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

5:00 PM IFC
The Changeling (1980 USA): Recently mooted as one of the 11 scariest movies of all time - all TIME, I tell you! - by director Martin Scorsese, The Changeling makes a rare small screen appearance this afternoon on IFC. Directed by Peter Medak, the film (not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie vehicle of similar nomenclature) features lovable grouch George C. Scott as John Russell, a recent widower who's just moved in to a spooky mansion somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Guess what? Besides being drafty and in need of a paint job, the pile is also haunted by a spirit that reveals itself to our hero during a séance. Does Russell vacate the premises? Like Hell he does — after all, this is George C. Scott we're talking about! Instead, our curmudgeonly hero becomes determined to solve the secret of the haunted mansion and goes spelunking for clues in a nearby well. I'm not sure I agree with Scorsese's assessment, but it's been a long time since I've seen The Changeling so I'm prepared to get my pants scared off. It airs again at 11:15 PM, and is followed at 7:00 PM by Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), a ridiculous but fun eco-thriller starring William Shatner as a veterinarian trying to save a small town from arachnid invasion.

Thursday 11/12/09

5:00 PM Sundance
Che (2008 USA): Steven Soderbergh's magisterial Guevara biopic, released to theatres in two parts, makes its conjoined American television debut tonight. Benicio del Toro delivers the performance of a lifetime as the mercurial, egotistical dreamer Che, an asthmatic veteran of the Cuban Revolution who thought he could overthrow a repressive Bolivian government and replace it with a People's Republic. Far superior (though not as perversely enjoyable) as Richard Fleischer's 1969 take on the subject, and in some regards more enlightening than Walter Salles' quite excellent 2004 production The Motorcycle Diaries, Che is a hefty 257-minute history lesson, but a richly rewarding one if you can make time for it. Also airs 11/14 at 11:00 AM.

Friday 11/13/09

5:30 AM Sundance
Children of the Sun (2007 USA): Once upon a time, the Republic of Israel was going to be a socialist utopia. How times change. In those far off days, early adopters of the Zionist model banded together in kibbutzim, collectivist agricultural living arrangements where the best interests of the group took precedence over the desires of its individual members. This documentary from director Ran Tal examines the movement from its beginnings during the Palestinian mandate to its slow withering away during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It's a fascinating and thought-provoking look at a progressive social movement burdened with some disturbingly fascistic overtones.

10:30 AM HBO Signature
El bano del Papa (2007 URU): I must plead ignorance regarding this film (sorry, I missed its boob tube premiere in July), but c'mon...you know you want to see a Uruguayan movie! It's a drama about Pope John Paul II's South American tour in 1988, and scooped up almost a dozen awards at various and sundry Latin film festivals. Apparently, the title translates into English as "The Pope's Toilet", which doesn't make it sound all that enticing, so I think I'll keep calling it El Bano del Papa.

Continued:       1       2       3