Although it might sound like a tame update of Don Siegel's Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), S Craig Zahler's Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a brutal addition to a genre that dates back to George W. Hill's The Big House (1930). As in his debut outing, the horror Western, Bone Tomahawk (2015), Zahler proves willing to put an arthouse gloss on grindhouse tropes. Moreover, in locating a previously unsuspected darkness and depth, he helps a time-serving Hollywood journeyman deliver the best performance of his career.

Having lost his job at a garage, recovering addict-cum-alcoholic Bradley Thomas (Vince Vaughn) drives home to find wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) sitting in her car on the drive. Suspecting she's having an affair, Bradley (who is shaven headed and has a black crucifix tattooed on the back of his skull) demands to see her phone and sends her inside while he punches in the passenger window, rips off the bonnet and tears out the headlights. For good measure, he hurls the rear view mirror down the street before strutting inside to find out why Lauren has betrayed him. She explains that she has been sad since her miscarriage and felt neglected because Vaughn was always working. But she swears that the three-month liaison isn't serious and agrees that they should start afresh and try for another baby. She even consents to Bradley going back to work for drug dealer Gil (Marc Blucas) until they are back on their feet and can move out of their shabby neighbourhood.

Eighteen months later, Bradley is making good money and Lauren is pregnant. With only 98 days left before the birth of the baby they have nicknamed `the koala', Bradley fusses over her in their plush new home and carries her to bed because he considers chopping vegetables to be too taxing. However, he is called away because Gil wants to introduce him to Eleazar (Dion Mucciacito), a Mexican dealer with a cheap supply of crystal meth. Vaughn is wary of henchmen Roman (Gino Segers) and Pedro (Victor Almanzar), as he thinks the former is using and will be unreliable under pressure. But Gil order him to be a team player and, having tossed Roman's gun into the dock to prevent him from doing anything foolish, Bradley steers the boat to the offshore pick-up point so that Pedro can dive down and retrieve the trunk.

He retains a brusque silence throughout the trip. But his confederates ignore his suggestion that they should hide the cache and come back for it later and they promptly walk into a police ambush. Pedro is shot and killed, but Roman keeps blasting away from behind a car. Determined to tie up any loose ends, Bradley slips into the water and edges round behind Roman to incapacitate him before he is arrested. Detective Watkins (Carl Johnson) finds it hard to believe that Bradley is a patriot with two American flags on his property, but Bradley holds his own in an exchange about dealers getting longer sentences than sex offenders. Moreover, he protects his superiors by taking the fall, even though he knows his five-year stretch will prevent him from watching his little girl grow up.

Lauren is allowed a visit, but Bradley tells her to stay away from the courtroom and do the best by their child until he can rejoin them. She fights back the tears, but promises to be strong and faithful. Bradley allows himself a bitter smile when the judge gives him seven years and he keeps his dignity when processing officer Irving (Fred Melamed) taunts him about the cheapness of his wedding ring and makes him go back to the end of the line for forgetting his manners. Hobbling in shoes two sizes too small, Bradley is welcomes by old lag Leftie (Willie C. Carpenter), who advises him to keep his head down in showing him to his single cell. Corridor guard Andre (Mustafa Shakir) explains the rules applying to head counts and searches and tries to needle Bradley about his past experiences as a boxer. But he refuses to rise to the bait and remains impassive when Andre shines a torch into his eyes during a late-night count designed to demonstrate just how powerless Bradley is behind bars.

During the night, Lauren is abducted by intruders who shoot her with tranquiliser darts. But Bradley is initially informed by case worker Denise (Pooja Kumar) that she has had a rough night and that her doctor will visit Vaughn to explain the situation. When he comes to the glass window, however, he fails to recognise the quietly spoken German (Udo Kier) who represents Eleazar, who feels that Bradley owes him a favour after costing him $3 million in lost merchandise. The German shows Bradley a picture on his phone of a bound and blindfolded Lauren before revealing that Eleazar will subject her to a Korean abortionist (Tobee Paik) with the ability to remove limbs from a foetus unless Bradley gets himself transferred to the maximum security Red Leaf facility and disposes of a target in Cell Block 99.

Returning to the Fridge, Bradley turns on Andre when he tries to apologise for riling him. They fight in the corridor and Bradley snaps his arm before taking on three more officers while in handcuffs. Eventually, he is tasered and travels to Red Leaf with dark bruises around the tattoo on his head. He is greeted by the steely Warden Tuggs (Don Johnson), who warns Bradley that he practices a regime of `minimum freedom' and will have no qualms in making his life a misery. Ordering Officer Wilson (Tom Guiry) to conduct a full cavity search outside the gates, Tuggs kicks over Bradley's valuables and lights a cigaritto.

Tuggs billets Bradley in a cell with a blocked toilet and he has to tie his vest around his nose to combat the smell. He is allowed an hour in the exercise yard, however, where he promptly ignores the advice of Derrick (Philip Ettinger) - (who has told him that Block 99 is full of perverts and psychotics - and picks a fight with a group of Hispanic prisoners using the weights. Busting arms and noses, Bradley takes down several thugs and two more guards before Tuggs points a gun at his head and declares that he has lost his minimum freedom and will spend his time in Cell Block 99.

Now in chains, as well as neons, Bradley is hooded and taken through a secret passage behind a shelf unit to the hidden part of the jail. Tuggs has him pushed down the staircase leading to a room full of torture implements that he suspects would be frowned upon by Amnesty International. He has the guards fit Bradley with a belt that enables him to pass an electric current through his torso and he sneers that he has already amassed 25 punishment jolts that will be administered on his whim. As Bradley is bundled into his new cell, Tuggs shocks him again and he sinks to his knees on to the broken glass that litters the floor. Yet, for all the humiliation and pain, Bradley is where he needs to be and he begins to wonder how he can get at his quarry when no one in the block has ever heard of him.

As he picks shards of glass out of his legs, however, the German takes more photographs of Lauren, who is examined by the abortionist. Bradley is shown the pictures when Wilson collects him from his cell and takes him to an antechamber where Eleazar and Roman are waiting for him. Eleazar states that he intends showing Bradley no mercy because he not only lost his liberty, but also his brother-in-law in the botched drop. He uses the remote control to send shockwaves through Bradley, while Roman knocks him to the ground with a metal chair.

When he comes round back in his cell, Bradley tears the insoles from his shoes and stuffs them inside the belt to reduce the effect of the charges on his kidneys. He chats to another prisoner through the lunch slot in the door and he asks why the guards have got it in for him. Bradley tries to sleep, but he is woken by Wilson, who has come to collect him for another social call on Eleazar. However, he refuses to close his cell door behind him and overpowers Wilson when he tries to challenge him and he threatens to throttle him with his chains unless his assistant, Jeremy (Rob Morgan), hands over the keys. When Wilson tries to escape, Bradley crushes his skull in the cell door and hands the taser to one of the other prisoners, who jokes that it might come in handy.

Having removed the manacles and the stun belt, Bradley keeps his rendezvous with Eleazar. He crushes the skulls of two of his heavies (one of whom also has his eyes gouged) before snapping Roman's neck. When Eleazar calls the German and tells him to begin the procedure on Lauren. Bradley breaks his leg and pulls in back to the corridor and threatens to let the other prisoners finish him off unless he rescinds the order. With Lauren on her way to Gil for protection, Bradley informs Tuggs that he has Eleazar and Jeremy as hostages and will kill them if he tries anything stupid while he waits for Gil to confirm that Lauren is safe.

The German drives her to his base, with the Korean sitting beside Lauren in the backseat. He points a gun at Gil as he reverses down the drive. But, with Lauren sheltering behind him, Gil produces a rifle and kills the German and, when the abortionist tries to make a getaway, Lauren grabs the weapon and finishes him off herself. When Gil calls Bradley with the good news, Lauren sits under a tree to talk to him. He insists he is okay and tries not to cry when she asks if he would like to speak to the baby. Bradley apologises for not being there to help raise her, but knows she will grow up to be smart and Lauren swears their daughter moves when she hears her father's voice.

With the call over, Bradley returns to the cell to crush Eleazar's skull before using his boot to sever it from his neck. Tuggs delays long enough to let Bradley complete his task before ordering him to put his hands on his head. He produces a pistol and executes him with shots to the body and head and the sound of Bradley slumping to the floor can be heard as the screen goes black.

Although the related plot point is almost gratuitously sick, it's rather apt that the sinister abortionist is Korean, as this often feels like a Park Chan-wook variation on Fred Cavayé's prison breakout thriller, Anything For Her (2009). In truth, the scenario doesn't bear close scrutiny, as the action takes place in just over three weeks and makes excessive demands on the efficiency of the American justice system to get both Bradley and Eleazar in the same place in such a short space of time. But Zahler owns his contrivances with such conviction that the audience is consistently coerced into suspending disbelief as it is swept along on the grimly inevitable tide of events.

Walking slowly and bolt upright like someone who has been cavity searched in tight shoes, Vince Vaughn is unrecognisably excellent as the most devoted dad to be since Billy Bigelow in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel. Indeed, he would surely be in line for major acting honour if it wasn't for the fact that pictures like this are so rarely taken seriously during awards season. Given that Vaughn has so often underachieved since making his mark in Doug Liman's Swingers (1996) and trying so hard to match Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's redundant remake of Psycho (1998), this goes a long way to erasing the memory of all those mediocre mid-career comedies - although it should never be forgotten that he did land MTV and Teen Choice nominations for David Dobkins's Wedding Crashers (2005) and Peyton Reed's The Break-Up (2006).

Udo Kier also registers as `the Placid Man', while Don Johnson enjoys himself as the sadistic warden. By contrast, Jennifer Carpenter is made to suffer in an underwritten, poorly integrated and decidedly dubious role that is not made any more acceptable by the fact she gets to exact pitiless revenge upon her potential tormentor. However, this and the suspense-free nocturnal boat trip are the only marked missteps in an otherwise compelling sophomore effort that is impeccably paced by Zahler and editor Greg D'Auria. Favouring long takes over the modish splice-and-dice technique, Zahler also pays due respect to Drew Leary's pulverising fight choreography. Production designer Freddy Waff also makes a major contribution with the Thomas houses and the Fridge and Block 99 cells, although the atmosphere they generate also owes much to cinematographer Benji Bakshi's lighting and a supremely unsettling score by Jeff Herriott, who also amuses himself in tandem with Zahler with the pastiche blaxploitation tunes on the soundtrack.

Fanboys rather than feminists are going to lap this up and, no doubt, someone will detect all manner of allegorical references as to why the `mad as hell' South voted for Donald Trump. But, while this is much more sophisticated than the average direct to disc or download title, what most sets it apart is the absence of knowing humour. This is an unflinching study of impotent rage and debased masculinity that is sure to send patrons into the night feeling shaken and dismayed.

American film-makers have long struggled to tackle Christian themes with any freedom, as they have always been so conscious of a Bible Belt backlash. Director Jon Gunn and screenwriter Brian Bird are the latest to let their trepidation get the better of them in adapting journalist Lee Strobel's autobiographical bestseller, The Case for Christ. To a degree, they are hampered by the inevitability of the story's outcome. But, as in one of Cecil B. DeMille's infamous saucy silents, in which no sin depicted in gleeful detail went unpunished, so every doubt is assuaged in a Damascene odyssey that will have even the most fervent evangelical blushing with embarrassment.

As the title credits role, Gunn and Bird present us with a thumbnail account of how Lee Strobel (Mike Vogel) came to be married to Leslie (Erika Christensen) and legal affairs editor at the Chicago Tribune in 1980. He toasts facts at a celebration party in the office before taking the heavily pregnant Leslie and their young daughter Alison (Haley Rosenwasser) to dinner. However, the girl chokes on a gumball and is saved by African-American nurse Alfie (L. Scott Caldwell), who tells Leslie that God had urged her to go to that restaurant because He knew He would have a purpose for her. Leslie is piqued when the atheist Lee tells Alison at bedtime that Jesus is like a fairy-tale character and they argue about whether divine providence or coincidence brought Alfie into their lives.

Lee has just published a new book and is put out when no-nonsense black editor Joe Dubois (Frankie Faison) order him to investigate the shooting of cop Joseph Koblinsky (Judd Lormand) by gang member James Hicks (Renell Gibbs). However, Leslie hides the fact that she has been to church with Alfie and been touched by the preacher's assurance that God has the love and patience to wait for people to come to Him. But she feels so moved after her second visit that she tells Lee and he is so angry with her for letting emotion overcome reason that he stalks out of the kitchen `to file a missing person's report'.

Unsure how to approach the subject without alienating Leslie, Lee consults mentor Ray Nelson (Brett Rice), who had used the writings of Bertrand Russell to prevent his daughter from being born again. He recommends finding fact that undermine the logic of the Christian narrative and believer workmate Kenny London (Mike Pniewski) jokingly suggests that his best hope lies in disproving the historical fact of the Resurrection.

This mission takes Lee to Wisconsin to hear a lecture by New Testament expert Gary Halbermas (Kevin Sizemore), who informs him that 500 people are reported to have seen Jesus Christ alive after the Crucifixion and their testimonies in nine sources outside scripture date months after the event and should, therefore, be treated as eyewitnesses not rumourmongers. When Lee claims that their faith meant they could not be objective, Halbermas cites Saul of Tarsus who became the evangelising apostle Paul after his conversion. He also mocks the notion that the martyrs in Roman times would have been willing to lay down their lives for a hoax. Halbermas admits that he started to believe after losing his wife to cancer and took solace in the certainty of seeing her again after his own death. But, when Lee questions whether he is merely being hopefully sentimental, Halbermas retorts that `truth reminds us of what is really important' and Lee nods as if to confirm that such proof is incontrovertible. Rushing home when his pager informs him that Leslie is going into labour, Lee meets his son and grimaces when Alison says that she prayed her mother would be okay. He refuses to contact his estranged parents about the birth and devotes himself to turning a basement storeroom into a command centre for his Christ quest. However, he also pays lip service to the story Dubois told him to cover by going to the local jail and interviewing Hicks, whose fuzzy story and lengthy rap sheet convinces Lee that he must be guilty, even though there are no hard facts on which to base his rushed judgement.

Stung by a message on the bathroom mirror about God's love, Lee goes to see Fr José Maria Marquez (Miguel Pérez), a renowned archaeologist-turned-priest, who explains that there are four times more authenticated manuscipts (5843) of the Greek version of the New Testament than there are of the Iliad, with the earliest dating from 2nd century Egypt. As they walk through the church, Lee sees a reproduction of the Turin Shroud and asks why the Son of God would allow himself to be killed rather than use his powers to confound his enemies and Marquez responds with one word: `Love.'

A montage to some soft rock shows Lee bashing away on his typewriter, pinning cuttings to his wall display and scrawling notes on a white board. But he is getting nowhere fast and has a drunken row with Leslie at 3am, in which he accuses her of cheating on him with Jesus. He then locks horns during a phone call to Jerusalem with Dr William Craig (Rus Blackwell), who shoots down his theory that Christ's body was fed to the dogs and not placed in a tomb and that the accounts of seeing Him risen were given by women, who were regarded as notoriously unreliable by Jewish historians. When Lee points out inconsistencies in the gospel story of the empty tomb, Craig says the core story remains the same and that would satisfy most cops taking statements. He questions whether Lee wants the truth or his version of it and suggests that he will have to reach a point at which enough evidence is enough.

This glib remark momentarily stops Lee in his tracks and he turns his attention to the Kublinsky-Hicks story. On checking the rap sheets, he sees that the cop arrested the gang member six times and deduces that Hicks is a police informant and that the Chicago PD is protecting him. Lee uses his contacts within the force to get confirmation and Dubois runs the front-page splash. But the success makes him cocky and he warns Alfie to stop brainwashing his wife and when parents Walt (Robert Forster) and Lorena (Cindy Hogen) come to see baby Kyle, he is openly rude to them. In keeping with his new-found smugness, he also snipes at Hicks when he is sentenced to 15 years and tuts when he claims he had no option but to plea bargain after his fallacious story sold him out. However, he saves his worst for a romantic night out with Leslie, which culminates in the car with him informing her that he hates what she is becoming and can't accept a faith based on feelings not facts and refuses to believe her assertion that she loves him more since finding Jesus.

While Leslie seeks comfort with Alfie, who promises her that God will soften Lee's heart, he decides that the 500 witnesses who saw the resurrected Christ were suffering from mass psychosis and makes an appointment to see psychologist Roberta Waters (Faye Dunaway). She is agnostic, but claims that 500 people having the same dream would be a bigger miracle than the Resurrection itself and Lee is frustrated that he can't chip away at any so-called `fact' related to Christ rising from the dead. As he goes to leave, Waters asks about his relationship with his father and, when he admits that it's stained, she suggests that the `father wound' is preventing him from recognising God as a loving father. He smiles politely and states that the problem lies with his wife not his father before strutting away.

Having been dismayed by the sight of Leslie being baptised in the river, Lee snaps back into journalist mode when Kublinsky comes to thank him for sending Hicks away and reveals that he has bullet fragments in his spleen. On looking at the shirt he was wearing when he was shot, however, Lee deduces that Kublinsky was wounded by an illegal gun pen in his shirt pocket and he contacts Hicks's lawyer to apply for a mistrial. But Dubois is furious with him for allowing Kublinsky to play him because his mind wasn't on the job and he returns home drunk to shout at Leslie and Alison before flying out to California to meet with pathologist Alexander Metherell (Tom Nowicki) to posit the theory (shared with the Koran) that Christ was taken down from the cross before he died and was patched up by some of his followers before he was presented to his disciples as `resurrected'.

As Lee takes notes and wrinkles his nose in annoyance, Metherell reveals with amusing condescension that the scourging alone would have left him close to death from blood loss (hence the falls on the way to Calvary) and too weak to survive for long the agony of fighting for breath on the cross. When Lee suggests the centurions weren't doctors and might have made a mistake in pronouncing him dead, Metherell reminds him that they would have been executed if a prisoner had escaped. But the clincher that Christ died is the mix of blood and water that seeped out from the spear wound, as such fluids are consistent with death by asphyxiation and could not be faked.

Leaving the hospital in a funk because modern medicine supports what he claims is ancient hokum, Lee is paged by Leslie, who breaks the news that his father has died. After the funeral, he finds the cuttings scrapbook his father kept and turns the pages sobbing. Then, on the way home, the radio news broadcasts that Hicks has been rushed to hospital after being badly beaten in hospital. He goes to his bedside to apologise for missing the truth, but the injured man whispers that he never wanted to find it. Lee realises this is true of his pursuit of the historical Christ and Nelson suggests that even non-believers need to take a leap of faith because its impossible to prove or disprove that Jesus was the Son of God who conquered death. London also loses his temper with him and orders Lee to stop bellyaching about Christianity and stop blaming others for the fact that he can't make up his mind.

After a long dark night of the soul, in which voices from his inquiry chatter in his head and we are treated to a montage of images and marker pen conclusions, Lee admits God has won. He drives home to tell Leslie what he has been doing and he concedes that her faith stacks up. Moreover, the love she continued to show him while he was being so unreasonable gave him tangible proof that God was working though her to save him. They kiss and kneel together for him to pray. He writes a book about his journey and a closing caption states that his 20 times on his faith have sold over 14 million copies.

We also see photos of the real Leslie and Lee (who never seems to sport the kind of moustache that James Franco also wore in The Vault), as we learn that he became a pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in 1987 and he has since dedicated his life to converting others. Alison also writes novels pointing people to Christ, while Kyle became a theologian and seminary professor with several learned tracts to his name.

Strobel is now Professor of Christian Thought at Houston Baptist University in Texas and a pastor at Woodlands Church. But, while no one could doubt for a second the sincerity of those responsible for his biopic, it's difficult to see this as anything other than a glorified teleplay that charts one man's path to the Lord without producing more than a few scraps of sketchily scripted evidence. Doubtless, Strobel's book made the case for Christ with greater intellectual rigour and trenchancy, but Gunn's film is simplistic and mawkish.

Mike Vogel does a decent job of portraying the sceptical Strobel as a jackass, while Erika Christensen strains every sinew to appear devoted and devout. But even talents like Faye Dunaway and Robert Forster are stymied by a screenplay that reduces everything to quip or a platitude. Will Musser gloopy score hardly helps, while Brian Shanley's photography does scant justice to Mitchell Crisp and Dana Konick's décor and costumes. Obviously, everyone means well. But surely there are better ways of cine-proselytising than this?

No one could ever accuse Michael Winterbottom of getting stuck in a rut. But he follows a well-trodden path in On the Road, his pseudo-documentary account of indie band Wolf Alice's 2016 UK tour with support acts Bloody Knees and Swim Deep. Indeed, Winterbottom even comes close to repeating himself, as the fictional romance woven into the familiar touring tropes bears a softcore resemblance to the one that linked the action in 9 Songs (2004).

Sent along by the management company, Estelle Johnson (Leah Harvey) keeps to herself as Joe (James McArdle) and the other roadies load Wolf Alice's equipment for a gig in Belfast. Joe recommends that Estelle sleeps with her head pointing to the back on the tour bus so that she stands a better chance of surviving a crash and checks she is coping on the chopping voyage across the Irish Sea. On arriving at the venue, Estelle introduces her to singer Ellie Roswell, guitarist Joff Oddie, drummer Joel Amey and bassist Theo Ellis to let them know that she will be taking pictures during the soundcheck and the concert. She smiles watching them get used to the stage, as their driving grungy style packs a wallop.

They go down well and the Dublin reception is just as effusive, as Estelle watches `Giant Peach' from the audience. However, a DJing set at a nearby club doesn't go quite as well when two of the lads kill the sound system. Estelle is also told to keep the noise down, as she strums her guitar on the bus en route to Keele and she goes to sit instead with one of Roswell's school friends who has been invited along for the ride.

Glimpses of Bloody Knees and Swim Deep on the Students Union stage are followed by Wolf Alice coming on and going off before we are shown the roadies taking great pains to pack the gear away. Back on the motorway, Joe watches Estelle as she gets up in the night and flirts with her over breakfast, as she admits that she hasn't been to half the places the tour is visiting. She brings a journalist to the Arts Club in Liverpool and Roswell reveals that she took the band's name from a story in Angela Carter's short story collection, The Bloody Chamber. Once again, the camera fixes on the rapt faces of the fans during the snippet coverage of the gig, which culminates with Ellis doing his customary bit of crowd surfing.

In Manchester, Roswell dedicates `Blush' to her boyfriend and smiles at her extrovert bandmates enjoying themselves at the after-show party. Joe's pal Gordon (Jamie Quinn) joins the bus and he suggests that he looks up his mother (Shirley Henderson) when they get to Glasgow because she's in a bad way. He's embarrassed and Estelle shoots him a sympathetic smile, as the bus heads east to Norwich. In a little in-jokey nod to Winterbottom's regular collaborator Steve Coogan, the band do an interview at BBC Radio Norfolk and perform an acoustic version of `Fluffy' before wandering the campus of the University of East Anglia. In the green room, Estelle plays her treble guitar and Oddie has a strum on it before they go on and Amey sings `Swallowtail' from behind the drums.

This segues into more motorway footage as the bus wends its way to Oxford for a gig at the O2 Academy in Cowley Road. A roadie notes that this used to be a carpet warehouse and Estelle video-chats with some teenagers queuing outside. She goes for ice cream with Joe, who reveals he is 26 to her 21 and she is surprised he is so young when he seems so much older. Feeling in a good mood, she sings a love song with another girl on the bus outside the venue and they high-five in delight at their impromptu harmonies. On stage, Wolf Alice play `Freazy' to the eager faces beside Estelle on the front row, but we only get the end of the song, as this is a snapshot of the tour rather than a complete record.

Arriving in Glasgow, Estelle goes in search of towels at the famous Barrowland venue, while Joe hooks up with his mother at the Lauriston pub. Their nothing conversation is intercut with Roswell telling an anecdote about boasting at school about her mum going to New York when she had really only gone to York. Seeing Joe needs cheering up after his dispiriting encounter, Estelle gives him a long kiss before watching Bloody Knees keeping everyone amused in the green room with a stomping acoustic rock pastiche. Once again, the gig is reduced to the final notes before Ellis does his crowd-walking stunt and everyone goes drinking.

By the time the bus arrives in York, the roadies are ready to do their stuff. But Estelle and Roswell are up late and they chat about the strain road life puts on friendships and what it might be like to be in an all-girl band. However, she also slips away to a hotel room with Joe and thinks back on their love-making as she listens to `Bros' that night. In the dressing-room, Ellis relates how a security guard smacked a member of the audience, while Amey slumps back with a sense of anti-climax that the hour-long set they came to do is over and it's back on the bus.

They chat on the bus next day about things that happened during the gig. Oddie footles on the guitar, as the others doze off en route to Folkestone. The band wander to the beach for a photo shoot, while Joe and Estelle fool around on the tideline before finding a room. As they lie naked, she describes life in Peckham and how she used to help her mother with her foster charges and she gets misty-eyed remembering the baby she helped learn to walk before she was adopted. But she is back on the front row at the Leas Cliff Hall for `Silk', while Joe chugs beer in the wings before swinging into action to dismantle the set while the bandmates enthuse about the audience in their changing-room.

Along the coast to Brighton, where band members and roadies have a game of football on the beach, while Estelle supervises a Roswell video shoot on a merry-go-round on the pier. She sings one of her own songs to the admiring nods of the assembled, with Joe smiling proudly. But she is just one of the crowd as Wolf Alice rip through `The Wonderwhy' to boisterous acclaim. A birthday party for one of the support players is equally rowdy and Estelle seems pleased to get some quiet in her bunk, as the bus heads north again to Rock City in Nottingham.

The pace seems to have sapped Roswell's energy and she turns up at the local BBC station (where the big news of the day is a disease attacking the county's ash trees) to record `Fluffy' with a sense of duty rather than enthusiasm. She jokes that she is not on the ball as she can't think of anything to say before `Bros'. But Estelle's mind is also far away, as she thinks back to her latest hotel session with Joe. Wolf Alice have a soft spot for the venue, as it formed their first mosh pit, and they throw in a couple of extra encores to appease the chanting crowd. The Cardiff audience is just as up for it during `You're a Gem' and `Blush'. But, as the camera fixes on the glittered face of an adoring female fan, the trudge back to the dressing-room reminds viewers that what is a special night for those who have bought the tickets with keen anticipation is just another night after just another night for the increasingly exhausted combo.

Ellis complains of a sore elbow, while Oddie plays a lovely acoustic lament over Rowsall having to disappoint a fan who was hoping there would be an after-party. On the bus, Estelle asks Joe about going with the band to America, as she isn't due to fly with them. He jokes he needs to go back to Glasgow and do his washing before he leaves, but she is sad because the adventure (and possibly the romance) is coming to an end, as the roll back into London.

As Bloody Knees prepare for a return to 9 to 5 because they don't earn enough to play full time, Ellis throws up during the soundcheck with the pain in his arm and he heads home to his mum while the replacement bassist, Gengahr's John Victor, learns the songs with Oddie backstage. The crowd begin to filter in and he is still listening to baselines on his phone, while Bloody Knees go through an hilarious psych-up session in their changing-room before going out to have fun on stage. Swim Deep also go down well, as the new-look Wolf Alice hug on the stairs and head out to meet their public.

Snatches from a set that includes `Moaning Lisa Smile' show a band on form and Oddie sings an acoustic paean to Victor once they return to the changing-room. Friends and family come backstage, while the roadies dismantle the gear. Estelle and Joe go to a hotel room, where she reads out the punishing US schedule for April and May before they make love. She accompanies him to the station, but he is clearly not one for goodbyes and she retreats when he doesn't respond to her admission that she is going to miss him.

She takes the Tube back to her flat and, as `Your Love's Whore' plays in the background, she returns to hugs at the office and the tricky task of getting back to normal. Meanwhile, as the credits roll, we see insert highlights of Wolf Alice's Americn tour, as they appear to go from strength to strength.

Despite the best efforts of the excellent Leah Harvey and the admirably low-key James McArdle, the fictional aspect of this rockumentary struggles to capture the imagination. The hints at backstory complexity are teasingly intriguing, while some of the disapproving looks that the roadies shoot Harvey as seizes the opportunity to showcase her own talent are telling, as is the fact she is the only non-white character on the tour. But Winterbottom, cinematographer James Clarke and editor Marc Richardson are primarily intent on conveying the punishing relentlessness of being a band on the road.

In truth, we learn little about Roswell, Oddie, Amey and Ellis, as they were either unwilling to divulge too much or Winterbottom felt his sham romance was more interesting. However, anyone coming fresh to the Grammy-nominated Wolf Alice will be mightily impressed by their neo-grungy sound and the dynamism of their shoegaze stage shows (despite the curious reluctance to show that much of them in full-song action). They will also be charmed by Harvey's soulful contributions to the soundtrack. But, one suspects, this is strictly one for Winterbottom completists and those hoping to relive a cherished experience or spot themselves in the concert footage.

With the weekly release schedule becoming increasingly cluttered with `event cinema' happenings, the lines between filmed and screened entertainment are narrowing. Following in the tradition of the Gale Edwards adaptation of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida that was recorded on the banks of Sydney Harbour, Kasper Holten's production of Georges Bizet's Carmen makes evocative use of the views of Lake Constance that can be seen from the Austrian town of Bregenz.

With musical directors Paolo Carignani and Jordan de Souza putting the Bregenz Festival Chorus, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra through their paces, Bizet's score and the libretto based on a Prosper Mérimée story by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy have rarely sounded better. But, what makes Felix Breisach's Carmen on the Lake unforgettable is the Seebühne, the 7000-seater floating auditorium that enables inspired British production designer Es Devlin to shatter the myth of `canned opera' being inferior to its live counterpart.

Following a rather vulgar showreel of previous productions at the Bregenz Festival, the action opens on a set made up of a giant pair of women's hands letting a pack of suspended playing cards fall where they may. In a square in Seville, the red-clad Carmen the gypsy (Gaëlle Arquez) reads some tarot cards and plants a kiss on the mouth of a street urchin who tries to steal her deck. As the guard comes on duty, they lounge around and people watch until Micaëla (Elena Tsallagova) hoves into sight in a green peasant dress searching for Don José (Daniel Johansson). The yellow-shirted Moralès (Rafael Fingerlos) attempts to flirt with her and invites her to spend some time with his unit. But she decides to wait inside until her beloved corporal comes on duty.

As the soldiers arrive in their black capes, the female workers emerge in their blue overalls from the cigarette factory for a break. As they wash with water from the lake, they sing about the intoxicating nature of tobacco smoke. But the guards are only interested in Carmen and she mocks them with the words of `Habanera', which warn any man who falls for her to beware. The factory girls disappear to start a new shift, leaving Micaëla (who has seen Carmen throw a flower at the disdainful José) to present him with a message from his mother and a kiss to protect him. He sends Micaëla home with an embrace for his mother, but he is distracted when Carmen (who has been watching his chaste tryst) comes charging out of the factory wielding a knife at a co-worker who has upset her.

The captain of the guard, Zuniga (Sebastien Soulès), is unimpressed when Carmen responds to his charging her by singing `tra-la-la' and mocking his authority. He goes to sign her warrant and orders José to tie Carmen's hands. But she entices him with a Seguidilla, in which she describes what she would do to the lucky man who takes her dancing at Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused, he unties her hands, only for Carmen to give him the slip and jumps into the lake to leave him to face the wrath of Zuniga, who has José arrested for dereliction of duty.

Act Two opens with the playing cards turning to show their values, as they form the bar owned by Lillas Pastia (Stefan Wallraven), where Carmen and her friends Frasquita (Jana Baumeister) and Mercédès (Marion Lebègue) are amusing themselves by taunting Zuniga and his pals. Carmen sings about the excitement of the night, while some of her co-workers dance with the soldiers on a platform covered with shallow water that splashes as they kick their legs. At one point, the women let their hair dangle in the lake so they can whip a cascade of water over their partners. But their reverie is interrupted by the arrival of Escamillo (Scott Hendricks), the great toreador, who sings of his triumphs in the bullring.

He also sets his sights on Carmen, but is interrupted in his turn by smugglers Dancaïre (Dariusz Perczak) and Remendado (Simeon Esper), who have come looking for Carmen, Mercédes and Frasquita because they have some contraband that needs shifting and it never does any harm to have a little female cunning on the strength. When Carmen announces that she is staying at the tavern because she is in love and has an assignation, the other josh her. But she seems pleased that José has completed his two-month sentence and offers him a private dance to show her affection.

As the water laps against the lower reaches of the stage, the playing cards behind them appear smudged, as Carmen gyrates on the floor and straddles the lovestruck José. But, when he hears the sound of the company bugle, he insists that he has to return to barracks or face another charge. Appalled by his decision to put duty before passion, Carmen ridicules him, even when he produces the flower she had tossed to him during their first meeting. She picks the petals, as he sings about how the rose has sustained him in prison.

But his pretty words cut no ice, as she will only believe that José loves her if he follows her into the mountains. He refuses to desert, but his protestations are cut short when Zuniga enters the inn looking for Carmen. Sneeringly, he sings that she should save her charms for officers not petty corporals and José becomes so enraged that they fight. They are prised apart by Remendado and Dancaïre and José realises that he will be severely punished if he returns to base after attacking a superior. So, when Zuniga is shot dead, he is left with no option but to follow Carmen and the brigands into hiding.

Following a bizarre intermission that ends with an interview with Es Devlin about her ideas for the set, Act Three opens with a top shot down on to the darkened stage that is lit only by small camp fires flickering in the stiffening breeze. Frasquita and Mercédès appear through the gloom and place large Tarot cards on a sloping edge, as they peer into the future to see whether they will find rich husbands. Carmen joins them and admits to fearing what the future will hold, as her younger self (Efsa Topol) walks across the stage during a rumination on unrealised dreams and the fact that the cards keep foretelling Death for both her and José.

High up in the left hand towering some 25 metres over the stage, Micaëla enters looking for José. She is convinced that Carmen will lead him to ruin and prays to God to protect her so that she can rescue José and return him to his village. A shot rings out and Micaëla is concerned for José. But he is on guard duty and is surprised to see Escamillo arrive by boat in their harbour hideaway. The toreador announces that he has come to claim Carmen because he has heard that she has grown tired of her soldier boy and José challenges the swaggering interloper to a knife fight.

Carmen halts the duel and Escamillo declares his love for her. However, they are interrupted when Micaëla is brought into the camp and she explains that she has come to tell José that his mother is dying and wishes to see him to patch up their differences. Initially, he is reluctant to leave, as he knows that Carmen will take up with Escamillo. But Dancaïre is eager to move out and José decides to go with Micaëla, even though Escamillo has invited everyone to a bullfight in Seville and swept Carmen into his arms because she craves excitement.

Soldiers and smugglers alike arrive at the bullring for the march of the toreadors and Escamillo enters the arena with Carmen at his side to an eruption of fireworks. She swears that she has never loved anyone so much and an eavesdropping José is devastated. Frasquita and Mercédès warn Carmen that José is looking for her, but she claims to be unafraid. As the cheers ring out from inside the arena, José confronts Carmen and pleads with her to give their relationship another chance. But she proclaims her love for Escamillo and a distraught José drowns her in the lake. As her red gown swells on the surface, the crowd pours out to witness José confessing to his crime and surrendering himself to justice.

Closing on a curtain call that involves conductor Paolo Carignani, as well as Kasper Holten and Es Devlin, this thrilling production will send many away in search of video records of previous Bregenz operas. Some might also hunt out their DVDs of Otto Preminger's 1954 film of Oscar Hammerstein II's brilliant interpretation of Bizet, Carmen Jones. But few will forget this breathtakingly innovative version in a hurry. Whether it should upstage the cast in quite so decisive a manner, Devlin's set is undoubtedly the star of the show, with Bruno Poet's lighting, Anja Vang Kragh's costumes and Luke Halls's clever video projections adding to the visual splendour that is forever being reinforced by the disappearing skyline and the lapping of small waves against the stage.

But Bizet's music retains its potency and French mezzo soprano Gaëlle Arquez makes a splendidly spirited and sensual Carmen, as she opts to die rather than sacrifice her freedom. Russian coloratura soprano Elena Tsallagova also impresses as the faithful Micaëla and it's noticeable that she receives a much louder cheer than either American baritone Scott Hendricks or Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson, who respectively lack a certain macho dash and doom-laden pathos as Escamillo and Don José. Clearly nothing can match seeing this vivacious production live and this is much more a documentary record than anything more ambitiously cinematic. Nevertheless, Felix Breisach's considered shifts between wide shots of the wonderful set and more intimate close-ups of the mic'd-up singers provide the next best thing.