TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 5, 2006
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 06/06/06
1:15pm IFC
Hoop Dreams (1994 USA): One of the few documentaries to make any kind of impact at the American box office, Hoop Dreams is the story of two young African-American high-school students trying to fulfill their life-long desire to escape Chicago's Cabrini-Green projects and make it big in the NBA. At three hours, you'd think the film would be overlong, but that's far from the case; though it's certainly painful to watch these youngsters slowly come to terms with the reality of their situations and the incredible long-shot they're relying on to improve their lot in life. Somehow this film was overlooked by the Academy in 1995 - the winner that year for Best Feature Documentary was Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision - but this is riveting filmmaking on a par with the best of the Maysles Brothers or Errol Morris. Also airs 6/7 at 3am and 6/11 at 7:05am.
4:30pm Showtime 2
Three Days in September (2006 USA): At first glance, I thought this was a re-airing of the Academy Award-winning documentary 7 Days in September, which investigated the horrors of the 1972 Olympic Village massacre. Of course, it isn't, but the subject matter is no less contentious or emotional: Three Days investigates the Beslan school siege of September 2004, when 1,200 people - mostly schoolchildren - were held hostage by Chechen separatists as part of their unconventional guerrilla war against the central government in Moscow. Featuring interviews with six eyewitness survivors and contemporaneous footage (some of which was shot by the separatists), the feature covers the siege in chronological order, from the beginnings of an ordinary school day to the bloody and tragic assault three days later that left over 300 dead, almost 200 of whom were elementary school-age kids. All in all, this is a grueling but praiseworthy Showtime original that will leave you emotionally drained, even if you turn the sound down to avoid Julia Roberts' earnest but somewhat manipulative narration. Also airs 6/11 at 9pm.
Wednesday 06/07/06
9:40am Encore Love Stories
Walk Proud (1979 USA): Feel free to ignore this recommendation. I repeat: FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS RECOMMENDATION. Sorry for shouting. But should you fail to heed my warning...well, gird your loins and prepare for one of the most jaw-droppingly bad motion picture experiences of all time. You see, Walk Proud stars nice Jewish boy Robby Benson - yes, he of Ice Castles and Two of a Kind fame - as a Chicano gang member looking to turn over a new leaf in the barrios of Los Angeles. Now, re-read that last sentence. Robby Benson. Chicano. Gang member. Barrios. And guess what? Robbie not only plays a Latino, he also sings the dreadful theme song, Adios Yesterday! If you haven't choked on your own vomit yet, you of course realize that this surely has to be one of the great casting blunders of cinema history, and as Walk Proud has been absent from the airwaves for what feels like forever, and of course is AWOL on home video, it's an artistic disaster you won't want to miss. Directed by TV specialist Robert Collins and written by Evan Hunter (Ed McBain, fer chrissakes), this astonishing piece of cinema flotsam reportedly set off riots in East LA bijous back in the day. You have carte blanche to smash your TV whilst watching it.
10:25pm Flix
American Justice (1986 USA): This could easily have been another bang bang/shoot-‘em-up action film, but it clearly had higher aspirations and does a good job of reaching them, if somewhat inconsistently. Released to theatres as Jackals, American Justice was the only feature film for veteran TV director Gary Grillo, and features a literate and intelligent script by Dennis Pratt, who later wrote the slightly less praiseworthy Leprechaun 4: In Space. The story revolves around Dave (Jameson Parker, a bit of a One-Note Johnny), a curly-haired Californian who witnesses the murder of a young Mexican woman whilst on his summer holidays in Arizona. Unfortunately, the killer turns out to be hyper-macho Officer Jake (Gerald McRaney, anticipating his Major Dad persona), a local lawman whose affable boss (Wilford Brimley, less annoying than usual) doesn't want to face the truth. Though there's action aplenty, the film never forgets that it's telling a tale of small-town corruption, and there are even a few surprises that move it further away from the generic action-movie template. All in all, it's a pleasant if minor surprise that looks great in wide-screen. Thanks, Flix!
Thursday 06/08/06
5pm Turner Classic Movies
Track of the Cat (1954 USA): Robert Mitchum stars in this interesting adaptation of Walter Van Tilburg Clark's 1949 novel of the same name. Clark is best known for his superb anti-lynching tale The Ox-Bow Incident, which spawned a wrenching screen version in 1943 featuring Henry Fonda. Though Track of the Cat doesn't come close to matching that film's impact and staying power, it remains a unique and oft-overlooked Western that will appeal to those who disdain more traditional bang bang/shoot-‘em-up oaters. Adapted for the screen by A.I. Bezzerides and directed by William Wellman (who had also helmed The Ox-Bow Incident), the film features Mitchum as Curt Bridges, middle son of a dissipated Northern California rancher (Philip Tonge). Curt's milquetoast siblings (Tab Hunter and William Hopper) clearly aren't up to the task of maintaining the family spread, and Bridges père is on the fast track to oblivion, thanks to an increasingly serious drinking problem. When a big cat starts stalking the family cattle, it's up to Curt to hunt it down, but tragedy soon follows and the Bridges are forced to reassess the way they've done things all these years. Shot in ultra-wide-screen CinemaScope and in muted tones by cinematographer William Clothier, Track of the Cat also features Teresa Wright as the boys' spinster sister and Beulah Bondi as the Bible-thumping matriarch who makes life in the Bridges household distinctly unpleasant for all concerned.
9:55pm HBO
Last Days (2005 USA): It's definitely not for everyone, but Gus Van Sant's anti-biographical depiction of the last days of a rock star - "Blake", a not-terribly-well-disguised stand-in for the late Kurt Cobain - is a strangely mesmerizing and eerie look at one man's appetite for self-destruction, and the willingness of all around him to overlook same. Michael Pitt is simply awesome as the lank-haired rocker, who wanders aimlessly around his rural mansion, occasionally picks up a guitar for some spirited noodling, and almost gets talked into buying an ad in the Yellow Pages by a very convincing salesman (Thaddeus Thomas). In the meantime, his band-mates, lovers, and assorted hangers-on enjoy the trappings of Blake's success whilst blithely ignoring the man himself. I run hot and cold on Van Sant - I found his prior film, Elephant, far too cold and clinical - but his shtick works very effectively in Last Days, even though he succumbs as always to the temptation to stick in a gratuitous gay sex scene. Also airs 6/9 at 1:55am.
Saturday 06/10/06
5:30pm Sundance
Janice Beard 45 WPM (1999 GB): A lightweight but amiable romantic comedy, Janice Beard tells the story of a deluded Scots lass who makes the long trip south and, against the odds, gets hired as a temp by a car firm in the Big Smoke. She's not popular with the other ladies in the office pool, who hold her childish behavior, tall tales, and odd appearance in some disdain, but she's more popular with office boy Sean (Rhys Ifans), who provides love interest and distraction from the wicked scheming of secretarial supervisor Julia (Patsy Kensit), who runs the office with an iron fist. It's a predictable low-budget British comedy, but not without its charms, especially Ifans, whose character has an ulterior motive that comes into play late in the proceedings. Nothing essential, but a pleasant bon-bon, Janice Beard 45 RPM was penned by Ben Hopkins, whose previous film, Simon Magus, was a considerably darker affair.
Sunday 06/11/06
12:30pm Sundance
King of the Hill (1990 USA): An overlooked gem from Steven Soderbergh, King of the Hill is a Depression-era drama about a 12-year-old boy forced by circumstances to take care of himself and his younger brother. His mother has TB and lives in a sanitarium, and economic conditions have forced his father to take to the road as a door-to-door salesman, leaving young Aaron (Jesse Bradford) to tend to the old homestead: a room in a transient hotel. This Dickensian tale was based on the autobiography of A.E. Hotchner, which provided compelling source material, and is bolstered by a nifty collection of underrated second-stringers in the cast, including Adrien Brody, Elizabeth McGovern, and Spalding Gray. It's a riveting if slow-paced look at family life in the 1930s, and showcases the superb, atmospheric camera work of Elliot Davis.
7:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Speedway (1968 USA): After a decade of increasingly dire cinematic hogwash, Elvis Presley was ready to launch the TCB brand via his heralded NBC ‘68 Comeback Special and his first appearances on a Vegas stage in over ten years. But thanks to Colonel Parker, he still had some feature film commitments to fulfill, Speedway amongst them. Though the films were no longer the money-spinners they had been during the early 1960s, they still made a profit, and Parker's contract with Elvis assured the Colonel of a very large cut indeed. So the parade went on for a little longer, Speedway grossed over $3 million, and though it's no better (nor much worse) than most of the King's movie output, it isn't aired as often as more popular features like Viva Las Vegas, Jailhouse Rock, or even GI Blues, and is seen even less frequently in wide-screen. For this outing, Elvis played a successful racecar driver saddled, appropriately enough, with an incompetent manager (Bill Bixby) and an outrageous tax bill. The proceedings are thoroughly predictable, but it's fun to see Nancy Sinatra as Elvis' love interest, and any film with Gale Gordon and William Schallert can't be completely devoid of value.
Monday 06/12/06
10am Turner Classic Movies
Kiss Me Deadly (1955 USA): Robert Aldrich's noir nightmare about a suitcase full of radioactive MacGuffins and the mayhem surrounding it returns to TCM this morning and comes, as always, highly recommended. I don't know whether TCM is airing the version with the "happy" ending or the version with the apocalyptic ending, but either way, this is one of the furthest-out films of the 1950s and will impress even the most ADD-addled post-baby boom young adults. Very loosely based on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer stories, the film stars Ralph Meeker as the hyper-masculine private dick on the trail of the deadly luggage, as well as long-forgotten sex kitten Gaby Rodgers as a slinky bad girl with one eye on Hammer and the other on her ulterior motives. Ernest Laszlo's black-and-white photography is some of the best you'll ever see, the ubiquitous A.I. Bezzerides' screenplay is replete with snappy one-liners and twisty plot turns, and your head will be spinning by the final reel regardless of which version ends up being aired. It may not be one of the 20 greatest films of all time, but it does rest comfortably on my list of 20 personal favorites.
11:40am Starz! In Black
Fronterz (2004 USA): I must admit upfront that I haven't seen this comedy about three unemployed actors who pose as gangsta rappers in order to make ends meet, but any film that features cameos by Chastity Bono and Henry Winkler is going to catch my eye. Approach with caution.
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