Reviews

Ace addition to budget soundclash series

Scorsese's much-anticipated, brutal epic blazes beautifully across the screen

Hackneyed, supernatural horror yarn

Steve Martin is dentist Robert Sangster trapped in a too safe relationship with his hygienist (Laura Dern). When he takes a walk on the wild side with drug-dealing patient Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter), Sangster's pharmaceutical supplies are pilfered and Ivey's psychopathic brother and the police send his life into tailspin. A laboured attempt to reinvigorate an increasingly tired-looking Martin.

Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer are the short order cook and waitress in a New York diner in Garry Marshall's romantic drama. The stars ensure that it's at least watchable, but the chemistry between them is nowhere near as intense as it was in Scarface, a few years earlier.

New instalment of 'alt.folk soap opera'

Budget-priced 14-track compilation by Kid 606-style avant-techno types

After the steamy funk of Boogie Nights and the Aimee Mann tearjerkers of Magnolia, PT Anderson's new film basks in heady strings and wonky harmoniums, scored by regular collaborator Jon Brion. It's deliberately dizzying and disorientating, and not always pleasurable. But the borrowing of Nilsson's "He Needs Me" from Altman's Popeye, sung with sugary desire by Shelley Duvall, is inspired. Waiting to interview Anderson in a hotel lobby recently, I congratulated Emily Watson on her singing of this. It's the only thing I've ever said to Emily Watson.

Radio-friendly Norwegian beat mavericks raised on R.E.M. and Teenage Fanclub

New digital version with no shortage of bonuses