Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Jane Campion directs Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons in this family drama set in the West, based Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, about the abusive power struggles between two rancher brothers, the new woman of the house and her fey son.

I’ve read an article saying herein Cumberbatch compares with Lee Marvin in terms of menace, masculinity and stature. Don’t make me laugh? He’s either miscast here or overly clever clever casting. He never matches as a roughhouse tyrant, master of manifest destiny. And hidden away in the backstory there’s a couple of reasons for that. His repressed sexuality for one, the fact he is only a rich boy play acting as a man of the earth is the other. Yet I doubt his performance is that complex, it is happenstance that the job of convincing he’s a real man’s man is beyond him. Campion clearly loves the paradox of his antagonist. She all but forgets Dunst and Plemons in the last act, which is a shame as their performances have a fair bit more mileage to them. There is a good twist at the close (as I type that I realise the term “twist” has never been more appropriate… so mini round of applause for that.) The strong cinematography by Ari Wegner manages to make the landscapes beautiful but oppressive. The production design equally hits the right balance between stark and visually striking. The pace of it though is just a few beats off, confusing slovenliness with significance. There are definite longueurs where more psychological content could be neatly fitted in.

6

Perfect Double Bill: East Of Eden (1955)

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/

McG directs Judah Lewis, Jenna Ortega and Robbie Amell in this horror comedy sequel where various devil worshipping factions again want Cole’s virgin blood.

More of the same but with a lot less Samara Weaving. Mindless fun.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Babysitter (2017)

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/

Francesco Rosi directs Frank Wolff, Salvo Randone and Pietro Cammarata in this Italian true crime movie where a bandit becomes a resistance leader, his death creating a court case where the Mafia, the government and the military find themselves judged.

A biopic where we never properly see the subject once. And therefore understand his historical impact on Sicily even more.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)

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/

Lo Wei and Wu Chia Hsiang direct Bruce Lee, Maria Ye and James Tien in this martial arts movie where an immigrant worker at an ice factory in Thailand tries to keep his vow not to fight despite plenty of bullying and crime.

Teases us for the first half with Bruce resisting the urge to get his top off and kick ass. When he finally cracks it is a lot of fun, though pretty tame by Jackie or Jet Li standards. This feels more competently made than its cult reputation requires and it always seems to get me in the right mood, in spite of its meat and potatoes ambitions.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Game Of Death (1978)

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/

David Blue Garcia directs Elsie Fisher, Sarah Yarkin and Moe Dunford in the legacy sequel to the gory horror classic where a group of annoying influencers buy up the town Leatherface has been hiding out in.

You’d think there be some entertainment value in seeing such a repugnant bunch of youths chopped to bits but the scares don’t land and the cast is a bit too soft and pleasing to deserve their characters’ fates. Not that I’d want to watch a movie where any more of this lot survive. It just all feels out of sync, whenever the visuals are good the pace drops, whenever the kills get giddy, you question the set-up. Pass.

4

Perfect Double Bill: House Of Wax (2005)

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

VWe 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/

Adam Shankman directs John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken in this musical remake of the John Waters period teen pastiche where a happily fat Baltimore girl becomes a dancer on The Corny Collins Show and inadvertently starts a race riot.

Obviously I prefer the 1987 original, which despite being PG is still virulent with Waters and Divine’s inherent immaculate bad taste. This is slickly done with a popping cast. Bravely, and somewhat surprisingly, it never betrays the progenitors’ more abrasive, transgressive nature even if it is always aiming the be more mass market in its big budget, A-Lister take. The drag, segregation and fat shaming have all survived the studio process. Man prefer Ricki Lake… but that’s the only real criticism you can level at this sly, playful update. Pleasantly plump. “I wish every day were Negro Day!”

6

Perfect Double Bill: Dreamgirls (2006)

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/

Andreas Fontana directs Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau and Carmen Iriondo in this mystery drama where a Swiss banker travels to 1980s Argentina after his shady partner disappears, hoping to keep their corrupt clients on board.

Very dry. Very talky. Not without its merits. A constant sinister air of unease permeates each meeting. The absent partner Keyes becomes a Harry Lime style figure – an enigma but also representative of just how corrupting and furtive this regime is. Certainly no crowd pleaser, this is the Heart Of Darkness over business brunches and portfolio renegotiations… but I’m now curious as to what Fontana does next. There’s patience and control here that is tantalising.

7

Perfect Double Bill: A Most Violent Year (2014)

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/

Eric Blakeney directs Liam Neeson, Oliver Platt and Sandra Bullock in this crime comedy where an undercover Fed begins group therapy, a relationship with his cute colon cleaner and a friendship with a mafia psycho.

Can definitely see why this got greenlit at the peak of Analyse This / Mickey Blue Eyes fever. Yet it is simultaneously criminally ornate and under baked. The opening sequence is important to many of the later relationships and gags, yet it is very choppily edited. We rush through a violent fantasia with names like Taylor Negron appearing for just one distracting shot. You assume we’ll get the full picture at the second act turning point… a flashback that fills in the elusive blanks… Nah. It is never revisited. This cavalier, distracted manner of storytelling is endemic throughout. You’ll struggle to care, never laugh. Not enough Sandy Bullock – she’s in her perky wheelhouse but its a small role that should have went to newcomer rather than an A-Lister. A cameo would have made sense, but tenth billed?? Maybe she owed somebody a few days’ work?

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

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/

Michael Mann directs William Petersen, Tom Noonan and Joan Allen in this definitive serial killer thriller where a sensitive FBI profiler tracks a human monster called The Tooth Fairy.

Flawless.

You think I’m gonna see him standing in the street and say “there he is”? That’s Houdini you’re thinking of.

We tried sodium amytal on him three years ago to find where he buried a Princeton student; he gave ’em a recipe for potato chip dip.

You owe me awe!

It’s just you and me now, sport.

Because everything with you is seeing, isn’t it? Your primary sensory intake that makes your dream live is seeing… Reflections… Mirrors… Images…

Most of ’em… Most of ’em made it!

Listen to your heartbeat.

10

Perfect Double Bill: The Silence of The Lambs (1991)

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/

Baz Luhrmann directs Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and Olivia DeJonge in this rock’n’roll biopic following The King and his symbiotic relationship with oily Svengali, Colonel Tom Parker.

Over the top, grating, messy, disorientating, cheesy. And I loved it far more often than I hated it. The first 90 minutes really thumped along to its own crazy beat, the second half does hunker down and try to be an ounce more traditional. But this is a rare biopic with a well formed “villain of this here piece”, which grants us more tangible shape than most musicians’ life stories – where the crisis are more existential. The metric it works towards is Forman’s Amadeus and it is an apt lift. And even though the unashamed blockbuster is a heartfelt celebration of Presley, it never feels like the “authorised version.” There’s no Bohemian Rhapsody style hamstringing, axe grinding and concessions to the surviving band members’ take on history don’t stink the room out. This just wants to lionise with flair and rhinestone sparkle The King in its own frenetic, fucked up way. Elvis is inarguably pure Luhrmann, his finest since William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Special shout out should go to Catherine Martin’s glorious recreations of all the fashions and costumes. And it is a folly, but one that always grips, keeps you hooked, tapping your toe, struggling to focus. Butler is grand casting, the spit, a star is born. Hanks is doing his own thing, the only work similar in his back catalogue is his deep fried turn in the Coen Brothers’ The Ladykillers. If you like what he does here then more power to you, I’m not sure I can condone it, but at least his scratching, clawing take makes for a hissable antagonist. In a movie full of big mad swings, his interpretation on Colonel Parker is the wildest. The whole thing is as bonkers as hippos on a bouncy castle, neon fried gold. This energy makes Elvis easily the most watchable rock icon biopic since Walk The Line. In an era when even the best big releases feel like product, here is some art, a personal vision. Sure, that personal vision is gaudy and eccentric, the art is more likely to appear in a tat shop than the Tate, but it is bloody nice to witness a multiplex crowd enjoy something so naff and idiosyncratic.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

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/