Reviews

Sixteen years after The Smiths, Johnny Guitar goes solo

Nostalgia overload for the School Disco crowd

Re-release of classic krautrock albums with bonus tracks

Seattle rockers' first and fifth albums reissued at mid-price

Extraordinary, inspired madness from the Being John Malkovich team

Almost Famous meets Thelma & Louise

It's tempting to see Pedro Almodóvar's career as one steady progression from early Warholian kitsch like Pepi, Luci, Bom to recent audience-pleasing, Oscar-winning standouts like All About My Mother. If so, then the breathtaking Talk To Her is easily his career apogee and deftly confirms his status as one of the world's foremost filmmakers.

In a small Arizona town a toxic waste dump creates a plague of hundreds of giant spiders. Cue mass destruction and enormous fun, since the SFX are first-rate, the cast (led by David Arquette) is solid and the script strikes the right balance between laughs and twitch-inducing 'arach-attacks'. The best giant bug movie for decades. DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, commentary, deleted scenes, plus Larger Than Life—director Ellory Elkayem's first award-winning short horror film. (PH)

Stunningly beautiful and utterly bizarre Japanese fable about a medieval Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa), renowned as a female impersonator, who carries his on-stage portrayal of a woman out into the world in order to seduce and murder the noblemen responsible for his parents' death. The direction is haphazard, the imagery is amazing. DVD EXTRAS: Director's biography, web link.

Fine post-September 11 release by Anglo-Dutch psychedelicists