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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 05/30/06

3am Cinemax
Favela Rising (2005 USA): Airing concurrently with a limited theatrical run, this documentary details the short history of a new style of Afro-Caribbean music called Afro-reggae. The titular favelas are the murderous slums of Rio de Janeiro, where gang-bangers like Anderson Sa grow up witnessing murder and hoping for a comfortable future as a successful dope dealer. After his brother was brutally murdered by the police, Anderson realized this dream was unrealistic, put down his guns, picked up a microphone, and began chanting down Babylon. Those who enjoyed the redemptive tale of a boy and his camera in Fernando de Meirelles' City of God will note similarities in Favela Rising, but this time the story is a true one. The film falters a bit down the home stretch, descending to a rather queasy level of Christian hagiography, but by and large this is a riveting look at personal and social transformation on the mean streets of Rio. Also airs at 6am.

9pm Turner Classic Movies
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995 USA): A period mystery based on Walter Mosley's popular novel and set in post-World War II Los Angeles, Devil in a Blue Dress stars Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins, an unemployed factory worker looking for work wherever he can find it. It arrives in the form of DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore), who offers him a hundred bucks to locate a white woman who may have gone into hiding in the city's African-American neighborhoods. Thus is born a new private investigator: Rawlins sets up shop in his modest bungalow and even hires an assistant in the form of his old street-smart friend, Mouse (Don Cheadle). There's more to the story than meets the eye, of course, and Easy is soon enmeshed in a noirish web of intrigue and danger. Directed by Carl Franklin, whose previous feature was the first-rate cop drama One False Move, Devil in a Blue Dress makes its wide-screen television premiere this evening as part of TCM's Race and Hollywood showcase. It's followed at 11pm by a letterboxed screening of Spike Lee's Million Man March epic Get on the Bus, which features a superb ensemble cast including Ossie Davis, Charles S. Dutton, Roger Guenveur Smith, Harry Lennix, and Thomas Jefferson Byrd.

Wednesday 05/31/06

4:45am Turner Classic Movies
Adventures of Penrod and Sam (1932 USA): This very obscure First National dramedy tells the tale of three childhood chums and their series of adventures in turn-of-the-20th-century Indiana. Based on a 1914 novel by Indianapolis native Booth Tarkington, and brought to the screen by TiVoPlex favorite William "One-Shot" Beaudine, this is an easy-going slice of hokum that benefits tremendously from young stars (especially Leon Janney as Penrod) and elder thespians (most notably the always-agreeable Zasu Pitts) alike. Look for Beaudine's teenage daughter Helen in a small supporting role.

7pm Sundance
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988 USA): Director Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civilization remains perhaps the most important film document of the Los Angeles punk scene of the late 1970s. By 1988, punk was, if not exactly dead, well past its sell-by date, and hard rockin' hair-metal bands had reasserted themselves as the big dogs on the Sunset Strip. This hilarious and occasionally disturbing rock doc takes a look at poodle rockers such as Faster Pussycat, Vixen, London, and Poison, and features a range of amusing and self-incriminating interviews similar to those of the first film. The highlight remains the poolside chat with beyond-sloshed W*A*S*P* vocalist Chris Holmes, whose loving mom chides him every time he pops the "f" word. Still unavailable on DVD, The Decline: Part II will have you strumming your air guitar in no time.

Thursday 06/01/06

2:30am Encore Dramatic Stories
Lipstick and Dynamite (2004 USA): If you're like me, you wasted many of your childhood Saturday nights in front of the boob tube keeping up with all the thrills and excitement offered by, ahem, "professional wrestling". Back in the day, pro wrestling wasn't the big-budget, over-hyped product it became once Vince McMahon got his mitts on it. Southland residents enjoyed broadcasts emanating from Los Angeles' old Olympic Auditorium (where, only a few years later, I'd see Public Image Ltd. play), a decrepit fleapit on the wrong side of the tracks. Amongst the marquee names were Classy Freddy Blassie, Andre the Giant, The Iron Sheik, and The Fabulous Moolah, a diminutive woman in tights who the fans loved to hate. This documentary takes a look at the ladies of wrestling's Golden Era, when the gals didn't have to look like buff runway models with big hair in order to earn a living. Moolah is here, of course, as are a number of other wrasslin' she-babes such as Ida May Martinez and Ella Waldek. The film is tremendous fun, and a fine tribute to these proto-feminist pioneers of the squared circle. Also airs at 12:50pm.

5pm Showtime
The Machinist (2004 ESP): I'm far from being the world's biggest Christian Bale fan, but he's outstanding in this unusual Barcelona-shot thriller about a man who can't sleep. I mean, he REALLY can't sleep - Bale's character, a lathe operator named Trevor Reznik, hasn't sawed any Zs in over a year. Counting sheep doesn't work, medication doesn't help, and he's slowly withering away to nothing (Bale lost over 60 pounds for the role, and he looks like a good breeze could knock him over with little trouble). His condition causes him to get a little sloppy at work, and when his co-worker (the great Michael Ironside) loses a hand in the resultant industrial accident, Trevor's paranoia takes control and he finds himself being stalked by a mystery man who may be a figment of his imagination. A unique blend of mystery, thriller, and existential drama, The Machinist was shot in steel-blue tones by cinematographer Xavi Giménez, also responsible for filming the equally intriguing Intacto. If you admired director Brad Anderson's creepy haunted house chiller Session 9, you should love The Machinist, which re-airs at 8pm and 6/2 on Showtime 2 at 5pm.

Friday 06/02/06

2:40am Encore Love Stories
I'm Crazy About Iris Blond (1996 ITA): This cute romantic comedy features Carlo Verdone as Romeo, a homely musician who keeps losing girlfriends to brainless Charles Atlas look-alikes. He Meets Cute with fast-food waitress Iris (Passion of the Christ's Claudia Gerini) after a fortune teller tells him the love of his life will be named after a flower, but she seems romantically disinclined and is more interested in parlaying their relationship into a musical career. Written and directed by Verdone, I'm Crazy About Iris Blond is a throwback to the popular Italian sex comedies of the ‘60s and ‘70s, with a generous helping of slapstick and plenty of pathos for those who like their laughter leavened with a few tears.

8:30pm Flix
Judge Dredd (1995 USA): This Sly Stallone comic-book adaptation makes its wide-screen television debut this evening. No one can possibly mistake it for a film classic, but all things considered, it's a fun popcorn flick that doesn't take itself too seriously (paging X-Men) and features a surprisingly good cast. Stallone plays the title hero, a bounty hunter of sorts who gets framed for the murder of a TV reporter (when they get around to remaking Judge Dredd, they'd better change that to investigative blogger). Seems his DNA matched that found on the assassin's bullet, but the shocking discovery of Dredd's "identical" clone brother (played, believe it or not, by Armand Assante) - whose DNA, unsurprisingly, also matches - soon muddies the judicial waters. Can bloody payback and spectacular pyrotechnics be very far behind? Amongst the supporting cast are Rob Schneider as Dredd's comic sidekick Fergie, Max Von Sydow as a senior judge, and Jürgen Prochnow, Diane Lane, Ewen Bremner, and British rock star Ian Dury (the film was shot at Shepperton Studios). It's completely mindless, jolly fun, and looks terrific in 2.35:1 Panavision.





Saturday 06/03/06

1:05pm Flix
Au Revoir les Enfants (1987 FRA): Louis Malle was best known for producing films about childhood, and the loss of innocence that inevitably marks the turning point to adulthood. This is perhaps his greatest film - certainly on a par with Murmur of the Heart - and doesn't stray too far from his thematic reservation. Set in a French Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation, the story revolves around three new students - Jews disguised with new names and identity papers - and Julien (Gaspard Manesse), a Gentile student who befriends one of them. He's unaware and uninterested in his new friend's background, and the two become close comrades...until the Gestapo visit school one day, and Julien inadvertently reveals the truth. Loosely based on Malle's own experiences during the War, Au Revoir les Enfants earned two nominations at the 1988 Academy Awards (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director) and came close to running the board at France's equivalent awards ceremony, the Césars. This unsentimental, deeply moving, and very personal film hasn't been on the small screen in some time, and it comes highly recommended.

7pm Sundance
Mysterious Skin (2004 USA): In equal parts harrowing and touching, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin was one of 2004's unheralded triumphs, and makes its American television debut this evening. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Neil, a young man who suffered child abuse at the hands of his Little League coach when he was eight years old and now earns a living as a male prostitute. His friends include Brian, whose paranoia about alien abduction also stems from his Little League experiences, and Avalyn, whose own fears dovetail disturbingly with Brian's. Released with an NC-17 rating, Mysterious Skin doesn't actually show a great deal, but is extremely suggestive and sometimes disturbing, so watch it after the children and Grandma are all safely tucked in bed.

Sunday 06/04/06

9pm Sundance
Dark Water (2002 JAP): This week's Asia Extreme entry on Sundance is Dark Water, yet another Japanese fright-fest that spawned an unnecessary American remake. Directed by Ring master Hideo Nakata, it's the tale of a divorcée who moves into a new apartment with her six-year-old daughter and finds it riddled with leaks and suffused with rising damp. When Mom espies a mysterious young girl playing on the rooftops - a girl who ostensibly disappeared a few years back - the supernatural gears grind into motion, and she begins to fear for her own child's safety. Simple and effective, Dark Water is one of the best of the recent large crop of ghost stories from the Far East, and is essential viewing for genre fans.

Monday 06/05/06

11:15am HBO
Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter's Story (2004 USA): The historical record currently indicates that Julius Rosenberg probably gave the Soviet Union information, and that loyal wife Ethel was a bargaining chip used by brother David Greenglass to avoid prosecution. That's about as much background as one needs to appreciate and enjoy this deeply personal and very moving film about the aftereffects of the Rosenberg executions, and the worn-out "did they/didn't they" arguments are of only peripheral importance. Filled with fascinating interviews with the Rosenberg's children and a surprising number of elderly compatriots, as well as some timely and frightening 1950s footage of anti-Communist hysteria, Heir to an Execution is an emotional attempt by director Ivy Meeropol (granddaughter of the convicted "spies") to come to terms with a dark chapter in her family history. Strongly recommended. Also airs at 2:15pm.

8pm IFC
Dirty Pretty Things (2002 GB): This far-fetched but well-acted drama about organ smuggling has been playing on premium channels for several months, but I believe this marks its first airing in its correct aspect ratio. Directed by Stephen Frears, it's the story of Okwe, a Nigerian man (the now-ubiquitous and very talented Chiwetel Ejiofor) living illegally in London and trying to make ends meet. He's a doctor by trade, but his immigration status forces him to take a job working the desk at a hotel, where he witnesses some very strange goings-on involving the plumbing. His boss (Sergi Lopez) seems completely uninterested in the proceedings, but Okwe convinces his Turkish roommate Senay (Audrey Tautou, less annoying than usual) that "room service" has taken on a whole new meaning at their establishment. A mystery that also provides an intriguing look into underground immigrant culture in London, Dirty Pretty Things earned screenwriter Steven Knight an Academy Award nomination.