TiVoPlex
By John Seal
February 15, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 02/15/05
Midnight The Movie Channel
My Tutor (1983 USA): I led off last week’s column with a shout-out to My Bodyguard, so this week I couldn’t resist plugging the similarly titled My Tutor, a cable stalwart of bygone days that’s recently been missing in action on the small screen. That’s been for the better, of course, as it’s a dreadful teen sex comedy about a young man (Xanadu’s Matt Lattanzi) whose father (a slumming Kevin McCarthy) hires a sexy thirtysomething (Caren Kaye) to teach sonny some French. Stop snickering in the back row, that’s French as in language. My Tutor also features the first theatrical film performance of Crispin Glover as well as Kitten Natividad, a buxom Mexican lass whose most recent IMDb credit is something called Faster Pussycat, F*! F***!
1am Turner Classic Movies
…And Justice For All (1979 USA): Al Pacino stars in this off-kilter black comedy-drama about Arthur Kirkland (Pacino), a cynical lawyer whose client has been railroaded by mean-spirited Judge Fleming (the great John Forsythe). When the worm turns and Fleming is charged with rape, he decides to hire guess who to defend him, with the understanding that he’ll have Kirkland disbarred if he doesn’t get him acquitted. Directed by Norman Jewison and co-scripted by Barry Levinson, …And Justice For All netted Pacino his fourth Best Actor Academy Award nomination, and also features Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, hawk-nosed character actor Craig T. Nelson, and, in a memorable performance as a disturbed senior judge with some odd lunchtime habits, Jack Warden. The film’s rah rah finale is ultimately a bit too predictable, but Pacino’s bravura performance is the glue that holds it all together and makes …And Justice For All a worthwhile pick.
9:15pm Showtime 3
Patty Hearst (1988 USA): It’s not writer-director Paul Schrader’s best work, but any Schrader film - well, maybe not Cat People - has points of interest for discerning film fans. Patty Hearst also hasn’t been seen on TV for a while and is out of print on home video, so a wide-screen airing on Showtime is a nice treat for Schrader admirers. A well-cast Natasha Richardson is brilliant as the kidnapped heiress, who briefly and famously joined the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s before resuming her life of wealth and starting an acting career in John Waters’ films, and a young Ving Rhames is convincing as deeply deluded SLA leader Field Marshall Cinque.
Wednesday 02/16/05
7pm Flix
Diary of a Hitman (1991 USA): Starring Forest Whitaker, Sherilynn Fenn, and Seymour Cassell, Diary of a Hitman is worth watching for its cast alone (For the purposes of this recommendation we’ll overlook the presence of Sharon Stone and James Belushi). Luckily it also features an engaging and intelligently-told story from playwright Kenneth Pressman, who adapted his own stage play for the screen. Shot on location in the Rust Belt cities of Youngstown, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the film features Whitaker as the titular gun for hire, employed by sleazeball Cassell for a stereotypical Last Big Job before retiring from the assassination game for a life of golf and bocci ball. His resolve starts to waver, however, when he discovers his targets are the sumptuous Ms. Fenn and her newborn infant, and the reluctant and ambivalent hitman must square his moral qualms with the filthy nature of his chosen profession. Another home video refugee, Diary of a Hitman is getting a wide-screen airing this evening.
Thursday 02/17/05
4:45am Turner Classic Movies
General Spanky (1937 USA): TCM stretches the definition of “31 Days of Oscar” this morning with a double feature devoted to films nominated for Best Sound. Is your pulse racing yet? And bear in mind, these films didn’t even WIN the big prize; they just got nominated. First up is Hal Roach’s General Spanky, a feature-length spin-off from the Our Gang comedy series, and not a particularly good spin-off at that. Nonetheless, this will probably be your only opportunity to see it for a while, as the film is beyond politically incorrect, highlighting Golden Age Hollywood’s bizarre fixation with the Old South’s perspective during the Civil War. Fox may have had Shirley Temple leading the charge against the damned Yankees in The Little Colonel and The Littlest Rebel, but MGM fired back with Spanky McFarland, protecting Southern womanhood and defending that Peculiar Institution, slavery, in this mindblowingly offensive comedy. General Spanky also features Our Gang stalwart Buckwheat as Spanky’s slave, Ralph Morgan and Irving Pichel as wicked Northerners, and Louise Beavers and simpering Willie Best in demeaning roles. It’s followed at 6am by 1943’s Best Sound nominee, So This Is Washington, a dimwitted Lum and Abner comedy directed by Ray McCarey. Lum and who, you ask? Lum and Abner were a fictional pair of cornfed country bumpkins created by radio comics Chester Lauck and Norris Goff in 1931. They parlayed their proto-Hee Haw high-jinks into a 25-year radio career and seven motion pictures, including, of course, this one. The act didn’t make the transition to the boob tube (a pilot was filmed but left in the can), and though their films popped up on television throughout the 1970s, have since sunk into obscurity. Here’s your chance to take a look at a prime slice of forgotten pop culture. For those who care, the films that ultimately took home the Best Sound prizes in 1938 and 1944 were (respectively) MGM’s earthquake epic San Francisco and Jean Renoir’s This Land is Mine.
10:40pm Cinemax
Wonderland (2003 USA): Wonderland is not a well-regarded film, and that puzzles me. I’m certainly not ready to claim that it’s a neglected American classic, and it’s easy enough to see why it sank without a trace at the box office. There are also plenty of legitimate nits to pick: the film lazily relies on contemporary and/or hip pop songs to fill up its soundtrack in lieu of original scoring, and director James Cox’s predilection for hyperactive MTV-style shakeycam work is distracting. Even after considering those faults, however, I found Wonderland a powerful and even moving film, albeit one that tells the same story portrayed in P. T. Anderson’s better regarded but fictionalized Boogie Nights. Start with the lead performance of Val Kilmer - yes, Val Kilmer - as porno movie star John Holmes. Generally considered a good comic actor unable to hold his own in a serious role, Kilmer is completely convincing here as the pathetic Holmes, strung out on crack cocaine and hangin’ with some extremely shady homeboys whilst his fame recedes inexorably into the distance. Move on to the performance of Kate Bosworth, who brings the right balance of innocence and experience to her role as Holmes’ paramour Dawn Schiller, and then take a look at the consistently underrated Lisa Kudrow, who arguably delivers the film’s finest thesping as Holmes’ estranged wife Sharon. Want more dramatic highlights? Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, and Dylan McDermott are equally outstanding as the sleazes who share guns, dope and women with the air-headed porn star, and Ted Levine provides world-weary grit as police investigator Sam Nico. Perhaps the film’s only casting misfire is the too-recognizable Eric Bogosian (sporting a bad accent) as drug kingpin Eddie Nash, but that’s a minor quibble at worst. This is a violent, unpleasant film about pathetic, unpleasant people, but the screenplay (co-written by director Cox with three others) doesn’t oversimplify matters, leaving just enough shades of grey to make this a satisfying and unforgettable journey into Hollywood’s heart of darkness. As long as you’re comfortable with the subject matter, you owe it to yourself to take a trip to Wonderland.
Friday 02/18/05
12:30am Flix
Rolling Vengeance (1987 CAN): YEE-HAW! Monster trucks in WIDE-SCREEN! Yessirree, there ain’t nuthin’ a good ol’ boy likes more than 90 minutes of VE-hicular mayhem, and that’s what you get in this wacky north-of-the-border indie. Don Michael Paul stars as a trucker out for revenge against the inbred offspring of evil Ned Beatty (Deliverance); they’ve killed his family, raped his girl, and probably kicked his dog, too. Any film featuring characters named Hair Lip, Moon Man, and Finger has to be good, and Rolling Vengeance is no exception. Also airs 2/20 at 10:20pm.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
Batman (1989 USA-GB): I’m a Batman heretic: I freely admit to preferring Adam West campiness to Michael Keaton angst, and I also think 1997’s Batman and Robin was the most enjoyable of the recent series of Bat capers. Here’s the film that kicked off that cycle, a Tim Burton-helmed thriller that pits the grim-faced Keaton (who does his best, but comes off like Lee Majors in The Six Million Dollar Man) against that oh-so-jolly master criminal The Joker, played to the hilt by Jack Nicholson, who is no Cesar Romero. Anton Furst’s superb set design deservedly won an Academy Award, but overall, the film is much too dark for my taste, though Pat Hingle makes a fine Commissioner Gordon and Michael Gough is a suitable replacement for Alan Napier as the Caped Crusader’s loyal servant, Alfred. Batman makes a rare wide-screen television appearance this evening.
Saturday 02/19/05
6:40pm Encore Westerns
Thomasine and Bushrod (1974 USA): This unusual western stars Max Julien (who also wrote the screenplay) and Vonetta McGee as a bank-robbing couple who become folk heroes in old New Mexico. The stars are marvelous together and there's also a co-starring role for the underappreciated Glynn Turman. Director Gordon Parks Jr. only made four films before his untimely death, and they're all good, but this may be the best of the lot. Incidently, I live quite close to Bushrod Park in Oakland, California, where a young Rickey Henderson first played baseball. Bushrod was also the city’s first public recreation area, and was named after the gentleman who donated the parkland, Bushrod Washington James. Aren’t you glad your parents didn’t name YOU Bushrod? Also airs 2/20 at 1:20am.
Sunday 02/20/05
9:30am IFC
Secret Ballot (2001 IRA): This week’s speculative pick is an Iranian comedy based on an idea by TiVoPlex favorite Mohsen Makhmalbhaf. I know, I know; we’re all curious to see what an Iranian comedy looks like. My guess is it ain’t going to resemble There’s Something About Mary. At any rate, it features Nassim Abdi as a (female) election worker assigned to deliver ballots to a remote west coast island with the help of an unenlightened soldier (Cyrus Ab). To quote Roger Ebert’s review of this film, it “could be titled They Call Me MISS Election Agent.” Also airs at 3:15pm and 2/21 at 7:30am.
2pm Sundance
Work Hard Play Hard (2003 FRA-BEL): This opinionated French drama stars baby-faced Jeremie Regnier as Philippe, a rising corporate star at Paris-based MacGregor Management Consulting. The wet-behind-the-ears businessman in a grey flannel suit runs headfirst into the brutal realities of capitalism when his boss Hugo (Laurent Lucas) assigns him to audit MacGregor’s employees in anticipation of a forthcoming merger. Philippe gradually learns that he’s being used as a cat’s paw and is forced to confront the brutal reality that he is a co-conspirator in the elimination of 80 jobs. There’s a superfluous romantic subplot, but by and large Work Hard Play Hard is a well-written and thought-provoking film that will appeal to those who enjoyed Laurent Cantent’s Time Out (recommended in this column a few weeks back) or fans of Theodore Dreiser’s dense but captivating early 20th-century business novels. Also airs 2/21 at 2am.
Monday 02/21/05
9pm IFC
Slasher (2004 USA): Animal House helmer John Landis’ took time off from his usual big-budget features to make this enjoyable, if somewhat superficial, documentary look at the life of a travelling used car salesman, Michael Bennett. When you’re buying a car from Bennett, you’ve reached the bottom of the barrel, because his speciality is moving lemons other auto lots have given up on. No one’s ever going to think Landis is a successor to the Maysles Brothers, but Slasher is surprisingly effective, with its colorful subject and tasty selection of Memphis soul music providing ample entertainment value.
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