Reviews

Overdue reappraisal of bluegrass' wildest old buck

Rare recordings from '60s English troubadour

Oddball Spanish psycho-tedium

Iranian teen's promising debut

Slow-moving account of the events leading up to the execution of King Charles I (Rupert Everett) and its aftermath, focusing on the stormy friendship of rebel leaders Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth) and General Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott). Despite lavish period detail, a good supporting cast and an excellent performance from Everett, the leaden and historically dubious script renders this duller than the driest of documentaries.

Paul Giamatti, a character actor who's embodied a host of losers and creeps, always merited a lead role, and was surely born to play Harvey Pekar, the grumpy but ultimately likeable (not lovable) hospital clerk who finds a means of expression through his comic books/graphic novels. Inspired by friend Robert Crumb (and this is a superior film to the 1994 documentary Crumb), our obsessive-compulsive antihero depicts and ponders the mundane and everyday through his work, and the world and his wife relate.

The original grunge-pop heroes' '88 tour footage plus essential documentaries

Eighth LP from north country boys, recorded in 10 days

Big beat entrepreneurs uncover alt.country gem

The good doctor uncovers sprawling, mysterious history of his native city