Reviews

Second-rate crossover jazz from the '70s

Rich portrait of a rebel artist

The first in Takashi Miike's career-making Triad Society Trilogy. Set in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, rogue cop Kippei Shiina puts himself between local yakuza and a gay Taiwanese mob; cue cocaine-fuelled blow jobs, anal rape and old ladies having their eyeballs plucked out. A Hollywood remake seems unlikely.

Underrated 1989 adaptation of Jay McInerney's seminal NY nightlife novel, riddled with "Bolivian marching powder", period electro-pop and a brave (though criticised) performance from Michael J Fox as a broken-hearted magazine fact-checker who's burning the candle at three ends. Kiefer Sutherland's a bad influence. Dryly comic, painfully candid.

Sam (Jonathan Pryce) dreams of love and escape from his clerical job in a monolithic bureaucracy, but finds himself sucked ever deeper into a Kafkaesque nightmare. Michael Palin and Robert De Niro play brilliantly against type, while Terry Gilliam's dystopian vision broke the mould. Dazzling, disturbing, darkly comic and downright essential.

Tough trad Detroit garage. Recent touring partner Jack White was once a member

Young Dublin five-piece capture sound of summer on West Coast-fixated debut

Second album from French four-piece sets this year's pop gold standard

Adventurous second album from Belgian soundscape-jazzers

Ex-Barefoot Contessa's solo debut