TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 20, 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 06/21/05
11:20am Starz! In Black
Malunde (2001 SAF-GER): Ian Roberts and Kagiso Mtetwa play an odd couple in this South African buddy movie about a street urchin (Mtetwa) and an ex-Apartheid-era soldier (Roberts) who meet and end up needing each other on the mean streets of Johannesburg. Though the story is somewhat predictable and occasionally melodramatic, the leads offer superb and nuanced performances, and the film looks great thanks to DP Jurgen Jurges. Oddly, Starz! in Black seems to be airing a pan-and-scan print - the channel usually shows African films in wide-screen - but that shouldn’t stop you from taking a look at this enjoyable drama. Also airs 6/22 at 11:35pm.
6:45pm Turner Classic Movies
Westworld (1973 USA): If you were ten-years-old in 1973, this was THE hip movie ticket you hoped your parents would invest in. Thirty years later, Westworld hasn’t aged very graciously, but for those of a certain age its anachronistic futurism will always provide a rich source of nostalgic ennui. Starring Yul Brynner as a cybernetic cowboy whose circuitry goes awry, leading to danger for tourist thrill-seekers James Brolin and Richard Benjamin, the film was written and directed by Michael Crichton, and is airing in wide screen on TCM this evening.
Wednesday 06/22/05
1:15am Turner Classic Movies
No Blade of Grass (1970 GB): One of the best Bleak Future films most folks have never heard of returns to TCM this evening. This set-in-Britain, post-nuclear apocalypse story features Nigel Davenport as the head of a family fleeing London for the relative safety of rural Scotland. The path isn’t a clear one, of course, and various impediments - mostly of the human variety - get in their way before they reach their destination. One of a number of idiosyncratic features directed by actor Cornel Wilde, No Blade of Grass is a satisfyingly sober look at how the world may end, with as much whimper as bang in this case. Lynne Frederick co-stars as Davenport’s daughter, future East Enders regular Wendy Richard appears as a sexy young thing, and former Small Face Jimmy Winston has a cameo as a thug. Still missing on DVD, this one comes with a strong recommendation.
4:45am Turner Classic Movies
Ann Vickers (1933 USA): To call Ann Vickers a women's picture may technically be accurate - it was, indeed, adapted by Jane Murfin, also responsible for 1939's The Women - but it's much more than that. Quite simply, this is one of the best dramas ever produced in Hollywood. Written with delicacy and tenderness, yet planted firmly in the cruel realities of life, Ann Vickers includes a tour de force performance by Irene Dunne, ably supported by the wonderful Walter Huston as her lover, and Conrad Nagel and Bruce Cabot as would-be paramours. There are some incredibly powerful moments here, especially during the prison scenes, and Dunne and Huston are magical whenever they're onscreen together. Certainly daring by the standards of the time, Ann Vickers is a refreshingly honest and still topical masterpiece.
6pm Sundance
Springtime in a Small Town (2002 CHI-HK): This languid Chinese drama is deeply serious, fraught with symbolism, and not for the casual cinemagoer. That aside, if you enjoy the pre-Hero films of Zhang Yimou, you’ll probably find much to like in Springtime in a Small Town. Directed by blacklisted auteur Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite), it’s the story of Li Yan (Wu Jun), a wealthy Chinese landowner trying to recover from the depredations of the Imperial Japanese Army in the immediate post-war era. Things aren’t made any easier for him when his wife’s old flame shows up, and the stirrings of old love (propelled by the apparent looming demise of Li Yan via TB) are newly reinvigorated in the warm spring air. Immaculately shot and laden with metaphoric imagery, this is an exquisite example of Chinese cinema at its most artistic. Also airs 6/23 at 10am and on 6/25 at 5:05am and 2pm. .
9:30pm Turner Classic Movies
A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich (1977 USA): Cicely Tyson stars as the mother of a troubled teen in this drama about the African-American experience in inner-city Los Angeles. Her son (Larry B. Scott - Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds!) is a talented but under-motivated wannabe musician who can’t get his life on track and doesn’t have the best role model available in the person of Mom’s live-in boyfriend (Paul Winfield). This downbeat slice of life also features an excellent performance from TiVoPlex fave Glynn Turman as a helpful teacher and is getting a very rare wide-screen airing tonight.
Thursday 06/23/05
1:30am IFC
Charming Billy (1999 USA): This is one of the most assured and pleasing American indies of recent years. Echoing Peter Bogdanovich's superb Targets (1968), Charming Billy tells the story of a handsome young man with a silver tongue (stage actor Michael Hayden, truly deserving of the AFI Award he received for his performance) whose unfulfilling jobs and empty family life leave him yearning for more. When his grandfather (Tony Mockus, in a truly amazing performance) suffers a stroke, Billy is the family caregiver who tries to find meaning in the older man's suffering. Whilst the protagonist in Targets is an empty vessel, we are fully aware of the disappointments and failures of Billy's life, and the result is a powerful and intelligent existential horror story. Character actor Chelcie Ross is excellent as Billy's decidedly charmless father, and David Barkley's delicate score provides the film with an understated emotional heartbeat. This is an excellent film and should be seen by anyone remotely interested in contemporary American cinema. Also airs 6/27 at 3am.
8am Showtime
We Are Dad (2005 USA): This week’s speculative pick is the world premiere of a Showtime original documentary about two gay Floridians whose efforts to adopt five HIV-positive children is stymied by their home state’s rigidly right-wing social policies. Though considered suitable foster parents, Florida considers gays and lesbians morally unfit for adoption, and this film chronicles the lengthy legal battles the men undergo to give a permanent home to the children they have loved and cared for for so long. Also airs at 11am, 6/24 on Showtime 3 at 1:45pm, and 6/25 on Showtime 2 at 11am.
Friday 06/24/05
9:50pm Starz!
Infernal Affairs (2002 HK): Andy Lau stars as a gangster infiltrating the Hong Kong police in this first-rate crime drama from directors Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak. To the deep regret of the triad, however, a police officer (Hero’s Tony Leung) is returning the favor on behalf of the forces of law and order, and has burrowed deep within the criminal underground. Lau and Leung each have an assignment: to ferret out the mole in their respective ranks. This intriguing premise is ingeniously presented and well staged, and its two leads deliver sterling performances as they try to discover who’s spying on whom. There’s a Scorsese-helmed remake featuring Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon in the works, but you’ll want to acquaint yourself with the original so you can have bragging rights at the office next year. Also airs 6/25 at 1:50am.
Saturday 06/25/05
8:30pm Sundance
The Beat (2003 USA): Rapping or arresting…which will it be? The Beat is the story of Flip, a young man (Rahmaan Jamaal) whose dreams of hip-hop glory are devastated when his brother (and musical collaborator) is murdered on the mean streets of South Central. His dad (Kazz Wingate) wants him to get a job, preferably as a cop, but Flip isn’t quite ready to give up on show biz just yet. This solid freshman effort from director Brandon Sonnier, a Houston-born USC student, spent many months on the festival circuit, including at Sundance and the Maryland Film Festival, and makes its small screen debut this evening.
Sunday 06/26/05
12:05am Flix
The Good Wife (1987 AUS): Sometimes even the mediocre films need a shout-out. This week The Good Wife, an over-earnest and rather dull look at sex and love in the Australian Outback, is that film. Set in 1939, it features Rachel Ward as a bored housewife who gets the hots for a traveling barman (Sam Neill) who wanders into town one day with the apparent intention of breaking up every marriage in sight. Given an immense boost by its first-rate cast, which also includes Bryan Brown and Steven Vidler, this period piece hasn’t been on TV in ages and makes its wide-screen boob tube debut this morning.
11:30pm Turner Classic Movies
The Florodora Girl (1930 USA): This run-of-the-mill MGM romancer is notable for two things: the presence of comic actress Marion Davies and the use of two-strip Technicolor during the film’s hoofing finale. It was also the first film to play at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater. Is it any good, you wonder? Well, I’m not much for films set during the Gay Nineties, so I’m probably not the right person to ask. The story is the standard stuff about a chorus girl (Davies) who gets in over her head with a rich and handsome man (the long forgotten Lawrence Gray). The Florodora Girl is of some historical interest, but otherwise it’s nothing special.
Monday 06/27/05
9pm Turner Classic Movies
Europa ‘51 (1952 ITA) : Smilin’ Leonard Maltin hates it, but this story of a well-heeled bourgeois housewife’s epiphany about the emptiness of her existence is essential viewing for foreign film buffs. Starring Ingrid Bergman as Irene, a rich American living with her husband and spoiled son in Rome, Europa ’51 was written and directed by Bergman’s real-life spouse Roberto Rossellini. Curiously echoing Bergman’s role as Joan of Arc in Victor Fleming’s 1948 biopic, Rossellini’s film has her surrender her comfortable lifestyle after a household accident in favor of self-effacing social service on behalf of the city’s underclass. The film also features a cameo appearance by Giulietta Masina, the wife of another famous Italian film director, Federico Fellini. This contemplative film ends on a bittersweet note that can be read as redemptive, life-affirming or thoroughly depressing, depending on your mood.
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