Reviews

Slick, entertaining debut from first-time director George Clooney, working from a typically off-beat Charlie Kaufman screenplay. The often irritating Sam Rockwell is outstanding here as trash TV pioneer Chuck Barris, who's either an arch-fantasist or the oddest CIA hitman ever.

Fairly dismal sequel to True Grit, with John Wayne reprising his Oscar-winning turn as the titular one-eyed US Marshal, teamed here with prissy spinster Katharine Hepburn who's out to avenge her father's murder. The stars are no more than passable, the movie wholly unremarkable.

Thanks to the star guests on albums such as The Healer and Mr Lucky, John Lee Hooker sold more records in the final decade of his life than he had in the previous 40 years. Face To Face was in the making when he died in 2001, and includes collaborations with Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Canned Heat, George Thorogood and Van Morrison. The delay in its release suggests a certain posthumous touching-up was required, and his voice was clearly in decline.

Life-affirming swan song from Carter Family matriarch

The late Tupac Shakur won't lie down, or be allowed to. This documentary (just released in the US) is struggling to get a UK release, but the album's an impressive mix of grave-robbing and creative necrophilia. Over a foundation of greatest hits, there are three new tracks. Eminem produces "Runnin' (Dying To Live)", which fuses 2Pac and Biggle, while the 8 Mile animal himself raps on "One Day At A Time".

Shambling indie pop may be rather passé these days, but The Pastels have skilfully rebranded themselves and their associates as something akin to naïve artists. Central to this endeavour are Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a sprawling Japanese group who record for the Pastels' Geographic imprint and who pivot on Tori Kudo, a potter and former terrorist currently operating as a kind of whimsical Sun Ra. Recorded in East Kilbride, Blues Du Jour captures Kudo's haphazard troupe at their most accessible and endearing.

Roll over Jack Nitzsche and tell Bill Medley the news. Two dozen quality excursions into Echo Chamber Music

The shoegazing revival starts here. Apparently

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 102 MINS Ann (Sarah Polley) is 23 and works as a night cleaner. She lives in a trailer home in her mother's backyard, along with two young daughters and an unemployed husband. She also, it turns out, has inoperable cancer, and a matter of months to live. And while on paper that might sound like Terms Of Endearment on a budget, this beautifully judged Canadian picture (produced by Pedro and Agustin Almodóvar) couldn't be further from the mawkishness of a Hollywood weepy. What lifts the film is the powerful, dignified performance from Polley.

Acclaimed Danish film-makers do battle