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Saturday 06/21/08

11:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
A Hatful of Rain (1957 USA): By the late '50s, mainstream Hollywood tentatively stopped tiptoeing around the realities of drug abuse. The burgeoning social problem, once confined film-wise to traveling road shows and B pictures, had graduated to the A list with 1955's Nelson Algren screen adaptation The Man with the Golden Arm. A Hatful of Rain, whilst not quite as brutal as its predecessor, is nonetheless a worthy and serious look at heroin addiction, featuring Don Murray as a young, disabled Army vet who can't get the monkey off his back after being discharged from hospital. Supported by his family - including wife Eva Marie Saint and brother Tony Franciosa - Murray struggles to get control of his addiction, only to lose every time. Filled with wonderful location footage of New York City, and featuring an appearance by TiVoPlex favorite William Hickey, this is a prime example of the "problem pictures" of the period, right down to the downbeat but realistic finale.

9:00 PM Sundance
The Blossoming of Maximo (2005 PHI): This surprising and quite daring Filipino film stars 14-year-old Nathan Lopez as Maxi, a flamboyant gay adolesecent growing up in the slums of Manila. Maxi belongs to a family of criminals who frequently have run-ins with the law-- but when the lad meets hunky police officer Victor (J. R. Valentin) finds himself being tugged in two quite different directions. It's been favorably compared to Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin and Ian Gamazon's Cavite, and though The Blossoming of Maximo isn't as good as either of those films, they're apt comparisons nonetheless.

Monday 06/23/08

6:00 PM IFC
Heavy Load (2008 GB): I haven't seen this documentary--heck, it doesn't even have five votes on IMDb yet, so apparently neither has anyone else--but the subject matter sounds intriguing. Heavy Load is a British punk band from the sleepy Sussex town of Lewes, which--perhaps uniquely, perhaps not--includes several members with learning disabilities. Why Kan't Johnny Rotten Reed? Watch and lurn.

8:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Kid From Spain (1932 USA): One of my first movie loves was goggle-eyed comic Eddie Cantor, whose outrageous, over the top Depression-era musicals were broadcast staples throughout the 1970s. These films have long since sunk into obscurity, but every now and then one of them pops up on TCM--case in point, 1932's The Kid From Spain, which puts in an appearance tonight. The convoluted plot finds Cantor's character, college student Eddie, forced to flee to Mexico, where he must masquerade as legendary bullfighter Don Sebastian. Co-starring Robert Young as Eddie's best buddy Ricardo, as well as J. Carroll Naish, Noah Beery, and John Miljan, The Kid From Spain also benefits from great choreography by the legendary Busby Berkeley.

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