the child she's carrying isn't his. She runs away from home and hooks up with wild woman Margot Kidder, setting in motion the film's proto-Thelma and Louise plot machinations. The film cleaned up at the 1981 Genies (Canada's equivalent of the Oscars), garnering awards for Potts, screenwriter Terence Heffernan, and cinematographer Vic Sarin. Also airs at 1:45pm.
Friday 01/21/05
4am Sundance
The Business of Fancydancing (2002 USA): I'm only peripherally familiar with the writings of Native American poet and polemicist Sherman Alexie, but his work on 1998's Smoke Signals indicated the man was capable of concocting a powerful and funny screenplay. Lo and behold, not only can the man write, he can also direct, as proven by his first film behind the camera, The Business of Fancydancing. Apparently autobiographical, the film stars Smoke Signal's Evan Adams as the oddly-monikered Seymour Polatkin, a young gay man who escapes the reservation to become a successful poet in Seattle. When his childhood playmate Mouse (the excellent Swil Kanim) dies after taking too many pills, he returns to the res for a funeral service, where he tries to reconcile his success in the "white" world with his tribal roots. There isn't a bad performance in sight here, with particular kudos going to Michelle St. John as Adam's Jewish-Native American friend Agnes and Gene Tagaban as the embittered Aristotle Joseph. Beautifully filmed and movingly scored, this is a remarkable directorial debut. Look for character actor Leo Rossi in a small role as a high-school counselor. Also airs at 11:30am and on 1/23 at 7:45am.
6:15am Turner Classic Movies
Hideaway (1937 USA): I haven't seen this long-buried RKO obscurity, but the film's plot précis makes it sound like essential viewing: a Depression-era homeless family, looking for shelter, set up house in an abandoned building that turns out to be a gangster's hideout. Hideaway stars the now-forgotten Fred Stone, deserving of an historical footnote for his portrayal of the Scarecrow in the first stage production of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz way back in nineteen-aught-two. The play was a huge success and ran for ten years - Baum tried in vain to duplicate its success several times before wisely deciding to stick to novels - and Stone's performance reputedly informed Ray Bolger's film work in the 1939 screen adaptation. As for Hideaway, it co-stars J. Carroll Naish as the villain and TV Guide gives it one star. That's not going to stop me from checking it out.
Saturday 01/22/05
7:30pm The Movie Channel
Stir Crazy (1980 USA): Four years after the massive success of Silver Streak, stars Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder were finally reunited in this amusing comedy about two theatrical types (one an actor, the other a playwright) who head out West for fame and fortune. Things get complicated, of course, and thanks to a case of mistaken identity the lads end up in prison, where they get to share some special time with fellow inmate Grossberger (played by Erland Van Lidth, the memorable Terror from 1979's cult classic The Wanderers). Bruce Friedman's screenplay is sporadically funny at best, but Pryor and Wilder make the best of the material, and contribute some hilarious improvisational touches that greatly improve the proceedings. TMC is airing this wide-screen, with an additional broadcast at 10:30pm.
Sunday 01/23/05
7pm IFC
Sid and Nancy (1986 GB): Alex Cox's follow-up feature to 1984's unforgettable Repo Man was this biopic about the brief and tragic love affair between erstwhile Sex Pistol Sid Vicious and professional groupie Nancy Spungen. For a while it looked like Cox was destined for great things, but after a series of misfires (including the wretched Straight to Hell), he's since been relegated to television work. Sid and Nancy, however, remains one of his best films, thanks primarily to an amazing performance by Gary Oldman as Vicious (the former John Richie), who got a gig learning to play bass thanks to a power play by Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren (McLaren was concerned that original Pistols bassist Glen Matlock was too professional for his band of situationist ragamuffins, and started spreading the word that Matlock was - horrors! - a closet Beatles fan). Chloe Webb is also outstanding as strung-out Nancy, who got Sid hooked on smack and ended up murdered in her bed in Manhattan's seedy Chelsea Hotel, and there are memorable cameos by Ten Pole Tudor, Iggy Pop, and The Circle Jerks. Believers in synchronicity should note the presence in this film of real-life groupie Courtney Love, a few years before she sold her soul to the Devil and "settled down" with Nirvana main man Kurt Cobain.
Monday 01/24/05
3:30pm Turner Classic Movies
The Split (1968 USA): Based on a Donald Westlake novel, this crime drama stars former football player Jim Brown as the leader of a gang of robbers angling to rip off half a million bucks from the Los Angeles Coliseum during a Rams game. The film is no great shakes, thanks to TV writer Robert Sabaroff's mediocre script, but it features an awe-inspiring cast, including Diahann Carroll, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Julie Harris, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates, James Whitmore, and Donald Sutherland. If that isn't enough for you, consider that the film is unavailable on home video, is getting a wide-screen airing on TCM, and features a relatively unknown Quincy Jones score.
5:30pm Turner Classic Movies
The Temptress (1926 USA): 20-year-old Greta Garbo's second American-made feature, The Temptress is a torpid fantasy about a rather clueless femme fatale whose love affairs inevitably end in disaster. The film features MGM's finest glossy production values, with the scenario switching from Paris to Argentina and incorporating the dramatic demolition of a dam as lensed by second unit man H. Bruce Humberstone. Like many late-period silents, The Temptress is padded and wears out its welcome around the 90-minute mark, but is still worth a look for fans of Garbo and co-star Lionel Barrymore.
7pm Sundance
Control Room (2004 USA): Much to my regret, I missed Control Room during its theatrical run. It's a well-regarded documentary about Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera, and makes its television debut this evening. Roundly denounced by the Bush administration as a propaganda tool in the service of Osama bin Laden, Al-Jazeera is also pilloried by autocratic Arab governments that don't appreciate the light shone their way by this important journalistic outlet. Already the winner of numerous film festival prizes, Control Room is hotly tipped to win an Oscar nomination come January 25th.
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