Momentum Anton Corbijn rewrites the rules of the rock'*'roll biopic by filming the tragic life story of Joy Division's Ian Curtis in black and white, and with a largely unknown cast. Newcomer Sam Riley is uncanny as Curtis, who is left too debilitated by his epilepsy and medication to function both as a moody rock icon and as a faithful husband and father. Samantha Morton plays his wife, Deborah. But as sad as their brief relationship is, 'Control' finds time for twinkling humour and deep tenderness. You don't need any prior interest in Joy Division to be captivated.

The most influential newspaper in Russia is to come under Kremlin control as the government tightens its grip on the media in the run-up to elections next year.

8 1/2 WOMEN (15, 120 mins)

The World is Not Enough (12) Michael Apted; 128 mins Scrooge (U) Brian Desmon Hurst; 86 mins The Astronaut's Wife (18) Rand Ravich; 109 mins Dreaming of Joseph Lees (12) Eric Styles; 91 mins The Children of the Marshland (PG) Jean Becker; 115 mins The Secret Laughter of Women (12) Peter Schwabach; 120 mins Taxi (15) Luc Besson; 85 mins

Flip-flops used to be the footwear equivalent of the hankie-on- the-head. Now they've become the ultimate fashion statement for the seriously stylish

There's something rather endearing about Rupert Graves. Despite our meeting being scheduled for early evening, Graves appears to have just got out of bed. Dark hair sprouting wildly from his thin, beaker- shaped face, he affects a bemused-with-life persona, but comes on all bolshie. Happy to tell me he gets bored of doing plays that run longer than a month, he lacks the obligatory public relations riff most actors store up.

FRANK OZ began his career with his hand up Fozzie Bear. Now he's turned to directing, although his irresistibly fluffy new comedy In and Out (12) has more than a touch of muppetry about it. Kevin Kline and Joan Cusack play the Kermit and Miss Piggy roles of Howard Brackett and Emily Montgomery, two small-town high-school teachers on the eve of a much-delayed wedding. Their plans are disrupted when a former pupil, movie star Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), receives a Best Actor Academy Award for playing a gay soldier, and uses his moment on the platform to out Mr Brackett as a homosexual. If that scenario sounds familiar, cast your mind back to what Tom Hanks said as he picked up his award for Philadelphia. Yup, In and Out is the first film to be based on an Oscar acceptance speech.

Our experts tip the talents set to shine in 1998. You read it here first

I Saw the original Alien movie on the Betamax machine of a spoilt boy in my primary-school class. It was an illicit event: curtains were drawn, Sodastream limeade flowed like wine, there was a whole packet of Wagon Wheels on offer (I told you he was spoilt). The film scared the living daylights out of us, not just because of the handful of scenes in which the crustaceoid of the title leapt out of the darkness - or John Hurt's stomach - but because of the terrifying, foul-mouthed, sweaty grown-upness of its protagonists.

When Carine Adler tried to bring a realistic woman to the screen, she met a wall of opposition from producers, backers and even actresses

Not even the most pedantic professor of English literature could complain about Tom Jones (BBC1, Sun). It's all there; the adaptation is so faithful, it is almost married to Fielding's plot, characterisation and dialogue. Plus it looks great without being fussy, has completely eschewed gratuitous appearances of bouncing buttocks, pert nipples and wispy pudenda - for which, heartfelt thanks to the producers from all of us who do not like looking at beautiful naked bodies - and the device of using John Sessions as a narrating Henry Fielding, popping in and out of the action, works fine.

`Tom Jones' is essentially a bloke thing. Sophia, whose frustrated love affair with Tom anchors the plot, is the sought-after virgin... The rest of the women are roughly divided between whores and matrons

Horatio Hornblower is set to sail the high seas again after the most ambitious drama project in the history of ITV has been saved by the intervention of Lord Hollick's United News & Media.

There are three books that all educated young Englishwomen are supposed to have read by the time they fall into the arms of the man they are to marry (or they take their A- levels): Little Women, Rebecca and Jane Eyre. The last two have both been televised by ITV this year, and Little Women cannot be far behind.