Katie Lyons Movies

In mid- to late-'60s Britain, an unusual yet colorful subculture sprang up and thrived as a product of the upswing in British pop music, only to meet its doom within a few short years. Though the BBC functioned as the country's main source of news and music, its programmers offered very little airtime to rock & roll -- which left an overwhelming need unfulfilled. In response, small bands of "pirate" radio enthusiasts set up broadcasting towers on boats just outside of English boundary waters, and transmitted signals to an estimated 25 million listeners, 24 hours a day and seven days per week. Unsurprisingly, the DJs who took charge of these broadcasts could rival just about anyone in terms of flamboyance and outsized personalities. With Pirate Radio (released as The Boat That Rocked in the U.K.), writer-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) travels back to the Swinging Sixties and takes a headfirst plunge into this colorful realm.

The story opens in 1966, aboard a rusty fishing trawler christened Radio Rock and equipped with pirate broadcasting equipment. Here, the slightly daft elitist Quentin (Bill Nighy) presides over a motley crew of joint-toking, sex-hungry disc jockeys including Dave (Nick Frost), a heavyset boob who nevertheless considers himself a hot property with women and loves to chase skirts; "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who aspires to be the first person to drop an F-bomb over the British airwaves; the gloom-laden Irishman Simon (Chris O'Dowd); bonked-out hipster Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); womanizer Mark (Tom Wisdom); Angus (Rhys Darby), a New Zealander whom nobody likes; and the only female member of the group, lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). These misfits pull off quite a show -- enough of one that they attain the status of national idols for the youth culture -- but the super-conservative government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) detests the whole business and will do almost anything in his power to shut them down. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A man looking to shed his former identity in order to move beyond his traumatic past discovers that the past and the future are inexorably linked in director John Crowley's feature adaptation of a novel by author Jonathan Trigell. Terry (Peter Mullan) is a caseworker whose job it is to help people create new lives. His latest charge is a young man with a troubled past who eventually decides on the new name Jack (Andrew Garfield). Jack has decided to start a new life in Manchester, where no one is aware of his sordid history. As Jack begins his new job in a new town, he quickly catches the attention of beautiful co-worker Michelle (Katie Lyons). While Michelle's advances are unmistakable, Jack remains somewhat awkward in his new skin and the initial encounters between the pair are somewhat clumsy. Later, as the two new lovers begin experiencing the thrill of connecting with a kindred soul, Jack performs a heroic feat that finds him celebrated as a local hero, and it begins to look like he has successfully made the transition into his new life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi