Neil Jordan directs Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson and Forest Whitaker in this IRA thriller / romance where an on the run terrorist falls for the lover of a British soldier he kidnapped and killed.

Far more interesting than its heavily marketed “twist”. When viewed through a current trans gaze it can seem like an exploitative and negative depiction but I don’t think that was the intent. I think the ultimate message of The Crying Game isn’t revulsion but revolution. Whitaker’s soldier plays his last card before death to teach his captor a lesson. It could be seen as smirking punitive revenge but I don’t think Jody (Whitaker, terrible accent, brilliant performance) would put his beloved Dil in danger. He wants to change his captor from beyond the grave. Change his nature. Show him nothing is set in stone – not gender, sexuality, nationality, identity or morality. So he does it via the mode of knowing sexual prank. It works. Whether as unlikely romance or “one last job” genre flick, The Crying Game holds up strong. And it owes plenty to the daddy of all strange erotic thrillers – Blue Velvet. It really hit home on this rewatch just how much of Lynch’s masterpiece is purloined by Jordan for new purpose. Breathy torch song performances, closets, sexual awakenings, vulnerable femme fatales, apartment shoot out finales. Which makes Miranda Richardson’s stand-out psycho the Frank Booth of the piece. That scans.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Angel (1982)

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

Jacques Audiard directs Mathieu Kassovitz, Anouk Grinberg and Sandrine Kiberlain in this French post-World War II drama about a grifter who fakes a resistance record to start a new life.

Early softer Audiard. Does follow an underdog who works his way up the ranks, so there’s that. Kassovitz mild mannered hustler is a blank and a sponge. Everyone shows him how they lie to get by. Salesman, beggar, politician. He replicates. The ultimate take home is the whole system is bullshit. A documentary style framing device here, a beautiful love interest or two there, some intrigue. Ultimately a process movie but one with enough mystery to be watchable.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Damien Leone directs Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton and Elliott Fullam in this horror sequel where Art the Clown returns to terrorize a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.

If you embrace that this is both long for a horror flick and extreme for even a horror flick then Terrifier 2 has so much to offer. Unfathomable resurrections. Unbelievably nasty kills with gloopy physical FX, animatronics and CGI. Nightmare On Elm Street inspired dream sequences. The same quicksand sense of reality as the high points of that series. Who exactly is The Pale Girl and why can people who aren’t Art The Clown see her? And David Howard Thornton committed take as new slasher icon really finds its groove here. It is unpredictable, silly, shocking… and… well… terrifying. You never know what iteration of the silent Art we are going to get shot from shot. In this sequel he is matched by final girl Lauren LaVera. Likeable, undeniably sexy and convincingly vulnerable, her conversion to battling hero is a stand out. There’s a touch of the mythic to all this, to some wider, not quite fully defined, ambition. As revivals of VHS-era nasty nights in go, the Terrifier series just gets better and better. Only Rob Zombie and Leone are making blood soaked love letters with this level of craft and care.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Terrifier (2016)

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Takeshi Kitano directs Beat Takeshi, Aya Kokumai and Tetsu Watanabe in this Japanese gangster flick where a Yakuza is sent to a seaside town on a suicide mission.

Slow cinema. It is slight and feels even more cult now than it did back in the mid 1990s. I have a lot of affection for this deadpan delight. It blends art, genre and comedy affectingly at its own purposeful pace. The violence is impactful, the downtime very playful and heartfelt. The romance is the highlight. There is a very sexy scene involving a rainy downpour. This is about as quirky and personal as a hyper violent film can get while still satisfying the fans of the genre.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Kikujiro (1998)

Steven Soderbergh directs Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender and Tom Burke in this spy mystery where a married couple, who keep their work lives out of the bedroom, begin to suspect each other of betrayal.

30 years ago the mid-level budgeted movie saved Soderbergh’s career with Out Of Sight. Here he is now returning the favour trying to revive the mid-level budget movie. The plot is essentially Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy… only Smiley’s estranged wife Ann is a high ranking field agent and chief suspect. There is also a fair amount of the corrosive sexual mistrust from Mike Nichol’s Closer bunged in. Don’t expect any titillation. One explosion aside there isn’t even a whiff of 007 scale action. This is a talky piece. Bluffs, ruses, mind games, confessions, confrontations. Formally elegant (bookended by two dinner parties in the same location) and visually elite. It was fine as a one watcher and the ensemble casting is really quite special. Fassbender is outstanding as the cold fish investigator.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Presence (2025)

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

Hayao Miyazaki directs Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Shigesato Itoi in this Japanese animated fantasy film about two sisters who move to the countryside and befriend a nature god.

All hail the catbus! The soot sprites. The leaf as hat. Not as anodyne as I remember… the beautiful motifs and themes of Miyazaki’s oeuvre are more apparent to me now… but still very much one for the kids.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Gia Coppola directs Pamela Anderson, Dave Bautista and Billie Lourd in this character study where a middle-aged Las Vegas showgirl is faced with an uncertain future after learning her long running cabaret show is closing.

The stunt casting of Anderson is the least noteworthy thing here. She is more than capable of inhabiting the character study but the part really tries to cash in on her faded notoriety and timeless beauty rather than developing her internally beyond the first act introduction. It is a shapeless movie that just kinda happens, even the revelations and experiment feel like the guaranteed motions. As a mood piece, Gia Coppola shows promise. This proves just as sensory an experience as you’d hope from the third generation nepo auteur. Bautista and Lourd are strong in roles where they both feel sort of miscast. Well done them for powering through. There is scope to criticise the slumming it camp of the setting and melodrama. What does anyone involved know about poverty, failure, diminishing choices? Yet they all pantomime the vibe surprisingly well.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Raw Justice (1994)

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

Scott Derrickson directs Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver in this mystery sci-fi horror action romance stew about two mercenaries guarding opposing sides of a misty valley with a Lovecraftian threat below.

A relatively original conceit that evokes everything from Bourne to Silent Hill to Carpenter. Adult edition Teller is a very smooth leading man and even if Anya Taylor-Joy is never going to convince in action sequences she is always very cute. They vibe off each other nicely and the instant attraction is probably the high point of the flick. Once we get down into “The Mist” things go a bit polygon esoteric. It can be digital ugly at times but equally I’m not sure how else you’d achieve this scale and integration? Derrickson brings a sustained intensity to the action sequences and I for one enjoy seeing him spaff Apple’s mega bucks up the wall on something that in any other decade would be a blockbuster cinema release.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Annihilation (2018)

F. Gary Gray directs Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox in this crime thriller where four women from ‘the projects’ start robbing banks.

Rather trite wish fulfilment / tragedy heist movie that has lashings of melodrama yet feels inconsequential. The characters go through wild personality swings from scene to scene and yet all the fronting doesn’t really motor the downfall. Top RnB soundtrack though.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Poetic Justice (1993)

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

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett direct Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens in this horror comedy where a disparate crew of criminals kidnap at twelve year old ballerina only to find themselves locked up with a monster.

Throwaway entertainment. Too soft and safe to become a rewatchable but bloody enough and well cast enough to satisfy on a Friday night. The kid is promising,

6

Perfect Double Bill: Ready Or Not (2019)