THE KINGS OF SUMMER (2013)

“We do swear, under pain of friendship lost, to never speak of this enterprise to any adult, and to never betray its location or its participants, and from this day forthwith to boil our own water, kill our own food, build our own shelter and be our own men.”

Three boys ran away from their parental home and went to woods to explore their own freedom, their own rules and regulations about life. Nature is indifferent and so is human nature too, since betrayal and heart break plays unlikely game in the journey. It’s not so that we haven’t seen any coming of age story told with touch of youthful charm, innocence, joy, freedom and visual splendor of natural landscape. ‘The Kings of Summer’ has all that same American baggage of troubled domestic affair that runs between the rebel teen world and adult parents’ dominance and other emotional cliché of teen film.  The film has shades of ‘Into the Woods’ and yet it’s different one in its tone which is refreshingly youth centric, hilarious and heartwarming one than the contemplative former one inspired by Thoreau’s ‘Walden’. The film has cool soundtrack and yes, all three teens really played their age so well, especially the tiny, strange and yet contemplating boy who played Biaggio.

So far a fine and decent indie entertainer of this year.   

THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)

“The boundaries which divide life from death are best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends and the other begins?”- Edgar Allan Poe

Perhaps no other director explored the bizarre, grotesque and terrifying tales of Edgar Allan Poe than the Master of American low budget horror, Roger Corman. Beginning with ‘House of Usher’, this is Corman’s last of ‘Poe’ adaptation series, starring the legendary and irreplaceable evil Vincent Price. The film manages to bring the solid macabre and gothic horror environment to screen like Mario Bava’s some of brilliant films. There’s so much diversion and liberty taken to Poe’s original story, which is overall an idolatrous passionate romance of dead wife and alive longing husband than just usual horror. The addition of other characters, framing the countenance of Price with the pair of completely eye covering dark glasses, use of black cat as spirit in disguise and conflagration showdown at the climax is all product of screenplay writer Robert Towne and Paul Mayersberg. However they manage to implicate the idea of Poe’s tale to suit Corman’s low budget shocker.

But above all like many of well made Corman-Poe cycle, the film strongly delivers compelling sense of grotesque atmosphere with brilliant gothic setting of ruined abbey surrounded by cemetery, arresting use of colours, camera movements and above all the screen presence of Vincent Price at centre. The bizarre phantasmagoria and that hypnotism scene is just awesome highlight of the film! Recommended to all freak fanatics!

THE UNINVITED (1944)

For years elegant ‘Windward’ house located on sea coast remained mysterious and unoccupied until a sibling on holidays by chance visited it and made up their mind to own it. The strange disturbances started following the nights of their occupation and it leads them to unearth a buried family past of its first owners. Lewis Allen’s ‘The Uninvited’ is one of those definite and pioneer films of haunted house supernatural horror genre. It may not stand eerie and shocking compared to CGI and technically advanced horrors of today but the film is surely based on strong plotline and characterization, a hallmark of Hollywood’s golden era.  Charles Lang’s dark B&W camerawork are sheer highlight of the film framing the gothic environment. The film is surely a classic case study, how on one hand elements exploited in this film became a common denominator of its other successor horrors and still it remain one of those rare and unique in its treatment to thrill its audience without using any of those CGI and other technical manipulation to tell a ghost story.

5 FINGERS (1952)

Until he received his most ambitious film ‘Cleopatra’, a severe box office debacle, 1950s was the most creative and shining phase of director Joseph Mankiewicz’s career. He made nine films during the decade and that include flavors of multiple genres that ranges from drama, history, mystery, crime and musical in form of  ‘All About Eve’, ‘The Barefoot Contessa’, ‘Suddenly, Last Summer’ and surely two Brando films ‘Julius Caeser’ and ‘Guys and Dolls’. And in between all these gold, he made a fine and yet under noticed gem of espionage thriller named ‘5 Fingers’, worthy of attention to all Hollywood classic lovers. The film is based on real story of Nazi access of top secret British diplomatic documents in the volatile time of Second World War. A strange informer named Cicero, who works as regular valet of British ambassador in Turkey, secretly snaps highly confidential top secret documents and sells them to German embassy. As the British intelligence agency works as counter to nab the treachery, the things turns different turn to the informer’s affair with German Gestapo. The film keeps the tension rolling slowly and steadily, followed with engaging climax and fine twist in the end served as poetic justice. James Mason delivers one of memorable early performance of his shining career here.  Recommended classic.  

THE LAST RUN (1971)

Harry Garmes is solitary retired man who knows his job damn well and that is driving his rare BMW 503 convertible as fast as possible. It’s been nine years since he took any transporting assignment for baddies and he’s on the last run to cross border a criminal and his girlfriend. But things didn’t turn in his favour.  Though bombed at box office by audience and attacked by critics, this thin on plot and gritty on pace crime thriller directed by Richard Fleischer has number of things to ponder about. Leading in that list first and foremost is one of most vibrating Morriconesque theme score of Jerry Goldsmith in the opening & ending titles. The mid age George C. Scott is portrayed here in the tradition of  Bogart and the man really done fine job once again. And in addition to that, it has brilliantly executed and shot extraordinary car chase sequence on landscape hills and curves of European locales by Sven Nykvist. Yes, the film could be made better if helmed by John Huston but then that’s again hypothetic cliché or common reaction about many such films.  

THE CHANGELING (1980)

Haunting house…buried past…the hidden crime! Now this is something so cliché associated with horror films. However there are films which prove how one can improvise and makes something above that routine mould through brilliant execution with the form and narration. Peter Medek’s ‘The Changeling’ belongs to that well made, grippingly executed but under popular horror thrillers. It features amazing George C. Scott as mid age piano scholar who after unfortunate accidental death of his two daughters came to Seattle to teach the university students. The old house he rented in Seattle starts giving him unusual jolts as somebody wanted to communicate with him, the past, the crime and the harrowing episode of filicide. The things which gave the film fine dimension are its impressive dark cinematography matched with chilling use of sound with solid haunting background score. The film successfully manages to give you enough tension and thrill of disturbances and supernatural manifestations without any of routine baggage or CGI gimmicks. Recommended to all horror/thriller fans.