Christopher Machell

★★★★☆ Nine years after Andy said goodbye to Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of his toys, the gang are back at it in another adventure. But after the transcendent third instalment, is another turn on the merry-go-round really worth it? The metaphor of the Toy Story films has always been the toys…

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★☆☆☆☆ The chemistry that Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson forged so effortlessly in Thor: Ragnarok was an unexpected treat in 2017, begging the question “why haven’t we paired these two before?” Unfortunately, Men in Black: International is all too happy to oblige us the answer. For some, that chemistry must have felt like a well of franchise potential that would…

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★★★☆☆ On a mission to save a squad of stranded astronauts, mutant Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is hit with a strange cosmic force that ramps up her powers, threatening to destabilise the shaky pact that Professor X (James McAvoy) has established between humans and mutants. Meanwhile, tensions are rising between older mutants Beast (Nicholas Hoult)…

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Another monster month for May, with Criterion and Eureka dominating again with a surfeit of releases. Nevertheless, cult label Arrow impressed with their release of the intense Japanese high school indie Blue Spring, while Bluebell offered a bare-bones but welcome edition of classic sex comedy La Ronde.  A Face in the Crowd – 6 May (Criterion) Kicking…

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★★★★★ The films produced in the inter-war period in Germany were among the most vibrant, innovative and politically charged in all cinema. As part of the BFI’s season of Weimar Cinema, running throughout May and June, one of the its greatest examples is back on the big screen in Josef von Sternberg’s devastating romantic melodrama.…

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★★★☆☆ “Let them fight” was the raison d’etre of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, the kaiju-centric creature feature that kickstarted Legendary Studio’s monster-verse back in 2014. Michael Dougherty’s sequel, King of the Monsters has certainly taken its forbear’s mantra to heart, offering up a smackdown between Godzilla and his most iconic enemies, writ extra-large in its IMAX presentation.  The success of Godzilla has always…

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★★★★☆ In 2010, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison after she leaked classified documents and footage of military operations in Iraq. In 2013, Manning (born Bradley Manning) came out as a transgender woman, before her sentence was commuted in 2017. Through archival footage, reconstructed online conversations and interviews…

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★★★★★ Time is running out for the Master of Death himself, John Wick (Keanu Reeves). After killing his nemesis on the consecrated ground of the Continental Hotel, he’s on the run and ex-communicado. The first film was about revenge, the second about repercussions. Now, as Wick is funnelled through a series of exotic locales and…

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★★★☆☆ In the opening scene of The Seventh Seal, Max von Sydow’s knight, washed up on a barren beach, tells Death that his body is ready to die, but he is not. The conflict between the corporeal and the spiritual, the existential and the psychological; the search for identity between the body and the soul…

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April proved a bumper month for home entertainment aficionados, with the usual suspects – Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series and the Criterion Collection – offering a particularly good selection of art house, genre and Hollywood titles for cinéastes. As one might expect in the month of Easter, themes of redemption, faith and mysticism featured heavily…

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