★★★★★ 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 the finest pieces ever committed to film.
★★★★☆ 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...
★★★★☆ 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...
★★★★☆ 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...
★★☆☆☆ 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...
★★★★☆ 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...
★★★★☆ 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,...
★★★☆☆ 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....
★★☆☆☆ 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...
★★★★★ 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...
This week sees P. David Ebersole’s grunge rock documentary Hit So Hard: The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel (2011) finally unleashed in cinemas across the UK. Detailing the life of Hole drummer Patty Schemel, the film takes...
Having spent the best part of a decade as one quarter of iconic US grunge rock band Hole, the outfit’s drummer Patty Schemel has finally emerged from behind the kit and out of the shadows to take the lead role...
★★★☆☆ It’s hardly surprising that anyone performing alongside Courtney Love for the best part of a decade should become accustomed to taking a back-seat when it comes to stealing the headlines. Yet it’s (finally) Hole drummer Patty Schemel that takes...
Following on from 2010’s acclaimed Blur documentary No Distance Left to Run, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace return this week with Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012), a new project detailing the final days of James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem....
★★★★★ Following on from 2010’s sublime No Distance Left to Run – an in-depth look at the formation, split and eventual euphoric reunion of Blur – directorial duo Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern return to theme of the band break-up...