Reviews

Robbie Robertson – Classic Masters

Former Band leader pays tribute to his native Mohawk and Iroquois roots

Trumans Water – You Are In The Line Of Fire And They Are Shooting At You

Comeback for '90s freeform indie-rockers

Fort Lauderdale – Pretty Monster

The Squire Of Somerton and The Black Neon are back

Daryl Hall – Can’t Stop Dreaming

US-only album from '96 gets UK release

Rob Dougan – Furious Angels

Reissue of last year's deepest pop record, plus extra disc of remixes

Various Artists – Sound System Rockers: Kingston Town 1969-1975

Golden age of Bunny Lee-tinged rockers make perfect hot weather music

Cypher

Labyrinthine, highly original sci-fi thriller

Heaven

Miraculous, much underrated adaptation of posthumous Kieslowski screenplay by Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer. Cate Blanchett is a British teacher in Turin who, as an act of vengeance, becomes an unlikely terrorist. Young policeman Giovanni Ribisi falls in love and joins her on the run, but it's more about magic realism and haunting, luminous beauty.

The Rules Of Attraction

Prompting both genuflections at its breakneck brilliance and gasps at its gung-ho grisliness, Roger Avary's comeback has been a startling opinion-divider. Fans of the Bret Easton Ellis novel will relish the former Tarantino sidekick's fidelity to the blank immorality of the prose, yet the movie bursts with visual ideas. James Van Der Beek is fearlessly irredeemable as Sean Bateman (younger brother of the American Psycho), flailing across campus, gobbling up narcotics, rock'n'roll (it has a great soundtrack), girls, boys, suicides, whatever.

The Color Purple

Lengthy adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about poor black folk in Georgia during the first half of the 20th century was Spielberg's first 'serious' film. The territory is admittedly dark (incest, domestic violence) and, despite its faults, it succeeds thanks to visual skill and a sterling cast led by Whoopi Goldberg.
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