Christopher Machell

★★★★☆ Ten years, nineteen films and the most audacious experiment in franchise filmmaking ever: the conclusion to Marvel’s grand project has finally arrived. The biggest entry in the studio’s series to date, Avengers: Infinity War is at once exhausting, exhilarating and triumphant. Thanos is coming. Ever since the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin) was teased at…

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★★★★☆ Loosely based on the ‘Beast of Jersey’ serial killer who terrorised island residents in the 1960s, writer-director Michael Pearce’s feature debut is an ambitious, deliciously dark psychodrama. Bolstered by two star performances, Beast is equal parts modern gothic fairytale and crime thriller. Following an eerie prologue with Moll (Jessie Buckley) singing in a church…

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★★★☆☆ Cary Grant will forever be one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. But icons rarely come fully formed, and Leo McCarey’s 1937 film was where Grant’s persona finally coalesced after a string of so-so supporting roles. The latest addition to the Criterion Collection, The Awful Truth is the first of Grant’s classic screwball comedies. Jerry Wariner (Grant)…

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★★★★★ A series of brutal killings, happening seemingly at random and by multiple killers, are connected by strange ‘X’ shapes carved into the victims’ chests. The perpetrators are apparently unmotivated and cannot account for their actions. When detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) is called to investigate, all signs point to an unseen spectre directing the murders.…

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★★★★☆ One of the most important filmmakers in Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien was once lauded as “one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema”. This new Masters of Cinema set from Eureka incorporates three of Hou’s early films: Cute Girl, The Green, Green Grass of Home and The Boys from Fengkuei. Newcomers to…

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★★★★☆ Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Albin (Michel Serrault) live a glamorous, if tempestuous life as the owner and star of eponymous drag nightclub ‘La Cage Aux Folles’. Later remade as The Bird Cage, this first adaptation of Jean Poiret’s play is as moving as it is hilarious in its depiction of moral hypocrisy and familial…

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★★★★★ Following a year in the life of a middle-class Taiwanese family, the late Edward Yang’s Yi Yi – his final feature – is a profoundly intimate expression of finding beauty in the everyday and meaning in the mundane. Without showy visuals or contrived narrative incident, Yi Yi delicately reminds us of cinema’s everyday vitality. On the surface, nothing much…

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★★★★☆ As Misumi (Kôji Yakusho) awaits trial for a murder, his legal team desperately try to build a defence. It seems an open and shut case – he has two prior murder convictions, and he has openly confessed his guilt. Yet as his lawyer Shigemori (Masaharu Fukuyama) digs into the case, its clarity grows increasingly…

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★★★★★ The scholar Ho Qinqyun (Chun Shih) is sent to General Han (Yueh Sun) to copy the Mundra Sutra, a powerful magic text. However, on arriving at Han’s apparently abandoned fortress, Ho meets Madam Wang (Rainbow Hsu) and her beautiful daughter Melody (Feng Hsu), who harbours a preternatural interest in the Mundra Sutra. Chinese director…

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★★★★☆ In 1870s New York, Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) prepares to marry the sweet-natured Mary Welland (Winona Ryder). But while their wealthy families look forward to consolidating wealth and influence through the match, Archer’s eye is drawn by the disgraced European aristocrat Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). Arguably the greatest living American director, Martin Scorsese’s…

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