Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary

Terrence Malick August Diehl, Valerie Pachner and Matthias Schoenaerts in this WWII drama where an Austrian farmer refuses to swear allegiance to Hitler.

The elders of the town drunkenly descend on the farmhouse with same jittery motions as Lynch’s elderly demons in Mullholland Dr. A cautious priest tries to convince our lead of his folly surrounded by mountains… are they keeping the secret of the conversation or looming like the impending doom? A Nazi prison guard stops a free man from looking out of the window of his cell. This is the Terrence Malick you want… pastoral, narration, innocence lost, lyrical. Cinema as poetry and philosophy. Could it be an hour shorter?… yes. Is it a little too close to being Jojo Rabbit without the wackiness?… Yes, but this po-faced journey is the slightly better movie.

7

George A Romero directs Stephen King, Leslie Neilsen and Adrienne Barbeau in this comedy scare anthology written by the Master of Horror and based on the old EC comics.

I had high hopes for this given the pedigree but it didn’t live up to its reputation. Quite dull and lacking scope. The black comedy isn’t funny, the shocks only fitfully disturbing. The attempt to recreate the colourful vibe of the comics works and we have Romero’s visual astuteness to thank for that. The Leslie Nielsen and Ted Danson’s two hander is the only chapter that has any staying power. More Tale of the Unexpected than horror but the comedy stars sell the darkness of it well. Natalie enjoyed this more than me.

5

Jean-Luc Godard directs Michel Subor, Anna Karina and Henri Jacques Huet in this French New Wave drama where a draft dodger gets caught in a grinding Kafka-esque tangle between French spies and Algerian freedom fighters.

Ils ne peuvent pas tous être gagnants, gamin.

3

Andrew Haigh directs Tom Cullen, Chris New and Laura Freeman in this romance between two men who meet at a club, have a connection but know nothing can happen come Monday.

I’m trying to clear the TiVo box of all the films I have recorded over the past 4 years before it is sent back to Virgin to be scrapped. There’s about a hundred things on there. I’m not going get through it all. So I’m having to select the “must sees” that might not practically crop up on streaming or at retrospective screenings anytime soon. This was very highly praised on release. I liked it’s obvious Before Sunrise vibes. I liked the hazy, very familiar look of modern British living… this feel more true to life in the telling details than your Love, Actuallys and Gavin & Staceys. I thought Tom Cullen was very eye catching as a sweet, shy, different kind of leading man. Surprised his career didn’t sky rocket after this. I appreciated how the small, frequent burst of casual homophobia interrupted the romance, possibly giving a far more accurate depiction of how British attitudes are still not fully accepting of two people in love… and how that must be disruptive to those trying to make a connection in public. But I’ll be honest and say I’m not entirely convinced of the chemistry of the central pairing and there were times the dialogue grew repetitive and the narrative cliched. Almost.

6

Jean Renoir directs Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais and Mel Ferrer in this French farce were a Polish countess in Paris finds her latest trio of suitors gives her unusual political cache.

A frippery. Not very funny or romantic but gorgeous to watch when it isn’t French politicians running in and out of hallways (warning – it often is). The energy and satire of the crowd scenes and the stunning ladies make this.

6

Andrei Tarkovsky directs Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson in this arthouse drama about a Russian composer who engages with an Italian hermit at some medieval baths only for their conversations to have tragic consequences months later.

130 minutes of watery pretensions and gorgeous imagery. People used to wank in cinemas back in 1983.

4

Neil Jordan directs Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan and Johnny Lee Miller in this era spanning vampire tale where a mother and daughter try to resettle in the seaside town that they fled centuries ago after becoming immortal.

There’s two ways to approach this strange, quite likeable film. A feminist recalibration of Interview With the Vampire, showcasing another fine performance from Ronan. Or an occasionally very gory excuse for Arterton to dress in a slaggy, cleavage enhancing outfits from pretty much every decade since Thackeray. Either way I’m in, sold on an unpredictable, full fat adult fairy tale. There’s stunning fantasy imagery of waterfalls of blood and all-male vampire cabals. Would make a fine unofficial trilogy with The Company of Wolves and Greta.

7

Michaël R. Roskam directs Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval and Jeanne Dandoy in this Flemish crime thriller where a brutish farmer is reminded of his tragic past when an illegal hormone ring and police investigation circle his business.

With its tight lipped lunk lead and low level / big stakes crime plot, this reminded me of underrated Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini starrer The Drop. Turns out it’s from the same director. This isn’t anywhere near as good… shifting tone between sketch comedy and wincing tragedy, the muddy gangster genre stuff gets lost in the mix. The one lighthouse when all is adrift is Schoenaerts’ impressive physical performance. You can see why Hollywood took notice, he makes this overlong mess watchable.

4

Raoul Walsh directs Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum and Judith Anderson in this Western drama were an orphan of a blood feud grows up in love with his adoptive sister.

Quite an expansive plot that echoes Steinbeck and Dickens as much as Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey. Brothers falling out and unrequited love take as much spotlight as shoot-outs and the Civil War. Fine performances from Teresa Wright and Rebecca’s Mrs. Danvers stay in the memory but it is all a bit creaky as a modern watch.

5

Sam Mendes directs George MacKay, Dean Charles Chapman and Mark Strong in this immersive WWI thriller were a pair of Tommies must cross No Man’s Land with new orders before a doomed attack is launched.

I wasn’t expecting this to be the best film of the year. Mendes always struck me as an overly precious director who had kinda fumbled his early promise. When you look back over his filmography there’s admirable stuff but none of it came close to the killer opening blow of American Beauty 20 years ago. Now a lot of 1917’s success is down to Roger Deakins… but you need a strong director to furnish one of the all-time greatest cinematographers the freedom to execute such an ambitious project. I saw a trailer for this openly explaining the film would feel like one seamless shot and the camera would swoop and swap through orchestrated location work. I was sold on a film where the camera would be a stuntman jumping from cranes to running steadicam to gorgeously composed tableaux. You ain’t ever seen anything quite like the ruins of the bombed-out village of Écoust-Saint-Mein dancing from the flares and fires of war. Mission accomplished. This is an immersive marvel matched only by Nolan’s similar Dunkirk. This film has better character work and the broader lapses into theatrical sentimentality feel reverential to the historical tragedy the film exploits. It is utterly gripping, switching from epic to intimate. Thomas Newman’s score manipulate us perfectly. George MacKay excels as the hero, an ordinary man of great courage who sensibly would rather avoid derring-do and medals if at all sensible. There are tons of nicely executed cameos from Brit stalwarts. Mark Strong feels especially well deployed. This absolutely wowed me, a masterful combination of set pieces, drama, reverential celebration and cinematic risk. We watched a matinee screening where some park bench drunks brought in their tinnies and barked and cackled and burbled inappropriately at the big screen. Their heckling and brain farts couldn’t diminish what an amazing movie this is.

10