Eugene Kotlyarenko directs Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata and David Arquette in this found footage killer satire where an insta-fame wannabe starts filming and killing the passengers on his ride share shift.

An Influencer era update on The King of Comedy that never really finds its pace. Likeable Stranger Things stalwart Joe Keery holds it together admirably but I think it is fair to say many of us don’t find the world of streamers and youtubers and twitchers quite as fascinating as the old media of films and TV think we should. At least the blind narcissism means there’s a reason for the cameras not to stop and for multiple angles when needed, I guess?

5

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Ronny Yu directs Monica Keener, Robert Englund and Katharine Isabelle in this horror crossover movie where the villains from Elm Street and Friday the 13th fight over who gets to kill the teens.

Pretty dumb and routine. Yu’s slick direction plays more expensive looking than the earlier franchise entries but makes minimal sense. The movie only comes to life when Freddy and Jason finally start tearing chunks out of each other on a construction site. This late in the day Looney Tunes violence isn’t worth waiting up for though. The kids are so underwritten and disposable that even the decent Keener and Isabelle struggle to be more than doomed T&A.

3

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Tom Mankiewicz directs Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks and Alexandra Paul in this buddy cop comedy reboot of the Fifties straight laced detective show.

A favourite when I was a kid but put away and forgotten about like a Visionaries toy or a Bobby Brown cassette through my twenties and thirties. It hasn’t stood the test of time, being relatively jokeless and shapeless. There’s at least a definite energy to Dragnet, that means it is never boring even when it doesn’t work. Being both a big budget 80s comedy and directed by Roger Moore era 007 writer Mankiewicz there are three sequences of expensive vehicular slapstick where some more wittier silliness really should be. Aykroyd seems to be having a blast talking fast in jargon… that is his schtick. Hanks was already destined for better things. The rap they do at the end is atrocious.

5

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Jérémy Clapin directs Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois and Patrick d’Assumçao in this French animated adventure where a disembodied hand searches the city for his body.

The strange perspectives and unusual peril the hand finds itself in are very absorbing. The flashbacks to its sadsack owner and his quirky poetic rebellions against urban alienation less so. A bit too pretentious to whole heartedly recommend.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Susanne Bier directs Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes and John Malkovich in this apocalyptic sci-fi where a viral force possesses people into killing themselves once seen.

I avoided this brief sensation when it seemed to merely exist to inspire memes and rip off A Quiet Place. It actually works quite well as the dwindling ensemble bicker and make bad decisions in light of a supernatural extinction. Nothing particularly original happens but the early set pieces are tight and the burgeoning romance between Bullock and Rhodes is convincing. They told me not to look, but it was an entertaining enough watch. The ending is a little too underwhelming though.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Ramin Bahrani directs Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao in this drama where a boy from India’s rural underclass inveigles his way into working for a corrupt family.

Anyone who has seen the blistering 99 Homes will know that Ramin Bahrani can make cracking cinema out of holding a mirror up to wealth and class inequalities. Here he adapts the Booker prize winning novel about India’s rigged caste system and takes in globalisation and endemic corruption to boot… It is quite a canny piece of cinema that many young film critics will compare to the grandstanding of Parasite and many older critics will notice coded queer comparisons to The Servant. Yet the great movie it reminded me most of is French prison thriller A Prophet. The rare tale of a pawn making its way daringly all the way across the board, the most precarious individual clamouring up a hierarchy. An ‘exploitation’ flick in the least used definition of the word, one where various scenes can be read in intriguingly different ways. An attractive cast and eye for incongruous detail mean this corking epic of developing world mores and bad behaviour absolutely chops.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Daniel Goldhaber directs Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh and Samantha Robinson in this creepy horror where a cam girl finds her profile hacked by an nasty doppelgänger.

A neat and nasty little rattler that teases it will turn out like the Talk Radio of private shows but then mutates into a Repulsion / Mulholland Dr. descent into madness and identity blurring. As an allegory Cam works really well in manifesting the dehumanising and exploitative realities of online sex work. I assume. The script was written by former cam girl Isa Mazzei. I don’t know whether the often sexless dress-up shows or the glamorous drop-in community studio (what’s the chances of all the top performers living in the same state, let alone the same town?) or the stars’ obsessive All About Eve-esque battles for top rankings play particularly believably. But it is not a world I’m au fait with and it isn’t a thriller particularly grounded in reality. So why quibble? After her strong turn in The Handmaid’s Tale, Madeline Brewer comes into her own as the locked out and wigging out protagonist. It is a cute little calling card one watcher, that promises big things for the future of all involved, but it never threatens its antecedents’ supremacy within the genre.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Mirrah Foulkes directs Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman and Benedict Hardie in this revisionist, feminist retelling of the Punch & Judy puppet show.

Thirty minutes in and I thought I was watching a fantastic piece of cinema. A brutally funny homage to Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton where the married puppeteers of the out-of-time village of Seaside go to war with each other. Both Wasikowska and Herriman are on fire as the put upon wife and vainglorious drunk respectively. It looks a treat. “THAT’S THE WAY TO DO IT!” Then the narrative propulsion just peters out to a stop. You can tell what Foulkes is trying to achieve in the later swathes but that virulent energy is gone and we seem to just be waiting about for a lacklustre finale. Still, there’s a lot of seedy distressed eye candy to goggle at, a laudable message and the occasionally bleak joke even after this hothouse flower loses its petals.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Rowdy Herrington directs Jeff Daniels, Portia de Rossi and James Spader in this conspiracy thriller where a human rights observer becomes embroiled in the discovery and cover-up of a mass grave in Tijuana.

Aiming for the same vibe as Missing, Salvador or The Year of Living Dangerously, this perfectly adequate thriller suffers from having a particularly helpful drug cartel become a third act fairy godmother when it looks like all is lost. Those drug cartels are pretty classy guys. Sniping aside; the acting is strong, the various discordant plot threads tie together cleverly and the other real world political elements ring true. It is a worthy little film involving outsourcing, union busting and corruption. Unsensational and surprisingly sober, well made enough that if it was retelling an actual tragedy or historical investigation it very well might have been an awards contender.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

François Truffaut directs Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig and Claude Jade in this comedy where Antoine Doinel is discharged from the army and becomes a detective.

A shift towards bright sight gags and gentle silliness. Léaud comes into his own here as physical performer, finding gangly laughs as a rubbish night clerk and an undercover shoe salesman. Delphine Seyrig is the highlight as a predatory boss’ wife who Léaud just can’t resist. Sweet if a little too whimsical.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/