Daniel Gumble

★★★★★ A sporting biopic unlike any other, Martin Scorsese’s astonishing masterpiece Raging Bull is surely one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. Although many rightly claim it to be the greatest sports movie of all time, Raging Bull’s praise should not merely be confined to one genre, as it is unquestionably one of…

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★★★★☆ Marking the third and concluding instalment of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, The World’s End (2013) serves up a superb concoction of sharp dialogue and pathos, along with a stellar cast, to provide a fitting, if occasionally muddled, end to the what is arguably one of the finest trilogies in decades. Starring Cornetto stalwarts and…

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★★★★☆ Having seemingly taken on board the various criticisms levelled at season two for its lack of action and, at times, pedestrian pacing, AMC’s The Walking Dead returns with its most gripping, expansive and ambitious outing to date, as Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company find themselves facing a new, altogether more human threat. The…

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★★★★☆ Starring Gael García Bernal and Alfredo Castro, Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s No (2012) offers an entertaining look at the way the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile was brought to an end in 1988 as a result of an opposition media campaign. Both personal and political, No sees Larraín delve into the life of Bernal’s Rene…

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★★☆☆☆ With renowned Spanish fantasy-horror maestro Guillermo del Toro – the visionary director behind Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth – on producing duty, early signs were promising for the Andrés Muschietti-directed Mama (2013), a tale of two orphaned sisters taken in by the spectral presence referred to in the film’s title. However, while…

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★★★★☆ With The Simpsons and Futurama director Rich Moore at the helm, it should come as little surprise that Disney’s video game-centric animation Wreck-It Ralph (2012) serves up something for everyone with its tale of self-acceptance – which, in the wrong hands could have fallen spectacularly on its face. Set in the pixelated world of…

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★★★★☆ Widely and rather wildly lauded as a dramatic return to form, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012) serves as a brilliantly entertaining, although not altogether unexpected piece of pastiche, caricature cinema. Set to the backdrop of America’s pre-Civil War plantations, it is in equal parts a revenge thriller and a buddy movie, led by a…

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★★★☆☆ Following the success of his BAFTA-winning debut film In Bruges (2008), director Martin McDonagh teams up once again with Colin Farrell for his second feature-length picture, Seven Psychopath’s (2012); a comedy-thriller that’s both bloody and farcical in equal measure. At the centre of proceedings is Farrell’s Marty, an alcoholic, writer’s-block-blighted screenwriter, and best pal…

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★★☆☆☆ Director Ira Sachs follow 2005’s Forty Shades of Blue and 2007’s Married Life with Keep the Lights On (2012), a tale of a deeply fractured relationship between two gay men in New York, played out over the course of a decade. The story focuses on Erik (Thure Lindhardt), a Danish filmmaker living in New York,…

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★★★★★ In what is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring cinematic works of the past twelve months, British director Peter Strickland’s sophomore feature Berberian Sound Studio (2012) – starring the ever-superb, chameleon-like Toby Jones – takes a rather unusual and unsettling look back at the world of 1970s Euro horror. The framework of this affectionate…

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