Author Christopher Preston

The Batman proves Warner Bros’ third law: for every divisive reboot of the Caped Crusader, there is an oppositional masterpiece waiting to be made.  Scaling down beautifully from the silly operatics of the...

The Many Saints Of Newark will be judged in the same way The Godfather Part III was: a robustly made, averagely enjoyable gangster flick which is choked by the masterpiece standing behind it. Fourteen years...

It was surprising enough to find out that a so-called "Snyder Cut" of 2017's Justice League even existed. It’s a far larger surprise to discover it isn’t half bad. Both films share the haziest of story...

People fight on the Internet. Who knew? The latest bout of byte-slinging has been sparked by the release - or, perhaps, lack of release - of Alex Garland’s Annihilation. For context, the movie was...

This was originally reviewed on 16/02/17 as part of the Berlinale. While making comparisons is nearly always reductive, Call Me by Your Name feels like Brokeback Mountain via Richard Linklater – which...

The emphasis Thor: Ragnarok’s marketing has placed on boisterous irreverence proves only half-true in delivery. In fact, this threequel latches fairly greedily onto the proven Marvel formula throughout. All...

Like a virus, Hollywood has evolved to survive. Its most recent business has been to sidle towards us, camelhair overcoat flapped open, exposing fix upon fix stitched into the lining – each one an...

If Short Term 12 had been a co-production between Henry Selick and Tim Burton, it might well have ended up as something close to My Life as a Courgette, a simple but sincere stop motion feature that tests the...

The modern world has shrunk to a claustrophobic size – we can carry most of it around in our pockets. Countries have continued to magnetise, shackling themselves to one another with political, social, and...

Love is blind. It’s a notion as old as time, a song as old as rhyme, and the beating heart at the centre of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Bill Condon’s adoration for Disney’s 1991 classic is as...

On the Beach at Night Alone is an essay on feelings, their consequences and complications. It proves that even a dying fire still has the ability to scorch. We meet Youngee, a seemingly popular actress, just...

“Right or wrong, it’s a brand,” Alan Ladd’s Shane philosophises in the western which bears his name. “A brand sticks. There’s no going back.” The line has been included in Logan, the widely...

While making comparisons is nearly always reductive, Call Me By Your Name feels like Brokeback Mountain via Richard Linklater – which hopefully sounds like a compliment because it is meant as a huge one. It...

Colo purports to be a kitchen sink-style drama, which is apt: watching it is about as enthralling as washing the dishes. Teresa Villaverde concerns her art with the economic crisis and how such events can...

Sequels are a curious and fickle species, particularly the breed that has come to most prominence in the last few years: the legacy followup. Always ready to cannibalise when they need to, film producers seem...