Formula 3

Lies, damned lies, and marimba: Jack and Meg’s surprising and brilliant fifth album

Uncut catches up with Jack White's favourite songwriter in motor city.

When it was released in his native Hong Kong in August 1990, John Woo's brutal Vietnam-era epic Bullet In The Head was a box office disaster. Speaking to Uncut in April 2003, Woo remembered: "When we did the premiere, people just walked out...I felt totally exiled." Coming just over a year after the brutal massacre of students in Tiananmen Square, it's perhaps no surprise that the movie—called Die xue jie tou in Woo's native Cantonese, aka Bloodshed In The Streets—was too complicated, too downbeat, too pessimistic. And it is.

OPENS JULY 30, NO CERT, 114 MINS Coming-of-age sports movies tend to adhere to a formula and, in essence, this debut feature from computer-effects whiz Fumihiko Sori is no exception. Familiar setbacks and triumphs are all present and correct, but this adaptation of a five-volume manga delivers enough character quirks, visual flair and unique detail to make it the Japanese equivalent of a Wes Anderson film. Friends since childhood, the wild, outgoing Peco (Yôsuke Kubozuka) and the quiet Smile (Arata) are ping-pong heroes of their school.

Formulaic sure-fire hit couples cricket and racism

Reissued best-of follows renewed interest in scabrous post-punk politicos

Formed around the original Ants, Bow Wow Wow were often dismissed as a cheap and nasty imitation of Adam's tribal formula. If anything, they were bolder, singing about tape piracy ("C30, C60, C90, Go!") and satanism ("Prince Of Darkness") while their Burundi-Drummers-meets-Ennio-Morricone interface often left the Ants trailing.

Brisk debut from Danish buzzpoppers

Haunting, minimalist road movie takes left-field Drugstore Cowboy director back to his roots

Swan song from Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy's post-punk trailblazers. Includes five add-ons