For the first time, BC on TV adds the cinematic line-up to its list of possibilities, at least for the actual choice. Runners-up remain limited to cable and DirecTV and, today, include one of BC on TV's best comedies of 2012 (Think Like a Man, 10 am HBOC), an excellent English black comedy about terrorism (Four Lions, 1.20 pm Max) and two former picks that would have been chosen again, had they not been recently (*Unforgiven, 5.10 pm TCM, *Searching for Sugar Man, 7.25 pm Max). Tomorrow offers two more recent picks, ignored for the same reason (*The Dark Knight Rises, 5 pm HBO, *Goodfellas, 6.25 pm HBOC) and the week includes the original of last week's top pick (The Godfather, BEST FILM OF THE WEEK 11.50 pm Friday TCM) and what might be the best remake of an Hitchcock original (A Perfect Murder, 4.15 pm Friday MaxW).
Today's best film:Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich/ 2003/ USA/ Family-Adventure-Animated-Comedy/ 100 mins/ G), 11 am and 8.10 pm Max West. Watch this if you liked Up, Shark Tale or any of the Toy Story films. Though not quite as good as the films it's compared to (at least for BC on TV), Finding Nemo is probably closer to any of them than any other kiddie flick except possibly Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Perfect pacing, characters as human as their animated bodies are marine and a quest-and-road movie in the ocean, this is top-notch filmmaking–or as close to it as humans with their computers get. Grown-ups will be as enthralled (and perhaps as weepy) as their offspring. A treat.
Today and rest of the week:Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve/ 2013/ USA/ Crime-Thriller-Drama/ 153 mins/ R for disturbing violent content including torture and language throughout), 12.45 pm, 4.15 pm and 7.30 pm (with 10.45 pm screenings Fri and Sat) MovieTowne POS, 1 pm, 4.15 pm and 7.45 pm (with 10.50 pm screenings Fri and Sat) MT Chaguanas. Watch this if you liked The Silence of the Lambs, Tell No One or No Country for Old Men. The best thriller BC on TV has seen since The Silence of the Lambs doesn't depend on a cannibal serial murderer gimmick but on more traditional attention-grabbers (which Silence also had), like an excellent script, exceptional performances (particularly from Jake Gyllenhaal as the obsessive policeman, Hugh Jackman as the distraught and motivated-to-the-point-of-fixated father and Paul Dano as the man-child prime suspect), superb direction and edge-of-seat tension throughout. The cinematography–by the Coen brothers' Roger Deakins–must be a contender for the Oscar, making, as it does, scary secondary characters out of a camper van taillight and the bark of a tree. Superb.
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze/ 1999/ Fantasy-Comedy-Drama/ 112 mins/ R), 10 pm Thursday Turner Classic Movies. Watch this if you liked Stranger Than Fiction, Adaptation or The Big Lebowski. Not for the literal-minded at all-at all but, for the fans of magical realism, this story of a man who finds a portal into actor John Malkovich's mind–you can actually enter his mind and see things from his eyes–this Charlie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" Kaufmann screenplay is pure delight, provided, of course, you can get over your deep-seated and entirely understandable hatred of John Malkovich.
Best of the rest: Mon: The Other Boleyn Girl, 10 pm MaxW; Tues: Reds, 4.40 pm TCM; Wed: Midnight in Paris, 7.15 pm HBOC; Thurs: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, 5.45 pm TCM; Fri:*Shame, 9 pm HBO; Sat: Field of Dreams, 6 am TCM.*Starred films have been chosen in the last three months. Scheduled Internet times often vary on the day, particularly around month-end.