Tired of tartan? Then trade it in for a more  minimal take on checks, says Naomi Attwood

Hard-hitting love stories that don't pull punches

The Mississippi author's estate have come out with two of the most unreasonable lawsuits in literary history

Julie Delpy delivers this sloppy follow-up to her tangy and droll 2 Days in Paris.

Here's a Spider-Man reboot with a difference. Over the course of a hypnotic hour, Scottish Writer of the Year Alan Bissett weaves together a series of compelling, odd little monologues, performed in character as various species of spider.

Jean Dujardin is markedly less charming than his silent-movie star in The Artist in these seven crass short films about male infidelity.

Where are you now and what can you see?

2 Days in New York (15)

What, apart from Mick McCarthy's nose ("like a Dairylea Triangle just about hanging on to his face", as I read it described on one fansite), is the connection between sport and comedy? When I did Fantasy Football, I discovered that football's status as a subculture allows for a particular kind of comedy: the laughter of those who are laughing more because they know not everyone gets the reference. It's a laugh enhanced by the associated feeling of being part of a club; a club that consists of those who did not just have to google Images: Mick McCarthy.

I think comedians see a parallel universe in the muscularity of sport, in the no nonsense-ness of it

I am not religious. I am not a militant secularist. I think Richard Dawkins talks a lot of sense, but then when I hear the Archbishop of York sermonise, I find it easy to get behind him, too. I even find myself in vigorous agreement with the speaker on "Thought for the Day", wishing that I could be similarly beatific. (Although when I fail to locate my glasses and I'm already late for work, and the dog still needs walking, I discover that I'm some distance from Godliness.)

From his long reign as grand seigneur of Santa Clara del Cobre, high in the Michoacá* mountains of Mexico, James "Jimmy" Metcalf could look back on an extraordinary life in which he knew "everyone" and did everything.

Unlike the soiled and spoiled FA Cup final, American Football's absurdly overblown showpiece still reflects the spirit of a nation

What a treat this is - a double bill of two of Woody Allen’s finest films, both made in his mid-1980s prime.