Reviews

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

In June 1988, Depeche Mode took their stadium techno roadshow to ground-breaking heights by filling the 65,000-capacity Pasadena Rose Bowl near LA. Captured by the legendary rock-doc maestro DA Pennebaker and his long-term partner Chris Hegedus, the show became a fine concert film, incorporating reality TV-style coverage of fans travelling to the gig. Repackaged with extra footage, audio commentaries and updated interviews, it's a handsome historical record of Wagnerian electro-pop and hair gel abuse.

Truly wonderful Japanese black comedy about a nice family who open a quiet B&B in the mountains, only to watch all their guests accidentally perish in increasingly macabre ways. Utterly barking stuff, this has something for everyone—surreal musical numbers with dancing zombies, claymation sequences and an exploding volcano! With movies like this around, who needs drugs?

Press faves deliver diamond-hard art-pop

Breathtaking third album from Brixton house heroes. Mad, actually

First new recordings from the 'Lab since tragic death of Mary Hansen last year

Business as usual for loveable Luddite

Partial return to form from Afghan Whigs lynchpin Greg Dulli

Two-disc, 30-track retrospective of enigmatic solo artist's hits and rarities