Great opening to the new season of Fringe, and gives me hope that it will improve on last year greatly. I am easily swayed by alternate universes, but the little hints and bits of information we’re getting through normal character interaction are now meaningful (like Peter’s concern that his father is watching him sleep – obviously because Walter knows this isn’t the Peter from this universe and is studying him), and it’s making the show a lot stronger. They’re still cribbing a lot from The X-Files (especially in 2×02), but hey, if you’re gonna crib, crib from the best.

Olivia is not bothering me nearly like she did last year – I’ll admit she got better toward the end of last season. Some combination of Anna Torv committing to the character more and the writers giving her more to commit to is starting to pay off. Keep it up, all. And Walter, oh Walter. It’s not easy being both the intellectual and emotional center of a show, especially when you’re a supporting character, but John Noble, you’re making it work EVERY SINGLE WEEK. And Joshua Jackson – stay hot. That’s all I ask. :)

Also, I gotta give props to a show that’s willing to casually kill off a relatively major character and basically turn him into a villain. Very intriguing plot move.

Olivia’s got heightened senses? Is she possibly hearing echoes from another universe? What’s required for her to cross over? I forget from the finale – is she going to be able to do it at will at some point, or are there specific circumstances required? The heightened senses isn’t constant, though, but apparently random. Is there something specific she’s supposed to hear?

New puzzle piece – Sam Weiss. The man who “put me back together” says Nina Sharp. “When you’re ready, I believe he can help you.” Help her what? Go back to the other universe? Remember what she heard there? Recontact William Bell? Weiss predicts Olivia will get headaches – sounds like he’s been to the other side, and perhaps Nina as well? I’m liking the way this is going, very much. It’s building much tighter than the first season did, but still leaving enough time for Monsters of the Week. So glad I didn’t give up on it last year.

Family Guy 8×01: Road to the Multiverse

How did Family Guy know alternate universes were my favorite thing ever? Aside from the one where everything is 1000 years more advanced because Christianity never existed (seriously, I love the show, but does it have to take potshots at Christianity in almost every episode?), almost all the others had me laughing out loud, especially the ones that lampooned other animation styles. The Disney one CRACKED ME UP. And then following it up with Robot Chicken? Sweet.

That could easily allow an argument that Family Guy is out of ideas (a criticism leveled at it a lot last year), but I really enjoy that kind of referencing. And with that, Family Guy remains atop the animation category.

The Simpsons 21×01: Homer the Whopper

Comic book geeks! I love this episode. And a Guernica reference? I super love this episode.

But then after that it got a bit more routine. I mean, good enough, right, with the parody of big-screen blockbuster filmmaking. Kind of an easy target, though.

The Cleveland Show 1×01: Pilot (spoilers)

It’s better than the previews. The style’s like a slightly less manic Family Guy. Perhaps a Family Guy with a little more heart? We’ll see. At least I don’t feel like I’m only watching it because I know people who work on it. I do have just one question, though…BEAR NEIGHBORS WTF?

I did think the courtship part was going to take longer. Interesting they decided to jump straight to the wedding and make it about the new family rather than taking more time to lead up to that. Kinda felt rushed at the end, but perhaps that’s better than stretching it over a season or something.

Taxi Driver, playing at 2:00am on September 30th on TCM.

A few to highlight this week: Martin Scorsese’s electrifying Taxi Driver is playing late Tuesday/early Wednesday on TCM, the small but highly worthwhile The Station Agent is on Wednesday on IFC, and TCM is showing a Marx Brothers double-feature Friday morning.

Monday, September 28

5:10am – Sundance – That Obscure Object of Desire
Luis Buñuel, ever one to come up with outlandish conceits, here directs two women playing the same role. The result is trippy and mesmerizing.
1977 France/Spain. Director: Luis Buñuel. Starring: Fernandy Rey, Carole Bouquet, Ángela Molina.

6:55am – IFC – Wild Strawberries
On his way to accept an honorary degree, elderly medical doctor Victor Sjöström thinks back and re-evaluates his life while being plagued by nightmares. Sounds kinda depressing, but then again, it is Ingmar Bergman. And he has a way of making depressing seem AWESOME.
1957 Sweden. Director: Ingmar Bergman. Starring: Victor Sjöstroöm, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand.

9:00am – Fox Movie Channel – The Mark of Zorro
Not perhaps one of the greatest adventure films ever made, but a perfectly servicable one, and quite enjoyable for fans of Zorro. Tyrone Power was Fox’s version of Errol Flynn, and though he doesn’t have quite the panache that Flynn does, he’s still fun.
1940 USA. Director: Rouben Mamoulian. Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Pallette.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – IFC – The New World
Terrence Malick may not make many films, but the ones he does make, wow. Superficially the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, The New World is really something that transcends mere narrative – this is poetry on film. Every scene, every shot has a rhythm and an ethereal that belies the familiarity of the story we know. I expected to dislike this film when I saw it, quite honestly. It ended up moving me in ways I didn’t know cinema could.
2005 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer.
Must See
(repeats at 12:45pm on the 29th)

12:00M – Sundance – Man on Wire
I haven’t taken the opportunity to see last year’s highly-acclaimed documentary about high-wire walker Philippe Petit yet, but here it is already on Sundance.
2008 UK/USA. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau.
(repeats at 12:00M on the 30th/1st)

Tuesday, September 29

6:00am – Fox Movie Channel – Anna and the King of Siam
The earlier/non-musical version of The King and I stars Irene Dunne in one of her last films and Rex Harrison in one of his earliest. Both do a fine job.
1946 USA. Director: John Cromwell. Starring: Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Gale Sondergaard.
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – TCM – The Bride Wore Black
A poker-faced Jeanne Moreau takes cold-hearted revenge on five men who had a hand in her husband’s death in François Truffaut’s most overt homage to Alfred Hitchcock.
1968 France. Director: François Truffaut. Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Bouquet.
Newly Featured!

2:00am (30th) – TCM – Taxi Driver
One of those films that bursts off the screen at you with intensity, both because of Scorsese’s dynamite direction and Robert DeNiro’s tightly-wound performance as Travis Bickel. When I first watched this, I expected it to be a film I’d put up with so I could mark it off my “film buffs must watch” list, but I was riveted for every second.
1976 USA. Director: Martin Scorsese. Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd.
Must See
Newly Featured!

Wednesday, September 30

6:00am – IFC – Love’s Labour’s Lost
Kenneth Branagh has taken on a lot of Shakespeare plays and usually does them with incredible fidelity (like his uncut, four-plus hour-long Hamlet). This time around, he takes a lesser-known comedy and adds music by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern to turn it into a 1930s style musical. It doesn’t work all the time, but for fans of Shakespeare and old musicals (like me), it’s still a fun watch.
2000 USA. Director: Kenneth Branagh. Starring: Alessandro Nivolo, Alicia Silverstone, Natascha McElhone, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Lillard.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 10:35am and 4:50pm)

8:30am – Sundance – Paris je t’aime
I have a huge soft spot for Paris – basically any movie set there I will like to at least some degree. So an anthology film with eighteen internationally-renowned directors giving their take on Paris with eighteen short films all mashed together? Yeah, instant love. Obviously some sections are far stronger than others – the Coens, Gus van Sant, Alexander Payne, Isabel Coixet, Tom Tykwer, and Wes Craven turn in my favorites.
2006 France. Director: various. Starring: many.
(repeats at 2:30pm)

9:00am – IFC – The Station Agent
One of the most pleasant surprises (for me, anyway) of 2003. Peter Dinklage moves into a train depot to indulge his love for trains and stay away from people, only to find himself befriended by a loquacious Cuban hot-dog stand keeper and an emotionally delicate Patricia Clarkson. A quiet but richly rewarding film.
2003 USA. Director: Thomas McCarthy. Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 3:15pm)

3:45pm – TCM – Some Came Running
Frank Sinatra gets to prove his acting chops again as a cynical soldier returning to his small-town home. Shirley MacLaine is a revelation, and Dean Martin gets probably his best role, as well. Meanders a bit in the middle, but thanks to strong performances and incredibly well-done yet subtle mise-en-scene from Minnelli, ends up staying more memorable than you might expect.
1959 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine.

6:15pm – TCM – Dark Victory
A Bette Davis tour-de-force, as she plays a woman diagnosed with a blindness-causing brain tumor. She’s supported by George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, and a young Humphrey Bogart (as an Irish stablehand, providing an amusement factor that’s almost reason enough to watch the film).
1939 USA. Director: Edmund Goulding. Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon.
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – Fox Movie Channel – Miller’s Crossing
The Coen brothers take on 1930s gangland with this film, and do so admirably well. As they do most things. I have to admit I wasn’t quite as enamored of it as I usually am of Coen films, but it definitely has its moments.
1990 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, Albert Finney.
(repeats at 12:00M)

10:00pm – IFC – Raising Arizona
This relatively early Coen Brothers comedy has Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as a childless ex-con couple who decide to rectify that situation by stealing one of a set of quintuplets. They’ll never miss him, right? Wrong. Zany complications ensue.
1987 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson, John Goodman, Frances McDormand.
(repeat at 2:00am)

Thursday, October 1

9:35am – IFC – Millions
In this Danny Boyle film, a young British boy finds a bag with millions of pounds in it; the catch is that Britain is days away from switching to the euro, so the money will soon be worthless. The shifting ethical questions combined with a sometimes almost 2004 UK. Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Christopher Fulford.
(repeats at 2:00pm)

8:00pm – IFC – From Hell
Johnny Depp takes on the role of a troubled Victorian police detective on the trail of Jack the Ripper in this adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel. Not quite as memorable as would hope, but worth a watch.
2001 USA. Directors: Albert and Allen Hughes. Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 2:30am)

11:45pm – IFC – Amores Perros
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarrítu specializes in films with multiple intersecting storylines, and he does it best here, in his breakthrough Mexican film (starring Gael Garcia Bernal, also just beginning to become a household name at this point). The three largely independent stories are tied together by the characters’ relationship with dogs and involvement in a climactic car crash – though the idea is similar to his later film Babel or Paul Haggis’ Crash, Amores Perros is much more subtle and memorable.
2000 Mexico. Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarrítu. Starring: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo.
Newly Featured!

1:30am (2nd) – TCM – The Grapes of Wrath
This is one of those huge omissions in my film-watching repertoire. I’ve meant to watch John Ford’s homage to the dust bowl farmers of the 1930s for years, but have never quite gotten around to it.
1940 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin.

Friday, October 2

6:00am – TCM – A Night at the Opera
One of the best of the Marx Brothers’ zany comedies finds them running awry through the world of opera. This is the one that contains the famous “how much stuff can we stuff into a stateroom” scene. And a subplot with Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle, but that’s best ignored as much as possible.
1935 USA. Director: Sam Wood. Starring: The Marx Brothers, Allan Jones, Kitty Carlisle, Margaret Dumont.
Must See

7:45am – TCM – A Day at the Races
The Marx Brothers take over the racetrack in what is probably the last of their really great comedies. As with A Night at the Opera you do have to put up with the silly romantic subplot, but it’s not too big a strain.
1937 USA. Director: Sam Wood. Starring: The Marx Brothers, Allan Jones, Maureen O’Sullivan, Margaret Dumont.
Must See

8:00am – Fox Movie Channel – My Darling Clementine
John Ford’s version of the famous confrontation at the OK Corral actually focuses more on Wyatt Earp’s fictional romance with the fictional Clementine than on the real-life Earp/Clanton feud, but history aside, this is one of the greatest and most poetic westerns on film, proving yet again Ford’s mastery of the genre and of cinema.
1946 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Linda Darnell, Cathy Downs, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt.
Must See

9:30am – IFC – American Splendor
Harvey Pekar is one of the more idiosyncratic graphic novelists there is (”comic book” doesn’t quite cover his very adult, neurotic art), and Paul Giamatti brings him to life perfectly.
2003 USA. Directors: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini. Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis.
(repeats at 2:35pm)

6:15pm – IFC – Manhattan
In one of Woody Allen’s best films, he’s a neurotic intellectual New Yorker (surprise!) caught between his ex-wife Meryl Streep, his teenage mistress Mariel Hemingway, and Diane Keaton, who just might be his match. Black and white cinematography, a great script, and a Gershwin soundtrack combine to create near perfection.
1979 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Mariel Hemingway, Alan Alda.
Must See
(repeats at 6:15am and 2:00pm on the 3rd)

9:00pm – TCM – Rear Window
Hitchcock, Stewart, and Kelly mix equal parts suspense thriller, murder mystery, romance, voyeristic expose, ethical drama, caustic comedy and cinematographic experiment to create one of my favorite films of all time.
1954 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr.
Must See

11:30pm – IFC – The Cooler
In this under-the-radar film, William H. Macy plays a loser whose bad luck gets him a job as a “cooler” at a casino – his luck spreads and cools off any hot winning streaks that might be going on. But when he starts a relationship with Maria Bello, his new-found love and acceptance turns his luck. This film reinforced my knowledge of Bill Macy’s talent, made me take notice of Maria Bello, and gave Alec Baldwin pretty much his best role until 30 Rock.
2003 USA. Director: Wayne Cramer. Starring: William H. Macy, Mario Bello, Alec Baldwin.

12:00M – TCM – Shadow of a Doubt
Somewhat lesser-known Hitchcock film that ought to be top-tier. Small-town girl Teresa Wright idolizes her uncle Charlie, but we know that he’s an infamous murderer on the run. Hitchcock once made a distinction between mystery and suspense: mystery is when there’s tension because the audience doesn’t know whodunit, suspense is when there’s tension because the audience does. This film is a perfect example of suspense, and Hitchcock’s preference for telling the audience whodunit very early in the film and letting them squirm.
1942 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten.

Saturday, October 3

1:00am – Fox Movie Channel – Die Hard
All John McClane wants to do is get home for Christmas. But plans change, especially when a bunch of terrorists take over his wife’s office building and McClane has to take them out almost singlehandedly. And give us one of the best action movies ever made.
1988 USA. Director: John McTiernan. Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Must See

7:30am – TCM – I Walked With a Zombie
Or, Jane Eyre in the West Indies. In Val Lewton’s moody little fantastic horror flick, mousy nurse Betsy goes to the Caribbean to care for afflicted Jessica, the wife of an important plantation owner. Turns out her affliction is due to zombification, a curse of the voodoo-practicing natives. Certainly the acting and script are nothing special here, but the noirish cinematography and direction by Jacques Tourneur as well as producer Lewton’s peculiarly literary sensibility certainly are.
1943 USA. Director: Jacques Tourneur. Starring: Frances Dee, James Ellison, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, Christine Gordon, Darby Jones.

Sunday, October 4

3:30pm – Fox Movie Channel – Two for the Road
Once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and blindsides me with brilliance. Two for the Road is directed by Stanley Donen, best known for lighthearted musicals, comedies, and mysteries. It stars Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney; Hepburn at least also best known for lighthearted, whimsical fare. But Two for the Road is one of the most thoughtful and adult films of the 1960s, and I mean that in a good way. It dissects Hepburn’s and Finney’s relationship, cutting back and forth between their meeting, their marriage, and their separation almost as if all three are happening at the same time – every moment of their life together becomes part of who they are and part of the sum of their relationship, and Donen has found the perfect way to depict that.
1967 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney.
Must See

And my DVR begins its protests against abuse and overwork. I’m trying to cut down this year, really I am, but I think what’s going to happen (again) is I start off watching way too much and then shows will fall off as the season goes on. At least this year I already have a color-coded list of which shows are first on the chopping block. YES, color-coded. What? I’m a nerd.

So what’s on everyone else’s schedules? Let me know! I’m going to try to post more about TV this year – if only because I need to get into the habit of posting more, and TV is an easy topic to do.

Definitely Watching

Dollhouse

I was shocked and pleased when Fox renewed Dollhouse last year; I can’t wait to see where it goes this year. Hopefully far enough that I’ll soon forget the disappointment of the simultaneous (and probably related) demise of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

30 Rock

Doesn’t come back until the middle of October! Wah. But then it’s always late, isn’t it? Ah well, Liz Lemon and her crew are worth waiting for, always.

Mad Men

This one started several weeks ago, actually. And I’m already four or five episodes behind. Way to start the season, there. In my defence, I was finishing up Season 2 on disc. But I really need to marathon it and catch up, because it’s one of the best shows on TV right now.

Fringe

I spent all last year deciding whether to keep watching Fringe, because I didn’t feel any connection with Olivia, and had some issues with the narrative. But then the finale had like six WTF moments, and it turned out to be one of my most-anticipated returning shows. That could be because it’s sci-fi and I’m hungry for any sci-fi right now. Or it could be because alternate realities are the BEST EVER. We’ll see if the season bears out the promise of last year’s finale.

V

I haven’t seen the original series, I’m not going to. It’s sci-fi. I’m watching it, and I’m excited about it. And upset that it doesn’t start until FRAKKING NOVEMBER.

The Office

Poo-ball! Yeah, that’s what I took away from the season premiere. And also, Jim and Pam are still adorable. I remember being afraid that after a while their adorableness would wear off and the writers would be forced to break them up to keep interest, but I’m more confident now that they won’t do that.

How I Met Your Mother

Three words: Neil Patrick Harris. A few more words: I was such a huge fan of Ted-Robin that I fought Barney-Robin like crazy. But I give in. They’re good. There are so few sitcoms I can watch, and HIMYM keeps popping back near the top of my list.

So You Think You Can Dance

In the fall! I’m so excited! My wittle baby summer show gets a fall slot. I love everything about this show, except when people get eliminated. That part I don’t like. I could go on and on about how it kicks American Idol’s ass, but I did that years ago. Nothing has changed.

Family Guy

Usually this is on my “watch when I have time” list, just because the episodes don’t depend on seeing them all or seeing them in order. But Family Guy gets quoted approximately 8,295,372 times every day at work, so I gotta keep up. Plus, it’s hilarious.

Project Runway

I’m not a fashion person, but Project Runway is some damn fine TV. Just seeing what the designers come up with to meet the requirements of the challenge is fascinating (and often the most outlandish challenges get the most remarkable results, go figure). The season is well underway, and thankfully the switch from Bravo to Lifetime doesn’t seem to have hurt it at all.

Survivor: Samoa

Yep, I got sucked into Survivor. I resisted for years, but I’m there now. Although so far this year, the one guy who thinks he’s all that is annoying me so much. I hope he gets voted off soonish.

FlashForward

I’m calling this one pseudo-sci-fi until I see more, though most people seem to be considering it a sci-fi show. Personally, I think everyone simultaneously blacking out and seeing a vision of their future is an interesting if somewhat gimmicky premise, but doesn’t guarantee actual sci-fi-ness. But it’s one of the few new shows I’m excited about, and it has Joseph Fiennes. So there you go.

Glee

I’m a little more skeptical of hyped-up music-infested high school-set shows than some of my friends, but it at least looks to be a good guilty pleasure show. Don’t get me wrong, I love music and musicals, but I’m not really a fan of the music they’ve had on the show so far. Too “High School Musical.” Which is, of course, the obvious comparison.

We’ll See

The Simpsons
Ditto what I said about Family Guy. I haven’t kept up as well with The Simpsons, though, in previous seasons, so I feel less bad if I get behind.

The Amazing Race
Usually TAR is at the top of my reality show list, but I’m starting to get a little bored with its formula. But I’m keeping it on my schedule because a) I like seeing all the places they go and b) honestly, some nights, reality tv is all I have the energy to watch, so I need a few options.

Top Chef
I enjoy Top Chef and always watch in the summer when it starts, but I don’t love it enough to keep it up if I get behind on other stuff. OTOH, the early start means it ends early.

Bones
I actually love Bones a lot, but I got behind on it last year and missed half a season. I watched the season opener last week, and I don’t think picking it back up will be an issue, but we’ll see.

Community
Really only watched this last week because it’s in 30 Rock‘s spot and I figured, why not. We’ll see if it has staying power once the schedule gets crazier and it moves timeslots.

The Cleveland Show
I’m going to start out watching this because a) Family Guy spin-off and b) I know the head animator. But the previews I’ve seen have not been promising. We’ll see.

Will Probably Drop

House
I love House, really, but I missed half of last season, and I was starting to get a little bored with House’s schtick anyway. I’m gonna try a couple of eps once they show up on hulu, but in a time crunch, I’ve got to say goodbye to the good doctor.

The Mentalist
Got behind on this one last year, too, but I enjoyed the episodes I saw. I’m going to try to pick it up again, but procedurals are usually the first to drop when I start running out of time.

Numb3rs
Procedural. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but the last year or so hasn’t kept me as interested.

NCIS
I missed a lot of this one last year, too. I think there’s something going on with Ziva that I know NOTHING about, so I’m not sure I can pick it back up without seeing the episodes I missed. Not sure I want to, either…I have one recorded and I’ll check it out, but I’ll probably drop it soon.

NCIS: Los Angeles
I gotta give any show set in LA a chance, but even the billboards look stupid, so no high hopes.

Criminal Minds
I love the cases on Criminal Minds, some of the more fascinating ones in any of the procedurals, but again, procedural. And I really didn’t watch it at all until last season, so I don’t have a lot invested in it.

Ugly Betty
This one kills me. I *love* Ugly Betty, but I missed so much of it last year. I don’t think I want to start it up again without watching the ones I missed, so I may put this down as a “watch on DVD later.”

Not Watching

Grey’s Anatomy
Big fan for years, even against my will at times, but I lost track last year (wow, last year sucked for me and TV, huh?), and I’d already fallen into a love-hate relationship with the show. I’ll probably be a happier person without it.

Desperate Housewives
My love-hate relationship with DH fell way more into hate last year, so I’m not really even half-way considering trying to pick it back up. Sorry, guys, you lost me somewhere around the time you stopped lampooning soaps and became one.

The Big Bang Theory
I’ve never been a Big Bang Theory watcher, but I’ve told people I would try it. I tried it. It’s not that funny, guys. Not against NBCs sitcoms and HIMYM. And the laugh track kills whatever jokes might’ve been funny.

Heroes
There’s not really any question with Heroes. I gave up middle of last season when it did not improve after the debacle of the previous season, and despite the fact that Bryan Fuller is back, I refuse to be pulled back into it again. This is probably the only show I’ve ever watched that I literally dreaded watching off the DVR every week.

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2001: A Space Odyssey, playing on TCM at 2:00am on the 22nd

There are several newly featured films worthy of highlight this week. TCM is playing a double-feature of Buster Keaton silents on Monday night, starting with Sherlock Jr. at 8pm. They’re also throwing out some noirs that are new to our listing – the Raymond Chandler-based Murder, My Sweet on Wednesday at 6:15pm and the Bogart-Bacall Key Largo Sunday at 6pm. And don’t miss a couple of really great romances – Two for the Road Friday at 4pm on the Fox Movie Channel, and Brief Encounter Saturday at 7:30am on TCM. Something for everyone this week, as well as the usual crop of repeats in case you missed something in earlier weeks.

Monday, September 21

6:30am – IFC – Howl’s Moving Castle
Hayao Miyazaki has been a leader in the world of kid-friendly anime films for several years now, and while many would point to Spirited Away as his best film, I actually enjoyed Howl’s Moving Castle the most of all his films. Japanese animation takes some getting used to, but Miyazaki’s films are well worth it, and serve as a wonderful antidote to the current stagnation going on in American animation (always excepting Pixar).
2004 Japan. Director: Hayao Miyazaki. Starring (dubbed voices): Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall
(repeats at 12:20pm)

3:45pm – TCM – The Window
Young boy Bobby Driscoll is a chronic liar, which makes it very difficult to make his family and other adults believe him when he claims he saw a murder being committed. But when the murderer finds out what he knows… A solid little thriller told from a child’s point of view.
1949 USA. Director: Ted Tetzlaff. Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman.

8:00pm – TCM – Sherlock, Jr.
Buster Keaton is a film projectionist who longs to be a detective so much that he dreams himself into a film he’s projecting so he can become the detective hero of the story. The scene of him entering the film is justly famous, though it’s a smaller portion of the film than its fame leads you to believe.
1924 USA. Director: Buster Keaton. Starring: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Ward Crane.
Must See
Newly Featured!

9:00pm – TCM – Steamboat Bill, Jr.
One of Buster Keaton’s best-known films has him as the city-boy son of a steamboat captain who goes to learn his father’s trade. Many mishaps later, he’s left to rescue his father from a tremendous hurricane – that scene is one of Keaton’s absolute best set-pieces, as he remains implacable while buildings literally fall around him.
1928 USA. Director: Charles Reisner. Starring: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence.
Newly Featured!

9:45pm – IFC – Chasing Amy
Kevin Smith’s third film, not as low-fi indie as Clerks, as goofy as Mallrats, as irreverently genius as Dogma, as self-referential as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, or as racy as Zach and Miri Make a Porno, but perhaps sweeter than all of them – Ben Affleck falls for Joey Lauren Adams, with the only slight obstacle being that she’s a lesbian.
1997 USA. Director: Kevin Smith. Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee.
(repeats at 3:15am)

10:15pm – TCM – On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando’s performance as a former boxer pulled into a labor dispute among dock workers goes down as one of the greatest in cinematic history. I’m not even a huge fan of Brando, but this film wins me over.
1954 USA. Director: Elia Kazan. Starring: Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint.
Must See

12:00M – Sundance – Man on Wire
I haven’t taken the opportunity to see last year’s highly-acclaimed documentary about high-wire walker Philippe Petit yet, but here it is already on Sundance, so I’m hoping to catch it this week.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 12:00M on the 22nd/23rd)

12:15am (22nd) – TCM – Dr. Strangelove
Trust Stanley Kubrick to find the funny side of the Cold War. Peter Sellers plays multiple parts, including the President, an insane general who wants to nuke Russia, and the limb-control-impaired doctor of the title. It’s zany, it’s over-the-top, it’s bitingly satirical, and it remains one of Kubrick’s best films in a career full of amazing work.
1964 USA/UK. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott.
Must See

2:00am (22nd) – TCM – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s visually stunning journey through thousands of years of technological evolution and man-vs-machine conflict is still one of the ultimate science fiction films. And it’s aged far better both visually and philosophically than one would expect. I think I watch it almost every time TCM plays it, and it never gets old.
1968 USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Keir Dullea.
Must See
Newly Featured!

Tuesday, September 22

6:30am – TCM – I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Paul Muni plays an initially optimistic and energetic young man who struggles to find a job during the Depression. Eventually he ends up unwillingly involved in a robbery and sentenced to the chain gang. One of Warner Bros’ best “ripped from the headlines” socially conscious films – they did a lot of them in the 1930s.
1931 USA. Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Starring: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson.

8:00pm – TCM – North by Northwest
Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) gets mistaken for George Kaplan and pulled into an elaborate web of espionage in one of Hitchcock’s most enjoyable and funniest thrillers. So many great scenes it’s impossible to list them all.
1959 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau.
Must See

10:30pm – TCM – Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock built the foundation for all future psycho-killer movies with his classic. It’s not as terrifying as it once was, but that doesn’t at all diminish its greatness.
1960 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam.Must See

12:30am (23rd) – TCM – Marnie
Marnie gets something of a bad rap, I think, because it comes right after Hitchcock’s amazing Vertigo-North by Northwest-Psycho-The Birds streak of genius, but I think it’s one of Hitchcock’s most underrated films, despite a few somewhat obvious plot devices and the fact that ‘Tippi’ Hedren can’t act. In some ways, the imperfections in this one are what makes it interesting.
1964 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: ‘Tippi’ Hedren, Sean Connery.

Wednesday, September 23

12:00N – IFC – La Jetée
Very few short films become classics (outside of silent films and arguably Looney Tunes), but Chris Marker’s La Jetee, told entirely in sequences of still photographs, is one of them. In a postapocalyptic future, a man is sent back in time to try and stop WWIII from happening. But he both falls in love and is haunted by a childhood memory – two things that are fatefully interconnected.
1962 France. Director: Chris Marker. Starring: Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich.

6:15pm – TCM – Murder, My Sweet
Humphrey Bogart is the screen’s most famous Philip Marlowe, playing Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective in The Big Sleep in 1946, but Dick Powell beat him by two years in this adaptation of Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. It’s not the classic that The Big Sleep is, but it’s a solid noir detective film that’s more than worth watching, not least of all for Claire Trevor, who’s pretty much always worth watching.
1944 USA. Director: Edward Dmytryk. Starring: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger.
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – TCM – The Adventures of Robin Hood
I will state almost categorically that this is the greatest adventure film ever made. Maybe it’s a dead heat between this one and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Errol Flynn is Robin Hood, Olivia de Havilland is Maid Marion, a whole raft of fantastic character actors fill out the rest of the cast, and it’s all done in gorgeous Technicolor (it’s one of the earliest Technicolor films).
1938 USA. Directors: William Keighley & Michael Curtiz. Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Patric Knowles, Una O’Connor.
Must See

12:00M – IFC – Pi
Darren Aronofsky’s first feature is this fever dream of a mathematician searching for the numeric patterns that will unlock the secrets of the stock market – paranoid, fearful of human contact, and beset by terrible headaches, he’s also pursued by Wall Street factions and Hasidic Jews, each seeking the results of his formulas. It’s heady stuff, but Aronofsky’s the right guy for that.
1998 USA. Director: Darren Aronofsky. Starring: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman.
(repeats at 4:34am on the 24th)

2:00am (24th) – Sundance – Eraserhead
David Lynch’s first feature is a weird post-apocalyptic dreamscape of a film – what, you were expecting something normal? When you can have industrial decay and mutant babies?
1977 USA. Director: David Lynch. Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart.
Newly Featured!

Thursday, September 24

8:00pm – TCM – 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
The original version of 2007’s highly successful Christian Bale-Russell Crowe western is well worth watching in its own right – a little less actiony, a little more thoughtful, though its story of a peaceful farmer shuffled into the role of law enforcement to get a criminal to the train for his trial without having him rescued by his gang remains largely identical.
1957 USA. Director: Delmer Daves. Starring: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana.

8:00pm – IFC – Gangs of New York
I found this film a difficult one to like when I watched it, but I haven’t seen it for five years – perhaps a rewatch is in order. It certainly is hard to argue with the concept of a Scorsese/diCaprio/Day-Lewis trifecta in a story about Irish gangs at the dawn of New York’s existence.
2003 USA. Director: Martin Scorsese. Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo diCaprio, Cameron Diaz.
(repeats at 2:45am on the 26th)

12:45am (26th) – IFC – The Sweet Hereafter
Acclaimed Canadian director Atom Egoyan directs one of his best-known films, a story of the aftermath of a schoolbus accident that forever altered life in a small Canadian town and a big city lawyer who tries to put together a class-action suit for reasons of his own.
1997 Canada. Director: Atom Egoyan. Starring: Ian Holm, Caerthan Banks, Sarah Polley, Tom McCamus.
Newly Featured!

Friday, September 25

5:30pm – TCM – The King and I
Oklahoma! is my unabashed favorite Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, but I have a lot of admiration for The King and I, if only because it addresses far more serious topics with far less happy outcomes than most musicals ever do.
1956 USA. Director: Walter Lang. Starring: Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno.

5:45pm – Sundance – A Woman Under the Influence
Gena Rowlands gives a tour-de-force performance as Mabel, a woman whose teetering madness threatens her marriage to Nick (Peter Falk). Their relationship edges back and forth between love, frustration, and anger with amazing quickness, yet it’s not clear whether Mabel’s instability is causing the problems, or the other way around. John Cassavetes directs with an unwavering camera, refusing to look away.
1974 USA. Director: John Cassavetes. Starring: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands.
(repeats at 12:00N on the 26th)

4:00pm – Fox Movie Channel – Two for the Road
Once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and blindsides me with brilliance. Two for the Road is directed by Stanley Donen, best known for lighthearted musicals, comedies, and mysteries. It stars Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney; Hepburn at least also best known for lighthearted, whimsical fare. But Two for the Road is one of the most thoughtful and adult films of the 1960s, and I mean that in a good way. It dissects Hepburn’s and Finney’s relationship, cutting back and forth between their meeting, their marriage, and their separation almost as if all three are happening at the same time – every moment of their life together becomes part of who they are and part of the sum of their relationship, and Donen has found the perfect way to depict that.
1967 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney.
Must See
Newly Featured!

3:15am (26th) – IFC – Stage Beauty
Sometime around Shakespeare’s time, theatrical convention changed from having all female parts played by males on stage to allowing women to perform female roles themselves. Caught in this shift were the effeminate men who had made their careers and indeed, their identities, out of playing women. Stage Beauty is about one such man and his crisis of self when he no longer had a professional or personal identity. It’s a fascinating film in many ways.
2004 UK. Director: Richard Eyre. Starring: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin.

Saturday, September 26

7:30am – TCM – Brief Encounter
In this quiet little doomed romance, a married woman bored with her dull husband meets a man on a train – and continues to meet him every week, indulging herself in the way he makes her feel, even though she knows it can’t really be. David Lean brings a lushness and depth to this deceptively simple story (by Noel Coward), making into one of the most memorable romances of the 1940s.
1945 UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Cyril Raymond.
Must See
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – IFC – The Player
Robert Altman takes on Hollywood in this story of a script screener (Tim Robbins) who gets drawn further and further into a web of blackmail and double-crosses when he’s threatened by a screenwriter whose script he rejected. You gotta love it for the virtuosic opening pan at the very least; the rest of the Hollywood insider references are just gravy.
1992 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopie Goldberg.
(repeats at 2:00am on the 27th)

Sunday, September 27

2:05pm – IFC – Moulin Rouge
Baz Lurhmann admittedly has a love-it-or-hate-it flamboyantly trippy aesthetic, especially in the informal Red Curtain trilogy which Moulin Rogue! closes. And sure, it’s over the top; sure, the story is fairly routine; sure, the acting is so-so. I love it to pieces anyway.
2001 USA. Director: Baz Lurhmann. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo.

6:00pm – TCM – Key Largo
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall team up for the final time on this great noirish melodrama of a group of people, including a wheelchair-bound hotel owner, his recently widowed daughter-in-law (Bacall), a war veteran (Bogart), and a ruthless gangster and his girl, forced to take refuge against a fierce hurricane. Among the best films for all involved, and that’s saying something considering who all is involved.
1948 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor.
Must See
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – IFC – Fargo
Still one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, despite over a decade of mostly good films in the intervening years. Dark comedy is not an easy genre, and Fargo is the gold standard, blending shocking violence and a noir-ish crime story with comical inept criminals and a perfectly rendered performance from Frances McDormand.
1996 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi.
Must See
(repeats at 1:30am on the 28th)

New Silversun Pickups video! And there was much rejoicing. “Substitution” is probably my second-favorite song off Swoon, after “Panic Switch” (so they’re releasing singles in order of my preference, yay!). And this video is far less seizure-inducing than the “Panic Switch” one. I just love to see them play. Also, those are some angry models. Someone order in some Subway before they start cutting everyone. (hat tip Stereogum)

The Cranes are Flying, playing on TCM Monday the 21st at 2:00am (or really late Sunday night, depending on your point of view)

Mostly repeats this week, but a few really cool new additions this week, all courtesy of TCM. First, one of Hitchcock’s most lighthearted thrillers, The Trouble With Harry, is showing on Tuesday. Then Friday night/Saturday morning, don’t miss one of the all-time great so-bad-it’s-good movies, Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. And then The Cranes are Flying, a Soviet classic I’ve never seen TCM run before, is playing late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

Monday, September 14

8:00pm – IFC – Fargo
Still one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, despite over a decade of mostly good films in the intervening years. Dark comedy is not an easy genre, and Fargo is the gold standard, blending shocking violence and a noir-ish crime story with comical inept criminals and a perfectly rendered performance from Frances McDormand.
1996 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi.
Must See
(repeats at 2:00am)

Tuesday, September 15

7:15am – IFC – Waking Life
Richard Linklater’s first foray into overlaid animation is a philosophical dreamscape that’ll either leave you cold or inhabit your thoughts for weeks. It’s the latter for me. Like most of Linklater’s films, it’s largely made up of people talking, but with the added interest of the unique ever-shifting, never-solid animation style (which he’d reuse with a slightly more standard sci-fi story in A Scanner Darkly).
2001 USA. Director: Richard Linklater. Starring: Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.
(repeats at 11:45am and 5:35pm)

8:00pm – TCM – The Trouble With Harry
A group of small-town New Englanders find a dead body (that of Harry) in the woods and, fearing they’ll be murder suspects if it’s found, conspire to hide it. One of Hitchcock’s funniest films, mixing the macabre and the absurd adeptly.
1955 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 10:00am on the 20th)

8:05pm – IFC – I Heart Huckabees
Not too many films take philosophy as their base, but this one basically does, following a man (Jason Schwartzman) plagued by coincidence who hires a couple of existentialists to figure out what’s going on.
2004 USA. Director: David O. Russell. Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Isabelle Huppert, Dustin Hoffman, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law.

10:00pm – TCM – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Hitchcock’s second version of this story (the first was 1934) has Doris Day and James Stewart as a couple who discover an assassination plot and have their son kidnapped to try to keep them quiet. It’s a well-done film and worth watching, though not quite up to many of Hitchcock’s other classics.
1956 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: James Stewart, Doris Day, Bernard Miles, Brenda De Banzie.
Newly Featured!

12:15am (16th) – TCM – Vertigo
James Stewart is a detective recovering from a vertigo-inducing fall who’s asked by an old friend to help his wife, who has developed strange behavior. Hitchcock plays with doubling, fate, and obsession, all the while creating one of his moodiest and most mesmerizing films. And watch for a great supporting turn by Barbara Bel Geddes as Stewart’s long-suffering best friend.
1958 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes.
Must See

Wednesday, September 16

7:10am – IFC – A Hard Day’s Night
Richard Lester’s 1964 Beatles-starring film straddles several genres – musical, concert film, documentary, comedy. The good news is that it’s an excellent film in any genre. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any film an exuberant as this one, and with the Beatles right on the cusp of becoming the greatest band of all time.
1964 UK. Director: Richard Lester. Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr.
Must See
(repeats at 12:30pm)

11:45am – TCM – It Happened One Night
In 1934, It Happened One Night pulled off an Academy Award sweep that wouldn’t be repeated until 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, snagging awards for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. Colbert is a rebellious heiress, determined to run away and marry against her father’s wishes. Along the way, she picks up Gable, a journalist who senses a juicy feature. This remains one of the most enjoyable comedies of all time, with great scenes like Colbert using her shapely legs rather than her thumb to catch a ride, Gable destroying undershirt sales by not wearing one, and a busload of people singing “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.”
1934 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert.
Must See

3:45pm – TCM – Nothing Sacred
A newspaper offers to give terminally-ill Carole Lombard her dream trip to New York City in exchange for publishing her experiences. Only problem is, she’s lying about being terminally ill. One of the zaniest of all 1930s zany comedies – that said, it can be a little on the shrill side.
1937 USA. Director: William A. Wellman. Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly.

8:00pm – IFC – The Player
Robert Altman takes on Hollywood in this story of a script screener (Tim Robbins) who gets drawn further and further into a web of blackmail and double-crosses when he’s threatened by a screenwriter whose script he rejected. You gotta love it for the virtuosic opening pan at the very least; the rest of the Hollywood insider references are just gravy.
1992 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopie Goldberg.
(repeats at 2:30am on the 17th)

12:00M – IFC – The New World
Terrence Malick may not make many films, but the ones he does make, wow. Superficially the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, The New World is really something that transcends mere narrative – this is poetry on film. Every scene, every shot has a rhythm and an ethereal that belies the familiarity of the story we know. I expected to dislike this film when I saw it, quite honestly. It ended up moving me in ways I didn’t know cinema could.
2005 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer.
Must See
(repeats at 11:35am on the 17th)

Thursday, September 17

10:30am – Fox Movie – How Green Was My Valley
This film won Oscars for Best Picture and director John Ford; it’s a bit overly sentimental at times, perhaps, but by and large its simple story of Welsh mining village is pretty solid, thanks in no small part to great supporting turns by its stellar supporting cast.
1941 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, Sara Allgood, Barry Fitzgerald.

10:00pm – TCM – Johnny Guitar
Nicholas Ray’s rather strange feminist western has become something of a cult classic – Joan Crawford is Vienna, a tough-but-vulnerable saloon owner that all the other women in town want gone. She calls on old friend Johnny Guitar to help her out, but he many not be quite as advertised either. I didn’t love this the way I wanted to when I first saw it, but I feel like some of that was just not knowing what to expect (also, I had a craptastic VHS copy). Hoping to improve its standing with a second viewing.
1954 USA. Director: Nicholas Ray. Starring: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ward Bond, Ernest Borgnine.
Newly Featured!

10:00pm – Sundance – Volver
Pedro Almodóvar deftly straddles the line between drama and comedy in one of his more accessible films. Two sisters return to their home at the death of their aunt, only to find their mother’s ghost – or is it a ghost? And as always in Almodóvar’s films, there are related subplots aplenty. Penélope Cruz is incredible as the younger, fierier sister – she’s never been more moving than in her passionate rendition of the title song, nor funnier than when calmly cleaning up a murder scene.
2006 Spain. Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Starring: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanco Portillo, Yohana Cobo
Must See
(repeats at 5:15am on the 18th)

10:05pm – IFC – Moulin Rouge!
Baz Lurhmann admittedly has a love-it-or-hate-it flamboyantly trippy aesthetic, especially in the informal Red Curtain trilogy which Moulin Rogue! closes. And sure, it’s over the top; sure, the story is fairly routine; sure, the acting is so-so. I love it to pieces anyway.
2001 USA. Director: Baz Lurhmann. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo.
(repeats at 4:15am on the 18th)

12:15am (18th) – IFC – Bride & Prejudice
Laugh at me if you must for recommending Chadha’s Bollywood-infused version of Pride and Prejudice, but I love it. It’s silly, it’s beautiful, it’s a fun exercise in adaptation of literary classics, and it’s only slightly weighed down by Martin Henderson’s woodenness.
2005 UK. Director: Gurinder Chadha. Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Naveen Andrews, Alexis Bledel.

Friday, September 18

7:30am – TCM – Grand Hotel
This 1932 Best Picture Oscar-winner is honestly pretty creaky around the joints these days, but if you wanna see how they used to do ensemble pictures in the studio days, this is it. MGM’s top talent, from Garbo and Crawford to Beery and two Barrymores are all on hand.
1932 USA. Director: Edmund Goulding. Starring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt.
Newly Featured!

8:25am – IFC – Vagabond
One of Agnès Varda’s best-known films, about the last few weeks of wandering woman’s life as she struggles to make it. I absolutely loved the only Varda film I’ve seen (Cléo from 5 to 7), so I’m anxious to see more.
1985 France. Director: Angès Varda. Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire.
(repeats at 2:00pm on the 18th and 5:15am on the 19th)

7:15pm – IFC – Wassup Rockers
Small film about a group of teenage Latino skateboarders from South Central LA. They go up to Beverly Hills to skateboard, get caught by cops, escape, meet up with some girls, get in fights with preppy 90210 guys, and try to get home. But the moments that’ll get you are when they’re just talking, to the camera, or to the girls, about their life and what it’s like to live in South Central. It doesn’t go anywhere, really, but it’s a wonderful slice of life.
2005 USA. Director: Larry Clark. Starring: Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez, Usvaldo Panameno, Eddie Velasquez.

8:00pm – TCM – Carmen Jones
Oscar Hammerstein takes on Bizet’s Carmen, transposing it into a contemporary setting at a Korean War army base and writing new lyrics to go with Bizet’s operatic melodies. It’s interesting not only for the adaptation of opera to musical, but also its use of an all-African American cast – giving Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and many others lead roles in an era when they were still all-too-often relegated to roles as servants or one-off entertainers.
1954 USA. Director: Otto Preminger. Starring: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – IFC – Trainspotting
Days in the lives of Scottish heroin addicts. Sounds like a downer, and I won’t say it’s not, but it’s also brilliant and searing. Danny Boyle seems to always be able to take stories that could be routine and make them into something special.
1996 UK. Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, JOnny Lee Miller, Kelly McDonald.
Must See

2:00am (19th) – TCM – Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Russ Meyer is known for making great trashy movies, and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is one of his greatest. Three girls race their car around the desert, taking a defeated competitor’s girlfriend hostage when they hear about the possibility of scoring a bunch of cash from an old guy who lives nearby. This is one of those films that has you constantly going “they did not just do/say that, did they? OH YES THEY DID” and “it can’t possibly get more messed up than this, can it? OH YES IT CAN.” A gold standard of awesome bad movies, right here.
1965 USA. Director: Russ Meyer. Starring: Tura Satana, Haji, Lori Williams, Sue Bernard.
Must See
Newly Featured!

Saturday, September 19

6:45pm – Sundance – Paris je t’aime
I have a huge soft spot for Paris – basically any movie set there I will like to at least some degree. So an anthology film with eighteen internationally-renowned directors giving their take on Paris with eighteen short films all mashed together? Yeah, instant love. Obviously some sections are far stronger than others – the Coens, Gus van Sant, Alexander Payne, Isabel Coixet, Tom Tykwer, and Wes Craven turn in my favorites.
2006 France. Director: various. Starring: many.
(repeats at 6:25am on the 20th)

8:00pm – TCM – Wuthering Heights (1939)
William Wyler’s moody 1939 version of Emily Bronte’s moody gothic novel, with Laurence Olivier as the moody Heathcliff. It’s moody. Get it? Interestingly, I’m more impressed generally with Geraldine Fitzgerald’s Isabella than Merle Oberon’s Catherine/Cathy, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
1939 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald, David Niven, Flora Robson.

8:00pm – IFC – Office Space
Anyone who’s ever worked in an office will identify with Office Space immediately – with the paper-jamming printers, the piles of beaurocratic paperwork, and the difficulty of keeping up with staplers if not the plot to make off with boatloads of money due to an accounting loophole. In fact, if you do or have worked an office job, I’m gonna call this required viewing.1999 USA. Director: Mike Judge. Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston.
(repeats at 2:00am on the 20th)

Sunday, September 20

12:30pm – Fox Movie – The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The original The Day the Earth Stood Still is a classic of 1950s Cold War paranoia sci-fi. Alien Klaatu lands on Earth to warn us to abandon our penchant for war and destruction; seeing the world through his eyes as he lives among us for a time is thoughtful and a little sobering, especially in its original context.
1951 USA. Director: Robert Wise. Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe.
Must See
Newly Featured!

3:00pm – Sundance – A Woman Under the Influence
Gena Rowlands gives a tour-de-force performance as Mabel, a woman whose teetering madness threatens her marriage to Nick (Peter Falk). Their relationship edges back and forth between love, frustration, and anger with amazing quickness, yet it’s not clear whether Mabel’s instability is causing the problems, or the other way around. John Cassavetes directs with an unwavering camera, refusing to look away.
1974 USA. Director: John Cassavetes. Starring: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands.

10:30pm – Fox Movie – Die Hard
All John McClane wants to do is get home for Christmas. But plans change, especially when a bunch of terrorists take over his wife’s office building and McClane has to take them out almost singlehandedly. And give us one of the best action movies ever made.
1988 USA. Director: John McTiernan. Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Must See

2:00am (21st) – TCM – The Cranes are Flying
Young lovers Boris and Veronika are separated when he volunteers for WWII. Never hearing from him, she marries his cousin, who has an exemption from the draft. Later, she realizes her mistake and continues to hope against hope (and reports from the front) that Boris remains alive and will return to her when the war ends. This Soviet film combines the strength of Soviet montage with the overwrought beauty of expressionism to depict the extremes of peace and war in a very visceral way. And Tatyana Samojlova gives a tour-de-force performance, encompassing both the silly pre-war girl and the strong woman she grows into, a woman battered, but not broken, by war. (More indepth piece.)
1957 USSR. Director: Mikhail Kalatozov. Starring: Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov, Aleksandr Shvorin.
Must See
Newly Featured!