Michael Shannon is evil General Zod in the new Man of Steel. James Mottram meets the actor who wowed critics in Take Shelter

Starring: Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette, Jasmine Trinca

All good books about superheroes, and the comics and films in which they appear, end up to some extent being memoirs. For people who stay interested long enough to think deeply and write, superheroes are tokens of memory and aspiration; we remember where we were when we first picked up a Spider-Man comic and why it spoke to our needs. Comics provide us with useful metaphors, ways of thinking, points of view.

David Benedict on an actor, soon to be celebrated at the BFI, who let his choice of roles do the talking

Starring: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, Faith Wladyka

Randy Quaid and wife seek asylum in Canada

One of cinema's most recognisable faces, that of Freddy Krueger, has been replaced. Kaleem Aftab reports on the trend in Hollywood that is undermining the power of the actor

What a nightmare. You're asked out to dinner by some new friends. You really want to be a good guest – they're nice people, you want the evening to be a cheerful one. They take your coat, sit you down, give you a drink and a peanut. And then you notice that there's a slightly strange smell permeating everything. You don't say anything just yet, but they must have noticed something. "We're cooking you our favourite dish," they say. "It's a family favourite." "How lovely. What is it?" you say. "Boiled seal," they reply. "The kiddies clamour for it."

There are moments in the new Terry Gilliam movie when his florid animations burst out of nowhere, reminding you of those giant trompe l'oeils he famously conjured for Monty Python.

Bad luck seems to hover over the visionary film director, but even the death of his leading actor has failed to stop his latest work

For the hippies at Woodstock, it was the summer of sex and psychedelia but back across the Atlantic, the buttoned-up Brits who eschewed the hedonism of 1969 preferred to call it the summer of cinema.

Johnny Depp has bought his own island hideaway to get away from the pressures of fame and movie making.

By its very nature disability sport can be both depressing and uplifting. Depressing when you realise what participants might have achieved with bodies that fully operate; uplifting when you encounter tales like that of 26-year-old Abdi Jama, whom we met at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester last week.

A triple dose of confusion in Dr Gilliam's box of tricks