Billy Wilder directs Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Lou Jacobi in this farce where an honest Parisian beat cop gets fired, becomes a pimp and creates a fake client to keep his beloved from turning tricks.
A big production. One of those soundstage consuming behemoth artificial epics that Hollywood churned out in earnest in the Sixties. Hoping the sheer goddamn size of the thing would drag audiences into its gravitational pull. A family friendly sex comedy doesn’t need to be this ostentatious or long. But it is. And it’s nice to see Shirley and Jack together again even in an oversized gaudy display case. The look and feel of the whole thing just threatens to tip over into the whole cast singing Consider Yourself or Get Me To The Church On Time though.
François Truffaut directs Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Nelly Borgeaud in this French noir where a wealthy plantation owner is captivated by a mysterious woman with a shady past who claims to be his mail-order-bride.
Fascinating languid film about obsession and escaping your past. Very much in chorus with The Story Of Adele H. . Globetrotting but the destination is the oblivion of self destruction.
7
Perfect Double Bill: Shoot The Piano Player (1960)
Taylor Hackford directs Richard Gere, Debra Winger and Louis Gossett Jr. in this romance where an emotionally stunted man takes his last shot at a naval academy but a relationship threatens to weaken his resolve.
Say what you like about Eighties cinema but it made devastating cultural impressions like no other decade. Maybe that has partly to do with VHS, music videos and The Simpsons allowing iconic imagery to be regurgitated into our homes unfiltered? But really how can your tastes not be informed by a song that was everywhere, a star who was everywhere, a final shot that was everywhere…? All stirring deeply implanted emotions every time they are revisited. No other decade does it so bold, so pure, so slick. The story itself is actually tougher and grittier than anything made by studios today. But it is Winger’s good time girl / ethical factory worker who adds all the charm and sparkle. A fantastic and sexy Friday night in for adults.
Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz direct Michael Greer, Marianna Hill and Joy Bang in this indie horror where a young woman goes searching for her missing artist father in a strange Californian seaside town governed by a mysterious cult.
Woozy, nightmare logic slop from the makers of Howard The Duck. Bored me.
Ol Parker directs Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein and Betty Gilpin in this romantic comedy where an airline CEO and her new in-house lawyer fall for each other in direct contravention of company policy.
Down and dirty rude but also slick and a lot of fun. Best romcom in a while, Goldstein has been taking notes from Adam Sandler’s old vehicles and I like it. This is what can be achieved when two beautiful people have some unforced chemistry together.
Craig Bolotin directs Juliette Lewis, Eliza Dushku and C. Thomas Howell in this period teen romance where a nerdy kid becomes obsessed with the romances of the wayward older girl who live across the street from her.
The summer of 1961 nostalgia. Doesn’t reinvent the wheel but a pleasant enough melodrama that isn’t afraid of showing consequences. Dukshu hasn’t quite figured out how to act just yet.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz directs Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and George Sanders in this witty drama where a seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the life of an aging Broadway star.
Hollywood’s cattiest ever script and George Sanders is the tiger king of all the big pusses. Too brutal to be a “woman’s picture”, too funny to be a melodrama, too frank to be fluff. Davis is resplendent here. Revving her engine ready to burn rubber with every line and glower. The ending is one of classic Hollywood’s very best. Transports you into the back stabbing cruel world of the theatre like a shack in a twister. The glamour – Love it.
McKenna Harris and Andrew Stanton direct Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in this further animated adventure where the toys take on tech.
Hmmm… sacrifices the witty ensemble bantz and intricate, rocket fuelled chases for messaging and the feels. The ratios are wrong. Is this what kids want? Not my Toy Story, sorry. Let’s bring back the fun again Pixar.
Run away! RUN AWAY! A staggering, monumental achievement with sequences and visuals that pull your soul out of your body. Not perfect but definitive. Nolan’s true talent is breaking a complex set piece down to its basic parts, presenting the construction of it with the clarity of a line drawn Ikea manual, then assembling it before your eyes with a pace and involvement that dazzles. Artful world building that values simplicity and boldness to agitate the emotions. A murderer’s row of screen acting talent. Pattinson and Leguizamo have juice running down their chin they eat so well. Samantha Morton’s Circe pretty much resets the movie entire. She’s that powerful. Also hers is one of three moments where Nolan leans into unabashed terror. Let’s have his vision of the horror movie next please. This is a 2026 take on The Odyssey used as a vehicle for some very prescient themes. Ones that Nolan has been exploring since the very start of his unparalleled career. If you break the rules of civilisation can you ever go home again? Should you? Should it be easy? The vigilantes of Memento and the Batman trilogy. The warmongers of Dunkirk and Tenet. The technology pioneers of The Prestige and Interstellar. Should the journey back to family and community be a cake walk if you have removed yourself from it for abusive, violent, reality altering ends? Also my own little side theory is this all take’s place in an Inception subconscious Limbo… Hear me out. The totems which are handed back and forth (rings, bows, pins); the unconstructed landscapes with small labyrinths ruined around them; the repeated hordes that descend on any interloper once they make themselves known. Just saying… Nolan knows what he is flirting with, he knows how obsessive his fanbase is. These recurring images from his arthouse blockbuster past are at the very least winks to fuel a thousand hot take TikTok posts. Whose dream is it though? Mine! Mythic, already seen it twice.
10
Perfect Double Bill: Stop eating those Lotus petals, you fiends.
Sébastien Vanicek directs Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright and Hunter Doohan in this sixth entry in the Deadite anthology series.
Big Evil Dead fan here. There has never been a bad entry. So me saying this one is merely serviceable feels like a death sentence. It has some extreme gore and a few clever oners vbut it is a bit of frump. A buzz kill. No… not that kind of buzz kill. Very little groovy chainsaw. What little humour there is, is very dry. Leans into “messaging” a tad too hard. The finale does go quite expressionistic. Floods of red and not just blood. Bad summer blockbuster season for the puppies. Hope Slinky survives Toy Story 5?!
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 