Reviews

Stadium punk from ambitious LA quartet

Japanese import, recorded in Tokyo last November

Rare unplugged outing for leading Chicago bluesman

Gorgeous, ethereal folk, recommended to Uncut by Devendra Banhart

Excellent debut in style of Hartley or Labute

Insane collision of thriller and farce, with a kidnapping plot played at volume 11 and cast by a person on amyl. Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love are the bad couple, Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend the goodies. Charlize attacks Kev with a scalpel hidden down her knickers, but is still less raving bonkers than Courtney. Gloriously dreadful.

Terry Gilliam's epic 1991 fable has both admirers and detractors: it now seems ambitious, unique and charming. The superb Jeff Bridges is a burned-out DJ who's at first irritated then revitalised by oddball visionary tramp Robin Williams and his hallucinatory Arthurian quests. The latter's hyper-babbling (like the director's flourishes) holds because Bridges is so magnificently solid and believable.

Cracking old-school account of the Norwegian resistance's WWII attempts to destroy the Nazi factory responsible for developing Germany's atom bomb. Rousingly directed by Anthony Mann with the visual sweep typical of all his later productions (EI Cid, the first hour of Spartacus). Watch out for the curious sight of Kirk Douglas, in his prime here, acting brooding hambone Richard Harris off the screen.

Belfast cowboy hitches his wagon to legendary jazz label

More cabaret from non-stop electro-neurotics