Alexander Mackendrick directs Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Susan Harrison in this New York drama where an oily publicist will do anything to curry the favour of a powerful newspaper columnist who lords it over the lifeblood of his trade.

Psychological violence. Perhaps the nastiest film ever made where no blood is let, no wound causes harm, no shots are fired. It is a movie of people constantly being reminded of their place on the rung, and if they ever feels morally superior to that rung then the rung becomes slippery real quick. The dialogue is like the poetry of pain. “Son, I don’t relish shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun, so why don’t you just shuffle along?” “Stop tinkering pal, that horseradish won’t jump a fence.” “I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.” Every line is third rail electrified. Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker: ever see an entire film get pulled towards one performance, gasping for air like a drowning horse whenever he is absent. Not that Curtis is any slouch, he is near omni present, desperately hustling and wiggling to keep his little foothold in the power games. He isn’t my favourite movie star of this era but he is perfectly cast here. And there are rare comforts amid all the trauma and desolation. Susan Harrison is undeniably pretty to look at. Monochrome Mad Men-era Broadway at night dazzles as a location. The jazz bar hopping plot lends this a glorious sparkly contemporary score by Elmer Bernstein. Not the most famous film of its decade but one that stands tall among the biggest fish of its day. Now you can’t help to share it with everyone like a dirty little secret. Watch the men pretend to have souls when they lost them a thousand sins ago.

10

Perfect Double Bill: Houdini (1953)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Christopher Nolan directs Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in this biopic of the scientist who gave the U.S. the atomic bomb first.

Hour 1: See Robert Oppenheimer meet a load of scientists, students and professors one by one with no real context as to what they might add to the narrative. The cavalcade of famous faces playing 40th billed non entities never quits until the dying moments of the lengthy runtime.

Hour 2: Los Alamos and the building and the testing of the bomb. Man becomes myth, Nolan’s ability to bring intimacy to scale and immediacy to unwieldy concepts crosses the finish line. It is about 70 minutes of fantastic cinema. Damon shines as a good humoured military foil. Boom Boom shake shake the room. All done with practical FX.

Hour 3: The trials of Robert Oppenheimer, allowing the big moral trauma of the bomb to be debated and metaphorically illustrated. Owes much to Stone’s JFK. Permits Murphy and Blunt to get their acting on. The guy next to me farted violently throughout the movie but this final push of hearings and conspiracy really fired up his guff pipe. How nice is it to see a movie in a packed screen?!

6

Perfect Double Bill: Dunkirk (2017)

My wife and I 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/

Christopher McQuarrie directs Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Vanessa Kirby in this espionage action thriller where Ethan Hunt’s team must recover a key that will turn off a world conquering AI called The Entity.

The talkiest Mission yet. Many callbacks to De Palma’s first entry. Also owes a pint to Moore era Bond. There’s a measured silliness here not often seen in this franchise… with the exception of Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol, Atwell makes for an eye catching addition to the team, Pom Klementieff gives excellent henchperson aggression. When it comes to Tom doing ludicrous danger, this cliffhanger episode saves the best until last. A domino rally of stunts in a ridiculously never ending conveyor belt of peril. Every move he makes to survive introduces a new hazard. Just breathtaking. It is an entire dessert cart hurtling towards your gob after a ruthlessly ripped two hours of spycraft gubbins. Blockbuster heaven.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (2024)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin direct Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt and Charles Baker in this documentary about door-to-door Bible salesmen.

Might have been revolutionary in its day but feels humourless and one-note now.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Grey Gardens (1975)

My wife and I 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/

Martin Scorsese directs Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci in this crime drama based on the true story of the mob’s last decades controlling Las Vegas.

Always exists in the shadow of Goodfellas. It is a perfectly fine movie in its own right, but all of its separate qualities feel like tweaks. Tweaks to be different yet rarely for the better. Not detrimental but lacking improvements. The movie feels the absence of Ray Liotta’s youth, there’s no lost innocence here. Just terrible people making bad decisions. Bad decisions in a garish, overlit, hot pink hell. Wow! This movie looks like Seventies synthetic headache. You are never once seduced by the glamour. The wealth is chintzy, phoney, temporary. And it moves with a cocaine restlessness. Thelma Schoonmaker squeezes a lot of storytelling in, expertly. Casino proves a difficult three hour movie to pause for a comfort break as there is never a shot that doesn’t feed into the next one almost the moment after it started. Possibly Sharon’s best acting turn? Pesci gifts us premium hair trigger psycho. There’s a glorious opening credit sequence from Mr and Mrs Bass. Yet this is the rare Scorsese flick that feels like it has nothing to new to say. A sequel in all but name, lacking the risk and psychological ambiguity that motors his many finer works.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Goodfellas (1990)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Clint Eastwood directs himself, Bee Vang and Ahney Her in this vigilante drama where a racist veteran widower begins to protect his immigrant neighbours after a gang targets them.

A goodbye to violence. Possibly my favourite film with largely awful acting. Clint relies on his mythic stature playing a gruff caricature of his back catalogue, Abney Her is a natural, everyone else… stinky. Doesn’t change what a powerhouse this is. Humane, entertaining and emotively philosophical. The tension sequences grab you like a vice, the gradual time-outs of Clint softening have a unique warmth and humour to them. I know that Unforgiven, A Perfect World and Mystic River are technically the more proficient movies… masterpieces… yet Gran Torino attaches itself to your soul, really gets into your heart. I have nothing but love for it, its well argued message and its self re-evaluation of its star and director. The kinda movie I really could watch every week of my life.

10

Perfect Double Bill: Cry Macho (2021)

My wife and I 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/

Wes Anderson directs Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward and Edward Norton in this teen romance where two kids go on the lamb after a momentary chance encounter the summer before.

A church production of Noah’s Flood. A fantasy library. A stand-off in the woods. A dance on the beach. A defiant wedding. A steeple top cliffhanger. Wes’ loosest movie post-Rushmore, feels like French Nouvelle Vague movie… but y’know for kids. And, even if it is populated by orphans, loners in arrested development and lovers trapped in stale marriages, also his sweetest. It has no idea how to end but the journey to get there is worth running away for. A clashing soundtrack of Benjamin Britten and Hank Williams, a look of frayed formalism. This is a sleeve full of badges, a secret bay of romance and a throwaway masterwork. Glorious.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Punch Drunk Love (2002)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Chris Bernard direct Alexandra Pigg, Margi Clarke and Peter Firth in this British romance drama where a Liverpool lass on a night out falls for a Russian sailor in what feels like more than a one night fling.

A harsh fairytale. The first half is stodgy and reeks of a TV play for today just a little too often. The second half finds its soul and grit, staying quite bravely ambiguous. No clear cut happy endings here but the ultimate message of not “staying in your lane” is rewarding. Thatcher’s Britain comes in for a kicking. Was a surprise hit in the U.K. on release but now largely forgotten. The lead couple ended up together in later real life which is a sweet piece of bonus trivia.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Educating Rita (1983)

My wife and I 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/

Lars Von Trier directs Bryce Dallas Howard, Danny Glover and Isaach de Bankolé in this arthouse drama where Grace, the liberated daughter of a gangster, finds herself trying to liberate a lost-in-time slave plantation.

Didactic, challenging, bleak. Possibly Von Trier’s best on reflection. Filmed in ugly DV, on a black box set, with stars as glorified extras, and John Hurt giving an ironic detached narration… this works. From its incendiary premise, to its loaded sex scenes, to its murky conclusions… to its powerful end credit sequence. This is the rare time that Von Trier’s political astuteness seemingly overpowers his smirking prankster. He is helped massively by Dallas Howard’s naive but honest central turn. Superior to Dogville.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Dogville (2003)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Boaz Yakin directs Denzel Washington, Will Patton and Hayden Panettiere in the sports drama about a black football coach trying to integrate a team of teens in a racist town.

A blind spot on my Denzel radar. Feels very cliched, almost overstuffs itself trying cram as many cliches in as possible.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Antwone Fisher (2002)

My wife and I 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/