You wait all year for a star-driven movie that says something about the state of the US of A, and where the leads play hardball with each other and get to butt heads with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and wouldn't ya know it? Two come along at once.

Jonathan Ganley photographed New Order and John Cooper Clarke at their first New Zealand appearance at Mainstreet Cabaret, Auckland on December 3 1982.

On Blues Funeral, his seventh solo album, Mark Lanegan has come up with his finest work yet.

An adult film in both senses - it's a film for grown-ups that features unselfconsciously explicit sex - this feature by Briton Andrew Haigh has been garlanded with awards from indie and gay festivals and it's not hard to see why.

The harmony of siblings is often hard to beat, and Sweden's Soderberg sisters Johanna and Klara certainly have the gift.

A low brow version of The Hangover and Bridesmaids, this crude comedy is filled with one-dimensional characters, a pretty lame set-up and humour that is only occasionally ridiculous enough to make you laugh rather than cower.

A largely improvised script for the award-winning Like Crazy enhanced the intensity of acting out first love for its stars, writes Helen Barlow.