Carl Franklin directs Denzel Washington, Jennifer Beals and Don Cheadle in this detective thriller where a black war hero is hired to find a mysterious woman and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal in 1948 Los Angeles.

I have always wanted to read one of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins mystery novels. I haven’t yet so I couldn’t tell you if Denzel is perfect casting for the role. It is Denzel though so you go find anyone better. He’s pretty relaxed here. Looking hot in a vest and terrified in a shoot out. The corkscrew plot is garbage though. Hard to care about and ends exactly where you’d expect it to after much misdirection. More focus should be put on Rawlins and the psychopathic Mouse’s risky friendship. Looks good. Wish they got a second shot at this world.

6

Perfect Double Bill: No Sudden Move (2021)

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

Peter Weir directs Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke in this period boarding school drama where an inspiring teacher faces down conformity with his mad improv skills.

Dead Poets Society is a handsome little flick from one of my favourite directors. The reputation and box office success of the thing would have you think it is a modern classic. Weir adds a sense of the timeless mythic to the visuals. Caves. Mists. Hooded midnight meetings. There’s no arguing with that iconic ending. “O Captain! My Captain!” Williams is boss if a little incongruous. His funniest moments are also the most wildly anachronistic. Yet there’s a problem of POV here. Too much focus is on the interchangeable lacklustre milk boys. If you are into preppy teen honkies then this is damn near pornography. Yet the minor rebellions and mercilessly repressive villainy of the older generation just don’t click for me. As an adult, DPS is pure of heart and hopeful yet no longer all that impactful.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Good Will Hunting (1997)

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

Roberto Rossellini directs Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders and Maria Mauban in this Italian drama where a married couple visit a villa in Naples they have inherited.

Culture clash, languid loneliness, the end of a marriage. A fish-out-of-water couple separate over their holiday. They bicker, they tour, he tries to cheat, she feels the overbearing crush of history on her soul. They watch a man be rebuilt from a hole in a volcano. Then a miracle…Journey To Italy was a failure on release. Butchered and stitched back together in various forms by various distributors to try and turn a profit from its bankable stars. Saunders is his trademark attractive brute, Bergman vulnerable yet misanthropic. I like the cynical poetry of this, it feels game changing even now.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Stromboli (1950)

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

Tim Sullivan directs Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis and Ian McKellen in this London romantic comedy about a grieving father who employs a hot young American nanny to look after his newborn cutie.

I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes except with a baby. Standard operating procedure yet both the wonderful Grant and sexy Mathis deserved more starring vehicles whether apart or together. Solid, sweet.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Fever Pitch (1997)

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

Franco Zeffirelli directs Martin Hewitt, Brooke Shields and Shirley Knight in this teen melodrama where an intense first sexual relationship spirals out of control when a parent tries to break things up.

Absolutely bonker, camp one-of-a-kind soap. Thank goodness John Hughes was preparing to give the sub genre a good, hard, modernising shake-up. Troughs of incoherent depression give way to bursts of manic plot twist. Mad that pre-dental work Tom Cruise rocks up for a cackling one minute monologue that acts as a complete catalyst for the rest of the narrative.

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Blue Lagoon (1980)

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

Andrew Haigh directs Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Jamie Bell in this supernatural drama where a lonely gay man starts a new relationship but also starts revisiting his dead parents in his childhood home.

Surprised I liked this quite so much. By it’s very nature All Of Us Strangers is a bit of a middle class coffee table book of a movie. I was put off by Claire Foy‘s sequences as she often feels like she is going through an acting exercise. And I was a little bit ahead of later twists. Having said that, Haigh represents the modern British experience better than any director currently working. Mescal and Scott have heat in their scenes together. And I’m not entirely sure why Jamie Bell isn’t part of the awards conversation at the moment. His characterisation has the most nuance and compassion.

7

Perfect Double Bill: 3-Iron (2004)

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

W. S. Van Dyke directs William Powell, Myrna Loy and Maureen O’Sullivan in this comedy mystery where a married couple of sleuths take on the case of a missing scientist accused of murder.

Listen now kids, the creaky mystery farce around them is pretty mid. Old Hollywood doing what it does whether you like it or not. Nick and Nora Charles though are so money, baby. Drunk, in love, cute dog, still drinking, living out of hotels. Why let a little private detecting get in the way of the second most perfect couple I’ve ever encountered? Powell and Loy are a dynamo of chemistry and timing. I really should track down those sequels. Glamorous gal-wise there are at least two hard smashes burning up the screen here and pre-code jokes-wise there are three risqué corkers that stand the test of time.

9

Perfect Double Bill: After The Thin Man (1936)

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

Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson directs Ewan McGregor, David Bradley and Gregory Mann in this stop motion animation adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale transposed to fascist Italy.

Looks beautiful – full of rivulets of detail and Del Toro’s distinctive trademark creature design. But that’s about it. Most annoying Pinocchio ever. Chop that prick up. Very naive and grating. I’m not sure the fable about fascism adds much more than a worthy backdrop. Reminded me often of the very middle class, very dull children’s book adaptation that clog up Channel 4 on Boxing Day. More stop motion please, pretty please, but this sadly ain’t the one.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb (1993)

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

Oliver Stone directs Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones in this blockbuster speculative essay on the theories, conspiracies and inconsistencies around the infamous assassination of President Kennedy.

Long, dense with two fantastic monologues. How often did Costner play white boy obsessives? His clean cut All American image frequently got channelled into stable men who could not give up… to the point of ruination. Stone cleverly just overloads you with evidence. Some of it contradictory, some of it so speculative it invites ridicule. Yet the ultimate point is we do not know the truth about one of the defining events of the 20th century. Whether you believe Cuban freedom fighters supported by CIA funded homosexuals killed JFK or one lone Russian sleeper agent, the fact is we don’t know. All we ultimately know is that the average marksman Lee Harvey Oswald could never have made three rifle shots in that timeframe with that accuracy by himself. And bullets aren’t THAT magic. “Back and to the left. Back and to the left.” So what happened? With a mixture of film stocks, breathless storytelling and a dozen uncredited A-List cameos, Stone sets out an epic case for the curious in this mega hit. There’s a clear influence on Oppenheimer here, and while Nolan’s unlikely smash is nowhere near the stamp of JFK, it is at least heartening that the mass public can still have their imaginations stirred up by these gargantuan cinematic reshapings of recent history.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Nixon (1995)

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

Sean Durkin directs Zac Efron, Holt McCallany and Jeremy Allen White in this sports drama based on the tragic true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.

There’s a shot, a loaded shot, a sustained shot of the Von Erich’s dancing at a wedding. And even if you know nothing about this true story and you’ve only ever seen half a movie before you’ll know they are absolutely doomed from that point onwards. Just too happy. Efron and McCallany give brooding awesomeness. I love Durkin as an auteur but this might be too sad to pop on for regular revisits. A male weepie.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Martha Marcy May Arlene (2011)

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