In case you had forgotten: it takes just one minute and 39 seconds for John Grant, on his third solo album, to remind us of his capacity to surprise. After introducing the album with, well, “Intro,” comes as black a slice of humour as you’ll hear on a pop record this year:

Christmas, Again, the debut feature from director Charles Poekel, was purportedly inspired by the filmmaker’s own experiences as a Christmas tree salesman.

Kilo Two Bravo is almost unsustainably tense from start to finish.

Shout! Factory’s latest Mystery Science Theater 3000 box set serves up four films from the American International Pictures library.

If one were to focus only on the helium-high vocals that run the entire way through Product, it would be all too easy to write off U.K. producer SOPHIE as an immaterial, hyper pop wannabe.

With Popkiss, journalist Michael White details the history of British indie record label Sarah Records.

Following a fine foursome of actors in Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, and Paul Dano, Paolo Sorrentino explores people in various stages of their lives and careers.

Adele draws droves of music lovers with her ballads, and her latest single, “Hello,” is even more magnetic than her ubiquitous 2011 hit “Someone Like You.” Indeed, the British pop-soul queen’s latest plaintive chart topper—which serves as the opening track for her third album, 25—has a chorus that soars higher, lyrics of dashed love that dig deeper, and a production quality that’s infinitely more textured than the deliberately sparse piano accompaniment of “Someone Like You.”

After becoming one of the premier comic actors of the 1980 and 1990s, Bill Murray reinvented himself in the late ‘90s as a great dramatic actor in films such as 1998’s Rushmore, 2003’s Lost in Translation, and 2005’s Broken Flowers. He’s also known as someone with the “common touch” since, for example, he appeared all over restaurants and bars in Philadelphia for several days when he was in town for his son’s wedding back in September.