Critically acclaimed and visually ravishing story of the unlikely tryst between a runaway art student, distressed by impending blindness and a previous romance, and an avant-garde crusty, who meet while sleeping rough on Pont-Neuf. Director Carax takes us on an enchanted journey through a Paris of streets, rivers, bridges, escalators, the Metro and art museums as the movie progresses from the gritty reality of poverty and homelessness to a flamboyant firework lit fantasy land. find out more...

In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a titanic feat of physical and mental endurance that no rider has repeated since. He was a hero to millions, the saviour of professional cycling following the doping scandals which threatened to destroy the sport. However, less than six years later, aged just 34, he died alone, in a cheap Italian hotel room.

This film is not just about cycling but an emotional expl find out more...

Streep and MacLaine give riveting portrayals as the celebrity mother and daughter, who, more alike than they think, battle against both each other and the alcohol and drug induced haze of Hollywood. Supposedly based on the true-life traumas of actress Carrie Fisher and her mum Debbie Reynolds and adapted from Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel. 9 out of 9. find out more...

Set in the Sino-Japanese war, Yasuzo Masumura's black-and-white anti-war film tells of an army nurse who sexually services an amputee and falls in love with a drug-addicted surgeon. This can't be recommended to the squeamish, but neither can its nuanced eroticism nor its passionate, unpredictable moral focus, be easily shaken off. Comparable with Altman's MASH, it suggests a less comic treatment of the same theme, how to preserve one's humanity in impossible circumstances, but its ethics are con find out more...

A wonderful portrait of Ian Dury - he the polio crippled lyricist and front man for punk icons The Blockheads and a self-pitying, class conscious, angry, supremely talented loud mouth - struggling to relate to his pre-teen son and familial duties.
'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' is a top notch drama about a real life person, warts, foul language and all, and you neither need to love his music, punk generally nor, indeed, any form of music to appreciate this gem of a film. find out more...

Revolving around a group of teenagers, as they get to grips with the issues of race, religion, sexuality, drugs, food disorders and what constitutes a really good party, "Skins" is a well received British drama which, despite the young cast, has a distinctly raunchy and adult theme. find out more...

Episode 5, Sid; Sid's a failure. find out more...

Episode 9, Cassie; Chris has a subarachnoid haemorrhage and Cassie goes to New York. find out more...

(By Ian Freer on EmpireOnline) <br>Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is the drummer in a punk-metal duo with girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke). When he begins to intermittently lose his hearing, his musical life seems over. At Lou’s insistence, he reluctantly enters a retreat for the deaf that means giving up his true passion. For a film marinated in silence, Sound Of Metal makes a helluva noise. The accomplished debut from Darius Marder (who co-wrote the screenplay for Derek Cianfrance’s The P find out more...

Les Franken defines ‘non-descript', everything about him is without note, but when he takes part in a clinical trial for a new drug called ‘Special' Les starts to notice super human gifts developing and as an avid reader of comic books decides to re-model himself as a fearless indestructible defender of justice. At times bleakly witty 'Special' is at heart a tale driven by delusion, the emotional collapse of a man who like many of us wishes to be something more than he is. A flawed tale that los find out more...