Scott Beck and Bryan Woods direct Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in this elevated horror where two young Mormon missionaries attempt to convert a reclusive man, only to realise his house is a trap and their faith is about to be put to the test.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but with “Introduction to” textbook arguments instead of meathooks. Reality and belief are given a jolly good university dissertation going at by Hugh Grant in charmingly malevolent form. Are there good twists? Oui. Does the tension ratchet the whole way through?… For 90 minutes or so, Heretic does a fantastic job. Yet it is wordy, demanding, didactic. Continually “ON”. The developments in the final stretch are wobblier. When did that character get so erudite and well read, hey? Kinda outsmarts itself. A one-watcher.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Hereditary (2018)

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Steve McQueen directs Saoirse Ronan, Elliot Heffernan and Kathy Burke in this WWII drama where an East End single mother and her mixed race son are separated as German bombs pummel London.

This is in many ways McQueen’s most anonymous, mainstream work. Reminding as much of Titanic in structure as anything else… strong emotional core, living history museum tour, rollercoaster ride final act. And I have always been kind of dumbfounded there aren’t more movies that tried to be Jim Cameron’s Titanic. The scale isn’t there. This is arty, edgier, more self aware. But here is a history lesson tearjerker adventure that strings together a series of episodes and interesting forgotten disasters into one condensed narrative. Some of the mini plots (escaping a railway depot, a run in with a band of evil body robbers) could belong in a prestige CBBC big Christmas miniseries. Others (Rita’s song over the radio, Mikey Davis’ socialist shelter, the bombing of the Cafe De Paris, the flooding of a tube station) are absolutely enthralling moments of sincere reenactment with greater purpose. And no matter how plummy or cosy a sequence feels, McQueen is never too far away with a startling abrasive shock. He say a lot here about British society and its schisms, often heavy handed. But as immersive history lessons (and Saoirse starrers) go, Blitz was very welcome, tactile and involving. I didn’t expect quite so much Paul Weller though.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Atonement (2007)

Sean Baker directs Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn and Yura Borisov in this romantic comedy caper where a sex worker marries a Russian oligarch’s spoilt son and has to deal with the families heavies when the brat runs away.

Very much hugs the shape of the Hays Code screwball comedy. If there weren’t so many boobies and butts it would be rather traditional. The excellent sugar rush hedonism of the first act does dominate the experience. There is a single setting middle act that grows repetitive and, even with everyone’s best intentions, feels dangerous. If this were truly reality our Anora would be in major peril yet it plays out as slow farce. The third act brings things back to a pleasing road movie vibe closer to New American Cinema. The strange little bleak whistle stop quest the players go on to wrap things up recalls The Last Detail and Paper Moon. While still clinging to that long lost 1930s genre structure. So… an uneven ride. Probably not on a par with Sean Baker’s Red Rocket or The Florida Project. Yet one with a more accessible pre-existing shared plot (Pretty Woman) that mainstream film critics and multiplex audiences can dip their toes into his gorgeously lit vistas of sex worker and crushed dreams without feeling lost. The strip bar and Vegas are the American dream now. Rigged games of glamour and salesmanship where intimacy is temporary ownership. As a character study Anora rocks, I hope Mikey Madison keeps getting roles this deep and rich as she’s a real one of a kind.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Hustlers (2019)

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

Uli Edel directs Natja Brunckhorst, Eberhard Auriga and David Bowie in this hard hitting true tale of a 13 year old who gets hooked on heroin and then turns to prostitution in Berlin.

When Christiane first goes to the Sound nightclub blatantly underage, her cooler friend tells her nobody is seen carrying a carrier bag around with them there. By the end the only thing she has left is a wispy carrier bag she never seemingly lets go off. This is a grubby film. Wine vomit. Blood being sluiced out of syringes. Scabby forced handjobs. The descent into drugs is realistic. There is no villainous peer pressure. It is part of the subculture these kid enters into, and after a couple half hearted objections from those a few months further down the tracks she just starts doing it. A little heartbroken, she feels alienated, there is nothing else to do. Same with the prostitution and the squalid living. It is a pattern that already exists, a crack that many just fall into as it is… there. Some fun at the start – rebellious freedom and young love. The final trudge through the underground station full of underage zombies feels inevitable. Surprisingly non political given Berlin’s unique situation in the Seventies, the one moment of explicit commentary is what happens on the morning after her first whole night out. The mother of her friend punishes her child, admonishes our doomed protagonist unfairly for being a bad influence. At home, Christiane avoids any noticeable consequences. Well made, stark, you wouldn’t rush to watch it twice.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Last Exit To Brooklyn (1990)

Piers Haggard directs Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden and Michele Dotrice in this folk horror where a village is taken over with hysterical devil worship.

The original. Ceremonies deep in the woods. Diabolical seductions. Deformities. It plays like three or four Amicus anthology shorts blurred and blended together. The confusion of not having a central protagonist or much narrative focus is it feels like society is spinning out of control. Not the scariest horror flick ever made but very atmospheric.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Witchfinder General (1968)

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Daniel Kokotajlo directs Matt Smith, Morfydd Clark and Sean Gilder in this British folk horror where a family trying to make a new life on an inherited farm suffer a tragedy.

Overqualified cast, gets the vibe right, almost to a textbook degree.

6

Perfect Double Bill: In The Earth (2021)

Jacques Rivette directs Dominique Labourier, Juliet Berto and Bulle Ogier in this French arthouse classic where two women (possibly strangers) get lost in intimate, fantastical play around Paris.

The first 90 minutes of this are quite lovely. Lo-fi stalking and joyful muck around. We are in whimsical Fight Club / Mulholland Dr territory where personalities blend and merge and swap with minimal adherence to reality. Dominique Labourier really sells her character’s clownish physicality and she always achieves an extra bonus on top of what any scene tries to achieve. A walking tautology, her vivid performance is an all-timer. The second half gets lost down the rabbit hole. Trippy sucking candies, time warp houses, a white telephone drama on a loop. It gets ultra repetitive. Maybe if you were fully seduced by it then you would mop up all the rerun enigma with a big slice of bread. Here’s the thing though… I started out seduced and by the end bored and utterly distracted. I’m guessing this needs to be seen in a cinema where you are locked in.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Nah! It is enough…

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

Werner Herzog directs Bruno S., Walter Ladengast and Brigitte Mira in this true tale of a mysterious grown man who appeared in a town square in Nuremberg one morning seemingly knowing nothing of the world.

Told very matter of factly, almost in a cold docudrama mode. Herzog is less interested in solving the enigmatic man’s origins and more with exploring how unsuited to the world he is. It makes for a sad experience, one that will get the philosophical nodes in your cranium a twitching.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Elephant Man (1980)

Jacques Audiard directs Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez in this Mexican crime musical where a cartel boss employs a lawyer to not just escape his dangerous life but transition him into being a fully fledged woman.

I’ll say it. He’s is the closest we now have to have the young Marty Scorsese of the 20th century. Audiard loves making genre cinema about people fighting both their environment and true nature. Crime, extreme pressure, the fallibility of emotional responses. I still find him an incredibly exciting filmmaker, especially as he seems to like cashing in all his prestige with every new project and betting it on something truly daring both formally and thematically. In the first act and third act, Emilia Pérez contains some of the best auteur movie making of the year and his career. It ain’t a musical you’ll ever be singing along to in the shower but it is physical, vibrant and operatic. The middle section contains a plot development that feels a little too worthy and out of character. It also contains scenes that remind me awkwardly of Mrs Doubtfire. Flawed as this section is, it also contains the optimum amount of Selena Gomez as the unaware moll “widow”. She is on fire whenever she is on screen. There’s is something ever so alluring about her grumpy pissed off face.

8

Perfect Double Bill: A Fantastic Woman (2018)

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Radu Jude directs Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrsan and Nina Hoss in this Romanian political comedy where a part time influencer travels about trying to audition workers who have suffered industrial accidents for a Health & Safety video.

Three hours of the last gasps of a true world before it is consumed by corporate malfeasance and digital unreality. There are some fantastic moments here and it makes its points well. The in-your-face rudeness of Jude’s vision and Manolache’s lynchpin turn resonates. Yet at two features lengths it is just too grinding, running out of anything new to say at the midway marker. I have seen this alt-Godard praised to high heaven. I think it has to do with its purposefully unwieldy length and pixel prescience. Like a 1000 page novel with experimental writing and groundbreaking ideas it is an inevitability that those who chose to complete it have to embrace it. Otherwise, why did they waste their time?

6

Perfect Double Bill: Nah! It is enough…