Reviews

Moody, often magical Icelandic drama

Stylish Hong Kong gangster flick that doesn't quite realise its potential

This unintentionally funny French heist movie is mired by its late-'70s aesthetic. Francis Huster is the swaggering hero, all but popping out of super-tight beige slacks and ruefully mouthing lines that mention "the poetry of the cash balance". The earnest political radicalism seems dated and risible now, but the direction is competent and the bank heist itself is good fun.

While Matchbox 20 have been a byword for AOR, director Hamish Hamilton's concert film has a sense of scale and occasion that makes Rob Thomas and friends look like a group with something almost thrilling to say. Caught in Atlanta during their 2003 tour, the band build a head of steam banging through hits like "Push", "3 AM" and "Bent".

Remastered and expanded recordings from Paisley Underground pioneers

LA's 35-year-old singer/songwriter nearly jacked in the solo stuff last year, so Return In Kind, though a covers record, is something of a reaffirmation. Where Casal has sometimes been victim of a too-perfect voice, here (as in recent work with side project Hazy Malaze) he adds grit to the mix.

The Beeb are hoping for a kind of Our Friends In The North success with this 1963-79-spanning Soho crime drama. Its author, Jake Arnott, has written sleevenotes for this 44-song double album, which moves from buoyant '60s hits from James Brown and Dusty to '70s landmarks by T. Rex and The Jam. R Dean Taylor's "There's A Ghost In My House" is exhilarating, Rod Stewart's "Reason To Believe" is moving, and Bowie's "London Boys" is seedily weird.

Ethereal North Carolina quintet's difficult third full-length album

The punk-jazz leviathan's 'hits' compiled and annotated by the man himself, with bonus live CD

OPENS JULY 30, CERT 18, 102 MINS The title may threaten a rough ride, but former Skids frontman Richard Jobson's feature debut as a director is surprisingly tender. Graced by striking visual flourishes and spot-on musical choices, this story of a young man emerging from the haze of alcoholism to make a bid for redemption has a raw, vivid sense of reality. Kevin McKidd—long deserving of a leading role—plays Frankie, who we follow from a boyhood spent in his father's shadow to his teenage years as a skinhead and his subsequent struggles to fit into sober society.