Television

by Troy Carrington

Angels in America

Mike Nichols directs Tony Kushner’s adaptation of his own Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play as an epic two-part, six-hour movie event. Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson star, along with Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, and James Cromwell, with featured performances by Michael Gambon and Simon Callow.

The two parts of the stage production of Angels in America won a variety of prestigious theater awards during their Broadway runs in 1993 and 1994. “Millennium Approaches won four Tony Awards—for play (Tony Kushner), director (George C. Wolfe), actor (Ron Leibman), and featured actor (Stephen Spinella)—as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, five Drama Desk Awards, and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. “Perestroika” won three 1994 Tony Awards—for play (Tony Kushner), actor (Stephen Spinella), and featured actor (Jeffrey Wright), as well as three Drama Desk Awards and three Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Part 1, “Millennium Approaches,” debuts December 7 (7–10 p.m.). Part 2, “Perestroika,” debuts December 14 (7–10:05 p.m.). Both have repeat airings during the month. For schedule: www.hbo.com.

Switchblade Sisters (aka The Jezebels; The Playgirl Gang).

This 1975 girl-gang exploitation film, directed by Jack Hill (Foxy Brown), won a new lease on life in 1996 when it was reintroduced and re-released with Quentin Tarantino’s seal of approval. It’s a classic time capsule of Gerald Ford-era American drive-in culture, featuring a phantasmagoria of fashion eye-scorchers—guys with open-necked flowered shirts and plaid pants, and gals in thigh-high boots and hot-pants—over-the-top scenes of mayhem, and snarling, pseudo-hip dialogue. (Lenny Bruce’s daughter, Kitty, plays gang-girl Donut.) December 14 at 1:05 a.m. and December 26 at 9:30 p.m. on Sundance Channel. To confirm schedule: www.sundancechannel.com.

Dead or Alive: Final

Dead or Alive: Final (2002) is the ultimate post-modern action epic. Renowned among cult movie fans for outrageous, low-budget Japanese shock-splatter epics, director Takashi Miike here completes his Dead or Alive trilogy with an audacious mix of cyberpunk and yakuza saga. In 2346 Yokohama, an oppressive gay tyrant (Richard Cheung) decrees mandatory birth control. In response, two android warriors (Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa), representing the totalitarian government, and a rebel band of insurrectionists square off in an over-the-top martial-arts duel to the finish. December 19 at 12:30 a.m. and Christmas night at 11 p.m. To confirm schedule: www.sundancechannel.com.

Rock Star Daughters: The E! True Hollywood Story

Rock Star Daughters: The E! True Hollywood Story is a revealing look at the privileged, often painful lives of rock-and-roll’s most notorious daughters—from out-and-proud Chastity Bono and sexy Jade Jagger to bad-girl Bijou Phillips, and more. Interviews (archival and original) include Liv Tyler, Kelly Osbourne, Lisa Marie Presley, Moon Unit and Diva Zappa, Ted Nugent and daughters Sasha and Star, Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley’s daughter Monique, Carnie Wilson, Lionel Richie’s daughter Nicole, and Donna Summer and her daughter Sudano. Premieres December 7 at 7 p.m. with repeat airings during the month. For schedule: www.eonline.com.

Heavenly Creatures

Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey star as lovers in this 1994 film based on an actual New Zealand case in which obsessive teenage friends drive each other to murder. Premieres December 4 on Starz True Stories with repeat airings throughout the month. For schedule: www.starzsuperpak.com.

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