Shot in black-and-white to mirror Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels of her life growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution, Persepolis – in French with English subtitles – is like nothing you've ever seen in animation. It's a mind-blower. Using a few deft strokes of her black pen, Satrapi brings a whole world to life. With her co-director, Vincent Paronnaud, she does the same thing onscreen, starting in 1978, when the shah is overthrown and the Ayatollah Khomeini drags in an era in which women wear veils, Western culture is condemned and radical Muslims make good on threats of violence. Enter Marjane (voiced as a teenager by the terrific Chiara Mastroianni), the only child of a mother (Catherine Deneuve, Mastroianni's real mom) who warily tolerates her rebellion and the grandchild of a woman (Danielle Darrieux) who actively encourages it. Marjane is a sass queen to rival Juno. Blackmarket records, from Abba to Iron Maiden, are her drug. Like her hero, Bruce Lee, Marjane can't be stopped, which is why her mom ships her off to Vienna. Today, Satrapi lives in France and uses her art to condemn repression. Her movie, alive with humor and heartbreak, is a smart antidote. What better way to chase away menace than Marjane's irrepressible mischief?

“Jimbrowski”

Jungle Brothers sampled, among other things, jazz, James Brown and house music. The New York crew's lyrics were equally diverse but never short on clever wordplay or a playful sense of humor, as exemplified by this song from 1988's Straight Out the Jungle. "The idea for that came at the end of a studio session, with Mike, me, Red Alert and a woman Red was dating at the time," says the group’s Afrika Baby Bam. "Red was flirting with her and kept saying 'Jimbrowski' the whole night. Mike and I wrote the rhymes on the way back from the subway."