Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

John M. Stahl directs Claudette Colbert, Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington in this drama where a friendship between a widow and her black servant is put under strain when one of their daughters falls for the wrong man and the other tries to pass as white.

Some of the attitudes here would have be seen progressive at the time, they now look ham fistedly racist. But you can tell this is a film with its heart in the right place… and a great one to boot. Beavers and Colbert have wonderful chemistry and all the subplots fascinate. Sure a modern film would explore Fredi Washington’s complicated existence with more nuance and focus but this still manages to say a lot… even if it says it in the uncertain, insensitive voice of the 1930s. A truly brilliant melodrama.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Mu Fei directs Chaoming Cui, Wei Li and Yu Shi in this drama where a doctor revisits his childhood friends only to stir up unrequited passions.

A nice melodrama that avoids soap. Minimalist, even in emotions, I enjoyed this.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Alfred Santell directs Michael O’Shea, Susan Hayward and Osa Massen in this adventure biopic of the socialist writer and journalist.

Jack London is a writer I love and was a man of action as well as letters. The first half of this is a romp as he tries various manly, risky trades. Then we descend into anti-Jap propaganda. Appropriate for the time but not for the subject.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Preston Sturges directs Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken and William Deramest in this screwball comedy where a sap marries his childhood sweetheart to cover up her drunken marriage to a forgotten shipping-out G.I..

High energy, risky content comedy. Absolutely hell for leather. There are nice running jokes and some cracking zingers. It possibly has dated more poorly when compared to The Lady Eve or The Palm Beach Story.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Jean Luc-Godard directs Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Graziella Galvani in this lovers on the run arthouse “classic”.

Is Jean Luc-Godard a great director? Or did he just cast the super hot Anna Karina often enough that people were distracted from how vapid and pretentious a lot of his output is? I’m tapping out from exploring him for an extended period. This is third film of his in a row that just bored me.

4

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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 Waters directs Divine, Mink Stole and Edith Massey in this bad taste classic where a trailer trash transvestite and a twisted couple compete to be “the filthiest person alive”.

No unsuspecting soul is going to watch Pink Flamingos by accident in the 21st century. It is never going to appear on Netflix, never be remade. We had to order the DVD in from the States. It is a dirty, unnerving, brash experience. A grandmother in her dishevelled underdress obsesses over eggs. Extras wear Nazi insignias. Nude women are kept chained in a derelict basement. Every line is delivered in screeching mania. It is all very silly. You get dragged into the pantomime horridness of it. The infamous scene where Divine eats a little dog turd won’t turn your stomach. The scene where her and her “son” revenge lick the surfaces of their rivals’ house for minutes on end might. They then engages in some very disenthused incestuous fellatio. The incest is play acting, the dick sucking is real. Constantly sleazy, constantly boundary pushing but, apart from existing to startle and amuse with tawdry consistency, does Pink Flamingos have a point? Maybe… all the extreme stunts and imagery normalises or puts into context the other elements, that while not part of mainstream society, are not anywhere nearly as immoral as viewed back then. Trans life, homosexuality, romance of the unattractive and disabled are presented on screen as matter of fact. When juxtaposed with chicken rapes and semen injections they become the norm. Maybe that’s the point… and maybe it is just a filthy shock freak show. Either way… it works. Waters presents his menagerie of transgressions with energy and blunt wit. If you chose to seek it out, take a walk on the antique wild side, Pink Flamingos is still very watchable and disgustingly funny.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Zhang Yimou directs Gong Li, Jiang Wen and Teng Rijun in this epic romance where an organised marriage between a girl and a leper rice wine maker transforms a community when an unlikely suitor seduces her instead.

Just magical. Yet also earthy and adult. The film has the feel of an old fable and a slightly tongue-in-cheek Birth of the Communist Nation. I’m sure the Government officials at the time weren’t overjoyed with the depiction of thieves, drunks and lusty outsiders shaping their rise but the end result is so positive. There is a massive tonal shift in the last act… we go from bawdy and unpredictable peasant romance (with occasional kidnappings) to the Japanese invasions and brutal tortures. But maybe as we have been so fully invested in Gong Li’s tenacious go-getter and the down-to-earth people around her that to see their labour threatened so violently by outside forces means we truly care. Most war films only pay lip service to the back stories of those affected by international violence, here it is a true disruption to another tale. Wondrous use of vivid colour, pastoral location, weathered faces and traditional Chinese music combine to make a truly seductive, unique piece of cinema. Red Sorghum is almost a musical, it is so full of song and personality. But then a musical where a man is skinned alive.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Robert Eggers directs Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe and Valeriia Karaman in this grim tale of two lighthouse keepers driven mad from isolation, booze and power struggles.

“Are you going to see The Lighthouse? Don’t it’s rubbish.” An posho old boy passes us on the stairs of the Filmhouse. Then we were surrounded by stinky hipsters, some of whom brain farted through the movie more than Dafoe’s very gaseous wicky! “Is it going to be square?” “I think that’s an octopus?” “Oh that’s gory.” Not the best conditions to watch a film all about simmering atmosphere and doom laden boredom. I want to enjoy my shock mermaid pussy and near-constant audible guffing in full focus. No wonder these pleb were bored and restless. The Lighthouse is a film without answers. You bring what you want to its mysteries. Fittingly for a film in high contrast monochrome, it is a bit of a Rorschach Test. You fill in the blanks. Obviously if you are a moron who needs to be lead to water you shan’t appreciate the craft of the puzzle or the endurance feat of the lead performances. This clearly wasn’t a comfortable location shoot. Would I have enjoyed Eggers sophomore effort more without the swirl of negativity at our screening? Possibly… though it is pretty thin. Marriage Story with facial hair, CastAway where wanking is more important than escape. You couldn’t put it down to laziness on his part though, nor his actors. What you find in the light or the darkness is up to you. If you don’t want to find your own horrors don’t peer into it for 110 minutes. But shut the fuck up if your mind is duller and more deafening than a foghorn blast.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s 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/

Autumn de Wilde directs Anya Taylor-Joy, Mia Goth and Johnny Flynn in this Austen adaption about the matchmaker who goes too far in her meddling.

I had fears over the first hour of this adaptation – especially since the marvellous Gemma Whelan has a prominent role in it and we are mates. You always approach another trotting out of Emma with one question “Can it be as good as Clueless?”. This feels a little too dress up / doll house in the first half – everyone looks the part but it is suffocatingly a sledgehammer of pastels and silks and ribbons. Almost a chintzy tsunami. Once all the players are introduced the Austen wit and sharp characterisation comes to life, set dressing takes a back seat. It all become a bit more tight and worthwhile. And Johnny Flynn makes a very dashing, earthy Knightley.

6

Clint Eastwood directs Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates in this 1996 true story of the ungainly security guard who heroically found the device at the Atlanta Olympics bombing only to be tarred as prime suspect by the FBI and media.

Solid adult drama with exceptional performances from Rockwell and Bates. Clint is one of Hollywood’s finest directors but he is also one of the most inconsistent. This drags due to pacing issues with Eastwood letting each scene unravel just a little too much, culminating in a story with a fascinating hook testing your patience by close of play. Well worth a watch but possibly at home in bed on your tablet.

6