Kites, heists and State of the Union
Nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar, the 2022 film “All That Breathes” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-14) defies easy description or categorization. The film follows two brothers in New Delhi who have developed a personal and spiritual bond with that city’s birds, particularly the kite, a scavenger common to warmer climes.
Their affinity with bird life was inspired by a Muslim adage that suggests that feeding kites is a way to expel trouble. But as they grew older, the city’s polluted air began to take its toll on local birds’ health and some began to fall from the skies and require medical attention.
The premise of “Breathes” suggests a line from Hamlet: “There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow.”
Is this a film about the environment? The brothers? Their city? Their faith? The interconnected nature of them all?
“Breathes” has been acclaimed by critics and in film festivals the world over. It’s the first film ever to be named best documentary at both the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance.
› A night after tasking Peyton Manning with a search for history’s greatest of all time, the History Channel presents “History’s Greatest Heists With Pierce Brosnan” (10 p.m., TV-PG).
The debonair former star of James Bond movies and “Remington Steele” is perfectly cast to discuss heist history and the film genre that sprung up around meticulously planned robberies requiring teamwork, distraction, stealth and months, if not years, of research and preparation.
The style of the movie heist probably owes much to Cary Grant’s performance as a cat burglar in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 thriller “To Catch a Thief.” The genre became all but franchised with the 1960 Rat Pack thriller “Ocean’s Eleven” (and its 21st-century reboots). NBC and ABC slavishly copied both Sinatra and Hitchcock with two mid1960s series — “T.H.E. Cat” and “It Takes a Thief,” respectively.
This style of sleek burglary became so ingrained, it inspired several segments on “The Simpsons” and even a couch gag.
On the opposite end of the visual spectrum, Martin Scorsese’s 1990 masterpiece “Goodfellas” revolves around the legendary Lufthansa heist. It doesn’t show the robbery in elaborate detail, but rather its homicidal aftermath when one gangster (Ray Liotta) explains how one of his partners (Robert De Niro) decided not to share the loot — all to the strains of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes.
“Greatest Heists” leans on both traditions, featuring Brosnan in formal wear and frequent voiceovers sounding suspiciously like the late Liotta’s “Goodfellas” character, Henry Hill.
› President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union Address (9 p.m., CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, PBS, CNN) before a joint session of Congress. A Republican response follows.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Maggie tends bar on “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› An eccentric detective has a nose for the evidence on “Will Trent” (8 p.m., ABC, repeat, TV-14)
› Joe Manganiello and Tony Gonzalez find new ancestors on “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
› A timid florist finds a date for the masquerade ball in the 2018 romance “Very, Very Valentine” (9 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).