Reviews

Hal Ashby's unsatisfactory Woody Guthrie biopic from 1976 uses a shovelful of sentiment to flatten out most of the bumps in Guthrie's life, but David Carradine contributes a glorious, low-key performance as the visionary legend who travelled his country throughout the Great Depression, singing for the beat-down folk and fighting off the Fascists. The real star, though, is Haskell Wexler's radiant dustbowl cinematography.

Since big brother Steve first recruited her to sing backing on 1991's The Hard Way, Stacey Earle's gradual career curve has included two unadorned solo albums (1999's Simple Gearle and 2000's Dancin' With Them That Brung Me) before finally sharing centre stage with 'im indoors, Mark Stuart, on 2001's Must Be Live. This new offering is simply the best thing either have ever done. Stuart's classic country voice meshes with Earle's honeyed purr superbly, but it's the bold instrumentation that truly glows.

Athens, Georgia white-trash rapper's improbably fine return

Enjoyably unhinged debut from club promoters/DJs turned recording artists

No time for rest in Godspeed's Montreal enclave, as the collective's myriad spin-offs continue to fight the capitalist hegemony with sad tunes and very long titles. Mt Zion are ostensibly the pop wing, adding vocals from guitarist Efrim and—new here—a massed choir to the usual thicket of slow guitars and chamber strings. It's debatable how necessary his croak is, since Godspeed's great gift is to disseminate radical politics by musical implication rather than explicit polemic.

Potent shoegazing electronica from Antibes, France

Greatest and not so great hits from techno pioneers

This month's disappointing Wu cash-in

Postcard from Tajikistan

The fundamental tension here isn't whether bipolar salesman Barry (Adam Sandler) will end up with doe-eyed English executive Lena (Emily Watson). No, the question here is one of authorship. At a snappy 97 minutes, detailing Sandler's eccentric but essentially loveable dufus, his explosive temper and wacky air-miles scam, it fits neatly into the Sandler lineage. Yet, with Sandler's broader antics leavened by long tracking shots and static arthouse takes, the film is recognisably the work of pop-auteur Paul Thomas Anderson.