Gil Junger directs Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this beloved teen movie where two sisters have an overbearing father who will only let one date if the other does so a keen suitor hires a local tough to date the more abrasive girl.

That might be the longest synopsis I have ever written for one of these diary entries. Colourful, perfectly cast, poppy. Star making turn from Ledger and some very funny adult support. Busy but cherished.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Easy A (2010)

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Whit Stillman directs Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman and Tushka Bergen in this indie romantic comedy following two American cousins looking for love in Eighties Europe.

Stillman’s second film of social faux pas and small societies is probably his best. The interplay between the two adult cousins is rich with many running threads and jokes. You truly care about them by the third act which has an event that derails the status quo. Stillman makes the sorta films you get the feeling Woody Allen was aiming for in the 90s but the famous comic turned director was scuppered by being a bit too old and bit too tired plus the weight of expectation. Stillman’s gets the urbane dialogue driven farce right by being nimble and light. Intellectual, deadpan yet somehow also warm and also cosy.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Metropolitan (1990)

John Huston directs Anjelica Huston, Assi Dayan and John Hallam in a love story set during the Hundred Years War.

Meandering and episodic. Is it an allegory for Vietnam? The forgotten flick often feels like a museum piece behind glass. Angelica hasn’t grown into her talents yet either.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Chimes At Midnight (1949)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Rupert Wainwright directs Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce in this horror where a hairdresser comes into possession of a cursed rosary and starts bleeding out of holes.

Very nu metal in its visuals, like watching a 100 minute Evanescence music video. There is too much forced atmosphere, not enough dread. I cannot think of any other horror flick where not a soul dies. There is a creepy papal conspiracy that doesn’t make a jot of sense. You’d expect Arquette and Byrne being paired off to bring more heat too.

4

Perfect Double Bill: The Number 23 (2007)

Jim Jarmusch directs Forest Whitaker, John Tormey and Cliff Gorman in this existential action film where a quiet hitman tries to follow the samurai code as written about in Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s, Hagakure.

Deadpan indie cool meets Leon. Whitaker’s near silent physical performance is his most laidback and memorable. There are low key action set pieces that are patient and smart. Precedes The Sopranos by presenting the mafia in atrophy. Just a joy to watch. Jarmusch’s eyebrow is raised but he never smirks.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Dead Man (1995)

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Danny and Michael Philippou direct Billy Barratt, Sora Wong and Sally Hawkins in this Australian psychological horror where two orphaned teens find themselves placed with the wrong foster mum.

Unnerving and unsettling. The performances are top tier. It does use various forms of child abuse to put its Hansel And Gretel protagonists through the wringer. And that maybe stops it from being as rewatchable as Talk To Me. The kitchen knife sequence alone is just brilliant shock. No holds barred horror.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Talk To Me 2 (2026)

Damien Leone directs David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera and Samantha Scaffidi in this Christmas set slasher where everyone you care about from Terrifier 2 comes back for another spree.

It seems reductive to call this more of the same when nobody else is delivering it as spicy as this crew.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Terrifier 4 (2027)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Athina Rachel Tsangari directs Caleb Landry Jones, Henry Melling and Rosy McEwen in this period rattler where a farming community is torn apart by outside forces.

Went into this one blind and was hypnotised by it. Drip feed of story and context and character. Small anachronisms seem purposefully there to throw you off. The pastoral setting is not idyllic and echoes many a folk horror. Then everything goes to shit. It is slow paced and wilfully obscure at time but that just edges the mystery and the dread along. A modern gem, could quite obviously be an allegory for Brexit.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Judy & Punch (2020)

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Julius Onah directs Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford and Danny Ramirez in this Marvel superhero adventure where the new Captain America finds himself caught in a conspiracy.

Flat. Struggled to hold my attention. Ford should have hulked out sooner.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Thunderbolts (2025)

Nicolas Roeg directs Theresa Russell, Gary Oldman and Christopher Lloyd in this Dennis Potter drama about Oedipal fantasies in suburban America and model trains.

Oh to be a Nicolas Roeg completist! This one appears to be leaning way too heavily into being a kitsch cult item and doesn’t even really achieve camp. It is histrionic and grating in equal measures, served up with a melted layer of cheap pretension on top. Like the art school boys directed a Tennessee Williams play in their parents’ house after reading a load of Vonnegut. Oldman is committed and Russell is always stunning to look at if miscast. As with pretty much everything from this era, deja vu kicked in horrendously. I can’t believe I rented this on VHS as a kid but maybe half caught it late night or saw the trailer a few times. That bonus personal mystery didn’t help.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Cast Away (1986)