Bruce Hunt directs Piper Perabo, Morris Chestnut and Cole Hauser in this survivalist horror where blood-thirsty creatures await a pack of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network.

The Descent for Lemon & Herb spice level horror newbies. Decent C-List cast though. Lena Headey has Ripley written all over her… but will even she survive? Forgettable.

4

Perfect Double Bill: As Above So Below (2016)

Robert Altman directs Carol Burnett, Mia Farrow and Geraldine Chaplin in this New American Cinema farce where the daughter of a truck driver marries the scion of a very wealthy family and everyone’s lives spin out of control over the proceedings.

Pre-Mumblecore mumblecore pressure cooker. So so many subplots but only two of the two dozen threads hold the attention and pay off. Burnett’s tryst and the painting gift. Let this one wash over me but Natalie enjoyed it. Two hours was too long.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Interiors (1978)

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

Paul Flaherty directs Martin Short, Charles Grodin and Mary Steenburgen in this comedy where a bratty 10-year-old boy is obsessed with visiting a dinosaur-themed amusement park and drives his uncle crazy to get there.

What is Beethoven was Martin Short in shorts? What if What About Bob was creepily, cringey weird? I love both Short and Grodin but there’s a reason this has become a cult. It isn’t very funny but it is uncanny enough that you look deep and hard into all the mid tastelessness hoping for more.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Pure Luck (1991)

Jonathan Darby directs Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow and Johnathon Schaech in this thriller where newlyweds move to the family thoroughbred horse ranch, only the mother resolves to get rid of her new daughter-in-law.

The Mother-In-Law-From-Hell. This psycobiddy throwback sat on the shelf for years until Paltrow became a name. So they reshot the ending, defanging it of any trace levels of excitement. Even with the final fumble it idles about not knowing when, if ever, it should start going hard. A turkey.

3

Perfect Double Bill: Mother’s Boys (1993)

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Christian Petzold directs Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer and Langston Uibel in this German drama focuses on four people sharing a holiday home on the Baltic Sea.

We’re all going on a summer holiday… Gentle and unassuming. Shifts from being a comedy of manners to a light exploration of class inequality and then a dark exploration of climate change. Paula Beer as always captivates.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Undine (2020)

Lynne Ramsay directs Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller in this drams where a mother struggles to love her strange child because of the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up.

40 miles of bad road. Oppressive and bleak as it is artfully and immersively crafted. Few directors plunge you into fragile, sociopathic mindsets quite like Ramsay.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Elephant (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

Yimou Zhang direct Yi Zhang, Haocun Liu and Wei Fan in this Chinese Communist period comedy drama where an escaped convict, a runaway and projectionist battle to rescue a print for a small town’s movie event.

Epic and intimate, satirical and reaffirming, slapstick and melodramatic – all in one big sappy unspooling.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Red Sorghum (1987)