Reviews

Frank Capra's festive classic is one of those rare standards which not only lives up to its rep but reveals new treasures on every viewing. James Stewart is forlorn George Bailey, who thinks life just isn't worth living, 'til it's revealed to him how meaningful his meaningless existence really is. Containing more snow than a TV presenter's nostril, it'll melt even the frostiest among you.

Dennis Hopper got an Oscar for his supporting role to Gene Hackman's high-school basketball coach in David Anspaugh's heart-tugging 1986 tale of sport-equals-life heroics. This was based on a real basketball comeback fight in '50s Indiana and released as Hoosiers in the US. Aptly enough, Hopper was fresh back from his own decade-long trip through chemical hell at the time. Sentimental slush, but redeemed by a knockout cast of veteran heavyweights.

First studio album in 10 years from top pop-goths

"Strawberry Letter 23" psychedelic soul boy wonder turns '70s session man

Crafty tunesmith puts Springsteen in his place

The "In The Fish Tank" series is the brainchild of Dutch label Konkurrent. The concept is straightforward.

Also released this month...

Double retrospective featuring rarities/outtakes disc

Full-scale album reissue programme of Sheffield electronicists' 1979-82 output, before they signed to a major label

DIRECTED BY David Cronenberg STARRING Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave Opens January 3, Cert 15, 99 mins Over the years, with films like Rabid, Videodrome, Crash and eXistenZ, we've come to expect eerie, special-effects-laden, futuristic horror fare from David Cronenberg. His latest is a sinister but understated study of a schizophrenic (Ralph Fiennes) known only by his childhood nickname of Spider. The film opens in the 1980s with Spider checking into a grim halfway house in a run-down area of east London after 20 years in psychiatric care.