Jérémy Clapin directs Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois and Patrick d’Assumçao in this French animated adventure where a disembodied hand searches the city for his body.

The strange perspectives and unusual peril the hand finds itself in are very absorbing. The flashbacks to its sadsack owner and his quirky poetic rebellions against urban alienation less so. A bit too pretentious to whole heartedly recommend.

6

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/

Susanne Bier directs Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes and John Malkovich in this apocalyptic sci-fi where a viral force possesses people into killing themselves once seen.

I avoided this brief sensation when it seemed to merely exist to inspire memes and rip off A Quiet Place. It actually works quite well as the dwindling ensemble bicker and make bad decisions in light of a supernatural extinction. Nothing particularly original happens but the early set pieces are tight and the burgeoning romance between Bullock and Rhodes is convincing. They told me not to look, but it was an entertaining enough watch. The ending is a little too underwhelming though.

6

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/

Ramin Bahrani directs Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao in this drama where a boy from India’s rural underclass inveigles his way into working for a corrupt family.

Anyone who has seen the blistering 99 Homes will know that Ramin Bahrani can make cracking cinema out of holding a mirror up to wealth and class inequalities. Here he adapts the Booker prize winning novel about India’s rigged caste system and takes in globalisation and endemic corruption to boot… It is quite a canny piece of cinema that many young film critics will compare to the grandstanding of Parasite and many older critics will notice coded queer comparisons to The Servant. Yet the great movie it reminded me most of is French prison thriller A Prophet. The rare tale of a pawn making its way daringly all the way across the board, the most precarious individual clamouring up a hierarchy. An ‘exploitation’ flick in the least used definition of the word, one where various scenes can be read in intriguingly different ways. An attractive cast and eye for incongruous detail mean this corking epic of developing world mores and bad behaviour absolutely chops.

8

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/

Daniel Goldhaber directs Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh and Samantha Robinson in this creepy horror where a cam girl finds her profile hacked by an nasty doppelgänger.

A neat and nasty little rattler that teases it will turn out like the Talk Radio of private shows but then mutates into a Repulsion / Mulholland Dr. descent into madness and identity blurring. As an allegory Cam works really well in manifesting the dehumanising and exploitative realities of online sex work. I assume. The script was written by former cam girl Isa Mazzei. I don’t know whether the often sexless dress-up shows or the glamorous drop-in community studio (what’s the chances of all the top performers living in the same state, let alone the same town?) or the stars’ obsessive All About Eve-esque battles for top rankings play particularly believably. But it is not a world I’m au fait with and it isn’t a thriller particularly grounded in reality. So why quibble? After her strong turn in The Handmaid’s Tale, Madeline Brewer comes into her own as the locked out and wigging out protagonist. It is a cute little calling card one watcher, that promises big things for the future of all involved, but it never threatens its antecedents’ supremacy within the genre.

7

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/

Mirrah Foulkes directs Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman and Benedict Hardie in this revisionist, feminist retelling of the Punch & Judy puppet show.

Thirty minutes in and I thought I was watching a fantastic piece of cinema. A brutally funny homage to Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton where the married puppeteers of the out-of-time village of Seaside go to war with each other. Both Wasikowska and Herriman are on fire as the put upon wife and vainglorious drunk respectively. It looks a treat. “THAT’S THE WAY TO DO IT!” Then the narrative propulsion just peters out to a stop. You can tell what Foulkes is trying to achieve in the later swathes but that virulent energy is gone and we seem to just be waiting about for a lacklustre finale. Still, there’s a lot of seedy distressed eye candy to goggle at, a laudable message and the occasionally bleak joke even after this hothouse flower loses its petals.

7

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/

Rowdy Herrington directs Jeff Daniels, Portia de Rossi and James Spader in this conspiracy thriller where a human rights observer becomes embroiled in the discovery and cover-up of a mass grave in Tijuana.

Aiming for the same vibe as Missing, Salvador or The Year of Living Dangerously, this perfectly adequate thriller suffers from having a particularly helpful drug cartel become a third act fairy godmother when it looks like all is lost. Those drug cartels are pretty classy guys. Sniping aside; the acting is strong, the various discordant plot threads tie together cleverly and the other real world political elements ring true. It is a worthy little film involving outsourcing, union busting and corruption. Unsensational and surprisingly sober, well made enough that if it was retelling an actual tragedy or historical investigation it very well might have been an awards contender.

6

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 Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig and Claude Jade in this comedy where Antoine Doinel is discharged from the army and becomes a detective.

A shift towards bright sight gags and gentle silliness. Léaud comes into his own here as physical performer, finding gangly laughs as a rubbish night clerk and an undercover shoe salesman. Delphine Seyrig is the highlight as a predatory boss’ wife who Léaud just can’t resist. Sweet if a little too whimsical.

7

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/

Michael Cimino directs Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda and Anne Bancroft in this road movie where a yuppie oncologist is kidnapped by a teen felon who seeks a mystical new age cure for his terminal cancer.

A film that feels about a decade out of date in pretty much every aspect. The acting is clunky and uncertain. The vision of poverty level America, a world of diversity and threat, is still unusual for mainstream American cinema but not particularly nuanced here. The occasional wallops of inspired filmmaking (look at that ending that abandons plot and just remakes the Ecstasy of Gold scene from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) feel like interruptions from a far steadier author than Cimino.

4

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/

Marielle Heller directs Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård in this Seventies-set erotic teen drama where a 15 year old begins an ill advised affair with her mother’s middle aged boyfriend.

A film that makes all the right choices about a girl trying out loads of wrong ones. Heller never sits in judgment on the various ways Powley’s Phoebe explores her intense sexuality… the risks and perils are ever present but never unleashed as punishments. And thanks to Powley, in what should have been an A-List star making turn, Phoebe is a pretty complex protagonist… artistic, manipulative, gauche and experimental. We share her thrill in all transgressions and pleasures, never shying from the fact that even emotionally dangerous sex can still be fun and satisfying in the moment. The parallel subplot of Phoebe growing through her comic art is realised with animated intrusions that add a wonderful fantasy dimension to the often seedy reality. This is the second time I’ve watched The Diary of a Teenage Girl and I think it is a real overlooked gem of recent years. Mature, sexy and sensitive. Well worth seeking out.

9

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/

Josh Trank directs Tom Hardy, Linda Cardinelli and Matt Dillon in this biopic of Al Capone’s last years in exile, under house arrest and suffering from a form of dementia caused by syphilis.

Diapers, carrots, Louis Armstrong, alligators… gold plated Tommy guns! Trank is clearly a director of some unrestrained and unfocused ambition – in Capone’s fleeting superior moments he apes Kubrick and Visconti effectively. I’m going to bet that like Cimino in the Eighties his options are growing desperately limited now as to who will fund his erratic and easy to criticise visions. This gangster fudge wallows in an often incomprehensible and sometimes risible performance from the usually bold Hardy. Some strong visuals aside, you do have to wonder about some of the editing choices, some of acting choices and some of the “how many scenes can we end with the lead shitting himself?” choices. To quote Fonzo himself in one of his rare moments of lucidity… “THAT’S DISGUSTING!!!” This might end up a cult classic in a decade or so time, which is a genuine shame for all involved. I wanted this to be good and you can tell they did too.

4

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/