Reviews

Le Mans

The nominal director is Lee H Katzin, but this was entirely Steve McQueen's project. Starring and driving, his 1971 film about the famous 24-hour race was his obsession, and he was in a strange place when he made it, his paranoid quest for perfection reflected in the extraordinary cinematography of motors in motion. Barely any plot, it's all wheels, speed and engine noise. Less a movie than a machine.

The Quiet American

Brendan Fraser is an American aid worker in Vietnam who just might be masterminding a US-backed anticommunist coup while seducing Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), the classically demure oriental lover of cynical British hack Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine). An intriguing, morally muddy adaptation of Graham Greene via director Philip Noyce.

This Month In Americana

"Songs of murder, mob law and cruel, cruel punishment" get the once-over

Enon – Hocus Pocus

NY's nerdiest are smarter than The Strokes

Dot

A Derbyshire-bred, Manchester-based group formerly known as the Dakota Oak Trio. DOT loiter pleasantly at the dewy, bucolic end of post-rock. Fridge are, perhaps, their closest contemporaries. And just as Kieran "Four Tet" Hebden's solo output outshines his work with Fridge, there's a sense DOT's Dave Tyack and James "Pedro" Rutledge make much better records on their own. Plenty of ramshackle virtuosity, crafty folktronica hybrids and limp singing amongst these 10 tracks, but the earth remains resolutely unshattered.

Loudon Wainwright – So Damn Happy

Live follow-up to 2001's Last Man On Earth with all-star band

Finley Quaye – Much More Than Much Love

Six years and three albums later, FQ is still one big enigma

Love Unlimited

Eighty-three examples of Stephin Merritt's pop art from 99/2000

Status Quo

Well-presented, bonus-heavy reissues-if only Quo were worth it

El Bonaerense

Naturalistic take on bent policing Buenos Aires-style
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