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Thursday 2/11/10

11:00 AM Sundance
Carts of Darkness (2009 USA): Though its title reminds me of Dark Days, a superb 2007 documentary about homeless folks living in the subway tunnels of New York City, Carts of Darkness is a decidedly less grim affair. For one thing, it's all filmed above ground, and for another, it was shot in Vancouver, Canada—a somewhat less foreboding setting than the Big Apple. Documenting the subculture of street people who race shopping carts, Carts of Darkness has quirky written all over it, but never reduces its subjects to caricature: it's a humanizing reminder that people are social and competitive creatures, regardless of circumstance.

5:00 PM Flix
River's Edge (1987 USA): Keanu Reeves in good movie shocker! It's true—once upon a time, his dudeness actually appeared in a film he didn't ruin, and here it is. Directed inna Gus Van Sant stylee by Tim Hunter, whose career has since been almost exclusively confined to television, River's Edge grimly dissects the bad decision making of a group of teenagers. Keanu plays conscience-stricken Matt, a high schooler struggling with the fact that his friend John (Daniel Roebuck) has murdered his best girl and is proudly displaying his handiwork to his best buds, including speed freak Layne (a suitably twitchy Crispin Glover) and Clarissa (Ione Skye). Loosely based on a real murder case and set somewhere in rural California, River's Edge also features a bravura performance from Dennis Hopper as an adult with his own authority issues.

Friday 2/12/10

9:00 AM HBO Signature
La Maldicion del Padre Cardona (2005 DOM): We do love our firsts in the TiVoPlex, and even after seven-plus years they keep popping up from time to time. Here's our inaugural film from the Dominican Republic, the tiny nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. As you might expect, it's not groundbreaking stuff—though its story of a meddlesome priest (Anthony Alvarez) who falls in love is given a unique twist by relating the tryst to an exorcism—but we'll forgive the film's sins under the circumstances. Add in the presence of Zoe Saldana (recently seen in a little indie pic entitled Avatar), and there's enough here to pique the interest of both rom-com fans and admirers of the female form.

9:00 PM IFC
Unrest (2006 USA): I haven't seen this horror film yet, but who can resist the tag line ‘The First Film To Use Real Bodies'—even though I don't think that's true. (I'm not sure which non-documentary feature would earn that dubious distinction, but this surely isn't it). Set in a med school, the film involves the spirit of a young woman who returns to haunt those using her body for scientific purposes. It sounds exactly like an uncredited remake of the decent South Korean shocker Cadaver, and features Joshua Alba, fresh-faced younger sibling of Jessica.

Saturday 2/13/10

3:00 PM Encore Westerns
Red Sun (1972 FRA-SPA): Charles Bronson stars as a stony-faced gunslinger in this wacky Eurowestern helmed by Terence Young. Bronson is Link Stuart, a train-robbing son of a gun who hooks up with Japanese security officer Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune) whilst pulling off a job. Kuroda is more than just a man with a badge, however—he's also a deadly samurai warrior, assigned to protect his country's ambassador to the United States. Link is double-crossed by partner in crime Gotch (Alain Delon), who absconds with a valuable samurai sword, and our two unlikely heroes buddy up in an effort to recover the priceless treasure. Co-starring Ursula Andress as a prostitute with a heart of gold, as well as familiar faces Capucine, Luc Merenda, and Anthony Dawson, Red Sun is a member—along with The Stranger in Japan, The White the Yellow and the Black, and Sukiyaki Western Django—of the exclusive ‘sushi western' sub-genre.

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