Eleanor Reviews

***** Tasked with cleaning a lab in a top secret research facility, a mute janitor befriends the strange, mythical being that's imprisoned there. Determined to free the creature from his torture, Elisa hatches a dangerous plan...  It's a strange thing going to see a film after it's won the Academy Award for Best Picture - obviously, you go in with exceptionally high expectations and think of all the other brilliant movies of the past year that could have won the title too. However, after settling back into Guillermo del Toro's typically quirky storytelling and film making, I found myself swept up in a touching fairy tale that takes the fantastical and horror-inflected elements of Pan's Labyrinth and classic Grimm tales into Cold War America. It's a bold move, but one that works, and this is mostly down to del Toro's tender and insightful depiction of his human characters.  Some critics have accused the film of being too 'black and

*** Ascending to the throne after his father's death, T'Challa looks to rule over a peaceful Wakanda. However, he finds his position under threat when an outsider appears, bringing with him news and ideas that could jeopardise the secretive nation's way of life.  Black Panther is, without a doubt, a ground-breaking film. Boasting a cast of black actors and actresses, a black director, and discussing the treatment of black people throughout history, it brings a breadth of diversity to the screen that is wholly refreshing and impossibly important. It's a shame, then, that the film itself is nothing more than average - passably enjoyable but wholly forgettable once the credits have rolled. It brings me no pleasure to write this, as all the ingredients for a good action movie were there - it just never quite pulled it off.  Let's start with the positives. Taking up the helm after his brief appearance in Captain America: Civil War , Chadwick Boseman pr