A Law Unto Themselves

The essence of Rambo meeting the good-hearted 'save the community' nature of Billy Jack set within the arena of B movie western style silliness can be found in 1985's Savage Dawn, a little seen wild experience from director Simon Nuchtern. As the hot desert sun roasts the sandy arid landscape of back roads Texas, one motorcycle driving man, aptly named Stryker (Lance Henriksen, never looking more threatening - if that's possible), a speak softly and carry a big stick Vietnam vet drifter with no home, makes his way to the closest thing to it. . . the dying town of Aqua Dulce (an ironic name, as there is no water left in the community). Water once helped the gold mine locale thrive, but now it, and its people, are struggling to survive. It is here that he finds his only true friend, wheelchair bound Tick Rand (George Kennedy) - another former vet with a MacGyver-like ability to fashion deadly weapons out of anything at hand. He also gets reacquainted with Tick's two children, Danny (Michael Sharrett) and Katie (Claudia Udy) - who clearly has a thing for the strong silent type.

If you didn't know and were asked to guess Alfred Hitchcock's favourite movie from his own filmography, I would think most people would probably select something from his Golden Age - ranging from the 50s and into the early 60s (think Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds), or you might pick one of his two most iconic British films - The 39 Steps or The Lady Vanishes, then again, his first film in the United States (Rebecca) was his only Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. . . or maybe it was his long awaited return to the UK after thirty-two years away - making the under seen Frenzy your selection. Perhaps it was one of his technical marvels. . . Lifeboat, set entirely in the film's titular object, or Rope, which was shot to look like one long take (and was itself set in a singular location). By now, you've probably guessed that it is none of these films, but rather, the 1943 motion picture Shadow of a Doubt - in part, due to the fact that he loved the idea of bringing menace to a small town. Funnily enough, I experienced this film's loose remake, Chan-wook Park's English language debut - Stoker, prior to this original version (which is something rare for me). And I must say, I appreciate both even more-so now. . . for it is a revelation to see a remake that is not just a carbon copy of the original. A story of the 'double', teenager Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) lives a normal life with her family on the west coast. . . her father, Joseph (Henry Travers - everyone's favourite guardian angel from It's a Wonderful Life), is a banker, her mother, Emma (Patricia Collinge), a homemaker, her younger sister, Ann (Edna May Wonacott - absolutely endearing in the role), a fervid reader, and even younger brother, Roger (Charles Bates), is just as sharp as his two older siblings. . . very unlike her beloved Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten), a mysteriously wealthy east coast living businessman.

What does it take to gather the perfect heist team? Judging from the movies we’ve all watched countless times before, I think that we have a pretty good idea of what it takes. Pulling from those same flicks and flipping them on their head for comedic effect, The Heist (2017), directed by Luke Harris, is a four minute short film with slick style, visual flair, and high-octane pacing. Riffing off of the Ocean 11's and Guy Ritchie’s of the world, The Heist finds two handsomely good looking guys, Leo (Shaw Jones) and Pete (Shawn Parsons), pitching an aging mobster, Pauly (Steven Wishnoff) – who is relaxing in a bathrobe, no less, on their plan for the perfect heist, by a lavish swimming pool. . . in what sounds more like a producer’s pitch meeting. Amplifying the stakes of even the most outlandish of the genre (and that is saying something), the pair then start listing their team for this hesitant moneyman (of course, done in a brisk montage style) – from the talented getaway driver and explosive’s expert with a self referential nickname, to the black guy with a cockney accent and “the bad ass who just got his ass kicked but still has the guts to say, ‘Is that the best you got?’”. . . I think you get where they’re going with this gag-filled extravaganza.

For whatever reason, people are obsessed with love and relationships – celebrity couples, The Bachelor (and its female counterpart), Rock of Love, Love Island. . . the list goes on and on. Then there are those nosey questions from family members – ‘Any prospective dates?’, ‘Are you seeing anyone special?’, ‘What happened to that nice girl you were dating last year?’, ‘When are you going to get married?’. . . as if you can’t be happy unless you are paired with someone. Based on this assumption, Yorgos Lanthimos creates a most fascinating vision of this very world of love and relationships with his 2015 film The Lobster. An absurdist dystopic vision set in a rather similar world to today, Lanthimos (along with his writing partner Efthimis Filippou) set out very strict rules for this alternate reality. In a landscape where everyone must be paired together, those who lose a partner (either to death or separation), are sent to a high end resort – where they have only forty-five days to find a suitable partner to continue their lives. If, for whatever reason, they cannot find someone, they are turned into an animal of their choosing (bonus!).

You know you’re in for a giallo when the word is literally in the Italian title. . . La Ragazza Dal Pigiama Giallo, simplified in English by being called The Pyjama Girl Case (1978), the word giallo, if you recall, is in reference to the garish yellow used on the covers of many of the books writers pulled from to create the films’ narratives – in this case, it is referencing the distinctive colour of the pyjamas the murdered girl was wearing when found. Written and directed by Flavio Mogherini, and based on a real case (the unsolved murder of Linda Agostini in 1934), this is a very rare giallo set in Australia, Sydney to be specific. A narrative about foreignness, nearly everyone in this Down Under landscape is an immigrant searching for a better life (though, as you will see, this isn’t always the outcome).