Off to Japan this weekend, so obviously there has been some movie watching prep…

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Hayao Miyazaki directs Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma and Kappei Yamaguchi in this Studio Ghibli animated fantasy where a young with moves to the big city with only her talking cat and starts a courier business.

Again I’m getting more in the groove with Ghibli’s twee-er efforts. This didn’t just feel quite so cute and ever so harmless this time. It actually struck quite a few chords about the transition from being a kid to becoming responsible adult. Didn’t soft serve the pains and obstacles of growing up. All the while it kept a delicate balance of adventure, drama and comedy. And a cute talking cat. Yeah!

8

Tokyo Story (1953)

Yasujirō Ozu directs Chishū Ryū, Chieko Higashiyama and Haruko Sugimura in this drama where an elderly couple go to visit their adult children in Tokyo only to be treated very poorly.

Far more sophisticated than Kiki’s Delivery Service but not a million miles from the same ultimate intent. Isolation, lifestyle, the overwhelming totality of the urban environment and complex relationships play a huge part in both Ozu’s and Miyazaki’s messages. I love the scenes where Dad goes out on the lash with his old neighbourhood buddies. A lot of this ran true. Slow beauty.

8

Dark Water (2002)

Hideo Nakata directs Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno and Mirei Oguchi in this J-horror where a recently divorced mother tries to keep custody of her daughter in a cursed apartment complex that is wet, mouldy and possibly haunted.

Not quite the stamp of Ringu. More of a creepy chiller. Perhaps the soggiest film ever made with a compelling (Repulsion-esque) lead performance from Hitomi Kuroki.

7

High And Low (1963)

Akira Kurosawa directs Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Kyōko Kagawa in this thriller where a shoe executive must decide whether to pay the ransom when a kidnapper snatches his chauffeur’s son by mistake.

Three very different acts. A Lumet style teleplay shot in wide, long takes as Mifune’s Kingo Gondo wrestles with whether to gamble his fortune to save his servant’s son. This mode ends when we follow “the drop” on a speeding train. Then a lengthy police procedural as every clue is rinsed to solve the crime. Then we descend into the hot and horrible underworld. Swarms of junkies, nightclub freakouts. The missing eyes of a desperate criminal. High And Low is still a brilliant thriller, class aware, my only criticism is the story moves away from the excellent Mifune in the second half. I doubt the Spike Lee / Denzel Washington rejoint will make the same misstep this year.

9

Cloud (2025)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa and Daiken Okudaira in this mystery where an online reseller faces revenge from his customers and suppliers.

Kurosawa’s flicks are gleefully obtuse and untethered. I preferred the paranoid, mysterious first half. Slow burn. Very much a Lynchian neo noir with a snide eBay platform thrown in the mix. The second half is more fantastical and action orientated. The whole is definitely trying to say something deeper about rampant capitalism versus humanity. The self can be destroyed online and in person. But Cloud is a puzzle in itself.

6

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

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

Psycho Beach Party (2000)

Cruel Intentions 2 (2000)

The Slaughter Rule (2002)

Pumpkin (2002)

Serving Sara (2002)

Catch Me If You Can (2002) 👍

The Last Run (2004)

The Wedding Date (2005)

Standing Still (2005)

Junebug (2005)

Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party (2005)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006)

The Ex (2006)

Underdog (2007)

Enchanted (2007) 👍

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

Doubt (2008) 👍

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

Julie & Julia (2009)

Moonlight Serenade (2009)

Leap Year (2010)

Love & Distrust (2010)

The Fighter (2010) 👍👍

The Muppets (2011) 👍👍

On the Road (2012)

The Master (2012)

Trouble with the Curve (2012) 👍

Man of Steel (2013)

Her (2013)

American Hustle (2013) 👍

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Lullaby (2014)

Big Eyes (2014)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) 👍👍

Arrival (2016) 👍

Nocturnal Animals (2016) 👍🏼

Justice League (2017)

Vice (2018)

Sharp Objects (2018) 👍

Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) 👍

The Woman in the Window (2021)

Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Disenchanted (2022)

Nightbitch (2024)

At the Sea (2025)

Klara and the Sun (2026)

David O. Russell directs George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube in this action comedy ‘with a heart’ set around the end of the first Iraq war.

It is the one where Marky Mark gets tortured. The one where George Clooney and his director got into a fistfight on set. The one where Spike Jonze puts in a pretty serviceable full time comedy relief. The one that feels like a proper himbo blockbuster in the mould of Kelly’s Heroes… But satirises and goes on the offensive over American military action in the Middle East. The one that is shot on Ektachrome transparency stock that was cross-processed in colour negative chemicals, to create a scorched, toxic look. The one that is silly, then brutal, then rousing. A Hollywood studio is unlikely to invest a blockbuster budget into anything like this abrasive yet entertaining scrapper ever again. Three Kings is one of the unsung greats of its strange little era of premium entertainments.

9

Perfect Double Bill: The Hurt Locker (2008)

David Nutter directs James Marsden, Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl in this teen sci-fi horror where someone is reprogramming teenagers to be perfect students with violent side effects.

Not quite The Faculty or The X-Files but moves at a fair clip and has some salty, freaky moments. When the Blue Ribbons clique glitches it is excessively aggressive. And I’m there for that. More probably could be made of the fact that it is teen horniness which messes with their brain washing and turns them full tilt psycho. Katie Holmes is given a very uneven character. The unintentional upshot is you aren’t quite sure if she has been microchipped in the finale. And she does fully deck a fragile mental institution patient in the best all-out horror sequence.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Skulls (2000)

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

Joe Pytka directs Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in this family sports movie where Michael Jordan plays basketball with the Looney Tunes to save them from intergalactic enslavement.

I was just that little bit too old to be bothered about Space Jam when it came out so this is a belated first time watch. Not as ambitious as Roger Rabbit yet SJ actually is A-OK. The human basketball stars are game and capable of lampooning themselves sweetly. We get plenty of Looney Tunes fan service. Bill Murray has a nice extended cameo. It maybe isn’t as bonkers as you might expect as a fan of the old cartoons but it keeps things moving fast and keeps everything simple. Wouldn’t be averse to a second watch.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

Jon Watts directs George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Amy Ryan in this buddy comedy where two professional fixers turn up to deal with the same corpse.

Of the Apple TV streaming bound glossy thrillers that reunite two Ocean’s Elevens co-stars released last year Wolfs was the more promising… but I preferred The Instigators. That had a nice, unforced old school energy, this just tries too hard. Feels like something I would have attempted to write when I was 15 after watching Pulp Fiction on a loop. You can’t deny that Clooney and Pitt have spades of charisma or that it isn’t handsomely shot (like a wintery whisky commercial) but you never feel like the smart alec smooth talkers are ever in above their heads. It glides on a rail when it should be chaotic. Once it is over you’ll struggle to remember much but empty slickness.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Instigators (2024)

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

Chuck Russell directs Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits and Rufus Sewell in this horror conspiracy flick where a cult of devil worshippers try to take custody of a lady’s autistic niece.

A calendar that didn’t exist when the prophecy and apocryphal doomsaying was written. The old millennium switching over 25 years back introduced a swathe of new messiah / apocalypse B-movies. Stigmata. Dogma. End Of Days. Lost Souls. This was probably the most traditional. There isn’t a ton of terror and the CGI demons are rotten but the narrative is at least involving. It’s the end of the world as we know it and this is fine.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Lost Souls (2001)

Joel Schumacher directs Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins and Kerry Washington in this action comedy where a streetwise scalper is recruited by the CIA to impersonate his long lost twin brother and save the free world.

Bruckheimer By Numbers.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Head Of State (2003)

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