Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Robert Duvall has passed. He was someone I always scored the highest of highly. Boo Radley. Tom Hagen. Boss Spearman. Often cast as the mentor figure in Hollywood fare (even before he hit middle age) he elevated cinema acting . Days Of Thunder is a trashy treat. But Duvall’s seen-it-all-before expert raises it up beyond its craven summer blockbuster instincts. He sometimes represented corrupt corporate America in lauded hits like Network and The Conversation (Hell, even to a large extent in The Godfathers) but more often than not he was the sage who had tried the tough stuff and now proffered a little sweetness… a measured restraint… as the alternative to bullying violence. Not that he couldn’t mix things up. Even in his later years the highlight of his appearances was never the whispering grandstanding or scenery chewing. It was when the devil came back to him. He’d rub his hands with glee and marvel at the chaos of the young bucks. A twinkling “Oh, here we go again.” Sometimes he would join in, earned wisdom be damned. Plus his take on Richard Stark’s Parker in the underrated The Outfit holds its own with Lee Marvin, Mel and The Stath. Check out that and The Paper for underrated deep cuts.

Colors (1988)

Dennis Hopper directs Robert Duvall, Sean Penn and Maria Conchita Alonso in this buddy cop drama where a police veteran and his rookie partner try to navigate Los Angeles gang violence.

We chose this as our In Memoriam evening viewing. It is a quintessential Duvall role. The Merlin / Obi Wan to a reckless thug we are supposed to see as the hero. While Penn’s preening dickhead wobbles between aggression and all out assault, Duvall preaches and exemplifies community spirit. Engagement. Fairness. So obviously, they clash. The film itself was cutting edge in its day but now feels like a camp relic. The Cripps and the Bloods plus the non racist mixed gang are unlikely caricatures… “Homes!” The movie is wildly uneven delivering action, drama, exploitation and even lighthearted comedy in spunky measures. All quite effectively but never gelling. Ice-T raps the theme song, Herbie Hancock delivers a zany jazz score. Closer in intent to The New Centurions than either Boyz N The Hood or Lethal Weapon. The casting and the unpredictable energy filmed out on those streets now keep this one alive past its sell by date.

7

Barry Levinson directs Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito and Barbara Hershey in this period comedy about two hustlin’ aluminium siding salesmen who go to war after a car prang.

Now here is a film from my childhood that I definitely saw but I had no nostalgia for. When 10 year old me was first getting obsessive about movies I probably watched it for Danny DeVito, possibly Richard Dreyfuss but most likely just because it was on. Now… well now, I love it. Even more so than Diner!? It is my favourite type of plot. The petty escalating rivalry. Both characters are scumbags who are given complexity and grace notes. Barbara Hershey’s trapped housewife is pinged between the dicks like a pinball. The bantering dialogue is laser accurate, especially in the scam sales sequences. And it seems to be saying something forensic about America, greed and an innocence that never really existed. Can’t wait to rewatch.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Quiz Show (1994)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Bart Layton directs Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo in this heist thriller where a lone high end thief pulls a disrespected cop, an undervalued insurance broker and a psychotic wannabe into his previously ordered world.

Based on a Don Winslow story. They don’t make them like this anymore. Reviews keep comparing this to Heat but really Thief is the Rosetta Stone here. The takes are vibrantly intense yet the half hours in between prove rich with character details and clean visual storytelling. The movie is generous to Berry’s performance. This may very well be the most rounded and perfect role of her entire career. Whenever Barry Keoghan enter the mix the movie shunts away from its neat, cool lines. Again, this is (so far) his best work in a mainstream genre fil-lum, reminding me of Oldman’s chaotic villains of the Nineties. The resolution is a tad fantastical but all in all a movie worth going to see at the multiplex… that may even have that rare compulsive future rewatchability of The Fugitive or Speed. My meaning: whatever point you start watching it you may find it difficult to tag back out. All this and Nick Nolte too! Documentaries or narrative fiction, has Bart Layton ever directed an average, let alone bad, movie?

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Score (2000)

Julia Jackman directs Maika Monroe, Emma Corrin and Nicholas Galitzine in this fantasy fable about an unsatisfied bride, her storytelling servant and the man who has made a bet with her husband to bed her within 100 nights.

Dreamy visuals, feminist and queer positive messaging plus Maika Monroe is various erotically chaste costumes. Very watchable.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Gretel & Hansel (2020)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/ValVerdeNights/

Richard Linklater directs Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin in this behind the scenes comedy about the making of Breathless.

The casting is spot on, the movie handsome and it clearly is passion project. Yet I’m a Linklater stan who has very little time for Godard. His earliest films are easily his best by country miles. Were they revolutionary? Was he an insufferable prick? This movie accidentally makes the better case for the latter. Confirming my prejudices like a Rorschach test. Hard to care about really once it hits a petulant luvvy rhythm. Inside baseball.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Blue Moon (2025)

Joe Carnahan directs Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Steven Yeun in this action thriller about cops under siege in a stash house with a corruptive amount of money to count.

Someone has a red hot poker up these old cops asses and I wanna find out whose name is on the handle. The first Ben & Matt collaboration that plays out a bit meh. Not to fully exploit their chemistry. Carnahan is in his Narc wheelhouse but not going at it full pelt. Fine but could have been an all-timer. Just sits there on the screen inoffensively.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Sabotage (2014)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Nia DaCosta directs Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes in this post-apocalyptic horror sequel where Spike falls in with a bad lot.

There are two very different sequences in this where Ralph does some dancing that truly made the movie for me. His performance over the two recent releases has been quite wonderful. The marauding gangs of shell suited Jimmy Saville / Satan worshippers are a gory lark to begin with but they couldn’t sustain a whole film by themselves. Once you witness them threaten one cottage full of survivors with their presence, where further could it go? The whole movie feels like a doodle. A narrative expansion made up of subplots and side quests you may be more interested in than the standard run from the “zombies” story. And while The Bone Temple is a far more curious experience, it doesn’t quite hit the peaks of intensity of the first two films… nor the communal transcendence of its immediate sibling,

7

Perfect Double Bill: 28 Years Later (2025)

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire directs Joe Cole, Vithaya Pansringarm and Cherry Miko in this “based on a true story” prison drama about a young British boxer in Thailand.

Nightmarishly oppressive and scarily disorientating, The first hour is a strong brew of extreme prison tropes. Almost told in POV. The second half settles into a more traditional training towards redemption arc. Joe Cole is impressive in a near silent lead role.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Starred Up (2013)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/ValVerdeNights/

James Watkins directs James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy in this thriller where a family travel to the Cornish countryside for a weekend with the seemingly nice but intense couple they met on holiday.

A one-watch movie. You see the storytelling bung a plethora of random objects and over emphasised “heads ups”. Blatantly so you can watch out for them all being caught in “clever” ways during the juggle of the third act Straw Dogs-esque finale. The whole movie pivots on how polite would you be when everything points towards your very genial hosts being psycho killers? And somehow the movie manages to spin this wobbly, fragile plate for a surprisingly long time. Too long for this ever to be worth a revisit. I mean we all grew up on the schlocky yuppie in peril potboilers back in the day. The positives are obvious. McAvoy’s full fat smiling villain turn. The fact that someone has cast Aisling Franciosi in a prominent role after she was so brilliant in The Nightingale. And that James Watkins is back in his Eden Lake stomping ground. The movie itself I can take or leave… at best I’ll hunt down the Danish original just to play spot the difference.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Eden Lake (2008)

Sandor Stern directs David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston and Terry O’Quinn in this weird incest drama with horror undertones about a mentally disturbed young man and his inanimate medical dummy.

A psycho biddy flick where the schizo is a clean cut young man!? Norman Bates, you say? Well, that is an influence. Hitch’s modern gothic permeates through this. The medical dummy is a creepy creation. Doling out sex advice blankly to the kids. At one point it is raped and later it has rubber skin added to it. Making it even ickier to look at. I didn’t realise an uncredited Jonathan Banks provided the voice until an internet scrub after. The narrative is very unpredictable. It is quite freeing to watch something so haphazard. But there aren’t really any suspense set pieces. It is all a big Freudian mind game. The acting can be wobbly, and we are often stuck in one location for long stretches. There are unsettling shots that will haunt you though. A mixed bag of VHS era strange.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Flowers In The Attic (1987)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin