TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 14, 2009
5:15pm Sundance
Swedish Auto (2006 USA): Fans of indie character studies will want to make time for this dramedy about a young auto mechanic and his unhealthy obsessions. The mechanic is Carter (Lukas Haas), a young man orphaned by an automobile accident and now employed at a small-town Volvo repair shop. Carter plods through each boring day, but his nights are much more exciting: he's smitten with a willowy blonde violinist (Brianne Davis), and spends his off-hours spying on her. But there's a twist: Carter is himself under the watchful eye of waitress Darla (January Jones), who in turn is the subject of unwanted attention from a creepy older dude with less-than-honorable intentions. Ah, sweet voyeuristic irony! Written and directed by newcomer Derek Sieg, Swedish Auto was nominated for Best Film at the prestigious Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.
7pm Turner Classic Movies
Sealed Cargo (1951 USA): This obscure RKO actioner isn't going to win any prizes for originality, but it does offer some good old-fashioned anti-Nazi fun. The film stars Dana Andrews as Pat Bannon, a Nova Scotia whaler who encounters a Danish cargo ship adrift off the coast of Canada. Shot to pieces and abandoned by its crew, the ship has one remaining inhabitant: Captain Skalder (Claude Rains). Assuming the schooner has been torpedoed by a U-boat, Bannon tows it to shore, but soon begins to suspect that the vessel and its commander may have a more sinister provenance. Co-starring Whit Bissell, Onslow Stevens, and my new favorite actor Skip Homeier (deliciously malevolent in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode The Motive!), Sealed Cargo is best served with a mug of hot cocoa and a modicum of suspended disbelief.
Thursday 09/17/09
4pm Cinemax
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (2009 USA): I haven't seen this Cinemax original documentary yet, but gosh, couldn't they have called it Cowgirls Behind Bars instead? As it stands, we're left with visions of a so-so country rock album by The Byrds. Filmed in Oklahoma, the state with the highest female incarceration rate in the country, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo focuses on the Penitentiary Rodeo, an annual fixture since 1940 recently opened up to competitors of the fairer sex. Yee haw! Also airs at 7pm.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
The Wicked Lady (1946 GB): Wonderful Margaret Lockwood stars in this thoroughly enjoyable costume drama based on Magdalen King-Hall's novel, The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton. Lockwood plays Barbara Worth, a 17th-century free spirit as adept at stealing money as she is men. Barbara falls in with highwayman Jerry Jackson (James Mason) and the two become professional and bedroom partners, whilst both are pursued by lawman Sir Ralph Skelton (Griffith Jones), who also happens to be Barbara's husband! Britain's biggest box-office hit of 1946, The Wicked Lady was pretty naughty stuff for the time (apparently, Lockwood's cleavage became an issue for Hollywood censors) and co-stars Michael Rennie, Martita Hunt, and Felix Aylmer.
Friday 09/18/09
3:30am IFC
The Glass Shield (1994 USA): If you can overlook the fact that Lori Petty has no hair in this film you'll be amply rewarded by a smartly written story of police corruption and racism. Michael Boatman is terrific as a young African-American policeman assigned to integrate a precinct with a bad reputation for, er, exclusivity. He soon bumps heads with the precinct captain and most of the other white male officers, who view him as an unwelcome outsider. The film has a number of subplots woven together by the end, and Ice Cube makes an early appearance as a youngster stopped for Driving While Black. Written and directed by Charles Burnett, this is an intelligent and exciting police thriller, making (I think) its wide-screen television debut this early morning. Also airs at 9:05am.
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