Christopher Machell
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Film Review: Avengers: Endgame
While this review avoids major plot points be wary of minor spoilers. ★★★★☆ Following the defeat that led to the death of half of the universe, Earth’s mightiest heroes are scattered, bewildered and broken, clutching at straws for a solution to Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) terrible decimation. While Disney’s troubling takeover of the entertainment industry continues apace,…
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Film Review: Ash Is Purest White
★★★★☆ In Chinese auteur’s Jia Zhangke’s latest film, which premiered to acclaim in Cannes last year, unrequited love and inner resolve are pitted against the rapidly-changing world of modern China. Ash Is Purest White is an epic spanning decades and vast geography that ultimately gives way to the intimate and personal. Beginning in the early 2000s, Qiao (Tao…
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DVD Round-up: Mar 2019 edition
Our championing of the best in home entertainment continues with our March round-up. Criterion and Eureka dominate this month’s line up with four wildly-different titles all deserving of attention – Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep With Anger, Sammo Hung’s Meals on Wheels, and Billy Wilder’s Irma la Douce. Death in Venice – 18 March (Criterion)…
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Film Review: Shazam!
★★★☆☆ Originally called ‘Captain Marvel’ in early DC comics, due to a convoluted copyright issue Marvel’s distinguished competition were forced to change the superhero’s name to the equally silly moniker, Shazam. The origins of this colourful crime-fighter may be dull, but his cinematic debut is anything but – a warm and entertaining family romp brimming…
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Film Review: Us
★★★★★ Hot from 2017 hit Get Out, comedian-turned-director Jordan Peele is back in the horror playhouse, confirming his preternatural, studied mastery of the genre. Forget the presumptive denial of terms of “elevated” and “post-horror” – Us is a true genre flick, polished to a fine degree, a pure distillation of the essence of horror cinema. From the opening…
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Oscars 2020: Who are the likely candidates?
With this year’s Oscars now behind us, what better time to throw in our lot and offer some predictions for next year’s winners? While the last few years have suggested that the Academy may be moving in a more progressive direction, with legitimate masterpieces like Moonlight seeing off more conventional Oscar bait, the 2019 awards, dogged…
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Film Review: Ben Is Back
★★☆☆☆ Recalling last year’s First Reformed, Ben Is Back opens with a cross-cut between Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) watching her daughter Ivy (Kathryn Newton) practice in the church choir, and a hooded, vaping figure stalks towards their family home. That figure turns out to be Holly’s son Ben (Lucas Hedges), unexpectedly returning from rehab where here is recovering…
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Film Review: Captain Marvel
★★★☆☆ It’s 1995, and the Kree warrior Vers (Brie Larson) has just crash landed on the planet Earth after escaping capture by the evil Skrulls, shapeshifters engaged in a galactic war with the Kree. While Vers’ mentor, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), provides support from orbit, Vers must team up with young S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury (Samuel…
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DVD Round-up: Feb 2019 edition
While the debate over streaming versus cinema rages among the Hollywood elite, many are raising their concerns that physical home media is in decline, meaning that many older films will become increasingly hard to access. From this February on, we’ll be championing DVDs and Blu-rays with a monthly round-up of some of the best releases.…
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Film Review: The Kindergarten Teacher
★★★☆☆ As Lisa Spinelli, Maggie Gyllenhaal is the eponymous educator bored with regurgitating the restrictive school curriculum. Lisa’s creative inclinations are sparked, however, when she notices that one of her pupils, the quiet Jimmy (Parker Sevak), has a preternatural gift for spontaneous poetry. Sara Colangelo’s second feature is a compelling drama-thriller, bolstered by a quietly…