Olivia Newman directs Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson in this swampy romance where a shy girl who has grown up alone in the North Carolina marshlands remembers her first loves while standing trial for murder.

A very pretty hot mess. Utterly predictable yet the emphasis is all over the shop. For something so handsomely mounted it tells more often than it shows. Both boys in the love triangle are callow waste men, which doesn’t help. Filled a couple of hours as a mindless distraction but needed to get its fuck on or focus more on the court case bookends if it wanted to rise above its bloated reputation.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Midnight In the Garden Of Good And Evil (1997)

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/

Philip Barantini directs Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson and Ray Panthaki in this intense British indie following a kitchen and FOH team during a particularly fraught Christmas dinner service.

The living legend Stephen Graham on slightly more subdued form. The one-shot gimmick looks like it has genuinely been pulled off seamlessly, without cheats or interruptions. Having worked in hospitality up until quite recently there were one or two things that didn’t ring true… but there were another hundred little details that did. Would be interested to see what Barantini does next.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Locke (2013)

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/

Zack Snyder directs Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell and Omari Hardwick in this zombie action heist movie where a crew assemble to rob a Las Vegas casino after the bright light city has been quarantined off due to a zombie outbreak.

Snyder’s commitment to the stand-out credit sequence is second to none. This spins its wheel forever though stifling the good, the cliched and the extraneous. At least the zombie king antagonist is well established…

5

Perfect Double Bill: World War Z (2013)

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/

David Lean directs Charles Laughton, John Mills and Brenda de Banzie in this British classic where a drunken bootmaker refuses the dowry to marry off his daughters… so the smartest one takes matters into her own hands.

I had no idea what choice this titular Hobson would be making going into this? What we get is a British comedy, and as such a comedy about people out manoeuvring the class system, anchored by two fine performances. Laughton’s drunken blowhard delivers just as much as you’d expect. Brenda de Banzie’s wise and driven daughter is more than a match for him. What John Mills is doing here is a whole other matter… but it works out for the best in the end. Has aged splendidly.

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Quiet Man (1952)

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/

John Fawcett directs Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle and Mimi Rogers in this teen werewolf horror where two outsider sisters fall apart once one begins to go lycanthropic.

Fantastic concept and two fine leads but the horror never really steps up a notch after a strong start. Feels more like an allegory than a gory thrill ride.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Cursed (2004)

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/

Audrey Diwan directs Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein and Luàna Bajrami in this Sixties-set French drama where a university student falls pregnant and seeks an illegal abortion.

A career making central performance from Anamaria Vartolomei. Is she ever off screen? Do we ever have any doubt as to what fears, emotions and pains she is forced to internalise? Immersive, intimate and gruelling. Just a fantastic piece of filmmaking. And depressingly timely. A woman’s body is her own dominion. Let’s not ever roll back the clock to the point where young people were forced to be so ostracised and put in so much jeopardy just for deciding their own life deserves more of a chance than one that isn’t even formed yet.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Something In the Air (2012)

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/

Curtis Hanson directs Eminem, Mekhi Phifer and Brittany Murphy in this underdog hip-hop drama where a white boy from Detroit struggles to find his confidence to win the rap battles he has a clear talent for.

Rocky but with rap but kinda better than Rocky somehow. The grit feels more authentic, the rebellion has a true edge to it. Brittany Murphy as the romantic interest is on a whole other level… her whole body seems to be operating on different voltage… you can’t take your eyes off the visual energy. The support cast in general is impressive. Kim Basinger and Michael Shannon do a little with a lot. The studio must have had an inbuilt fear that the MTV star might not be able to carry a two hour “serious” movie so they’ve buffeted him with quality at every angle. The fear was unjustified. Even though playing a fictionalised version of himself, he carries the flick and you get the feeling he could have even without such strong support. He’s never really acted again, despite this being a sizeable hit in every respect, more as he doesn’t like the process rather than he doesn’t have the ability. Yet we came for the rap battles and by God they deliver. Tense, funny, bouncing – not leaned into too desperately either. This movie had no remit to be made quite so well, so all credit to Curtis Hanson, who was on quite a streak at this point, for landing this so smoothly.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Juice (1992)

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/

Adam McKay directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep in this mega budgeted satire where the media, big business and the government ignore an extinction level event until they can profit from it.

Smug and sanctimonious. I’d queue up to see half this cast on their own, as a glitzy ensemble though only Jonah Hill adds value and his hilarious scenes are few and far between. Paused it at a point where it exhausted not just me but its crux for existing… and we still had over an hour left with nothing new to say. A shameful waste.

2

Perfect Double Bill: The Big Short (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/

Mimi Cave directs Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan and Jojo T. Gibbs in this romantic comedy thriller involving supermarket hook-ups and cannibalism.

A wonderful little calling card movie. Essentially two elongated seductions where the end game both times is murder. The finale is rushed and notably less smart and playful than the slow drip build-up. This looks hot, there’s a tangible texture in every production design decision, and Cave playfully retains a couple of unrefined dance numbers… she’s smart enough to bask in her stars’ chemistry. I wanted to like Fresh even more than I ultimately did. Stan is a cool antagonist but you do have to question his choice of girls to turn into prime cuts. They’re all a bit… skinny… no?

7

Perfect Double Bill: Eating Raoul (1982)

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/

Lars Von Trier directs Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård and Katrin Cartlidge in this arthouse drama where a sheltered young woman, who believes she speaks to God, marries a worldly oil worker whom after a debilitating accident asks her to start sleeping with other men.

I have never been Von Trier’s biggest fan. He loves the naughty shock just far too much. Cruel rather than transgressive. Whether you approach him as provocateur or prankster, his movies have a cold, clinical distance that I struggle to connect to. He’s a formalist as much as an enfant terribles, Breaking The Waves contains some of his most wholegrain gambles. The chapter breaks are little marvels – on the nose selections of Seventies glam rock play over moving oil paintings – which punctuate the dour tragedy. The imagery is processed to drain all the vivacity from the shots. Film converted to video and then back to film – giving the whole project the feel of a faded Kodak photo found in a charity shop book… underlit, candid and important to someone once. Yet what truly elevates this above Von Trier’s usual experimentation and irritation is Watson superlative debut performance. The fanatical mischief on her face when she communes with God, the frailty when she stumbles unprepared into the world of men’s desires. One of the greatest pieces of screen acting.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Dancer In the Dark (2000)

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/