TiVoPlex
By John Seal
July 11, 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 07/12/05
12:45am Encore
Pink Flamingos (1972 USA): John Waters' infamous paean to puppy poop returns to premium cable this morning. Tired of all the shit on television? Well, this is truly your film, as the only fecal matter it features is that encountered by leading lady Divine in the film's best-remembered scene. Of course, there's much more here to offend almost everyone, unless you're a coprophiliac cross-dresser who fancies bestiality with a dash of sadism, in which case you'll feel right at home. One of the first "midnight movies", Pink Flamingos ain't exactly art, but it does stick to your ribs. Also featuring Waters' regulars Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller, it re-airs at 3:45am. Catch it now before Encore puts it back in the vault and throws away the key.
1:20am Showtime
Touched (1983 USA): There isn't a great deal of plot development in Touched, an awkward but appealing psychological drama that feels like it was produced ten years earlier than it actually was. Robert Hays plays an inmate at a mental institution who, convinced he's as normal as the next chap, escapes one day and finds employment at a carnival sideshow. He's in love with fellow inmate Jennifer (Kathleen Beller), who also breaks out of the funny farm and gets a job waiting tables. The two maintain a tenuous relationship and the film ends on a happy note that nearly defies belief. Nonetheless, there's something intriguing about Touched, which plays like a high-quality television hybrid of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Carny. Even Ned Beatty, an actor I generally find irksome, manages to deliver a quality performance, and the New Jersey location footage is superbly lensed by cinematographer Fred Murphy (October Sky, Auto Focus). All in all, it's a pleasant surprise, and letterboxed to boot. Also airs at 4:20am.
5:30pm IFC
Run Lola Run (1998 GER): A surprise art-house hit in 1999, Run Lola Run makes up in style and energy what it lacks in coherence. The film briefly made a star of Franka Potente, who plays the girlfriend of a small-time hood who's lost some gang money and is about to do something really stupid to get it back. The film plays with time and perspective in true Pulp Fiction fashion, but is told on a smaller scale and is more enjoyable because...well, because Quentin Tarantino wasn't involved. Potente has since gone on to a successful if unspectacular career as Matt Damon's gal pal in the Bourne films, but director Tom Tyke hasn't had quite as much luck duplicating Lola's success. Also airs 7/13 at 1pm.
Wednesday 07/13/05
1:30am Turner Classic Movies
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2001 USA): This marvelous documentary (directed by cinema historian Kevin Brownlow) looks at the life of Chaney and is required viewing for serious film buffs of all stripes, as it features surviving excerpts from a number of otherwise lost films (including 1929's Thunder), as well as interviews with a vast assortment of Chaney colleagues and biographer Michael Blake, whose three books on the subject are essential reading. Chaney was much more than a horror actor, ably bringing an incredible range of characters to life, and this TCM original is a fitting tribute to his remarkable talent. It's preceded (on 7/12) by re-broadcasts of Chaney's superb He Who Gets Slapped (1924) at 10:15pm, and the watchable but highly fictionalized biopic, Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), at 11:30pm.
Thursday 07/14/05
Midnight Showtime
Opposing Force (1987 USA): It's getting to be a regular habit; for the third TiVoPlex in a row, we have a winner in the ongoing contest for most unexpected wide-screen feature of the week. I could also call the contest "least anticipated wide-screen feature of the week", but that seems a little callous, and I'm feeling generous today. All things considered, however, Opposing Force isn't the worst action flick ever made, and its Filipino location work will certainly benefit from airing in its correct aspect ratio. Lisa Eichhorn stars as a female GI on a training mission with male chauvinist pig Tom Skerritt. Unfortunately, the mission turns deadly, thanks to villainous Anthony Zerbe and George Cheung, and Eichhorn and Skerritt must put aside their cat-and-dog differences in an effort to survive in the jungle. It's nothing new, but it's reasonably entertaining. Also airs at 3am.
9pm Turner Classic Movies
Corvette Summer (1978 USA): Ever wonder what Mark Hamill got up to in the wake of Star Wars? Can't say I did either, but here's the answer: he starred in this rather lame comedy about a guy named Kenny (Hamill) out to get his cherry red sports car back from the thieves who stole it and drove it to Vegas. Kenny's hot on their heels, and soon hooks up with a streetwalker with a heart of gold (Annie Potts in her first screen role) in an all-out effort to get his wheels back. Not the wisest career move ever made, Corvette Summer will appeal to automobile aficionados and to those who get a kick out of outré ‘70s haircuts and fashions. The rest of us will have to get by on the presence of Danny Bonaduce(!), Dick Miller, and Brion James, as well as the fact that it's being aired in wide screen.
Friday 07/15/05
3am Sundance
Good Husband Dear Son (2001 HOL): This deeply affecting documentary draws its considerable power from its simple and intimate presentation. It's a straightforward series of interviews with war widows, grieved mothers and children whose husbands, sons, and fathers were massacred by the Serbian Army in the village of Ahatovici in 1992 at the height of the Yugoslavian civil war. Produced for Dutch television, Good Husband Dear Son is an extremely sad little film that, through the anguish of its subjects, hauntingly and succinctly relates the banality of evil in the late 20th century.
3:45am Starz!
Two Brothers (2003 FRA): Briefly given a theatrical release last year, Two Brothers deserved a bit more attention than it got, but was overwhelmed by summer blockbusters. It's the latest film from French director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at the Gates, Name of the Rose) and features Guy Pearce as a jungle explorer who encounters two adorable but deadly tigers. Related by birth, separated by circumstances, and reunited by human greed, the tigers are, of course, the real reason to watch the film: as with earlier Annaud features such as Quest For Fire (1981) and The Bear (1988), Two Brothers is not as interested in plot development and dialogue as it is in depicting man's struggles with and against nature, and Pearce takes a backseat to the animals. The film also features Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland), and though it's not your prototypical "kid's movie", is nonetheless perfect for adolescents with a reasonably long attention span. Also airs at 6:45am.
Saturday 07/16/05
5:20am Sundance
Since Otar Left (2003 FRA-BEL): This beautifully-acted drama from director Julie Bertucelli reflects the artistic influence of her mentor, the late auteur Krzysztof Kieslowksi. It's the story of three Georgian women waiting for news of Otar, the man of the house, who has gone to Paris to make his fortune in construction work and has been sending cash-filled letters home to his impoverished family. When tragedy strikes and the news and cash stop coming, the family matriarch (90-year-old Esther Goronkin) takes it upon herself to track him down, and the younger women (Nina Khomarsuridze and Dinara Drukarova) are pulled along in her wake. Since Otar Left is a superbly crafted character study, and won the Grand Prize at Cannes in 2003.
9:20pm Encore Action
El Mariachi (1992 MEX): Reputedly shot for $7,000, El Mariachi launched the career of talented young director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids). It's a terrific action story about a lowly mariachi musician (Carlos Gallardo), whose guitar case's resemblance to that of a hired killer's gets its owner into considerable hot water. A brilliant debut by the then-24-year-old newcomer, the film has the zest we expect from all Rodriguez films whilst maintaining its original patina of art-house indie credibility. After the disaster that was Shark Boy and Lava Girl, perhaps it's time for the director to get back to his roots.
Sunday 07/17/05
9pm Turner Classic Movies
My Best Girl (1927 USA): This week's silent Sunday feature is a romantic comedy starring Mary Pickford and the inimitable Buddy Rogers, she as a lowly shop-girl, he as a handsome millionaire who falls in love with her. Pickford and Rogers were, of course, married for 42 years, and though Pickford would remain wed to fellow United Artists founder Doug Fairbanks until their divorce in 1936, some of the real-life romantic sparks do show up on-screen. The first-rate supporting cast includes Lucien Littlefield, Mack Swain, and - in an especially amusing turn - Stymie from The Little Rascals.
10:25pm Flix
In the Kingdom of the Blind, the Man With One Eye is King (1995 USA): I generally try not to recommend films I haven't seen, but I can rarely resist the siren song of an improbable title, and they don't get much more improbable than this one. It's a good job it went straight to video; can you imagine telling folks at the office that you're going to the movies tonight to see In the Kingdom of the Blind, the Man With One Eye is King? If someone told ME that, I'd tell them I was off for the matinee showing of Pull the Other One, It's Got Bells on It, which now that I think about it would actually make for a GREAT movie title. Anywho, the plot sounds like pretty typical cops-and-robbers stuff involving family loyalty and law and order, but the cast (Michael Biehn, Leo Rossi, and Paul Winfield) is decent, so maybe there's something here to like. Besides the title.
Monday 07/18/05
8pm Turner Classic Movies
The Old Dark House (1932 USA): Surprisingly, I've never recommended this film before, probably because it's become a semi-staple on TCM. As there's little else to recommend today, however, I'll give it a plug. It's a genuinely creepy and quite effective thriller from the great James Whale, and features a bearded Boris Karloff as a mute butler in the employ of Ernest Thesiger and Eva Moore. On a dark and stormy night, five weary travelers stumble across their threshold, and when the power fails and darkness descends, strange things start happening... This is one of Whale's best films, and though it doesn't supply many genuine thrills, its gothic atmosphere supplies a delicious frisson of fright that will satisfy anyone familiar with the best Universal horrors of the period. The Old Dark House also features Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey, and Gloria Stuart, whose laserdisc commentary for this film led to her being hired by James Cameron for a little thing called Titanic.
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