Don't mind the featherweight plot. A cheeky comedy with sex and smarts arns passing grade. James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland) is a live ire as Brian, a working-class lad who leaves his Essex mates (Dominic ooper and James Corden) to join the snobs at Bristol University. The year is 1985, when University Challenge (a TV quiz show modeled on College owl) lets Brian show off his knowledge, impress a hot blonde (Alice ve) and lose his heart to a firebrand (enchantress Rebecca Hall, a true ind of an actress). All the actors are spot on, with special shout-outs o Catherine Tate as Brian's widowed mum and Benedict Cumberbatch as he hilariously pompous captain of the Bristol TV team. Tom Hanks, whose company produced, also deserves high marks for allowing writer David Nicholls, who adapted his own novel, and director Tom Vaughan, both Bristol alums, to stay true to their class-conscious British roots. Jolly good show.

“Satisfied”

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.