Christopher Machell

★★☆☆☆ Superman (Henry Cavill) is dead. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is stopping bank robberies and Batman (Ben Affleck) is chasing down weird bug-men from space. But with a new threat on the horizon, the Dark Knight and the Amazon princess must unite along with Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller)…

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★★★☆☆ The world’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), is about to embark on a long overdue holiday in this lavish re-telling of Murder on the Orient Express. His friend, Bouc (Tom Bateman), secures him a place on the eponymous train. Poirot’s holiday is cut short when one of the passengers turns up dead,…

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★★★☆☆ Following historical drama The Showdown and gangster picture New World, Hoon-jung Park’s third feature is a suitably epic drama set during the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1925. The Tiger is an often moving fable about fatherhood, nature and respect, yet in never fully committing to its ambitions, doesn’t quite the impact that it might have. Chun Man-duk (Min-Sik…

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★★★★★ Unfairly overshadowed by the works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton was arguably the greatest of the silent clowns. Now, Eureka Video’s Masters of Cinema series brings together three of his best pictures – Sherlock Jr., The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. – all lovingly remastered with 4K restorations. At only 45 minutes, the collection’s first…

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★★☆☆☆ Harry Hole is a barely functional alcoholic, but he’s also the best detective on the Oslo Police Force. When a series of women are abducted and killed, each left with a snowman marking the crime, Harry must grapple with his own demons to catch the killer. Tomas Alfredson’s previous two pictures – vampire horror…

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★★★☆☆ Hrundi (Peter Sellers) is an Indian actor freshly fired due to his bumbling clumsiness. But a mix up means that instead of being blacklisted, he is invited to an exclusive Hollywood party. Cue plenty of pratfalls, mishaps and other comic shenanigans.Blake Edwards’ The Party, a 1968 vehicle for Peter Sellers, is fondly remembered, and…

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★★☆☆☆ Driven by bedroom walls covered in pornography and his childish erotic fantasies, Asao (Duncan) is a young man determined to get laid. Through a series of schemes to attract women, he finds himself in increasingly bizarre and surreal scenarios.No one could ever accuse the Japanese auteur ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano of being a conventional filmmaker.…

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★★★★☆ Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature I Am Not a Witch opens with a little girl (Maggie Mulubwa) arriving in a rural Zambian village with no parents and no name. Accused of witchcraft by one resident, others start chipping in with anecdotes of the girl’s mischief.The local police are called and the girl is quickly shipped…

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★★★★☆ After the tragic death of their friend, Luke (Rafe Spall), Dom (Sam Troughton), Hutch (Robert James-Collier) and Phil (Arsher Ali) honour him by taking a hiking holiday to Sweden. But after whiny Dom twists his ankle, they take a shortcut back. Bad idea. Following his previous genre efforts Southbound and V/H/S, David Bruckner’s witty…

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 ★★★★☆ Based on a novel by Hilary Jordan, Dee Rees’ Mudbound is a moving Second World War fable set in the Mississippi Delta that does not shy away from the ugliness of racism. Netflix’s cinematic outing is more than deserving of theatrical exhibition, however limited. Mudbound opens with white farmer Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) and…

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