TiVoPlex
By John Seal
May 16, 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 05/17/05
5:15am The Movie Channel
The Opposite of Sex (1998 USA): For some reason I’d studiously ignored this title ever since its initial release, but finally succumbed when it recently started airing in wide-screen on TMC. Much to my surprise, the critics were right; The Opposite of Sex is one of the better indie character studies of recent years, with a good cast, a fine screenplay, and a director who actually seems to know what he’s doing. Featuring a decidedly post-pubescent Christina Ricci as Dede, a troublemaking 16-year-old who seduces and marries the somewhat confused live-in lover (Ivan Sergei) of her half-brother (Martin Donovan), the film peddles in some of the dreaded white-trash indie clichés but takes some unexpected turns before its downbeat but believable conclusion. Ricci is superb as the petulant Dede, but it’s Donovan who offers the film’s finest performance as her semi-sibling, a world-weary high school teacher who has as much trouble dealing with his late partner’s sister (an outstanding Lisa Kudrow) as he does with Dede. Writer-director Don Roos hasn’t had much to cheer about in the biz since making this film, but if he never makes another film he’s got plenty to be proud of nonetheless. Also airs at 8:15am, 5pm, and 8pm and on 5/21 at 1pm and 4pm. Ltx
9:05pm Flix
Mean Dog Blues (1978 USA): Paul Ramsey (the under-appreciated Gregg Henry) is a musician traveling home to his loving wife Linda (Kay Lenz). When his car breaks down, he's picked up by a rich couple (Tina Louise and William Windom), but soon regrets his luck when a hit-and=run accident occurs, and the couple railroad him by claiming he was driving drunk. Soon Paul is serving time in a hellish desert prison camp run by tough Captain Kinsman (George Kennedy) and his even tougher subordinate, former jarhead Sergeant Wacker (James Wainwright in a truly hiss-worthy performance). What makes Mean Dog Blues such a good film is Henry's ability to portray a character in control of his destiny, even when things seem completely OUT of control. He displays an almost zen-like calm and a dry sense of humor that disarms gay inmate Jesus Gonzalez (Gregory Sierra), and soon insinuates himself into trustee status when Mudcat (Scatman Crothers) loses his job serving as training bait for the prison's hunting dogs, who include a particularly nasty Doberman named Rattler. As Paul’s cellmate Tonto (Gene Silva) tells him, it's the worst job in the camp, though he will get a lot of fresh air and exercise. Meanwhile, newly pregnant Linda is working feverishly to have his conviction overturned. Will Paul taste the sweet fresh air of freedom, or will Rattler rip his throat out before Sergeant Wacker does? Crisply shot in the Arizona desert, the unavailable-on–home video Mean Dog Blues is airing wide-screen on Flix.
Wednesday 05/18/05
10:40am Showtime
Zone Troopers (1986 USA): Another forgotten B movie I never thought I’d see letterboxed, Zone Troopers returns to cable this morning in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Shot on location in Italy and set during World War II, this story of GIs discovering a crashed UFO was surely inspired by DC’s Weird War Tales with a twist of Sergeant Rock thrown in for good measure. Written by pulp admirers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo (The Rocketeer), this fun little flick stars Tim Thomerson as Sergeant Stone (!), whose squad stumbles across the spaceship after fighting a pitched battle with the Wehrmacht. A guilty pleasure of the highest order, Zone Troopers also airs at 1:40pm.
6pm Sundance
Noi Albinoi (2003 ICE): Ah, Iceland, land of glaciers, Björk, and the highest alcoholism rate in Europe. It’s also home to some of the more unusual art-house cinema creations, including this odd shaggy dog tale making its American television debut this evening. Noi is a 17-year-old albino lad who lives with Granny in one of that barren island’s remotest villages, dreaming of escape with the one he loves (Elin Hansdottir), a pretty gas-station attendant. The question, of course, is where will they escape to: the local natural history museum, Reykjavik, or Hawaii? This unusual tragic-comedy will appeal to fans of Aki Kaurismaki, Lars Von Trier (if they can forgive director Dagur Kiri’s non-Dogme “excesses”), and Napoleon Dynamite. Also airs 5/19 at 2:30am and 5/22 at 10am.
11:15pm Turner Classic Movies
The Trial (1963 FRA): I’ve yet to read Clint Heylin’s new book on Orson Welles, Despite the System, and I’ll be very curious to see what he has to say about this film. From my perspective, it’s one of the finest Welles features, and seems to have been made (for once) with a minimum of interference from his producers; in this case, Alexander and Michael Salkind. Though the film doesn’t quite capture the full-bore existential dread of Kafka’s nightmarish novel of the banality of bureaucratic evil, it comes damn close, and Anthony Perkins makes for a brilliant Josef K, his calm insouciance not a million miles away from that of Norman Bates. The cinematography is credited to Edmond Richard, but Welles’ fingerprints are all over the film’s look, with camera angles and set design reminiscent of his finest work in Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. I actually think The Trial is better than both of those films - I know I’m probably alone in that opinion - and give it my highest recommendation.
Thursday 05/19/05
5pm Turner Classic Movies
El Compadre Mendoza (1933 MEX): TCM digs deeper into the musty archives of Mexican cinema this week, starting things off with this film about an apolitical rancher (Alfredo del Diestro) forced to choose sides during the Mexican Revolution. The second of a trilogy of Revolution-set films by director Fernando de Fuentes, El Compadre Mendoza was rediscovered in the 1960s and makes its American television premiere this evening. It’s followed at 6:30pm by the third film in de Fuentes’ series, Vamonos con Pancho Villa (1936), one of the last of Mexico’s “socially conscious” pictures of the 1930s; at 8:15pm by Aventurera (1950), a “woman’s picture” about a middle-class daddy’s girl (Nino Sevilla) forced into a life of servitude; and at 10:15pm by the superb Macario (1960), a fantastical tale of a peasant whose hunger for turkey leads to conclaves with God, the Devil, and Death. Based on a tale by the reclusive B. Traven (Death Ship, Treasure of Sierra Madre), its fantastical story seemingly belongs in a Luis Buñuel feature but was actually written and directed by Roberto Gavaldon. He did, however, get help with the script from Emilio Carballido, who had co-written Nazarin with Buñuel a year earlier.
Friday 05/20/05
12:30pm Sundance
Jane Birkin: Mother of All Babes (2003 FRA): For those readers born in 1969, there’s a better-than-average chance that you were conceived to the orgasmic strains of the legendary Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin 45 Je T’Aime. This film helps explain the genesis of that controversial disc, a massive hit banned on radio stations worldwide. It’s a documentary about the elfin Birkin, one of the modeling faces of the 1960s who went on to musical stardom in France when the chain-smoking Gainsbourg took a fancy to her. Though the film is light on biographical detail - it would have been nice to know a bit more about Birkin’s parents, one of whom was a renowned stage actress and one of whom was a war hero - it features some very choice ‘60s footage, including an extremely entertaining commercial Birkin made for Cadbury’s chocolates. She also proves to be an engaging and intelligent interview subject, and whilst her post-Serge activities may not be of much interest to music fans, she has certainly maintained her artistic and political integrity. Also airs 5/21 at 2:30am.
10:25pm Showtime Extreme
The Border (1979 GB): A surprisingly decent Telly Savalas thriller, The Border features the chrome-domed cigar aficionado as an INS agent facing off against a bracero-smuggling coyote whose human cargo regularly makes the treacherous run from Mexico to the United States. Gritty and reasonably realistic, the film spends more time than you would expect on the harsh realities of life as an illegal worker, including some grim slaughterhouse footage. Well-scored by the great Stanley Myers and shot by Buñuel’s favorite Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Rodriguez, this obscure gem offers unexpected social commentary along with its action sequences.
Saturday 05/21/05
1:30am Sundance
Dirty Work (2004 USA): It takes all kinds, as this brief documentary amply proves. Focusing on the bizarre and unpleasant jobs held by three working stiffs, Dirty Work probably won’t encourage you to update your resumé or entertain a career change any time soon. If you’ve ever considered taking up embalming, sewage work, or, erm, the collection of bull semen, this film will provide you will all the information you need and then some. Have I ever mentioned I spent the summer of 1981 packing maggots for a living?
9am Encore
License to Kill (1989 GB): The second (and final) outing for Timothy Dalton as James Bond, License to Kill (here, of course, making its premium cable wide-screen debut) marked a creative up-tick for the series after the rather flabby previous entry, The Living Daylights. License to Kill was also the first Bond feature to eschew a titular relationship to the Ian Fleming novels, said titles having now been completely exhausted by screenwriter Richard Maibaum. Amongst the cast are David “The Fly” Hedison as Bond’s CIA chum Felix Leiter, acting-impaired Talisa Soto as Bond girl Lupe Lamora, Anthony Zerbe, Benicio del Toro, and, erm, Wayne Newton. Also airs at noon.
9:10pm Flix
The Hot Spot (1990 USA): This overlong but reasonably engaging mystery, based on a hardboiled novel by genre writer Charles Williams, stars Don Johnson as a used car salesman tempted to rob a bank and torn between two women: bad girl Virginia Madsen and good girl Jennifer Connelly. It’s a tough life selling second-hand cars. Directed by Dennis Hopper, The Hot Spot sticks to the neo-noir conventions that were in vogue in the early 1990s, but is one of the genre’s better examples. It’s also airing in wide-screen this evening, an essential requirement for fully appreciating the camera work of cinematographer Ueli Steiger (The Day After Tomorrow).
Sunday 05/22/05
11:15am Fox Movie Channel
State Fair (1933 USA): I’ve been on a bit of a Will Rogers kick recently, and here’s another of the lightweight comedies he specialized in before his untimely death in a 1935 plane crash. This time he plays a farmer who enters his prize pig in the state fair, only to find his daughter (Janet Gaynor) falling in love with handsome smoothie Lew Ayres. Also on hand in this delightful and frisky pre-Code comedy are Victor Jory as a disreputable carny, Louise Dresser, and Hobart Cavanaugh. Also airs 5/23 at 1:15am.
Monday 05/23/05
6pm Sundance
Divan (2003 HUN-ISR): Here’s a speculative pick of the week which probably won’t be quite as strange as it sounds. It’s a documentary about one woman’s search for a sofa, but not just any sofa. The property of director Pearl Gluck’s devout Hasid father, this settee is steeped in the mysticism of Eastern European Judaism, and Gluck traveled from Brooklyn to Hungary to find her roots and track down this prized family heirloom. Can living room furniture bring spiritual peace, or merely provide cushiony comfort? Divan’d if I know.
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