New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Sunday 03/08/09

3:00 AM Encore Love Stories
Arizona Dream (1992 USA): It's recently come to my attention that my non-existent appreciation for comic Jerry Lewis needs to, er, begin to exist. (Thanks, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.) TCM has some J-Lew on the slate later this month, but I'm going to start my rehab with Arizona Dream, in which Jerry plays a Four Corners car salesman eager to turn his business over to his young nephew (Johnny Depp), who already has a job: counting fish. Okay, maybe this isn't your father's Lewis laugh-a-thon: it was directed by the ever quirky Emir Kusturica, co-stars Faye Dunaway,Vincent Gallo, Lili Taylor, and Michael J. Pollard, and features lots of accordion music. LOTS.

10:45 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Golden Door (2006 ITA): The beautiful, wistful, and utterly mysterious Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in this magical-realist peasant epic about a clan of Sicilians emigrating to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. She plays cod Britisher Lucy Reed, who takes passage with the Mancuso family to Ellis Island, where eugenicists are trying to learn which racial "stock" will be most beneficial for America's future. Directed by Emanuele Crialese, Golden Door won the Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival—and is definitely not your run of the mill immigration fantasy. Look for the late, great Vincent Schiavelli as marriage broker Don Luigi.

Monday 03/09/09

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Lured (1947 USA): The only film in which Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff ever worked together, Lured is as underappreciated as a Douglas Sirk film can get. Lucy plays Sandra Carpenter, an American dancer in London enlisted by the police to help track down a serial killer who's murdered one of her friends. The killer selects his victims from newspaper personals, so Scotland Yard asks Sandra to place her own ads in hopes they'll flush him — or her — out. As in The Dark Corner and Five Came Back, Lucy acquits herself admirably in a serious role, and whilst Boris doesn't have a great deal to do, there's a fine supporting cast on hand, including George Sanders, Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Napier, George Zucco, and Joseph Calleia. Above average production values, including excellent cinematography by William Daniels (Brute Force, The Naked City) render Lured an alluring TiVoPlex prospect.

10:30 PM IFC
Day Watch (2006 RUS): Day Watch, Night Watch, Baywatch — believe it or not, I haven't seen any of them. But am I going to pass up the opportunity to watch a Russian horror film? Not bloody likely.

Continued:       1       2       3       4