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

Thursday 1/21/10

1:30 AM Starz
Tyson (2008 USA): If this were airing on Sundance or even HBO, it would be a muckraking expose of everyone's least favorite poultry company. This being Starz, however, it's a Mike Tyson hagiography directed by, strangely enough, James Toback, a filmmaker more commonly associated with subtle chamber pieces. Apparently Tyson and Toback have been buds for many years, and the film does present Iron Mike in the best possible light, but it's also revealing and utterly compelling stuff. Whether you're a boxing fan, an armchair psychiatrist, or a gourmand who enjoys noshing on human ear from time to time, you'll want to get into the ring with Tyson. Also airs at 4:30 AM.

4:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Crooner (1932 USA): I'm a David Manners fan. There aren't many of us, because he wasn't much of an actor (his default setting when the camera turned on was sunny optimism and little else), but ever since an enterprising freelance writer discovered him living in a California nursing home in the 1990s I've been fascinated by him. After essaying lead roles in Dracula, The Mummy, and The Death Kiss, amongst others, Manners retired in 1936, took up painting and writing, and lived a good long life which finally ended in 1998 at the ripe old age of 97. As for Crooner, I don't know what to expect - I've never seen the film, and there are no reviews for it on IMDb (nor has it acquired the requisite five votes needed to give it a user rating) - but this is definitely the TiVoPlex Movie of the Week. A First National comedy directed by reliable Lloyd Bacon and co-starring Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd, Guy Kibbee, and J. Carroll Naish, Crooner is unlikely to be a lost classic, but with Manners in the lead, who cares?

7:00 AM Sundance
Chalk (2006 USA): A mockumentary about the parlous state of American public education, Chalk takes viewers on an uncomfortable but droll trip into the belly of the beast. Written by former teachers Mike Akel and Chris Mass (and directed by Akel), Chalk examines the classroom lives of three teachers: newly hired history instructor Mr. Lowery (Troy Schremmer), who finds his students thoroughly disengaged from his material; veteran Mr. Stroope (Mass), who's convinced himself he finally has a shot at winning Teacher of the Year; and Coach Webb (Janelle Schremmer), who's a little too eager to disabuse us of the notion that all female P.E. instructors are lesbians. Shot in Austin, Texas and featuring some of Akel and Mass's former students in supporting roles, this film fest favorite also airs at 12:00 PM.

8:30 PM Sundance
Mermaid (2007 RUS): Appearances aside, I'm not just picking films with one word titles this week. Though this is the fourth one in a row...so maybe, subconsciously, I am. As for the film itself, Mermaid is a Russian fantasy about Alisa (Masha Shalaeva), the product of a one-night stand who can move inanimate objects using only the power of her mind. Alisa is trying to live the life of a normal Moscow university student, but she meets con man Sasha (Yevgeni Tsyganov), who convinces her to help him in his latest real estate venture: selling land on the Moon. Though it all sounds like a recipe for Amelie-style quirkiness, Mermaid defies easy categorization, not least thanks to a surprising and unsettling denouement that will knock you back on your heels.

Continued:       1       2       3