TiVoPlex
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 through Monday, February 16, 2009
By John Seal
February 9, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 02/10/09
10:00 AM HBO
Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card (2008 USA): One of the best original docs to come out of the HBO non-fiction factory, Hard Times at Douglass High takes an up close and personal look at the staff and students toiling within the bowels of the titular Baltimore campus. Focussing on the school's efforts to comply with the unbending strictures imposed upon it by the No Child Left Behind Act, Alan and Susan Raymond's film is an at times heartbreaking, at times maddening look at bureaucratic overreach and educational underfunding in urban America. There are also plenty of engaging stories and characters on display here, and even at two hours, the film doesn't wear out its welcome.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Room at the Top (1958 GB): Laurence Harvey became a star thanks to his superb performance in this kitchen sink classic. Based on John Braine's novel, Harvey plays Joe Lampton, an accountant trying to maintain separate but equal relationships with unhappily married Frenchwoman Alice (Simone Signoret), who he really fancies, and factory owner's daughter Susan (Heather Sears), whose connections may help him advance his career. I'm sure that seemed like a good idea at the time. Pilloried and lauded in near equal measure for its, ahem, frankness, Room at the Top netted Signoret a Best Actress Academy Award, whilst Neil Paterson also scored a gong for his screenplay. Nominated for a further four Oscars, director Jack Clayton's film co-stars Donald Wolfit, Hermione Baddeley, a young Ian Hendry, and the eternally and deliciously snooty Allan Cuthbertson.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Tunes of Glory (1960 GB): It's 31 Days of Oscar month at TCM, and here's another classic Brit-flick that garnered positive attention from the Academy. Alec Guinness stars as hard-drinking career soldier Jock Sinclair, whose place on the regimental pecking order is threatened by the arrival of new commanding officer Barrow (John Mills). The two are as alike as cheese and chalk, and soon the officer's dining room is awash in invective, insolence, and insubordination. It's a brilliant character study highlighted by the two leads, who are ably supported by Dennis Price, Susannah York, Gordon Jackson, Andrew Keir, and, erm, Allan Cuthbertson — who's even snootier here than in Room at the Top.
Wednesday 02/11/09
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Sea Around Us (1953 USA): If there's one Oscar category that TCM rarely highlights, it's the documentary. The channel makes amends this morning by airing this obscure Irwin Allen film, which took home the Best Documentary Oscar in 1953. Based on a book by Rachel Carson — who would later become a household name thanks to her proto-environmentalist classic, Silent Spring — it's an hour long look at the briny deep featuring what was then some extremely impressive Technicolor underwater photography. It doesn't look like much now, but The Sea Around Us was a groundbreaker in its day. It's just a shame that it came a year or two too early for Cinemascope.
9:50 PM Cinemax
Black Sheep (2006 NZ): Not to be confused with the Chris Farley/David Spade laugher (and I use that term advisedly) of the same name, this is actually a rather droll Antipodean horror comedy about zombie livestock. Taking a page or three from the Peter Jackson storybook, Black Sheep takes place in and around a sheep station, where genetic experiments have caused the normally lamblike quadrupeds to develop a taste for human flesh. Like Jackson's comedies Dead Alive and Braindead, Black Sheep is extremely gruesome, but maintains the deadpan sense of humor that seems to flow through all New Zealand comedies. It's good bloody fun, best described by Observer critic Philip French as "shear terror". Also airs 2/12 at 12:50 AM.
Thursday 02/12/09
Noon Turner Classic Movies
The Dam Busters (1955 GB): The archetypal British war movie, The Dam Busters recreates one of the most dangerous and heroic missions flown by the Royal Air Force during World War II. Desperate to cut the war short, Bomber Command planners cooked up an operation in which low-flying Lancaster bombers would launch newly designed bombs against dams in Germany's industrial heartland, the Ruhr Valley. The bombs would act like skipping stones and bounce across the water before destroying the dams; the water would then inundate low-lying factories throughout the region and, in theory, knock the Nazi's production capacity for a six. Michael Redgrave stars as the boffin who builds the bombs, Richard Todd essays the role of mission leader Guy Gibson, and a whole host of familiar faces — including a youthful Robert Shaw — pop up as crewmen. It's a rousing patriotic yarn filled with excitement and suspense, though be warned: the "n" word makes an appearance here, though not in the form you might expect.
10:15 PM Showtime 3
Tideland (2006 GB-USA): I'm no longer sure how much I can trust the DirecTV print and online programming guide: it keeps listing films airing in widescreen on Showtime, but they almost always show up in pan and scan. Here's a case in point: does this mark the widescreen television debut of Terry Gilliam's dark fantasy of underage sex and drug abuse, or are we being dealt another dose of the same old same old? It's not like this is one of Gilliam's essential flicks, but I'll be tuning in anyway just in case.
4:00 PM Sundance
Jack Taylor of Beverly Hills (2007 USA): Do you know Jack? I don't, but I guess I will after scoping out this documentary. Jack Taylor has been couturier to the (male) stars for decades, and has supplied attire to everyone from Cary Grant to Elvis. Still alive and active in his 90s, Taylor gets his due in this feature from filmmaker Cecile Leroy Beaulieu.
Friday 02/13/09
2:00 AM Sundance
Jam (2006 USA): If you were a kid in the 1960s and '70s, you no doubt spent some quality time enjoying roller derby on the goggle box — or even, perhaps, in person. This documentary takes us back to those wonderful days of yesteryear, where nothing was quite as entertaining as watching women in tight pants and padded shoulders skate around an oval whilst trying to knock each other over. I never, ever understood what the rules were, or even if there were any. Jam isn't only about nostalgia, though: it documents the effort of Rollermaniac Tim Patten, who almost singlehandedly revived the, ahem, "sport" by founding the Northern California-based American Roller Derby League in 1998. It's still going strong today. Visit their Web site at http://www.baycitybombers.com and sign up for the team!
5:00 PM Flix
The Last Seduction (1994 USA): Ahh, Flix. When they say a movie will be airing in widescreen, it airs in widescreen. Here's one of my favorite neo-noirs in its original aspect ratio — admittedly only a measly 1.85:1, but that's better than 1.33:1, right? Sexy Linda Fiorentino stars as Bridget Gregory, an ambitious type who steals husband Clay's (Bill Pullman) ill-gotten gains and runs away to upstate New York to start a new life for herself. She seems to make a clean break of things — but Clay wants his money back, and hires crack PI Harlan (Bill Nunn) to track her down. There are twists and turns aplenty in this excellent John Dahl film, and Fiorentino is magnificent as the delicious schemer who always seems one step ahead of the dumb men in her life.
Saturday 02/14/09
5:30 PM Showtime
There Will Be Blood (2007 USA): P. T. Anderson's epic tale of the California oil industry makes its television debut, supposedly in widescreen, tonight. It's ostensibly based on Upton Sinclair's mediocre novel Oil, but draws more heavily from Jules Tygiel's superb non-fiction business history The Great Los Angeles Swindle. The first 30 minutes of There Will Be Blood are as perfect as the first 30 minutes of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket: in other words, as good as film can get. The balance of the film is also very, very good, but can't quite match the first act. Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as magnate Daniel Plainview struck some as overblown; I think it's about right, especially when he delivers the now famous "I drink your milkshake" with conviction and subtlety. I'm less convinced by Paul Dano's turn as the Sunday Brothers, but overall, this is a terrific film from all perspectives. Also of note: Jonny Greenwood's sparse but memorable score, and Robert Elswit's superb, sun-parched cinematography. Also airs at 8:30 PM and throughout the month.
Sunday 02/15/09
8:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Darling (1965 GB): I don't remember the first time I saw Darling, but I'm pretty sure it was the first time I felt the early stirrings of sexual attraction. I couldn't take my eyes off star Julie Christie, and the fascination continues: an autographed photo of Jules resides in my office to this day. In John Schlesinger's Darling, the divine Miss C portrays Diana Scott, a fashion model willing to sleep her way to the top of the catwalk (assuming that catwalks have a top). Amongst her victims are flamingly heterosexual TV journo Robert Gold (oh so butch Dirk Bogarde), agency head Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey), and wealthy nobleman Cesare (Jose Luis de Villalonga). It's destined to end in jet-set tears, and indeed Darling Diana eventually learns that she's a shallow nobody living a hollow life. Christie took home the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, and the film also nabbed the top prizes for costume design and screenplay.
Monday 02/16/09
1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Pretty Baby (1976 FRA): I'd completely forgotten that this controversial Louis Malle film had earned an Oscar nom for Best Score. Twelve-year-old Brooke Shields made a name for herself here portraying New Orleans child prostitute Violet, a thesis that made grown men and women reach for their smelling salts, collapse on a divan, and then issue thunderous denouncements regarding the filth churned out by Hollywood these days. Chances are if Malle were alive today, he would be unemployable, as many of his films dealt with underage sexuality. Controversy aside, Pretty Baby is actually a pretty good film, and features fine performances from Susan Sarandon, Keith Carradine, Gerrit Graham, and Antonio Fargas. If the idea that a young woman could be sold into white slavery in 1917 is too much for you to bear, however, you'll want to give it a miss.
11:40 AM Encore Action
Odd Man Out (1947 GB): We've had a veritable feast of Carol Reed films in the TiVoPlex over the last few weeks, and here's another of that underrated director's fine efforts. James Mason stars as Johnny McQueen, an Irish nationalist on the run from the plods in post-war Northern Ireland. Wounded during the course of a robbery intended as a fundraiser for his organization, Johnny disappears from his "safe house", and landlady Kathleen Sullivan (Kathleen Ryan) sets out upon the not terribly mean streets of Belfast to find him. The highlight of the film is the opening bank job, but there's also a memorable parade of characters to keep one engaged, including a gurning Robert Newton as Lukey and William Hartnell as Fencie, who's not a fence at all, but a pub landlord.
6:00 PM Sundance
Lake of Fire (2006 USA): I must admit to being somewhat scared of this film. Directed by the prickly Tony Kaye (American History X), it's an abortion documentary with a difference: it presents both sides' opinions and (reportedly) doesn't flinch in its depiction of the abortion procedure itself. That's probably why I've yet to summon the courage to watch the two and a half hour Lake of Fire, but braver critics — such as Dave Poland and Roger Ebert — did, and gave the film extremely high marks. Pass the smelling salts and dust off the divan — it's time for me to melt into a pro-choice puddle.