Julia Leigh directs Emily Browning, Rachael Blake and Ewen Leslie in this Australian drama where a young woman takes a part-time high-paying job with a mysterious group that caters to rich men who like the company of drugged nude girls.

I watched this on the train from Amsterdam to Munich. And I’m not going to lie it was a terrible selection. Shines a brutal light on the exploitation of the gig economy, comparing pretty much any shift to sex work. Yet it is all quite blank and vacant beyond the blunt politics, both sexual and economic. It is feminist horror but marketed on the opportunity to ogle the doll-like body of Sucker Punch’s Browning. Not sure who gets much of anything from this.

4

Perfect Double Bill: The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

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

Phil Alden Robinson directs Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan and Ray Liotta in this baseball fantasy where a farmer hears an eerie voice in his crop and follows its instruction to build a baseball field.

I have never studied the exact definition of the literary term ‘magical realism’ but in my head it is this: A fantasy bolted down in the everyday. No elves or magical swords. But pollution free sunsets, the embrace of a true friendship and the feeling you’ve witnessed a parable, seen the hand of some god in the spinning of the yarn. Like beloved Stephen King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption or Stand By Me, this is a backwards looking comfort movie. Not only nostalgic but a tale of escape told through the lens of memory and lost innocence. All three films, all of disparate genres, share a warmth, a mystery and a narration. They work within the oral tradition of storytelling and the connective tradition of the first or second person narrative. I’ve never run along a railway bridge or played opera to a yard full of hardened cons or even been to watch a baseball game. But I understand the power of jumping the rails. Of seeing the way one’s life eventually plays as preset and the zen of taking steps to rebel against the natural flow of time’s gentle but constant moving river. The supernatural moments still give me chills, the comedy still makes me chuckle, the threads of freedom and happiness tie into my personal philosophies, the Dad stuff gets my throat clogged and makes my eyes (almost) dampen. The technical qualities, though unfussy, are flawless. “Is This Heaven? No, It’s Iowa”

10

Perfect Double Bill: Take Shelter (2011)

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/

Danny and Michael Philippou direct Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen and Miranda Otto in this Australian horror where a ceramic hand allows the very worst of the spirit realm to possess your body.

The (un)pleasant surprise of the summer. The trailer didn’t do a very good job of selling this. It focussed on the annoying Gen Z party brats and appeared the be an elevated horror about grief. NOT AGAIN!?! And those are elements are in there but it works best as a far more traditional full fat shocker. Has pretty much everything I needed from the genre. Gnarly violence, flashes of hellish practical FX, a set of clear rules to be broken, a third act where there is no going back and anything could and does happen. Woo hoo! Untrustworthy horror heaven.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Hounds Of Love (2016)

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

Bassam Tariq directs Riz Ahmed, Aiysha Hart and Alyy Khan in this British drama where a London-Pakistani rapper is struck down by a disease that means he will miss out on a big break he has worked years to position himself into.

Curious that the hyper talented Riz Ahmed decided to make two films with essentially the same basic plot and overlapping themes in the same year. This is the more obtuse, experimental and abrasive of the diptych. Admirable but a lot of the runtime I just wished I was rewatching the superior Sound Of Metal.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Sound Of Metal (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/

Luke Greenfield directs Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert and Timothy Olyphant in this teen sex comedy where a prissy kid falls for his hot new neighbour only to discover she has previously embarked on a career in porn.

Risky Business updated for the pornstar era. At one point Tangerine Dream’s Love On a Real Train plays!! Then again… there are so many needle drops in this flick that it might be easier listing the songs not featured on the soundtrack. I’m not entirely sure director Greenfield needed to smother the movie quite so much in emotion stoking jukebox clips. The script is basically witty in a shotgun blast kinda way. Crude but good natured. And the support cast is pretty stacked. Olyphant is superb as the outwardly friendly but predatory suitcase pimp. The movie flags whenever his wild energy is sidelined. And you have James Remar and young Paul Dano floating about too. And yet… this was intended and sold as a vehicle for Kim from 24 to breakout from her hit TV series into movie stardom. And she very much gets lost in the mix during the second half. She never emerges as much more than a wet dream fantasy figure without much motivation or internal workings… and then feels extraneous to the busy plot while everyone else is shuffling about. If she wasn’t the biggest face on the poster, you’d forget it was ever her vehicle.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Miss March (2009)

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

Peter Cattaneo directs Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy and Tom Wilkinson in this British comedy where six unemployed men in Sheffield decide to put on a stripshow for cash.

If you asked me in any other context what modern British cinema needs I’d tell you more populist movies about people who at least know what a Job Centre smells like. It is a tradition we have seemingly lost in the 21st century… yet there’s something about The Full Monty, a movie that over fulfilled on exactly that brief, that leaves me quite cold. The humour and the plotting feel rote and backwards. It just does nothing for me and I struggle to understand its continued popularity.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Purely Belter (2000)

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/

Luchino Visconti directs Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti and Juan de Landa in this Italian neo-realist crime thriller based on The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Remarkably frank about adulterous sex and surprisingly unguarded about one character’s homosexual desire (the clear suggestion is our feckless protagonist would be better off palling around with the fey gypsy). The best adaptation of the source material I’ve watched.

8

Perfect Double Bill: La Terra Trema (1948)

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

John Glen directs Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Desmond Llewelyn in this OO7 spy adventure where Bond must track a stolen Faberge egg that might be about to fund the start of a thermonuclear coup.

I have a very distinct memory of watching the finale of this in the shittiest cinema in London as a child. Might have been a rerelease. But my first memory of Bond is our Rog, in full clown make-up, desperately trying to switch off a nuke. That continual cliffhanger third act is an adventure extravaganza. But there’s lot of joy here. Some of it dated; Berkoff’s hammy second string villain, grey Northolt pretending to be Cuba, the slow fuck theme song and nudie Binder credits. Some of it truly wonderful; Q getting to join in on the caper, Maud Adam’s triumphant returns as a Pussy Galore tribute act, the classy escape from the balcony Kristina Wayborn performs in her sari. The second unit deliver, with Moore and his stunt man being put in sustained peril, danger that’d make Ethan Hunt quiver. Sure, my favourite Bond actor might be starting to creak by this point but George MacDonald Fraser’s script plunges him mercilessly through the action wringer. Given Octopussy is a daft frippery there is no need for the set pieces to go this hard yet delightfully they really do.

8

Perfect Double Bill: A View To a Kill (1985)

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/

Walter Hill directs Bill Paxton, Ice T and Ice Cube in this action thriller where two looters find themselves under siege from a gang when they try to rob stolen gold on the wrong muthafucker’s turf.

“I told you that motherfucker was scandalous! Now we get to break him off some.” Starts strong but doesn’t fully capitalise on the potent set-up. Paxton and Cube are fantastic value making this a videoshop rental diamond. If you aren’t sure how this is all gonna end after the first half hour then you ain’t watched enough movies. At its most fun when it colours outside the lines of it simple muscular brief: the camcorder footage, the weird breakout moment midway through where the main characters start giving mini soliloquies direct to camera. Raymond the gun dealin’ fixer deserves his own spin-off. What if Mike Ehrmantraut was a flair player?!

7

Perfect Double Bill: Judgment Night (1993)

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

Carl Theodor Dreyer directs Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen and Cay Kristiansen in this Danish religious drama where a farmer struggles with his faith when his youngest son wants marry outside their religion.

Surprised by how much this held me… I care very little for overtly religious flicks and also chamber pieces. Yet the mise en scéne is strong and loaded, the characters blunt but rich and the drama is engrossing. Not my cup of tea but a truly good example of this form.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Vampyr (1932)

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/