Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

David Hand, James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield and Norman Wright direct Donnie Dunagan, Hardie Albright and John Sutherland in this animated Disney tale of a young fawn learning about the wonders of the forest and the dangers of man as he grows up.

Like Fantasia, I admire the beauty and craft. Like Fantasia, I wouldn’t rush to rewatch it. Aside from Bambi’s most infamous sequences, there’s very little here that ain’t either whiny or vapid. Really feels aimed at tots – I know it is a cartoon. And having said all that, the only character I looked forward to popping in and out was the excessively cutesy wootsy skunk, Flower.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Fox And The Hound (1981)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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 G. Avildsen directs Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford and Laurie Heineman in this drama where a harried factory owner has to make some tough calls when his business is on the line.

An Oscar winning turn for Jack – deserved but movie exists almost solely to deliver that gold. I ain’t complaining as he’s glorious in a role that is both layered, challenging, beautifully written… even if it is obvious legacy bait. Gives you a searing summation of the White American psyche under Nixon, pre-Watergate.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Sylvester Stallone directs John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes and Finola Hughes in this sequel to Saturday Night Fever where Tony Manero is now struggling as a wannabe professional dancer on Broadway.

Thrusting. Sweating. Stropping. This was a big hit back in its summer but its reputation now stinks like a flop. The critics hated it. It seemingly has no cultural footprint these days. My sister used to watch it a lot. So much of it feels pretty familiar even if I never knowingly sat and watched it teeth to tits as a child. The love story is risible and it is hard to have any sympathy for Travolta’s lead. He’s a dick, self-destructive and toxic to the women who do care for him. Yet the auditions, rehearsals and big gaudy stage show finale have a real thump to them. Stallone tries to match the electricity of Rocky… only with a lot more simulated dance sex and leather. Staying Alive never matches the emotional intelligence of A Chorus Line… nor the camp overload of Showgirls… but it is at least a notable stepping-stone towards both superior movies. And I kinda preferred this in spits and spots to the dated disco-era “classic” it continues on from.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Alan Arkin directs Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd and Vincent Gardenia in this black comedy based on the off Broadway stage play about a woman with a highly dysfunctional family who starts dating a closed-off, depressive outsider.

Probably the closest any American film has gotten to Buñuel… yet that doesn’t mean it was particularly funny or competent. You can’t take your eyes of the constant abrasive strangeness of it all but there’s little to enjoy… and a tragedy that strikes at the start of third act crippled the film for me rather than reinvigorated it. That shock doesn’t come completely out of blue – the movie is at its best showing a mad, violent world (a society slowly giving up on any airs and graces) in the mid-ground. Little Murders is a cult item of family disharmony that maybe has too over inflated a reputation as an overlooked gem. Good Donald Sutherland cameo as a hippy preacher.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Joe (1970)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

William Friedkin directs David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino and Chazz Palminteri in this erotic thriller where a DA investigates a murder that might dirty his best friend and her lawyer husband.

Joe Ezsterhas microwaves the leftovers of his hit Basic Instinct script. Friedkin ignores the iffy road map and makes something that often is confusing and aggressive but rarely arousing or mysterious. Fiorentino, looks a million bucks but feels poorly served as the possible eponymous Belle-De-Jour. This flop pretty much ended Caruso’s all-in bid, shirt and shoes, at movie stardom. He was and is wrong for this kinda role and often feels lost in scenes he should be anchoring. Having said all that there are spikes of chaotic excitement. A car chase that grinds to an almost halt in a parade is random and frustrating and exactly what I love about Friedkin. And a poor man’s Basic Instinct is better than our current state of affairs: no Jades or Slivers or Fatal Attractions at all. Treat it like a mindless entertainment – don’t follow the plot, don’t invest in the characters. Just enjoy the discordant motions.

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Last Seduction (1994)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Howard Hawks directs Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth in this action romance where a pretty tourist falls in with a bunch of daredevil mail delivering pilots who are risking their lives in South America.

Easy going adventure / romance / drama / situation comedy movie with musical number bunged in for the gals. Never boring but you do have to wonder why this is held in quite such high esteem… Jean Arthur is the lead and she disappears off screen for a solid twenty minutes, only to fall though a door when the screenwriters remember we should be following her too.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Wings (1927)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Tobe Hooper directs JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson and Beatrice Straight in this blockbuster horror, produced and written by Spielberg, where a suburban family finds their house taken over by other worldly spirits.

There should be whole semesters at film school about Poltergeist, auteur theory and which scene bears whose imprint most dominantly. The neighbourhood set-ups of duelling remote controls and moving kitchen stools is pure Spielberg… see also: the lightshow. The moments when the spirit plane is crossed and the family unit is put through the wringer, suffering wounds of Exorcist worthy existential dread… well, you gotta wonder what else Hooper… director of Texas Chainsaw and The Funhouse brought to the party, even as a hired gun. Poltergeist has a nasty core, far nastier than anything Spielberg has ever really dabbled in (and I know the man has made masterpieces about the Holocaust and slavery). It is just cosseted in the everyday ruffles of an Amblin movie. On the big screen this still pops… and we rarely lose sight of the two storey house so the spectacle is all in camera in more ways than one. The effects are of their time – and look as exactly how I want my trick photography to look. The much spoofed “They’re Here” moment still is pleasingly eerie. “This house is clean” though is now laughable, especially when you know we still have 30 minutes of bad road ahead. This was my Halloween / Birthday movie trip for 2022 … so anyone following this blog now knows what a backlog of movie posts I am currently ploughing through.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Martin McDonagh directs Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon in this black comic drama where two friends on an Irish island fall out with deadly results.

Four fantastic performance, cute animals, fissures of violence, lyrical dialogue, fantastic location, nice pints and food for thought on how we carry ourselves in the world. I was the only one laughing in my screening for a fair bit but then everyone saw an old man’s knob and I was no longer alone. The closest we’ll get to a fable in this day and age.

8

Perfect Double Bill: In Bruges (2008)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Chloe Okuno directs Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman and Burn Gorman in this psychological thriller where an alienated American woman in Romania begins to believe her neighbour is spying on her.

Nice Seventies Euro horror mood here – modern restyling of Polanski, Don’t Look Now etc. Monroe is, as always, a very classy Scream Queen. She goes through about five stunning looks a day. No wonder Burn Gorman is always staring at her. He is suitably creepy too. A promising debut. If you approach it as a slow burn paranoid mystery rather than a scare-fest then it really hits a spot.

7

Perfect Double Bill: It Follows (2015)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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/

Jan de Bont directs Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta Jones in this big budget remake of the 1963 horror drama based on the Shirley Jackson novel.

So bad that Spielberg took his producing credit off it. So misconceived that Stephen King walked away from the project. The CGI is godawful. Digital is never scary. Lili Taylor is better than this but you can tell her inconsistent lead turn is the bastard child of reshoots and studio edits. The bombastic nature overwhelms the other actors. The production design of the house interiors are admittedly ornate but leave zero room for negative space. A forgotten blockbuster dud.

2

Perfect Double Bill: The Haunting (1963)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also 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