Casey Affleck has sex with Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson. Not together. This isn't that kind of movie. It's far more disturbing, since Affleck spanks, bites, beats and punches each lady senseless with his gloved fists. They seem to love the guy anyway. "Don't worry, sweetheart," he murmurs, "it'll be over soon." For this, the film's British director, Michael Winterbottom has been labeled a piece of woman-hating pervert scum. Such criticisms, of course, ignore the fact that Winterbottom isn't getting his rocks off, but rather directing the film version of an acclaimed piece of 1952 pulp fiction that helped make the reputation of novelist Jim Thompson. No less a film icon than Stanley Kubrick called the novel "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered.

That mind is also the subject of Winterbottom's dazzling, depraved film noir. If you can't take the heat, stay out of Winterbottom's scalding kitchen. Affleck gives a mesmeric, implosively powerful performance as Lou Ford, a Texas deputy sheriff so low-key and soft-spoken no one would suspect the evil thoughts dancing in his head. No one except Joyce (Alba), the hooker who caters to his needs, and Amy (Hudson), the girl he wants to marry. Objections might be raised about having two female characters who seem to welcome abuse at the hands of a man. This discounts the fact that on page and screen we are seeing things through the eyes of a madman. John Curran's script can be faulted for leaning too heavily on the childhood roots of Lou's psychosis, but the movie does Thompson proud. It's a scorcher.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.