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Friday 07/31/09

8:55 PM Showtime Extreme
Farewell, My Lovely (1975 USA): This above average Raymond Chandler adaptation returns in widescreen tonight. Robert Mitchum stars as private dick Philip Marlowe, a hardboiled womanizer who walks the mean streets of World War II-era Los Angeles in search of mysteries to solve and bottles of rye whiskey to empty. In this outing, Marlowe is hired by plug ugly Moose Malloy (former pugilist Jack O'Halloran) to find his lady love, who's disappeared whilst Moose spent seven years in the Big House. If you're at all familiar with Chandler in general or this story in particular, you know that there's nothing straightforward after that, and as with its 1944 predecessor (Edward Dmytryk's Murder My Sweet) it's easy to get lost in the details. My suggestion: sit back and relax, soak up the impressive period ambiance conjured up by art director Angelo Graham, and enjoy another quality Mitchum performance. A superior supporting cast, including John Ireland, Charlotte Rampling, Anthony Zerbe, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, noir writer Jim Thompson, and Sly Stallone provide added value.

9:00 PM Sundance
A Skin too Few: The Days of Nick Drake (2002 HOL): All but ignored during his lifetime, English folk-rock singer Nick Drake began to transform into a legend during the '90s and is now considered one of the foremost practitioners of the style and an iconic source of inspiration for 21st century wyrd folkies. This brief (48 minute) Dutch documentary summarizes Drake's life and examines his brief three album output, and while it does what it does in fine fashion, it could really have been at least half an hour longer. Nonetheless, for anyone who's ever enjoyed (if that's the right word) one of Drake's poignant, frequently heartbreaking songs (my favorite is At the Chime of a City Clock), this is essential viewing.

Saturday 08/01/09

2:00 AM Starz Comedy
Baghead (2008 USA): It's not universally admired, but I kinda dig this indie horror movie spoof. Written and directed by the Duplass Brothers (also responsible for satellite and cable staple The Puffy Chair), Baghead tells the tale of four friends who have retired to a remote cabin in order to complete their screenplay: the story of four friends who have retired to a remote cabin, where they are stalked by a man with a paper sack on his head. Yes, it's the old movie within a meta-movie plot, but there's something about it that appeals to my sense of the absurd. Must be the bag.

6:35 PM IFC
Edmond (2006 USA): Here's another opportunity for William H. Macy to portray an eccentric everyman, and once again he delivers the goods. This time he plays Edmond Burke (snicker), a businessman who finds his life turned inside out and upside down after he stops by to get the word from a storefront fortune-teller. When the seer informs him that he's "not where he belongs," Edmond cashes in his chips, gives up his marriage as a lost cause, and goes on a quest to find, er, the place where he DOES belong, I suppose. Based on a one-act play by David Mamet, Edmond steers dangerously close to Falling Down crypto-fascist territory, but Mamet wisely uses the story to point the finger back at the audience and avoids the visceral white power subtext of Joel Schumacher's repulsive film. Ably directed by horror specialist (and, believe it or not, long time Mamet collaborator) Stuart Gordon, this is an interesting and well-acted, if not particularly lovable, little film.

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