Hollywood formula gets shamed big-time by Aki Kaurismaki's artful, antic romantic comedy with a twist of rueful wisdom and a welcome blast of vintage rock. It's not every movie that can tell the story of an amnesiac in love and still find room for a mugging, a bank robbery, a pushover attack dog and a jukebox that plays Blind Lemon Jefferson.

at plot there is involves the arrival in Helsinki by train of the title character (Markku Peltola, a wonderfully expressive actor who rarely changes his expression). He is beaten, robbed, hospitalized and declared dead until he gets up — bereft of all memory — and seeks shelter among the poor. Romance blooms with Irma (the dour and delicious Kati Outinen), a Salvation Army worker. And kindness comes in, well, unexpected places. It's the pleasures of the unexpected that make The Man Without a Past such a delicious blend of hilarity and heartbreak. Don't let anyone tell you too much about what Kaurismaki has up his sleeve. Just put yourself in the hands of a master.

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.