Many films these days claim to be ripped from the headlines. The Whistleblower really is. Rachel Weisz excels as Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop and single mom who thought a 1999 United Nations peacekeeping job in Bosnia might solve her financial problems. Kathryn arrives in Sarajevo to aid the local police in stopping sex trafficking and then finds that the cops, the diplomats and even U.N. employees are a major part of the problem. She finds allies in Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave), head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and Jan Van Der Velde (David Strathairn), an internal-affairs investigator. But corruption is everywhere. Unfortunately, first-time director Larysa Kondracki overplays her hand. The film swings from melodrama to sermonizing, both blunting the human drama that needs to come to the fore. It's Weisz who holds the ground in a performance of ferocity and feeling.

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“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.