Reviews

People I Know

Pacino is electric in this shamefully overlooked, brilliantly scripted parable of an ageing New York PR man reaching the end of his tether. Footage of the Twin Towers meant its release was screwed up by cuts, but a charged, engrossing film remains, with druggie starlet Téa Leoni and 'good' woman Kim Basinger adding to the heat Al's getting from his health, clients and politicians. No one does stressed like Al: a neglected gem.

Bright Young Things

Stephen Fry adapts Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies as a rom-com. Great cast of luvvies (notably Peter O'Toole), but the central romance between Emily Mortimer and Stephen Campbell Moore evokes no more sympathy than the endless parade of aristocratic jazz babies subsisting on champagne and "naughty salt". A lively mess.

A Little Night Music

David Lynch's subversive classic stands the test of time

50 Foot Wave

That'll be Kristin Hersh, rocking, quite literally, like a mother...

Second album from ubiquitous production unit The Neptunes

Various Artists – Anticon Label Sampler: 1999-2004

Cliche-free avant word-hop from the Bay Area's finest

Lee Hazlewood – Poet, Fool Or Bum

Lopsided twofer

David Essex

The East End boy's entire CBS output remastered and reintroduced to a world perhaps now ready for it

The Company

An Altman disappointment

Game Over: Kasparov And The Machine

This documentary about chess grand master Gary Kasparov's duel against IBM computer Deep Blue, in which man was eventually ground down by machine, appears sympathetic to Kasparov's suggestion that IBM cheated, though there appears to be scant hard evidence to support his claim. Kasparov comes across as vain and arrogant and, while this film manages to bring a certain tension to the game, you find yourself pulling for the machine.
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