LA scenemaker makes decent foray towards rock stardom

Seminal rap duo makes compelling claim on cutting-edge supremacy

Graceful debut album from emotionally eloquent Manchester-based guitar band

Debut by Bowery punk revivalists

Unusual cop comedy thriller from Ron Shelton

Competent Dublin crime drama on well-worn turf

Hitler satire falls victim to Chaplin overkill

The fundamental tension here isn't whether bipolar salesman Barry (Adam Sandler) will end up with doe-eyed English executive Lena (Emily Watson). No, the question here is one of authorship. At a snappy 97 minutes, detailing Sandler's eccentric but essentially loveable dufus, his explosive temper and wacky air-miles scam, it fits neatly into the Sandler lineage. Yet, with Sandler's broader antics leavened by long tracking shots and static arthouse takes, the film is recognisably the work of pop-auteur Paul Thomas Anderson.

Keaton-esque Palestinian comedian Elia Suleiman's sporadically successful and loosely-bound compendium of sketches Divine Intervention features two lovers, from Ramallah and Jerusalem, who pass their romance at an Israeli checkpoint while a surreal world of humorous vignettes pass before them—some of which are sublime (like the Yasser Arafat balloon), others unsophisticated (like the Palestinian ninja who dispatches five Israeli henchmen).

BFI re-release for classic 1953 French comedy