Alice Diop directs Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda and Valérie Dréville in this French courtroom drama where a writer witnesses a full court case with parallels to her own life as a black woman in France.

Quite a dry and depressing court case in that looser French style of legal proceedings. We definitely get a strong idea about both women’s lives. One full of success, the other tragedy. And I can see the links and big themes this is addressing. Ultimately, the intent and meaning did elude me. Maybe that’s a failing in me but Saint Omer felt anti-climatic after the courtroom scenes had engaged me so deeply. The first work of narrative fiction by an established documentarian.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Atlantics (2019)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directs Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone and Robin Wright in this fantasy adventure where a princess is married in a faraway kingdom to a royal family who intend to sacrifice her to a dragon.

Could have been good. Instead very underlit and very flat. Feels like you are watching something behind museum glass, just lying there with a card next to telling you why it is important. It isn’t. It should be fun. Everyone except Millie Bobby Brown is clockwatching to some degree.

4

Perfect Double Bill: The Princess (2022)

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Steve Miner directs Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka and Richard Brooker in this slasher where a camp of teens are killed by Jason.

The 3-D rehash. If it can be poked at the screen it bloody well will be. The kids are forgettable, no notable nudity. Jason gets his mask. Meh!

4

Perfect Double Bill: Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Tamra Davis directs Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning in the teen drama where three disparate elementary school friends reunite and go on a road trip after their high school graduation.

A mixed bag but not as awful as its reputation. Any movie that opens with the one-two punch of prime Britney dancing in her skimpies to Madonna and then rejecting Justin Long in nothing but baby pink lingerie is gonna be worth a revisit. The melodrama that follows is pleasant enough, though the hot button big issues it invokes are rather fudged. Taryn Manning is excellent.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Burlesque (2010)

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Claire Scanlon directs Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell and Lucy Liu in this romantic comedy where two overworked assistants to megalomaniacs decide to set up their demanding bosses romantically to free up their schedules.

Slept on this one. The attractive stars have a strong rapport and the jokes come quick and fast. Not groundbreaking but hit all the buttons I would want a romcom to.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Éric Gravel directs Laure Calamy, Anne Suarez and Nolan Arizmendi in this everyday French thriller where a single mum faces a national strike that disrupts her daily commute and her potentially life changing job interview over a week of unpredictable back and forth.

Can you make the connection that does not exist? Can you skip out of work undetected to make the important appointment? Can you stretch the overdraft to buy the new professional suit and the kids’ breakfasts? I came to this via John Waters. I don’t hold his Top Ten recs of the year sacrosanct. 2020’s list was headed up with Butt Boy which I’m going to go out on a limb and predict has little for me in it. Yet Full Time was an outlier. Not a film I expected to see make his cut and that piqued my interest. Why! Isn’t! The! U.K.! Making! Films! Like! This! Exciting dramas that reflect everyday life. Gifting talented actors complex lead roles and shining a light on the struggles of those of us who work for a living. This is a feature length stress headache. Anything that can go wrong does, and you aren’t always sure our hero is the innocent victim of this hellish rat race. The ending really reaches a bleak but believable break point and then the whole carousel starts up again. A new rock bottom awaits. Nerve racking from teeth to tits.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Two Days, One Night (2014)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Hirokazu Kore-eda directs Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama and Sōya Kurokawa in this mystery drama where a Japanese mother begins to notice signs of bullying at her son’s school yet the formal culture of the hierarchy means we are never sure as to who is the monster and who is the victim.

The first act of this is genuinely compelling. Like an Anatomy Of A Fall, mundane, grind of the system, whodunnit vice. Sakura Andō is true and sympathetic as the mother who knows something is rotten in Denmark but cannot navigate the clear conspiracy of deference to get to the bottom of who is the villain here. The second act, Rashomon-style, takes us back and explores a differing perspective of events. The teacher who seemed so feckless and off-key is now humanised and dedicated. Hardly seems the same man? Then the children get their turn in the spotlight. And they don’t seem to care about the fallout to the adults as they explore their own relationship. In the closing shots it feels like no adults exist anymore. There are potent motifs. We begin and end in disaster. Shoes that don’t fit, scars we never see the source of. Starts so strong, what follows is still good but you feel a little cheated when the shifts in perspective offer less and less.

7

Perfect Double Bill: After The Storm (2016)

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Ethan Coen directs Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan and Beanie Feldstein in the crime caper comedy where two lesbian pals get out of town and start a new life but their rental car has some dark cargo hidden within.

At the start of this new decade, the unthinkable happened. Joel and Ethan decided to put their 40 year working relationship on pause, do “solo” projects with their respective spouses and now it suddenly seems like we know exactly who brings what to a Coen Brothers film. The Tragedy Of Macbeth might be indisputably the better made project, formally exciting and technically astounding, but it ain’t anywhere near as dirty loose and sugar sweet as this. Feels like Ethan has rolled back the clock to The Big Lebowski days… and I’m there for that. Nothing here tries too hard, it is deeply throwaway but in a way that has been missing from multiplexes since A Life Less Ordinary. Positives: Stacked cast. Unpretentious sex scenes. Wonderfully verbose dialogue. Gun totin’ shocks. Dumb support by lovely character actors. An overriding sense of the absurd. Bonkers transitions. Qualley absolutely understand the assignment and this will gain her more fans. That Coen exclusive dialogue falls out from her mouth perfectly. If you are a fan of hotties with big eyebrows this will sate your thirst. Slight but never dull.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

George C. Wolfe directs Colman Domingo, Chris Rock and Jeffrey Wright in this biopic of gay activist Bayard Rustin who helped change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.

A click above most recent Civil Rights movies in that Rustin was quite the loquacious character rather than a dull saint, and instead of uniform worthiness all the ensemble of historical figures have a combative frisson that creates comedy as often as it does drama. Should changing the world be this much fun? A powerhouse lead turn by character actor Domingo really motors the movie. The finale is done on the cheap however. Feels like only a dozen people turn up for the historic 100,000 Man March. Surely, producers Barack and Michelle could have kicked in an extra million bucks for three days of crowd scenes or negotiated the additional budget from Netflix?

7

Perfect Double Bill: Selma (2014)

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Sergei Eisenstein directs Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman and Mikhail Nazvanov in this Soviet biopic of 16th century tsar who unified Russia.

Two parts, over three hours, with an abrupt switch to colour in the last act. I watched this uninterrupted all over an afternoon. It kinda washed over me but I was never left behind by the conspiracies and powerplays. Visually striking, lots of memorable close-ups of faces being sinister.

6/6

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/