Peter Greenaway directs Andréa Ferréol, Brian Deacon and Eric Deacon in this British arthouse sex romp where twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals.

Hey kids, do you like nudity, snails and maggots? Very Carry On meets Turner Prize Art Installation meets Dead Ringers. You can’t deny the transgressive beauty but it all feels a tad up itself.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Belly Of An Architect (1987)

Sion Sono directs Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Denden and Asuka Kurosawa in this Japanese thriller where a sadsack aquarium shop owner’s family finds themselves drawn into the clutches of a charismatic and more successful business rival.

Strangers On A Train: Asia Extreme Edition. Denden is delicious in this as the murderous conman who easily takes over the protagonists’ lives. He’s weird, he’s seductive, he’s clearly dangerous. Just a great “What’s this smiling freak up to?” central turn. It gets very, very brutal… though there isn’t much suspense once the air of mystery around the mastermind psychopath clears up at the one hour mark. The director’s wife Megumi Kagurazaka is particular good value as the deceitful partner in crime to the magnificent villain. A slippery one watcher.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Anti-Porno (2016)

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Richard Loncraine directs Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea and Tom Conti in this horror where a grieving mother moves into a house with a dark secret.

A London Don’t Look Now. With Rosemary’s Baby’s wet fragile mum. More chiller than terror, the mystery doesn’t go anywhere all that peculiar. There is a haunted radiator. A turtle death. A threatening revelation in an old drunk’s flop house. The only truly shocking moment though is the opening death of the doomed daughter. More drab than exciting.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Burnt Offerings (1976)

Alice Rohrwacher directs Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte and Isabella Rossellini in this quirky Italian drama about a destitute tomb raider who locates Etruscan graves using his visions.

An arthouse / Letterboxd darling that I hadn’t had the chance to catch until… the Filmhouse reopened. It’s back! It is oh so good that the Filmhouse is back. Looks a bit swankier. Is it more comfy? The movie is dreamy, dirty and very Fellini. The middle act of grave robbing larks is strong. The rest a meandering meditation on grief. It is a mood piece but maybe a bit too ethereal to fully deserve its hype. I do like Josh O’Connor as an awkward but handsome screen presence and fingers crossed he’ll keep snuffling out projects like this.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Happy As Lazzaro (2018)

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

Richard Attenborough directs Robert Downey Jnr, Geraldine Chaplin and Kevin Kline in this rags-to-riches biopic of the globally famous silent film comedy star.

A whistle stop tour of all the events and controversies of Chaplin’s life. Works best when ticking off his list of doomed relationships with beautiful (often underage) ingenues. His artistic triumphs and political problems whizz past a little too fast to really make an impact. There are three or four moments where you wish we spent another dedicated half an hour. Downey Jnr is well cast.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Nickelodeon (1976)

Steven Soderbergh directs Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts in this fizzy sequel to the cooler-than-cool heist ensemble blockbuster.

The crew go continental! Breezy, spritzy and jaunty. Also laidback to the point of obsolescence. This truly is a hang out movie. It actively avoids being anything else. The third act gambit involving the famous person who Tess looks like is a meta treat. Vincent Cassel’s rival cat burglar is an arrogant bonus. It does feel like we don’t really get enough from first movie favourites like Elliot Gould, Bernie Mac or Casey Affleck. David Holmes’s funk jazz score keeps things bopping along even when nothing much is happening. Soderbergh evokes various sixties Euro new waves in his fractured glossy sheen. Cappuccino foam – there’s an art to it, it’s nice but it ain’t meant to last forever.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

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Streetwise (1984)

Martin Bell directs Erin Blackwell, Dewayne Pomeroy and “Little Justin” Reed Early in this intimate documentary following the lives of the kids who live and hustle on the streets of Seattle.

Sad, so sad, but the access is incredible.

8

Top Secret! (1984)

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker direct Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge and Peter Cushing in this spoof of the spy film.

Not as non-stop scattergun as you might have anticipated but there’s an inspired visual gag so perfect every ten minutes or so that is hard to resist. The cow had Natalie in fits of giggles and that makes me very happy

7

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Jim Jarmusch directs John Lurie, Richard Edson and Eszter Balint in this road movie where a New York hipster begrudgingly lets his Eastern European cousin stay with him and then travels across states to see her.

His first proper feature length movie is one of Jarmusch’s best. Lo-fi absurdism where there is heart and meaning hidden between the blanks. Everyone is giving these slow, spaced out performances but it means you cling on to everything unsaid in the interactions. The deadpan hollowness carries weight. There’s also something quite Bukowski-esque in the shitty apartments and desolate streets. Poetry in the bleakness.

9

The Brother From Another Planet (1984)

John Sayles directs Joe Morton, Rosanna Carter and Ray Ramirez in this socially conscious sci-fi where a mute alien with the appearance of a black human settles into a new life in Harlem.

Very unassuming, shoestring budget. There is just enough sci-fi action to fill a trailer and the rest is social commentary. Often other characters perform didactic monologues while Joe Morton’s alien humanoid passively listens. Fisher Steven’s subway card sharp and an unlikely seduction are the highlights. This is more a mood than a fulfilling narrative.

6

Trancers (1984)

Charles Band directs Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt and Michael Stefani in this sci-fi adventure where a future cop travels back in time and takes over the body of his Eighties ancestor to catch a killer.

Scrappy. Pre-dates Quantum Leap by 5 years. And is a funky bargain basement rip-off of Blade Runner until we get time travelling. It is totally cartoon-ish and smarter than it needs to be. The kinda movie that could survive the stock cull of a video rental place every year. It has a time freezing gadget gimmick, barely legal Helen Hunt as a love interest punk, a shlubby but likeable anti-hero. Exactly the calibre of schlock title Bret Easton Ellis would name check in The Shards 2.

6

Eli Craig directs Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden in this slasher spoof where two sweet redneck pals are mistaken for crazed killers by a bunch of college students…

…Who then keep having ridiculously gory accidental deaths trying to “survive” the backwoods encounter. It is a dumbsmart concept, cartoonishly executed. A lotta lotta heart helps. Tudyk and Laine have a sweet buddy dynamic and the romantic subplot just about works. A stupid bloody blast.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (2004)

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

David Cronenberg directs Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce in this erotic thriller where a widowed tech millionaire has created an app where he can watch in detail his wife’s corpse decompose within her tomb.

There is a spectacular sex scene. And before that a shocking one. This is on the whole Cronenberg’s best since A History Of Violence. The through line satire about a life lived on apps has a real “I told you so” energy to it. Let down only, but almost fatally, by an interminable final half hour. Every mystery has been resolved. We understand the themes of moving on from grief and sexual desire in sickness as much as health. So why drag it out with the same old impenetrable techno conspiracy that Cronenberg has been dangling like an obtuse prankster in front of us since the Eighties?

6

Perfect Double Bill: Videodrome (1982)

Joseph Kosinski directs Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem in this sports blockbuster where a Formula One driver comes out of retirement to mentor and team up with a younger driver.

Top Gun: Maverick meets Days Of Thunder. But also just Brad Pitt absolutely louching around in the perfect vehicle for him. This is the closest the A-List handsome goof gets to both serious drama and selling out. It is a true paradox, I know. I do find Kosinski’s visual style to be too clean. He dials back all details and the commercial minimalism often feels distracting. He loves exposition almost as much he adores a white, spotless interior. Give me a director like Tony Scott or Simon West who truly caused a visual ruckus within the Bruckheimer formula. That production pattern means F1 will be endlessly rewatchable (the summer pop soundtrack stoking our emotions, the roar of kinetic action, the light fingered humorous character work). You can even overlook how iffy some the third rung acting is. It puts you in the races. It makes you care about F1 for three hours. I didn’t before and don’t after. It has a scene where Kerry Condon walks out on Brad Pitt because he takes her somewhere where the pints are flat and lifeless. Imagine spending $200 million dollars on a movie and not keeping a head on a beer for continuity?

7

Perfect Double Bill: Heart Of The Beast (2026)

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