Reviews

Many are now admitting that the title may have been the funniest thing about Christopher Guest's latest piss-take of the earnest. Problem being that its chosen genre of cheesy '60s folk is barely remembered in the UK: Dylan and co presumably blew away the artists Guest is targeting. Also, he clearly nurtures an affection for these nerds.

They're comprised of Chris Abrahams (keyboards), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Tony Buck (drums), and have been in existence on and off since 1987. You might think "jazz trio", but this remarkable group goes far beyond that. Their methodology is to improvise slowly on and gradually develop melodic and rhythmic motifs.

Ardent art-rockers with a preacher's conviction

Two original Mercury LPs from '60s one-hit wonder. But what a hit

Timely reissue on Aphex Twin's label

Efficient tale of fractured family set in the Old West.

The American newspaper heiress' kidnapping and brainwashing by the self-styled urban revolutionaries of the Symbionese Liberation Army, as retold by Paul Schrader. In the title role, Natasha Richardson goes through the trauma with committed desperation, but, despite being based on Hearst's own memoir, you never feel any closer to her, even if Schrader's film is often as claustrophobic as the cupboard in which she was imprisoned for 50 days.

Eleven years after his original expressionist classic, Dr Mabuse The Gambler, this 1933 sequel from Fritz Lang, banned by the Nazis for its political undertones (Mabuse/Hitler parallels), follows the titular crime lord's activities from beyond the grave, and features the original Lynchian'creepy velvet curtain' scene, plus one of cinema's first breakneck POV car chases.

Dour, long-winded erotic thriller, directed by Jane Campion like her favourite recent films have all been made by Joel Schumacher. Meg Ryan, apparently auditioning for a re-make of Klute, is the New York teacher shagging Mark Ruffalo's homicide cop who she begins to suspect is a serial killer. Bollocks, frankly.

This Chicagoan is unique in being an astonishing violin virtuoso devoting himself almost entirely to pop music. Founding Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire in the mid-'90s, his best work (2001's The Swimming Hour) takes in Appalachia, jump-blues and orch-pop in a flash-flood of American tradition. With Mark (Lambchop) Nevers producing, Weather Systems distills that same musical heritage into a new, supple-fresh language of strings, glockenspiel, wurlitzer and tape loops.