James Bridges directs John Travolta, Debra Winger and Scott Glenn in this drama about oil refinery workers who unwind in a country and western themed nightclub where a mechanical bull riding contest takes centre stage.

Based on a magazine article and seen (as many Travolta movies of this era were) as an attempt to recapture the Saturday Night Fever lightning in a bottle for a second time. It is a less spoken of phenomenon of the early Eighties how many mainstream studio movies were based on journalism. New American Cinema and New Journalism overlapped for a prolonged period and by the the time high concept started to bite the idea of boiling down the richness of alternative life stories into formulaic star vehicles became an often unremarked upon sub genre of it own. Artistically ambitious strippers nightly grind became Flashdance. There’s a training program called Top Gun and there might be a movie in it! And as much as the boiler plate scriptwriting process might try and smooth and corral these people’s tales into something mass market, the grit and residue of reality still clings somewhere to the final product’s heart.

Urban Cowboy is not a great movie but it has stuck with me over the past couple of weeks. Mainly Debra Winger’s complex and yet smoking hot performance. There’s a taunting sequence where she rides the mechanical bull, showing Travolta’s controlling cuck all the moves her new lover has taught her that might just be the sexiest scene of the entire Eighties. She is given a raw deal through the movie. Two volatile suitors to chose from, neither really worthy of her but one the less dangerous choice… the only man who there is a chance for change and growth. Hard to imagine a movie being made today where the happy ending feels like such a compromise. But I suspect the filmmakers only see her as a daffy trophy to be won, a feisty beauty to be tamed. Much of the shading and humanity is what Winger brings to the role.

All in all, Urban Cowboy is overlong. Travolta is miscast and the story often bends around what his fanbase want. It was his last hit before Look Who’s Talking. Glenn’s villain for example could have went another way entirely and if the script wasn’t stacked in the A-Lister’s favour then the better actor might have revealed himself to be a better man. Disco was silly enough but a gritty relationship drama about a couple mastering a mechanical bull feels almost spoof worthy. Maybe not entirely unintentionally it often feels like the bull symbolises Scott Glenn’s more confident, mature and masculine penis. Whatever goes on on the device is just a surrogacy for what the more experienced Buck wants to do with both halves of the couple away from the nightclub crowd. The C&W soundtrack kicks, it launched a musical sub genre all of it own, and the location filming lends this daft movie a grounding. I’m conflicted but I would watch again.

6

Perfect Double Bill: An Officer And A Gentleman (1982)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll/

The Coen Brothers direct George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson in this musical comedy about three escaped convicts on the run during the Great Depression.

Based on Homer’s The Odyssey but only in a real loose cockeyed way. “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!” “I’m a Dapper Dan man!” “They loved him up and turned him into a… horny toad.” Step aside Lebowski, this is easily The Coens most quotable flick, thanks to the repetitious rhythm of the dense script. The use and love of language is a joy to behold. And that T Bone Burnett produced songbook rightly sold more CD units than cinema tickets. The sepia dust bowl pastoral pastiche looks lush and there are some clever moments. It is ultimately quite throwaway and bitty however. The last act lacks sparkle and cohesion. Not quite the gem I fondly remember. And my standard for the Coens is incredibly high.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Hail Caesar (2016)

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

Todd Phillips directs Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis in this raunchy comedy where, after blacking out in Las Vegas, three stags try to piece together what happened over a crazy night and find the missing groom.

Has aged poorly. What was quite a laddish lark back in the cinema now plays like something that should probably never be revisited. Doesn’t help that the breakout stars and director became oversaturated, overrated presences we are still living in the wake of. Heather Graham, Mike Tyson and Ken Jeong put in good cameos. I laughed out loud once. Two sequels?! Surely there are no needle drops left?

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Hangover Part II (2011)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll/

Apichatpong Weerasethakul directs Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas and Sakda Kaewbuadee in this arthouse darling from Thailand about a slowly dying farmer who is visited by his dead wife and his son who has taken on the form of a spooky monkey ghost.

The Emperor’s New Palme d’Or. Yeah… it’s not that I don’t care about Thai culture, history or beliefs nor that I’m not interested in death, doppelgängers or pastoral employment… this is just too laidback and airy to justify its runtime. The iconic forest mythological creatures who pop in are creepy (shadows with glowing red eyes) but do little.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Syndromes and a Century (2006)

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

Alexander Payne directs Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa in this comedy about an unloved prep school classics teacher who must look after a troubled student over the Christmas break.

Seventies vibe recreated right down to the film stock, crash zooms and folk songs. A funny first hour gives way to a hymn about compassion. A hard movie not to fall in love with, a gentle movie full of intelligence and wit.

10

Perfect Double Bill: The Paper Chase (1973)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll/

David Fincher directs Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Christopher Plummer in this remake of the Swedish mystery bestseller.

Fair to say this suffered coming out so soon after the Noomi Rapace trilogy. With a bit of distance this epic but slick adaptation proves just what a master Fincher is. The casting of the relatively unknown Mara is devastatingly effective, Craig plays a crumpled, wimpish anti-Bond efficiently, this is the role you wish he got further entries in. Their convergent storylines build well until the third act where they start working together… with horny benefits. All the serial killings, predatory sex beasts and revenge have that trademark Se7en nastiness to them. Yet they land differently when glimpsed as short sudden shocks between all this austere, polished prestige. The colour has been faded out – snow, grey, admin. I think Fincher took this one on to try and tell a ridiculously dense mystery as visually as possible. Dial back the exposition, fetishise the evidence, cum to the method. As we watch analogue materials be digitised we piece together a multi strand enigma, watch the past become reanimated. Oh yeah, you can tell what hooked Fincher in here and it wasn’t Sony’s unlimited budget or Craig’s immaculate winter wardrobe. That 007 inspired hard R credit sequence of an oil and cables orgy to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing Led Zep… well, that’s cinema, kids! Cover versions can be a blast.

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Girl In the Spider’s Web (2018)

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

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin direct Annette Bening, Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans in this biographical sports drama about aging swimmer Diana Nyad’s multiple attempts in the 2010s to swim from Cuba to Florida, with flashbacks to her early life.

Very much the Jodie and Annette show but that is the reason we bought our tickets.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll/

Federico Fellini directs Giulietta Masina, François Périer and Franca Marzi in this Italian character study following a prostitute who begins to question her way of life.

Giulietta Masina. One of those full fat central performances that pulls you in and is so mannered, funny, nuanced and heartfelt that you can’t do anything but be attracted deeply towards it. Like Cage in Leaving Las Vegas or Huppert in anything. I’m starting to dig Fellini’s form. Less a three-act structure and more a series of short stories collected together as they happen to share the same character. As you view the omnibus you start to see the shift in that lead character’s heart, their world going askew. In Cabiria’s case you’d kill for her to have that happy ending when a possible one is in sight. Yet it somehow still feels impossible. Technically, this is a perfectly crafted piece of visual art.

8

Perfect Double Bill: La Strada (1954)

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

James Mangold directs Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Patrick in this biopic of Johnny Cash.

Cards on the table time. Live At Folsom Prison is the greatest live album ever and Johnny Cash is the recording artist whose songs I sing away absent minded to whenever I’m doing my chores. So even though this often feels as rote and shopworn as many a musician life story, I have a real affinity for the material and the man. What punts it up a notch or five are a pair of megawatt lead performances from Phoenix and Witherspoon. Their enticing central stop-start romance means Walk The Line bucks it formulaic nature and becomes a movie in its own right.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot (2018)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll/

Sam Esmail directs Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke in this apocalyptic drama where two families uncomfortably share a secluded dream home as America shuts down.

Many scenes in this feel like a play filmed by a new director who wants to try every camera trick in the toy box. And while it drifts to oblivion very slowly it does often work. Stealthily battering away at your paranoia until you relent and can allow the low key nightmare scenario to grip you.

Juel Taylor directs John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx in this sci-fi satire where a local hood discovers his blaxploitation spoof ‘hood and his body are part of an insidious experiment.

The reason I’ve grouped these Netflix releases together is they share so much DNA despite being projects with very different aims. Tick box exercises. The Netflix algorithm dictates what makes an optimum “original” to the point where the recipe has become very obvious. A movie that weighs in at well over two hours plus, consisting of moments rather than momentum. That almost feels like both an extended trailer AND a condensed supercut of a TV series. Race (in America) is the focus but dealt with glibly to reflect social media opinions rather than difficult realities. There’s a dance sequence for TikTok. A cult B-Lister appearing for an extended cameo. The movie does more to inspire talking points for columnists and pundits than engage fully with the viewer… making you feel like you’ve signed up for a Netflix Movie discussion group. After a strong first act little seems to gain narrative traction. There feels like no conclusion. Is this it? Cloning? AI? C’mon Netflix you are part of the same problem. The slow creep.

7/5

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