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/

Robert Wise directs Marsha Mason, Anthony Hopkins and Susan Swift in this supernatural drama where a mother is convinced her daughter was reincarnated from a girl who died in a car blaze.

We laughed our arses off watching this… the acting is awful, with an especially gormless turn from linchpin child performer Susan Swift being the stinkiest offender. The Haunting director Wise seemingly wants to make anything but a horror… the tone is never scary and the plot warps from chamber piece to courtroom drama to hypnotism procedural. Coca-Cola got full value out of whatever product placement deal they signed. Rarely a scene begins without the iconic red can being front and centre in shot. Marketed as a horror then and still now, this is a right old bunch of toot masquerading as a The Exorcist peer.

3

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/

Carl Theodor Dreyer directs Julian West, Maurice Schutz and Rena Mandel in this early horror where a lodger is stalked by apparitions of the dead.

An eerie spin on Bram Stoker and Nosferatu with plenty of clever shot manipulations and shadow play. It isn’t as genuinely terrifying as Murnau silent classic nor as narratively rigorous as Frankenstein or Freaks but it hits the spot. The kinda of consistently surreal and foreboding visuals that used to be projected on nightclub walls for kitsch atmosphere back in my day. It can feel like a bit of a grab bag of various potent horror legends, and there’s now a perverse fun to seeing all the deep dive critical readings of what essentially is an early spook house ride that has stood the test of time.

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/

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman direct Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dominique Fishback in this superhero actioner where three unlikely heroes try to stop a shadowy cabal from flooding New Orleans with a drug that gives any user five minutes of unique superpowers.

Joost and Schulman have directed two of the most unsung seminal thrillers of the last decade; Catfish and Nerve. Both movies are set in milieus that understand how millennials use ever evolving social media, apps and mobile devices. They may not be perfect entertainments but they feel more naturally current than most try hards and stuck in the past wannabes. Project Power often fails to match that scrappy attuned vision to the cutting edge. It feels like a poor man’s X-Men spin off that has been smothered in bludgeoning attempts to be hip and with it. Set in a world where it is an outright injustice if kids are called out for using their cells during class and where dreaming to be a hip-hop star is more important than not dealing drugs. It is a clunky fantasy over reality paradigm that gets in the way of the thrills. The actual concept of the film is robust. A couple of the confrontations the magic pills cause are spirited but the imagination of the set pieces never rises beyond ‘what if this power faced off against that mutation?’ Never even raising the stakes to what if multiple strengths teamed up together or against one. It is always an unwavering one-on-one. And of those ‘ones’, only Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a naturally likeable protagonist. If we were just following his rookie cop (isn’t he forty?) as he used the drugs to stop the drugs I’d say this would be a pretty decent Netflix Original. But he has to share two thirds of his game time with the always unbelievable Foxx and a very mature high school student (isn’t she thirty?). Their subplots are desperately trying to be on trend rather than having JGL’s natural chill to energise them. It becomes very easy to light up your phone and side eye the action when he isn’t onscreen.

5

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/

Scott Hicks directs Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin and Hope Davis in this Sixties set coming-of-age drama where a fatherless boy bonds with a fugitive psychic who moves into the apartment above him.

Featuring an outstanding early child performance from Yelchin and one of Hopkins less hammy turns, this is a pleasing re-run of Stephen King’s preferred themes, imagery and emotions. Sure, you could watch the superior Stand By Me or IT or The Shawshank Redemption again but this gently spools out everything those classics did perfectly in a neat, heartwarming compilation package. The non-horror King project this seemingly shares the most DNA with though is 11.22.63… ominous men in hats, time displacement, unavoidable fate and Kennedy era nostalgia. It might not reinvent the wheel but it is a nice little film to get lost in and the characters have a rounded complexity that often gets left out in most page to screen adaptations.

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/