Ill Manors (stylised as ill Manors) is a 2012 British crime drama film written and directed by Ben Drew, also known as Plan B. The film, which is set in Forest Gate, London, revolves around the lives of eight main characters, played by Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Keith Coggins, Lee Allen, Nick Sagar, Ryan De La Cruz, Anouska Mond and Natalie Press, and features six original songs by Plan B, which act as a narration for the film.

Includes original film score by Antonio Pinto and classic Amy Winehouse tracks.

Ennio Morricone has scored over 500 films, and as he himself says in the brief liner notes, only 30 of them were Westerns. He's unlikely to ever shake the legacy of spaghetti Western scores that first brought him wide attention in the States, but it is nice to see a collection that broadens the scope of his work a bit. Morricone High picks the best moments from a handful of European films that the composer scored from 1969 to 1971 in a number of genres, none of them Westerns either. It manages to retain all of the tension that made his best known work so great and captivating, while adding more of the mod and psychedelic elements that were fermenting in the greater cultural brew of the times. Breezy, romantic mod as heard on the brittle Morricone High opener "Excuse Me, Let's Make Love?" and the more straightforward "Take Me Now," both tunes that will sit well with fans of the Free Design and Serge Gainsbourg. They also bring attention to one of Morricone's greatest signatures, the wordless vocals (often voiced by one of his chief muses, Edda Dell'Orso) anchoring his subtle, rich arrangements that rode shotgun. It can be heard again on the relaxed, introspective "A Lidia" and the orchestral pop psych of "La Bamola." Psychedelic music takes many shades in Morricone's work, from the obvious charge of fuzz wah-wah guitar in the go-go number "Allegretto per Signora" to the icy, tense harpsichord and cascading chimes of "Astratto 1" (aka "Abstract 1," why some of these titles are translated and others not isn't clear) and "Le Fotographie." Clearly there's a lot going on in this little collection! It's a tastefully selected introduction to Morricone's non-Western soundtracks that doesn't overlap with any of the other established winners in that field. With so many Morricone scores yet to be pillaged, this should be the first in a very long line of Morricone Highs. ~ Wade Kergan

Roman Polanski's telling of famed Polish composer-pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's survival in the Nazi-controlled Warsaw ghetto can't help but be infused with the director's deepest passions: he himself escaped the Krakw ghetto as a boy of 7. The musician's status as a musical hero to the oppressed Polish Jews of World War II was surpassed only by that of Chopin, the composer who was at the core of Szpilman's repertoire. Thus this score revolves tightly around Chopin's music, with modern Polish pianist Janusz Olejniczak paying passionate homage to both his musical and national forebears, the haunting strains of the Nocturne in C-sharp Minor setting the film's historical and dramatic tone. The underscore of previous Polanski collaborator Wojciech Kilar (The Ninth Gate, Death and the Maiden) is represented here by the soulful "Moving to the Ghetto," a cue that helps anchor the soundtrack's troubling time and place with understated grace. The collection concludes with a rare, remastered performance of Chopin's Mazurka Op. 17, No.4 by Szpilman himself, recorded in Warsaw in 1948. --Jerry McCulley