Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Pedro Almodóvar directs Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes in this loopy Spanish erotic sci-fi revenge flick.

Grew in my estimation on a second watch. Has the unpredictable near formless shape of one of Pedro’s melodramas or farces. For example, the first major plot catalyst is a long lost son dressed as a tiger getting violently horny. Yet despite The Skin I Live In’s erratic looseness and almost deadpan sexual brutality it somehow stays seductive and compelling. Each unlikely piece of the puzzle slots into the next and the bigger picture is both nightmarish and erotic. The themes feel at least 5 years ahead of their time; gender, sex crimes, anxiety, controlling men. Both Banderas and Elena Anaya are gorgeous and marvellous. A relatively complex sick puppy masquerading as art, one hell of a smooth yet spiky ride. Works best if you know nothing at all so I’ve tried my best to only write in vague yet effusive generalities.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)

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

Francis Lawrence directs Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler and Viola Davis in this prequel to the YA sci-fi dystopian series.

The two finest adaptations of the YA boom a decade ago were The Fault In Our Stars and The Hunger Games. Both flicks benefited from breakout star turns from their female leads. And while Jennifer Lawrence absolutely carried her series of rather dour PG-13 millennial updates of Punishment Park / Battle Royale, it is probably fair to say the endeavour was hamstrung by a love triangle where she had the thankless choice between two wet male leads not worthy of her. No such problems here, as the central relationship between Blyth (impressive) and Zegler (cute) has a complexity and a risk that J-Law might kill a dozen kids for. The first two acts of this are a high for the franchise. It just feels all the more urgent, grounded and vicious than the core hit films. Now the last act probably should have been saved for its own sequel but the fact that this left me wanting more rather than less is a massive about face for this particular IP. Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman are good value in support but Viola Davis really runs with her out-and-out demented villain. This is probably the loopiest turn in a big studio reboot since Nicholas Hoult in Fury Road. What I’m saying is there is a lot of quality here, well utilised. The final stretch is pleasingly ambiguous if a little rushed. How often do you see that in the multiplex? No complaints here. Enjoy the arena, stay for the songs.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Hunger Games (2012)

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/

Justine Triet directs Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud and Milo Machado-Graner in this European courtroom thriller where a wife is suspected of her husband’s death.

Best courtroom thriller in ages. Dry as bones. Could easily be called Anatomy of a Marriage. Or Anatomy of a Woman. So much unresolved by the end, the verdict means nothing. A real Rorschach Test of a movie. Is she guilty? Murder, accident or suicide? Do they love each other? Do THEY love each other? Is that the cause? Is he in the right? Is she in the right? Hold on… did HE do it? Every scene has something open to interpretation? Are we ever being honest in our fiction, in our fights, in our own moments of private reflection? Powerhouse by Hüller, always awesome value. Some fascinating points about living in different languages. So many compromises in every facet of a life if you want to have relationships. And the third act is a bit bonkers. But maybe there is no sane way to resolve all this.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Toni Erdmann (2017)

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

Kristoffer Borgli directs Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson and Michael Cera in this surreal satire where a depressed college professor begins showing up in many strangers’ dreams.

Ineffectual. Unproductive. Inert. A wonderful use of Cage the actor with strong Adaptation / The Weather Man vibes. It spends the second half exploring modern infamy and cancel culture. Once you realise where Borgli wants to go after such a fertile set-up, Dream Scenario can feel a little too pedestrian and rigid, even already a little dated. There is a telling running joke where the weakness in Cage and Nicholson’s marriage is betrayed by neither of them being able to talk about their day without lying. I like the eerie dream sequences, Cage puts in a full shift… I guess I just wanted this to go in a more potent direction. The final shot is a winner.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Next (2007)

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/

Robert Bresson directs Christian Patey, Vincent Risterucci and
Caroline Lang in this crime drama loosely inspired by the first part of Leo Tolstoy’s posthumously published 1911 novella The Forged Coupon.

A forged bank note starts a series of petty crimes and moral compromises. First act of this (a domino rally of minor larceny) is very strong. Eventually it reaches for greater significance about wealth and corruption and becomes obtuse and preachy. Non-professional actors.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Pickpocket (1959)

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

Richard Wenk directs Chris Makepeace, Grace Jones and Dedee Pfeiffer in this horror comedy where some wannabe frat boys go to a strip bar run by an ancient vampire queen.

Porkys meets Big Trouble In Little China. Grace Jones is barely in this, even if it was all out marketed on her 10 minutes of salted screentime. She does some interpretive dance in front of a Keith Haring designed chair. The male leads are charmless jocks… real oiks… strange that the script goes through such hoops to justify them going to a titty bar?! Their lack of ability capsizes any goodwill you have towards this largely forgotten horror comedy. The pink / green lighting design is pretty expressionistic. And Dedee Pfeiffer as the sunny possible love interest / possible wolf in good girl clothing belongs in a better version of this film. She almost makes it worth watching. As “One Crazy Night” flicks go it has none of the charm of say Adventures In Babysitting but there is one tense sequence involving a killer lift. A release that might be remade today into something far superior without offending anyone.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Fright Night (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/

Zalman King directs Mickey Rourke, Carré Otis and Jacqueline Bisset in this erotic romance where a naive lawyer goes flying down to Rio to close the big deal for her matriarch boss only to fall for a mysterious business tough.

Nice on location footage of carnival and Brazil. This bides it’s time quite uncertainly until the epic fuck scene at the end. It exists in the mucky overlap between Emmanuelle and Eyes Wide Shut but has none of the beauty of either. Rourke feels underserved, Otis can’t act for toffee but Bisset rocks and you kinda wish the movie followed her. Chaotic.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Two Moon Junction (1988)

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

Martin Scorsese directs Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel and Barbara Hershey in this cinematic life of Jesus.

Very controversial in its days and you can see why. It is a film that both the Pope and Patrick Bateman would find much to mull over. And for Scorsese fans it is often has the same forward propulsion and (slightly misplaced) machismo of a Raging Bull or Goodfellas. Harvey as Judas via Brooklyn? Love it! Dafoe is excellent. And when Christ comes down from the cross and things get apocryphal… I really dug it. Jesus fantasising about deliberate sin. Yeah… it’s a hot potato. But I’m now mature enough and agnostic enough to appreciate the mastery of the form. So seductively spare and with such bold colours. When it comes to the gospels, this is the greatest story ever told.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Kundun (1997)

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 Slade directs Elliot Page, Patrick Wilson and Sandra Oh in this thriller where a teenage girl catfishes a nonce.

A calling card movie that launched a lot of careers but doesn’t hold up to all that much scrutiny on a revisit. It goes for fraught and extreme but feels quite idle and whimsical. Pulls punches too often.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Little Children (2006)

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

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/