Matt Reeves directs Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and Paul Dano in this horror and noir themed take on the famous masked vigilante superhero from DC Comics.

For the initial 90 minutes I was in. A shameless homage to the directorial style and influence of David Fincher done so well that even a super fan like me could not see the forgery for the fear. What if Gotham was the anonymous hell city from Se7en? What if The Riddler was the Zodiac? What if Bruce Wayne had his poor little rich boy world tore apart à la the psychological mind fuckery of The Game? No Fight Club? No Project Mayhem? Wait for it… Wait for it… Journeyman director Reeves has assembled an incomparable team for his three hour tribute mash-up. Cinematographer Greig Fraser really emphasises the piercing neon signage, distress flares and investigating flashlight shimmering off bodily fluids. Michael Giacchino repurposes everything you’d expect from a Batman blockbuster score but slows it down to a fading heartbeat that then builds often to a stunning death knell as excitement peaks.

It ain’t all perfect nightmare though. Something happens after a muscular Batmobile chase, which is possibly the best car smash sequence since The Bourne Supremacy’s crunching finale. The dank atmosphere and cruel plotting loosens a bit. The solution to the ultimate mystery is the most obvious one. We sit through four lengthy monologues from characters we don’t care about or trust the content from. One after the other. A few too many scenes feel like The Dark Knight cosplay; an interrogation room showdown that leaves the silent Batman thumping and caterwauling like a toddler… that’s so 2008! The Big Bang ending doesn’t logically work as a cataclysm and needed just a few more big picture shots and moments of grand scale peril to bed in before the shooting starts. Too. Much. Epilogue. None of these takes feel like the definitive version of the infamous characters, though a ghoulish Dano and brooding Pattinson do admirably try hard.

It is fascinating how Reeves plays around with the established mythology to add a healthy interrogation of the Bruce Wayne / Bat tragedy. The action, when it happens, has a real world thump and impact. The Batman’s bolt upright and imposing posture intimidates, his punches land with a muddy squelch. I really liked so much of this. The Batman felt tailor-made for me, the adult comic book fan. I want more from this Mindhunter Gotham… I just don’t know if I’ll relish watching Cop#3 monologue for five minutes on a rooftop or a superfluous Alfred fackin’ Pennyworth each time I revisit this opening chapter? Still you could never see Marvel make something so family unfriendly. Good… Bye!

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Joker (2019)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Richard Loncraine directs Michael Palin, Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliott in this Edwardian set comedy where a handsome reverend must bring the word of God to the whores and toffs of London.

Convincing period atmosphere. Neat how Palin’s good hearted believer quickly becomes a trick, pimp or pro from scene to scene. The central hook is that his mission for fallen women essentially becomes a knocking shop while he, through no fault of his own, fucks everyone but his fiancée… yet this takes up so little of the plot you do wonder if the creatives got distracted by every idea except their perfect main gag?

6

Perfect Double Bill: A Private Function (1984)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Paul Feig directs Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy and Demián Bichir in this buddy cop comedy.

Cold. The sad thing is this was made by people who grew up watching 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop and Dragnet and still couldn’t try and match what worked so effortlessly there. Also: 2 fucking hours long!

2

Perfect Double Bill: Spy (2015)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Bernardo Bertolucci directs Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Maria Michi in this erotic drama where a grieving hotel owner and a far younger free spirit start an anonymous affair.

Pretentious, hokey, dull and wobbly. That could just be Brando’s performance. He’s definitely trying something here and that rarely gels with the amateurish Schneider’s appealing if wonky lead. Their best scene together is him giving her a bath… it has true tenderness and a sensual charge missing among a lot of the other, moodier fuck sequences. The quality of the outdoors scenes is also all over the shop. I get what Bertolucci is trying to say here about desire, connection, ageing, time, loneliness and grief… but Don’t Look Now does it all with more thrills and less blatant metaphors. A couple more decades and I’ll be Brando’s age and no doubt try this a third time.

6

Perfect Double Bill: 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Joe Wright directs Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in this period musical where a witty soldier is convinced his appearance renders him unworthy of the affections of the luminous Roxanne, a devoted friend who’s in love with someone else.

Mixed emotions. A beautiful piece of cinema, easily the most sensual movie of Joe Wright’s career. As a visual love letter to his luminous wife (Bennett) this proves incomparable. He uses Sicily as a frame and the well worn plot as a delivery system to lens his undeniably lush paramour in every angle and pose and lighting setting possible. And Dinklage gets an aptly meaty role that amplifies everything that has made him a deserved if unlikely household name over last decade of his lengthy career. The script is self reflective, a common thread within Wright’s period romances. Just another example of the big risky swings this adaptation often takes. It is a work defined by big risky swings. Not all are successful. The clunky final act does not live up to the opening… I didn’t think it works particularly well as a musical but Natalie has been revisiting the soundtrack written by The National over a week later. So what do I know? It is a strange mix of pared back minimalism and ornate flourishes. This Cyrano works, I’d rewatch it, maybe it’s uniqueness might nudge it into classic territory?

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Station Agent (2003)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Christopher Cain directs Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips in this teen western where a group of wayward young men seek revenge on the cattle baron who kills their father figure.

“We regulate any stealing off his property – we’re damn good too! Mr. Tunstall’s got a soft spot for runaways, dareless, vagrant types. But you can’t be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean, earn your keep.” Quite a punchy little Western bolstered by Dean Semler’s beautiful cinematography. The action has bite and the script has eloquence. Estevez is on fine form as Billy The Kid, while Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko often steal focus from the bigger names. There are a few indulgent sequences that weaken the stew, stretching the pacing out, but even if you aren’t nostalgic for The Brat Pack era there’s more than enough within to entertain.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Young Guns II (1990)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Eric Louzil directs Shannon Whirry, L.P. Brown III and Malcolm McDowell in this erotic thriller where a hot but prim British insurance investigator has to mooch around New Orleans with some swaggering dickhead to solve a diamond crime.

Watched for free on YouTube with all the nudity cut out. I’m guessing by the clunky edits I noticed, only a paltry three soft porn sequences have been excised. Channel 5’s Sharon Stone, Shannon looks lovely but her accent wobbles. Brown and McDowell only manage to achieve a one-take hyper obnoxiousness. Even if the smooth bottoms and perky boobies were kept in, this would be pretty cheap and pretty unwatchable.

2

Perfect Double Bill: Fair Game (1995)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Lee Su-jin directs Han Suk-kyu, Sol Kyung-gu and Chun Woo-hee in this Korean thriller where two fathers, a politician and a hardware shop owner, face off over a tragic hit-and-run.

So many twists, turns and subplots that this is almost incomprehensible by the end. I guess The Big Sleep and Blade Runner don’t make complete sense either but neither of them are so draining… unlike here they are detailed rather than needlessly complex. A few nice nasty stabs shake up the shaggy dog narrative but this is no Parasite.

4

Perfect Double Bill: The Beast (2019)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

François Truffaut directs Jeanne Moreau, Henri Serre and Oskar Werner in this French New Wave classic, set before and after WWI, where two friends fall for the same woman yet attempt to find a more egalitarian way to all exist together.

The movie starts at a relentless pace. Zippy to the point of breathlessness. We are running around a gallery, dashing over train tracks, moving into the future like a sugared up shark. By the end things are grinding and sputtering. Time and ageing has defeated our three lovers. They are resigned to repeating lost memories and old conquests. Life has lost its zest. The whirlwind of lust and discovery is over. Maturity and knowledge and history has worn these youths down and away. Oskar Werner’s Jules doesn’t like the sound of clocks, he has an hourglass in his room. Later, once married, when we first enter the marital home, all we can hear is the cogs of a clock turning ominously. The boys’ performances are nowhere near as wondrous as the gorgeous Jeanne Moreau. The ending is genuinely a slap in the face but it has a poetry. One of my favourite arthouse classics…I’m more a Hollywood blockbuster guy yet Truffaut tinkles all my emotions with his buzz and mastery.

10

Perfect Double Bill: Eva (1962)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Olivier Assayas directs Asia Argento, Michael Madsen and Kelly Lin in this globetrotting thriller where a sex worker turned assassin hooks up with her former boss.

Coming from an arthouse director, this is allowed to noodle around in a narrative liminal space where it seems too little is happening. The dryness, ambiguity and corporate flatness can make it very dull at times. It doesn’t help that Madsen’s two big scenes play out like wannabe Mamet plays where neither lead has the energy to pull off the frisson needed. There’s kink and a couple of decent minimalist set pieces, Argento always catches the eye whether imperilled or seducing. It feels like a diluted Bourne or Haywire spin-off. Doesn’t live up to the movie poster’s dangerous promise but not a complete disappointment.

4

Perfect Double Bill: demonlover (2002)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/