Adrian Lyne directs Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas and Tracy Letts in this high end erotic mystery where a wayward wife drives her rich husband to extreme measures.

A strange fish of a movie. Affleck and de Armas both look hot in grey, but because he’s the cuckold and she is given some plausible deniability in the edit, there‘s very little sex. C’mon Lyne, 20 years off and only one shot of Daredevil rimming a Bond girl… very poor. This is wealth porn, the community they live in is eerily strange. Suburban hedonism, every party feels like a daytime swingers event that forgot the viagra. Real Don’t Worry Darling vibes. When threats, stalking, deaths by misadventure happen it feels quite humdrum. Almost as if Ben Affleck’s poker faced husband has nothing better to do with his day than stonily live up to some fatal gossip. He does love his snails… weird. An update on a Patricia Highsmith novel, this plays its cards close to its chest for a beat too long to have any real fun. As a one watcher, it looks a billion bucks and guessing the psychological motivations of the blank characters is a decent motor but once the cat is out of the bag… well… there is very little that would entertain on a second watch.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Knock Knock (2015)

My wife and I 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 Musker and Ron Clements direct Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray and Emma Thompson in this Walt Disney animation that takes Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island into space.

An oft rollicking adventure with a pitch perfect voice cast and impressive character design. Jim and John Silvers relationship is tender and fascinating. Winning Saturday Morning Cartoon stuff.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Big Hero 6 (2014)

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

Zalman King directs Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tyson and Louise Fletcher in this erotic drama where a southern debutante begins an affair with a brooding carny.

All steamy atmosphere, all cheap style. And even if the minimal plot gets bored with itself, Richard Tyson is about as appealing as a trucker’s gusset and this is low art… Two Moon Junction scratches an itch. A Channel 5 late movie itch admittedly but it does the job. Sherilyn Fenn always makes a movie for me, the support cast is deep but classy and those strange little nonsensical diversions have a quirky mystery to them. Travelling fair real-politics, bisexual truckers, dead dog disposal, lashings of soft core humping. Better than it has any right to be and just the perfect amount of sleazy.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Wild Orchid (1989)

My wife and I 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/

Martha Coolidge directs Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman and Michael Bowen in this teen romance where boy and a girl from different Eighties sub-cultures fall for each other.

Outwardly a bubblegum teen romance that benefits from existing just a forgotten moment before John Hughes really nailed down and defined the genre. There’s a lot of accidental nostalgia here but also abrasive edges that really make Valley Girl stand out. If you want mall fashions and new wave music then this has it for you. Yet it is also sexy, and sexually frank, without ever feeling like exploitation. All the characters land a little more shaded, grounded and complex than is needed. Except Michael Bowen’s possessive jock who is just a muscle bound control freak. Then you have early Cage. His character’s actions do border on stalking but there’s a reality to his anger at being dumped and his clumsy failures at winning his dream girl back. And some of his wilder improvisations are kept in over the scripted material. Which is amazing. He has lovely chemistry with Deborah Foreman who is very winning in the largest role. Valley Girl gets so much right and doesn’t feel utterly beholden to the teen romance rule book that was being written around the same time. I melt with you.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Night Of the Comet (1984)

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

Molly Manning Walker directs Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake and Shaun Thomas in this British coming-of-age drama where three 16 year olds go away on a package holiday.

Again starts off a bit Grange Hill but does really capture the alienation of being on one of these holidays, outgrowing certain friends and what a depressing experience losing one’s virginity can often be. Has some pretty rough going sequences in the last half hour.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Rocks (2020)

My wife and I 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/

Emma Seligman directs Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri and Ruby Cruz in this teen comedy where two reject lesbians start an after school fight club to touch the girls they fancy.

First half hour I just wasn’t sure. Bottoms plays at a heightened energy that I couldn’t really sync into. Everyone is up at 11 playing a hardcore stereotype. If you thought Heathers or Clueless operated in their own hyper reality then, boy, do I have a movie for you. Pretty much all that I was connecting with was the retro Nineties fashions. But then I got to pace with it, started looking forward to various members of the deep ensemble returning for their little bits and started laughing. NFL player Marshawn Lynch consistently got me as the laidback teacher and I’m always gonna have time for Rachel Sennott. Here she glams down and does her take on the Jason Lee role in early Kevin Smith movies. The soundtrack is popping, the ending apocalyptic and while I’m not sure Bottoms always coheres as a satire it has cult item written all over it. And I’m there for that.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Shiva Baby (2021)

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

John Huston directs Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Eli Wallach in this drama of alcoholics who shack up together outside Reno.

Tragic movie legends in their final roles. America losing what made it great. Wild horses being corralled and sold for pennies on the dollar. Might just be the saddest all-star movie ever made. The first hour feels claustrophobic like a play, the second half… epic but unrelentingly bleak. Thelma Ritter’s support performance is measured and warm… everyone else has the slight whiff of unbalanced stunt casting. Wouldn’t rush to rewatch despite its status and strength, ambitions and pretensions.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Wise Blood (1979)

My wife and I 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 Fincher directs Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton and Kerry O’Malley in this hitman thriller where a professional killer sets his world right after a job goes wrong.

Consummately made, apart from some purposefully frazzled hand held work, but also a tad disappointing. If Fincher was making a film a year this would be a perfectly adequate fallow year, downtime project. But considering what a patient predator he is – meticulous, exacting and expert – The Killer feels quite underwhelming. It is essentially his Bourne or Haywire… but not quite as pleasurable as either. To quote The Strokes… “Is This It?”. Imagine if Kubrick made Running Scared or The Dream Team instead of Full Metal Jacket? Fassbender is sturdy as the cold fish lost in a sea of The Smiths and his own bite sized maxims. Swinton gives her usual David Bowie worthy level of showy cameo acting. Kerry O’Malley stands out in her section as the secretary who knows too much and accepts her fate. She is the only performance that doesn’t aim for a chilled flatline. Action-wise it is slim pickings and the one big fight is dampened by the knowledge that our anti-hero’s slight girlfriend overpowered this seemingly unstoppable nemesis off camera already in the second act. That blink at the end… a sign of humanity infiltrating our protagonist or perhaps he shouldn’t have enjoyed that dram… Still, better than most movies out there… maybe it will grow on me. I love a hitman movie, this has solid procedural work, some smart practicalities. I was just expecting… more.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Haywire (2011)

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

Jason Woliner directs Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova and Rudy Giuliani in this comedy sequel to the satirical ‘Kazakstan’ prank journalist smash.

The Borat character is too recognisable for this to work how you need it to. The movie acknowledges that, tries valiantly to work around the problem but the live stunts never have the danger or the crackle of the daring original. Bakalova is sweetly awesome as the cage dwelling teen daughter discovering feminism. Probably would have been better to keep this as pure fiction with a tight script and support actors in on the gags… Still, funny in spits and starts.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Borat (2006)

My wife and I 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/

Richard C. Sarafian directs Gary Busey, Yaphet Kotto and Denise Galik in this cheap actioner based on the song from Rocky.

Busey is the ex con / Vietnam vet who takes down a biker gang. The tone of this is all over the shop. The heartless, darkest moments of pure exploitation like Mad Max meets the finale of a The A-Team episode. Sarafian is a good director of VHS action and knows how to frame his villain. Busey is a little too intense for a vanilla lead but my God I love him. A pass.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Walking Tall (1973)

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