After the uncharacteristically sanguine Happy Go Lucky, the master of bleak British social realism returns to downbeat form in a film whose confusions of perspective are perhaps provocatively deliberate.

The sinewy riffs, slightly breathless beats, and squally Eastern psychedelia influence of Window Rattle off Distance From View is the perfect example of how instrumental music can take a mundane image and make it magical.

Unabashedly commercial, outrageously predictable, this blockbuster French rom-com, is also irresistibly self-confident.

Based on the book by Berkeley Breathed, this 3D sci-fi adventure is another performance-capture animation from Robert Zemeckis, the producer of Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol.

This modern-day remake of the 1981 classic romantic comedy Arthur should be well received by fans of Russell Brand; what fans of the original film starring Dudley Moore will make of it is another matter.

The small, superb story has become a talisman in the author's Italy. Since its publication there 15 years ago, it's won plaudits and prizes and been made into a Mastroianni film.

Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Hours, was in debt to both life and literature. His new novel, By Nightfall, also displays a strong allegiance to both.

Bruno Mars' enamoured young crowd sings his lyrics right back at him, but none with more conviction than "I think I wanna marry you".

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and the funny-looking aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind have been given a run for their money in the peculiar guise of Paul, a potty-mouthed ode to Steven Spielberg's sci-fi epics.

It would be very easy in these economically grim times to write novels casting bankers in the harshest of lights - simple moustache-twisting pantomime villains.

Mixing reality and fantasy with little help given to the reader makes an odd book - but it's no lemon.

Chomet's follow-up to his idiosyncratic The Triplets of Belleville is a wistful animated valentine to the days of the variety entertainers that is also a kind of love story.

With some of the momentum of the Clean, urgent droning vocals and pure psychedelic guitar jangle, this debut EP by Auckland-based three-piece Ghost Wave touches a lot of familiar places.

An extremely enjoyable period drama that speculatively fills in the gaps in the ignored life of a sidelined sibling, this independent French production achieves miracles on a reportedly tiny production budget.

Just Go With It is a good way to approach this average romantic comedy from long-time collaborators Adam Sandler and director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, You Don't Mess with the Zohan).

The past catches up with the present to potent and sometimes shattering effect in this moving French film that hints at the wartime horrors it revisits without ever explicitly depicting them.

Somehow Dave Grohl's second famous band went from his post-Nirvana solo outing to stadium giants.

Copenhagen in the early 1990s. Bernardo Greene is a patient at a Clinic for Torture Victims. In his native Chile, he'd been tortured for two years by the Pinochet regime.

Julie Orringer’s first book, a stunning short-story collection entitled How To Breathe Underwater, was a New York Times notable book.

Sometimes you get the feeling that some contestants think they know better than the producers and the judges. And then those people aren't there any more.