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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 06/13/06

1:45am IFC
Chop Socky (2003 USA): What's not to like about this incredible hour-long documentary detailing the genesis of the Hong Kong martial arts film? Filled with great interviews (Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Cheng Pei Pei, Jet Li, John Woo, David Chiang, and others), amazing archival footage from the ‘20s and ‘40s, a black-and-white TV interview with Bruce Lee, and an astounding array of mind-boggling letterboxed and subtitled clips from the Golden Age of Martial Arts cinema, Chop Socky is one of the best film documentaries you're likely to see. As an extra added bonus, this made-in-Hong Kong film eschews the obligatory interview sequence with annoying motormouth Quentin Tarantino, who has to settle for two brief clips from Kill Bill Volume 2. The inclusion of these clips is a minor quibble and shouldn't deter you from watching this film, which keeps the focus where it belongs: on the Chinese-speaking creators of this remarkable genre.

4:30pm Sundance
Tony Takitani (2004 JAP): For some reason the name "Tony Takitani" sounds like it should belong to a suburban real estate agent. "Tony Takitani...bringing families and split-level ranch-style homes together for over 20 years." But no, this Tony Takitani is actually a fictional graphic designer in this oddball, magical/realist feature about one man's efforts to wean his wife off her addiction to clothes shopping, and the concomitant fallout. Directed by Jun Ishikawa and based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, the film stars Issei Ogata as the titular Tony and Rie Myazawa as Eiko, his credit card-beholden spouse. It's not quite as much fun as it sounds - the film is burdened by a plodding pace, mordant music and a washed-out color palette - but it packs a fair amount of insight into its brief 75-minute running time. As much commentary on Japan's post-war consumer society as tone poem on the themes of loneliness, love and death, Tony Takitani also includes a sly reference to Hitchcock's Vertigo that will please and amuse film buffs of all generations. Also airs 6/14 at 2:35am.

6pm Showtime
Interview with the Vampire (1994 USA): I may be mistaken, but I believe this marks the wide-screen television premiere of this extremely uneven horror flick. Visually, the film is a feast, as reliable director Neil Jordan creates a magical, mystical, and danger-laden atmosphere. Unfortunately, Anne Rice's screenplay can't match Jordan's flare for the macabre, and the cast is the final nail in the coffin (or stake through the heart) for this overlong and ultimately leaden bloodsucker epic. Tom Cruise plays Lestat, an undead nobleman who takes a Louisiana landowner (the vomitous Brad Pitt) under his (bat) wing for an apprenticeship in vampirism. After a period of learning at the knee (or neck) of the master, Louis is ready to spread his wings and sample all that life-after-death can offer. There's some globe-hopping and time travel thrown in for good measure, as Pitt's character begins to understand he belongs to a vast brotherhood of sanguinary hemo-sexuals, and a plethora of familiar faces trip across the screen: the annoying Christian Slater as a modern-day reporter, a very young Kirsten Dunst as a tweeny scream queen, and Stephen Rea and Antonio Banderas as a pair of London-based nosferatus. It's overlong by a good 20 minutes and Pitt and Cruise are pretty awful, but Philippe Rousselot's cinematography and Dante Ferretti's production design make for some impressive eye candy. Also airs at 9pm.

Wednesday 06/14/06

2:30pm Showtime
Saved! (2004 USA): The first mainstream comedy to deal with the still-evolving phenomenon of fundamentalist Christianity, Saved! is an occasionally daring and surprisingly subtle dissection of the revival tent trend as seen through the eyes of a group of modern-day high school students. Teen starlet Mandy Moore stars as Hilary Faye, an enthusiastic holy roller attending American Eagle Christian High School in Anytown, USA, but the story centers around second-billed Jena Malone as the appropriately monikered Mary, who thinks she must save a potential sinner (Chad Faust) from the fiery pits of Hell by committing a sin herself. When the unfortunate results of her well-meaning sacrifice become obvious, she finds herself relegated to the school sidelines along with the other outcasts, including wheelchair-bound Roland (Macaulay Culkin) and token Jew Cassandra (Eva Amurri, daughter of Susan Sarandon). The bottom line of Brian Dannelly and Michael Urban's smart screenplay seems to be "judge not, lest ye be judged", and the film ends on a Christian-positive note that may not assuage offended Falwell freaks but will satisfy most everyone else. Saved! is airing in wide-screen, and appears again at 5:30pm and on Showtime 3 6/16 at 10:30am and 6:30pm.

9pm Sundance
The Human Behavior Experiments (2006 USA): A disturbing look at the fallout from three famous scientific experiments designed to test the limits of individual power and personal responsibility, this brief original documentary was directed by Alex Gibney, whose Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room was one of last year's best films. Gibney takes a fresh look at the infamous Milgram experiment, where test subjects thought they were applying painful electric shocks on the orders of omniscient scientists; the Zimbardo experiment, involving prisoner and guard role-playing; and Columbia University's 1969 examination of groupthink. Americans pride themselves on rugged individualism, but these experiments concluded than when presented with authority figures who "know best", we'll commit all sorts of unethical acts in order to avoid rocking the boat or exposing ourselves to potential punishment. Produced in conjunction with Court TV, Gibney's latest film will be quite an eye-opener for anyone unfamiliar with these experiments, and seems especially relevant at a time when torture, terrorism, and massacres are dominating the headlines once again.

10pm The Movie Channel
Night Angel (1990 USA): It's been a few weeks since I've had one of those "I can't believe it's on the tube in wide-screen" moments, but one of those very special times is now at hand. Night Angel is an absolutely dreadful horror flick from the production house of class-ring mogul Walter Josten, and features German sex kitten Isa Andersen as Lilith, a soul-sucking she-demon with a burning desire to become a fashion magazine cover girl. Magazine executive Craig (Linden Ashby) is immune to the charms of her heaving and abundant cleavage, but the rest of the staff falls under her spell, and Lilith's hunger for fame soon finds her pursuing the editor and his loyal gal pal through some dark and stormy woods, presumably to show him her portfolio. Night Angel isn't on home video yet, so if you want to see a woman with faces under her breasts (played by one Susie Sparks, who went on to appear in Ten Years of Big Busts 3), this may be your only chance for a while. Karen Black, Roscoe Lee Browne, and LA radio personality Jed the Fish co-star. Also airs 6/15 at 1am.

Thursday 06/15/06

7:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Lord Byron of Broadway (1930 USA): This impossibly obscure early musical stars the understandably forgotten Charles Kaley as Roy, a Tin Pan Alley composer whose love ‘em and leave ‘em attitude inspires him to write a series of (mostly dreadful) hit tunes. Lord Byron, of course, was renowned for being a peripatetic lover, and Roy's loyal pal Joe (Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards) tries to convince his friend to settle down with nice girl Nancy (Marion Shilling) and give up his swinish ways. Guess what happens? Careful listeners who can decipher the film's poorly-recorded Western Electric Sound will recognize the voice of Jack Benny, whose dulcet tones put in a cameo appearance as a radio host.

9pm Turner Classic Movies
Fanny and Alexander (1982 SWE): I know, Ingmar Bergman films can be a bit of an endurance test, but be honest: with films like The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring, and Wild Strawberries on his resumé, the man long ago earned his stripes. Fanny and Alexander may not be up to the exalted standards of the aforementioned troika, but if you have any affinity for Bergman's miserabilist oeuvre, you need to see it at least once. It's the story of two turn-of-the-20th century children growing up in small-town Sweden, and is considered to be the director's most autobiographical film (Roger Ebert believes the film's three-part structure mirrors the three stages of Bergman's life, and I find his argument quite convincing). At over three hours in length, Fanny and Alexander requires commitment and patience from the viewer; just be grateful TCM isn't airing the 312-minute director's cut!

Friday 06/16/06

2:50am Encore Mystery
SSSSSSS (1973 USA): It's been a VERY long time since this fun herpetological horror flick has been on the small screen; in fact, I don't think I've seen it since its initial theatrical run! If you grew up during the ‘70s, you surely remember the ad campaign for SSSSSSS, which strongly implied that you would see a man transform into a snake before your very eyes. Not wanting to miss this extraordinary vision, I convinced my mother to drive me to the local bijou one "discount Tuesday" evening (all tickets 50 cents), and the two of us were treated to a thoroughly satisfying (and for me, thoroughly scary) frightfest that almost lived up to its billing. Strother Martin stars as a scientist who has developed a serum that can transform man into king cobra. He needs a final subject for his experiments, and finds one when eager young intern David (future Battlestar Galactica star Dirk Benedict) shows up one day looking for employment. David is told that the serum is actually a far-out psychotropic drug, but once he starts to develop scales and a forked tongue, learns that he's on a very, very bad one-way trip. Fright fans won't want to miss this one, and remember, when recommending it to a friend, don't say the title; hiss it!

Sunday 06/18/06

10am Showtime 3
King of Hearts (1966 FRA): Philippe de Broca's comedic fable about the inanity and insanity of war would have been a midnight movie smash if it had come out five years later. As it was, it became one of the great hits of repertory cinema, filling theater seats with regularity throughout the 1960s and ‘70s until the advent of the video age eventually killed its drawing power. Alan Bates plays a World War I British soldier sent to disarm a bomb in a desolate French village populated only (and unbeknownst to him) by the inhabitants of the local insane asylum. When Bates falls for their innocent charms (personified most elegantly by a pixie-ish Geneviève Bujold), he attempts to lead them to safety, but soon finds the path blocked by the advancing German army. Reflecting the guileless innocence of the flowering counterculture, King of Hearts is perhaps viewed best through tinted granny glasses, as its love conquers all, hearts-and-flowers message occasionally crosses the line into cloying territory. It's still thoroughly entertaining and is a perfect film for budding adolescent cineastes looking to find something substantial (if a little obvious) to enliven their film intake. As an extra added bonus, it airs tonight in 2.35:1 Techniscope.

Monday 06/19/06

11:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Devil Makes Three (1952 USA): This post-war MGM thriller stars Gene Kelly as an Air Force veteran who returns to Germany circa 1947 to thank the family who hid him in their attic after his bomber was shot down (I'd like to find a single German family that REALLY provided aid and comfort to an enemy trying to bomb them into submission, but I digress). He finds their house ransacked and the family gone, but remains determined to track them down and give them a hearty handshake and a carton of Lucky Strikes. This extremely implausible set-up paves the way for an intriguing little film that has long since been overshadowed by another film Kelly appeared in in 1952: Singing in the Rain. Truthfully, he's not the world's most convincing airman - Kelly was always better dancing around a lamppost than getting down and dirty with black marketers and unrepentant Nazis - but The Devil Makes Three is entertaining enough, and benefits from good location work in Munich and Bavaria.

6pm Sundance
The Lady in Question is Charles Busch (2005 USA): Everyone's favorite drag queen gets the star treatment in this hugely enjoyable documentary from filmmakers John Catania and Charles Ignacio. Busch is best known to filmgoers for his appearance in Die, Mommy, Die!, a comedy that's been recommended in this column in the past, but of course there's much more to his story than just one film. Busch has spent years cultivating his act both on and off-roadway, and those years are covered here in depth, with footage from such legendary productions as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium sure to scratch whatever transgressive itch you may have stashed away in the closet. The Lady in Question was a hit at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, and makes its small-screen debut this evening. It's fabulous!