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Mark Eric – A Midsummer’s Day Dream

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Californian Mark Eric Malmborg's dream came true the day he attended the taping of the Beach Boys' appearance on The Andy Williams Show, witnessing Brian Wilson furiously composing a tune that was to become "Little Girl I Once Knew". A career in TV (he was a frequent bit-part actor in The Partridge Family) and music followed, with sadly only one album and a few singles being released. Completely self-written, these soft, low-key pop songs are built around tricky chord changes, and have symphonic arrangements and emotionally charged lyrics. Available on CD for the first time, the original album is augmented by four further compositions and four 45 mono mixes.

Californian Mark Eric Malmborg’s dream came true the day he attended the taping of the Beach Boys’ appearance on The Andy Williams Show, witnessing Brian Wilson furiously composing a tune that was to become “Little Girl I Once Knew”. A career in TV (he was a frequent bit-part actor in The Partridge Family) and music followed, with sadly only one album and a few singles being released. Completely self-written, these soft, low-key pop songs are built around tricky chord changes, and have symphonic arrangements and emotionally charged lyrics. Available on CD for the first time, the original album is augmented by four further compositions and four 45 mono mixes.

Will Sergeant – Weird As Fish

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Before he joined forces with Ian McCulloch and a drum machine called Echo, the young Will Sergeant was making his own two-track instrumental recordings at home. And here they are?rough around the edges, often evocative of Bowie's Low but pretty bloody ahead of their time for the late '70s (even today they sound like the radical calling cards of a guitar innovator aching to join a truly great band). As an extra we've also Sergeant's spooky, Doors-like soundtrack to the 1982 Bunnymen tour film Le Via Luonge. Visit www.ochre.co.uk for mail order.

Before he joined forces with Ian McCulloch and a drum machine called Echo, the young Will Sergeant was making his own two-track instrumental recordings at home. And here they are?rough around the edges, often evocative of Bowie’s Low but pretty bloody ahead of their time for the late ’70s (even today they sound like the radical calling cards of a guitar innovator aching to join a truly great band). As an extra we’ve also Sergeant’s spooky, Doors-like soundtrack to the 1982 Bunnymen tour film Le Via Luonge. Visit www.ochre.co.uk for mail order.

Flowing Muses

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Having been groomed for pop stardom by Mickie Most and then almost securing a gig in Led Zeppelin over Robert Plant, by the early '70s Terry Reid's career was drifting without a rudder. Then out of nowhere he released River. Virtually ignored when it appeared in 1973, I was one of the tiny handful ...

Having been groomed for pop stardom by Mickie Most and then almost securing a gig in Led Zeppelin over Robert Plant, by the early ’70s Terry Reid’s career was drifting without a rudder. Then out of nowhere he released River.

Virtually ignored when it appeared in 1973, I was one of the tiny handful of people who bought it. At the time, my favourite albums were Tim Buckley’s Happy Sad, David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. Life was a constant search for other records with the same stoned, fluid, jazzy quality and there wasn’t much of it about. In British rock, it was virtually non-existent.

Mighty Baby had hinted at it (check out their wonderful jam, “There’s A Blanket In My Muesli”, on the long unavailable triple vinyl album from the 1971 Glastonbury Festival). Traffic got halfway there on tracks such as “The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys”.

But, basically, you had to look west?and specifically to southern California. Which was exactly what Reid did. At 23 and with a failed pop career behind him, he relocated to the West Coast, signed to Atlantic and, working with the late Tom Dowd, recorded River. Musically, it’s extraordinary. David Lindley?of blessed Kaleidoscope memory?plays magnificent languid and laidback guitar lines. Reid’s vocals meander and caress their way through the shimmering jazz-folk abstractions, deconstructing his words so that the voice becomes a vehicle of pure sound

Denny And The Gents

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WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS Rating Star UNHALFBRICKING Rating Star POLYDOR/UNIVERSAL No one did more than Fairport to loosen English folk from its traditional moorings. In the late '60s, they were almost solely responsible (Pentangle were up there, too) for removing fingers from ears and acting as a hothouse for folk's rising stars. The most remarkable feature of these pre-Liege & Lief reissues (each coming with bonus tracks) is how little they've dated. In particular, 1968's eponymous debut, too often dismissed as inferior, is a startlingly assured eclectic treasure. The twin vocal pairing of Ian Matthews MacDonald and Judy Dyble (later of Matthews Southern Comfort and Giles, Giles & Fripp respectively) inevitably drew comparisons with West Coast counterparts Jefferson Airplane, while its mixture of covers and originals pooled from influences as far afield as Coltrane, Ewan MacColl, The Byrds and, most prominently, Dylan are psychedelicised by Richard Thompson's acid guitar licks. By 1969's What We Did On Our Holidays, Dyble had been replaced by mercurial ex-Strawbs singer Sandy Denny, arguably the greatest female voice these isles have produced. Again drawing from blues, rock, cajun and folk, it successfully seeded perennial classics ("Fotheringay", "Meet On The Ledge") alongside more Dylan and Joni Mitchell retreads. The same year's Unhalfbricking was a revelation, unique from its cover sleeve (Denny's parents in perfect Middle England repose outside their Wimbledon home) to its streamlining of folk roots with electric rock. Inspired by The Band's recent tapping of all things earth, Music From Big Pink, its standout track remains the revolutionary reappraisal of trad staple "A Sailor's Life", electrifying folk music forever and, though follow-up Liege & Lief was their radical zenith, never bettered before or since.

WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS

Rating Star

UNHALFBRICKING

Rating Star

POLYDOR/UNIVERSAL

No one did more than Fairport to loosen English folk from its traditional moorings. In the late ’60s, they were almost solely responsible (Pentangle were up there, too) for removing fingers from ears and acting as a hothouse for folk’s rising stars.

The most remarkable feature of these pre-Liege & Lief reissues (each coming with bonus tracks) is how little they’ve dated. In particular, 1968’s eponymous debut, too often dismissed as inferior, is a startlingly assured eclectic treasure. The twin vocal pairing of Ian Matthews MacDonald and Judy Dyble (later of Matthews Southern Comfort and Giles, Giles & Fripp respectively) inevitably drew comparisons with West Coast counterparts Jefferson Airplane, while its mixture of covers and originals pooled from influences as far afield as Coltrane, Ewan MacColl, The Byrds and, most prominently, Dylan are psychedelicised by Richard Thompson’s acid guitar licks.

By 1969’s What We Did On Our Holidays, Dyble had been replaced by mercurial ex-Strawbs singer Sandy Denny, arguably the greatest female voice these isles have produced. Again drawing from blues, rock, cajun and folk, it successfully seeded perennial classics (“Fotheringay”, “Meet On The Ledge”) alongside more Dylan and Joni Mitchell retreads.

The same year’s Unhalfbricking was a revelation, unique from its cover sleeve (Denny’s parents in perfect Middle England repose outside their Wimbledon home) to its streamlining of folk roots with electric rock. Inspired by The Band’s recent tapping of all things earth, Music From Big Pink, its standout track remains the revolutionary reappraisal of trad staple “A Sailor’s Life”, electrifying folk music forever and, though follow-up Liege & Lief was their radical zenith, never bettered before or since.

Alan Lomax – American Folk-Blues Train

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Working in conjunction with his father John, Alan Lomax helped build the Archive Of Folk Song for the American Library Of Congress. Using portable equipment, Lomax was able to tour America recording folk, blues and gospel performers. Three classic albums are presented here?Blues In The Mississippi ...

Working in conjunction with his father John, Alan Lomax helped build the Archive Of Folk Song for the American Library Of Congress. Using portable equipment, Lomax was able to tour America recording folk, blues and gospel performers.

Three classic albums are presented here?Blues In The Mississippi Night, largely based around Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim and “Sonny Boy” Williamson; a collection of impassioned chain-gang work songs called Murderers Home; and American Song Train Volume One, recorded in England by Lomax Jr and other American

Mott The Hoople – The Best Of Mott The Hoople

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Though they were one of the UK's best live bands, Mott The Hoople were on the verge of breaking up when Bowie-penned glam-rock anthem "All The Young Dudes" revitalised their career and creative energies. This second phase of their career, expertly documented here, found their blend of rock energy and Bob Dylan/Lou Reed-inspired songwriting at its sharpest. With nods to everyone from Chuck Berry to Phil Spector, they nevertheless managed a distinctly British sound that transcended most anything else in the mid-'70s glam milieu.

Though they were one of the UK’s best live bands, Mott The Hoople were on the verge of breaking up when Bowie-penned glam-rock anthem “All The Young Dudes” revitalised their career and creative energies. This second phase of their career, expertly documented here, found their blend of rock energy and Bob Dylan/Lou Reed-inspired songwriting at its sharpest.

With nods to everyone from Chuck Berry to Phil Spector, they nevertheless managed a distinctly British sound that transcended most anything else in the mid-’70s glam milieu.

Spirit – The Best Of Spirit

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Despite never achieving the star status of The Grateful Dead. The Doors or Jefferson Airplane, Spirit were fully as innovative and powerful as any of their '60s California peers. This collection was already essential when released in its original form in the 1970s. With snazzy remastering and several additional cuts, it's all the more enticing. Their tasteful, blues-influenced psychedelic guitar, jazz-tinged keyboards and percussion, and finely honed pop-rock songcraft made for one of the most idiosyncratic and rewarding sounds of the decade. And this compilation manages to nail many of Randy California and co's numerous high points.

Despite never achieving the star status of The Grateful Dead. The Doors or Jefferson Airplane, Spirit were fully as innovative and powerful as any of their ’60s California peers.

This collection was already essential when released in its original form in the 1970s. With snazzy remastering and several additional cuts, it’s all the more enticing. Their tasteful, blues-influenced psychedelic guitar, jazz-tinged keyboards and percussion, and finely honed pop-rock songcraft made for one of the most idiosyncratic and rewarding sounds of the decade. And this compilation manages to nail many of Randy California and co’s numerous high points.

Funkadelic

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THE ELECTRIC SPANKING OF WAR BABIES Rating Star CHARLY President George Clinton's early forays into post-James Brown global groove were an ear-and eye-opener. Funny, flamboyant, and with all systems set to total funk freakout, Clinton's psychedelicatessen served up the grooves with side orders of jam and ham that even the Godfather of Soul couldn't better. Assisted by specialists like Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Gary Shider, on the cosmic disco record One Nation...(1978) and satirical party album Electric Spanking...(1981) Clinton effectively posed the question, "Who Says A Funk Band Can't Play Rock?" and spanked audiences into submission while they pondered the answer. And, yes, he definitely inhaled.

THE ELECTRIC SPANKING OF WAR BABIES

Rating Star

CHARLY

President George Clinton’s early forays into post-James Brown global groove were an ear-and eye-opener. Funny, flamboyant, and with all systems set to total funk freakout, Clinton’s psychedelicatessen served up the grooves with side orders of jam and ham that even the Godfather of Soul couldn’t better. Assisted by specialists like Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Gary Shider, on the cosmic disco record One Nation…(1978) and satirical party album Electric Spanking…(1981) Clinton effectively posed the question, “Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?” and spanked audiences into submission while they pondered the answer. And, yes, he definitely inhaled.

Plaid – Parts In The Post

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Often overlooked on the illustrious Warp roster, Andy Turner and Ed Handley have been making similarly involving electronica since their days in Black Dog a decade ago. Like the recent Aphex Twin compilation, Parts In The Post is a handy summary of how they've applied their aesthetic to clients incl...

Often overlooked on the illustrious Warp roster, Andy Turner and Ed Handley have been making similarly involving electronica since their days in Black Dog a decade ago. Like the recent Aphex Twin compilation, Parts In The Post is a handy summary of how they’ve applied their aesthetic to clients including UNKLE, Matthew Herbert, Grandmaster Flash and the patron saint of this sort of thing, Bj

Various Artists – Everything Is Ending Here: A Tribute To Pavement

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Much loved and much missed, Pavement are also much to blame for the kind of underachieving provincial indie purveyors who have turned out here to pay homage. "Here" being the operative word, since three of its three dozen covers are of that self-same lugubrious diamond from 1992's Slanted And Enchanted (as handled by Lunchbox, Number One Cup and star attractions Tindersticks). Future Pilot AKA's "Range Life", in Japanese, is a rare novelty among the prevailing mood of faithful worship, enjoyable though this is.

Much loved and much missed, Pavement are also much to blame for the kind of underachieving provincial indie purveyors who have turned out here to pay homage. “Here” being the operative word, since three of its three dozen covers are of that self-same lugubrious diamond from 1992’s Slanted And Enchanted (as handled by Lunchbox, Number One Cup and star attractions Tindersticks). Future Pilot AKA’s “Range Life”, in Japanese, is a rare novelty among the prevailing mood of faithful worship, enjoyable though this is.

The Moldy Peaches – Unreleased Cutz & Live Jamz

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This two-CD set begins with a homemade, twangy hip hop pastiche and ends, 50-odd bootleg concert recordings later, with a rejected jingle for stuffed-crust pizzas. As geeky and crude as you'd expect from the twisted minds of Kimya Dawson and Adam Green, both in content and quality, yet from numbskull covers of The Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" and The Grateful Dead's "Friend Of The Devil" to their own "Rainbows" (with its barely repeatable lyric about shitting in a condom), this is compulsively grotesque.

This two-CD set begins with a homemade, twangy hip hop pastiche and ends, 50-odd bootleg concert recordings later, with a rejected jingle for stuffed-crust pizzas. As geeky and crude as you’d expect from the twisted minds of Kimya Dawson and Adam Green, both in content and quality, yet from numbskull covers of The Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes” and The Grateful Dead’s “Friend Of The Devil” to their own “Rainbows” (with its barely repeatable lyric about shitting in a condom), this is compulsively grotesque.

The Pretty Things

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SAVAGE EYE Rating Star CROSS TALK Rating Star SNAPPER The last tranche of three gold disc re-releases of Pretty Things albums opens with Silk Torpedo (1974) and Savage Eye (1976), two of their better efforts. That said, neither are outstanding pieces of work, marred by too many anonymous rock-outs and not enough attention to the genuinely creative ideas which crop up along the way. Pretty Things fans, who are the target audience for this series of reissues, will be pleased as usual by the wealth of sleevenotes and illustrations.

SAVAGE EYE

Rating Star

CROSS TALK

Rating Star

SNAPPER

The last tranche of three gold disc re-releases of Pretty Things albums opens with Silk Torpedo (1974) and Savage Eye (1976), two of their better efforts. That said, neither are outstanding pieces of work, marred by too many anonymous rock-outs and not enough attention to the genuinely creative ideas which crop up along the way. Pretty Things fans, who are the target audience for this series of reissues, will be pleased as usual by the wealth of sleevenotes and illustrations.

Status Quo – Pictures Of Matchstick Men

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Since it became apparent that Liam Gallagher's collaboration with Death In Vegas on "Scorpio Rising" owed no small debt to the old Quo's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men", they had to give them a writing credit. You can hear the original again, plus minor classics like "Ice In The Sun" and "Down The Dustpipe", and have fun spotting the moment when mild acid blues turned into heads-down, no-nonsense, mindless boogie. A quaint period piece that scores high on the milkman whistling register.

Since it became apparent that Liam Gallagher’s collaboration with Death In Vegas on “Scorpio Rising” owed no small debt to the old Quo’s “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”, they had to give them a writing credit. You can hear the original again, plus minor classics like “Ice In The Sun” and “Down The Dustpipe”, and have fun spotting the moment when mild acid blues turned into heads-down, no-nonsense, mindless boogie. A quaint period piece that scores high on the milkman whistling register.

Terence Trent D’Arby – Greatest Hits

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It's a shame the four singles from D'Arby's 1987 debut Introducing The Hardline were his most successful as they were his worst?that unlovely real ale rasp pretending that screaming signified passion. Neither Fish Nor Flesh (1989) was far more interesting, and the three inclusions here indicate the tip of a bizarre iceberg. Symphony Or Damn (1993) was knobs-on commercialism, although songs like "Delicate" and "Do You Love Me Like You Say" have worn well. On Vibrator (1995) he simply tried too hard. How's his muse these days? See Uncut's assessment of new album Wildcard! on page 91. Meanwhile, the versions here of "Heartbreak Hotel" and "A Change Is Gonna Come" suggest D'Arby may be too chained to the past to chart new territory.

It’s a shame the four singles from D’Arby’s 1987 debut Introducing The Hardline were his most successful as they were his worst?that unlovely real ale rasp pretending that screaming signified passion. Neither Fish Nor Flesh (1989) was far more interesting, and the three inclusions here indicate the tip of a bizarre iceberg. Symphony Or Damn (1993) was knobs-on commercialism, although songs like “Delicate” and “Do You Love Me Like You Say” have worn well. On Vibrator (1995) he simply tried too hard.

How’s his muse these days? See Uncut’s assessment of new album Wildcard! on page 91. Meanwhile, the versions here of “Heartbreak Hotel” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” suggest D’Arby may be too chained to the past to chart new territory.

Greatest Hits

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DIRECTED BY George Clooney STARRING Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer Opens March 14, Cert 15, 113 mins "My name is Charles Hirsch Barris, I have written pop songs. I have been a television producer. I am responsible for polluting the airwaves with mind-num...

DIRECTED BY George Clooney

STARRING Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer

Opens March 14, Cert 15, 113 mins

“My name is Charles Hirsch Barris, I have written pop songs. I have been a television producer. I am responsible for polluting the airwaves with mind-numbing puerile entertainment. In addition, I have murdered 33 human beings.”

Chuck Barris was the inventor of The Dating Game and The Gong Show. He also claims to have been a CIA hitman. His bizarre autobiography, filmed here by George Clooney (for Clooney and Steven Soderbergh’s Section Eight production company) interweaves two aspects of the American post-war story?happy, crappy light entertainment and murderous black ops?to suggest not just a personal but a national schizophrenia. As a film, this is a hugely impressive showcase for Clooney’s skills and those of four actors at the top of their game. It’s also probably the first and last movie about a game show host-cum-assassin. Until The Les Dawson Story gets made, anyway.

Barris (Rockwell) starts the story of his “wasted life” with the day he cons his way into a job in TV and persuades someone to let him make The Dating Game. After making some changes?”We can’t have black men getting blow jobs on television”?it’s a hit. Soon afterwards he gets approached by CIA fixer Jim Byrd (Clooney) to join the Company. Initially Barris resists the idea?”I’m not killing people, my future’s in television!”?but before long he’s a fully trained-up hitman, chaperoning the show’s winning couples to specially-chosen romantic locations where he can slip off and do a spot of killing.

The story becomes fairly surreal and dreamlike at this point, raising the question?is this truth, lies or madness? When Russell Crowe imagined himself caught up in 1940s noir-style chase scenes in A Beautiful Mind, he was implicitly deluded. Here Barris’ exploits behind the Iron Curtain are part John le Carr

The Life Of David Gale

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OPENS MARCH 14, CERT 15, 130 MINS Director Alan Parker's hand stays near-invisible as a crisply literate script gives Kevin Spacey a field day. The film wavers when its climax tries for one twist too many, and because a crucial plot point depends on an otherwise thoroughly efficient woman's car breaking down (doh!), but until then enough brain and muscle keep it motoring. It focuses on Gale (Spacey), a Texas intellectual and opponent of the death penalty who's incarcerated for the rape and murder of fellow activist Constance (Laura Linney). Was he stitched up by wrathful conservatives, or does his past prove he's capable of evil? As reporter Bitsey (Kate Winslet) hears his confessions?his dalliance with a student, broken marriage, lapse into alcoholism?she struggles to clarify the grey areas. Parker coaxes the clues out, pinpointing intense moral ambiguities. Spacey's back to his best, spouting Socrates while drunk. You'll forgive that shaky ending. Courageous, by mainstream standards.

OPENS MARCH 14, CERT 15, 130 MINS

Director Alan Parker’s hand stays near-invisible as a crisply literate script gives Kevin Spacey a field day. The film wavers when its climax tries for one twist too many, and because a crucial plot point depends on an otherwise thoroughly efficient woman’s car breaking down (doh!), but until then enough brain and muscle keep it motoring. It focuses on Gale (Spacey), a Texas intellectual and opponent of the death penalty who’s incarcerated for the rape and murder of fellow activist Constance (Laura Linney). Was he stitched up by wrathful conservatives, or does his past prove he’s capable of evil? As reporter Bitsey (Kate Winslet) hears his confessions?his dalliance with a student, broken marriage, lapse into alcoholism?she struggles to clarify the grey areas. Parker coaxes the clues out, pinpointing intense moral ambiguities.

Spacey’s back to his best, spouting Socrates while drunk. You’ll forgive that shaky ending. Courageous, by mainstream standards.

TV Sinners

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DIRECTED BY Paul Schrader STARRING Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello Opens March 7, Cert 18, 107 mins While it could be darker, delve deeper, Schrader's biopic of a celebrity sex maniac in the '60s/'70s (ie:a man just two decades ahead of the mainstream) is an intriguing, decidedly odd diversion. It's fun for reasons you don't associate with the director of Affliction and Cat People (it's stylish, chic, bubbly) and weak in ways you don't anticipate from the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (it shies away from asking why the central figure's such a fuck-up). Michael Gerbosi scripted, but Schrader brings subtle shudders to the show. An obstacle to Brit enjoyment is that we have little idea who "TV star" Bob Crane was (see also: Chuck Barris, Andy Kaufman, Frank Abagnale). Stateside, he was the star of Hogan's Heroes?a bizarre, popular sitcom set in a Nazi POW camp. Kinnear plays Crane/Hogan with cute wit. As his celebrity grows, his marriage collapses and he follows his urges. Which involve humping anything that moves. In the age of free love, part-time drummer Bob's a champion of freedom. The frolics fog over when Bob's rapport with seedy friend John (Dafoe) becomes too intense. John's a technology whiz, teaching Bob how to film his trysts and coax girls into "performing" to camera. Initially his gadgetry and zeal charm Bob, but soon he susses John's a parasite, using the 'star' for access to groupies. Boogie nights become bogus nights. His second marriage, to the open-minded Patti (Bello), crumbles. As Bob's fame declines, with a hypocritical showbiz set damning his sexploits, John's pushed aside. By '78, Bob's found murdered in an Arizona motel:John's the chief suspect. "All I think about all day long is sex; a day without sex is a day wasted," trumpets Crane, lent ingenuous charm by Kinnear. Paradoxically, Schrader doesn't get under his skin, or into his psyche: he's a meretricious gigolo, Dirk Diggler with a CV. At root, the film's as coy about swinging?and addiction?as the mainstream icons of its highlighted era. Intentional irony, maybe, but it makes for drab passages in an often vibrant, colourful movie. It could've zoomed in.

DIRECTED BY Paul Schrader

STARRING Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello

Opens March 7, Cert 18, 107 mins

While it could be darker, delve deeper, Schrader’s biopic of a celebrity sex maniac in the ’60s/’70s (ie:a man just two decades ahead of the mainstream) is an intriguing, decidedly odd diversion. It’s fun for reasons you don’t associate with the director of Affliction and Cat People (it’s stylish, chic, bubbly) and weak in ways you don’t anticipate from the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (it shies away from asking why the central figure’s such a fuck-up). Michael Gerbosi scripted, but Schrader brings subtle shudders to the show.

An obstacle to Brit enjoyment is that we have little idea who “TV star” Bob Crane was (see also: Chuck Barris, Andy Kaufman, Frank Abagnale). Stateside, he was the star of Hogan’s Heroes?a bizarre, popular sitcom set in a Nazi POW camp. Kinnear plays Crane/Hogan with cute wit. As his celebrity grows, his marriage collapses and he follows his urges. Which involve humping anything that moves. In the age of free love, part-time drummer Bob’s a champion of freedom.

The frolics fog over when Bob’s rapport with seedy friend John (Dafoe) becomes too intense. John’s a technology whiz, teaching Bob how to film his trysts and coax girls into “performing” to camera. Initially his gadgetry and zeal charm Bob, but soon he susses John’s a parasite, using the ‘star’ for access to groupies. Boogie nights become bogus nights. His second marriage, to the open-minded Patti (Bello), crumbles. As Bob’s fame declines, with a hypocritical showbiz set damning his sexploits, John’s pushed aside. By ’78, Bob’s found murdered in an Arizona motel:John’s the chief suspect.

“All I think about all day long is sex; a day without sex is a day wasted,” trumpets Crane, lent ingenuous charm by Kinnear. Paradoxically, Schrader doesn’t get under his skin, or into his psyche: he’s a meretricious gigolo, Dirk Diggler with a CV.

At root, the film’s as coy about swinging?and addiction?as the mainstream icons of its highlighted era. Intentional irony, maybe, but it makes for drab passages in an often vibrant, colourful movie. It could’ve zoomed in.

Personal Velocity

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OPENS MARCH 28, CERT 15, 90 MINS Rebecca Miller probably loathes being described as "Arthur Miller's daughter and Daniel Day-Lewis' wife":her fine second film as writer/director, based on her own short stories, should ensure we stop being so patriarchal. A big winner at Sundance, it at first shapes...

OPENS MARCH 28, CERT 15, 90 MINS

Rebecca Miller probably loathes being described as “Arthur Miller’s daughter and Daniel Day-Lewis’ wife”:her fine second film as writer/director, based on her own short stories, should ensure we stop being so patriarchal. A big winner at Sundance, it at first shapes up to be man-hating, but soon progresses to an intellectually superior plane of all-round people-hating.

Its three tales (inventively shot on DV) are melancholy and Carver-esque, coaxing some agile acting. Kyra Sedgwick plays a glum, battered wife who reclaims her identity through a trashy waitressing job and trashier affair. Parker Posey, sublimely funny and mean, is an ambitious publishing high-flyer who cheats on her too-nice husband, while in the trippier, fuzzier third segment, an alienated Fairuza Balk, after a near-death experience, learns to be trusting but not too trusting.

The Posey fable is far and away the best, as her lovable/loathsome shark with an underbelly experiences “a toxic blend of anxiety and elation”. Despite an intrusive, self-consciously ‘literary’ voiceover, and some na

Evelyn

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OPENS MARCH 28, CERT PG, 94 MINS A whimsical, mawkish piece of blarney, Evelyn boasts one or two lively performances (notably from Alan Bates as a rugby-loving dipsomaniac lawyer) and a suitably cornball ending, but suffers hugely by comparison with Peter Mullan's similarly themed, tougher and more honest The Magdalene Sisters. Like Mullan' s film, it's inspired by a true story. Pierce Brosnan plays Desmond Doyle, a feckless, hard-drinking but good-hearted joiner in '50s Dublin whose wife has just left him. The moment she leaves, the social services come snooping around and put his kids in care. Evelyn (Sophie Vavasseur), his cherubic daughter, is left at the prey of stereotypically vicious nuns while his two sons are thrown into orphanages. Des takes on the Irish legal system to get them back home. Rather than expose the snobbery and cruelty of the establishment in any meaningful way, Aussie director Bruce Beresford shamelessly sugars his tale, indulging in woeful flights of sentimentality. When Sean Connery took breaks from James Bond, he'd test himself by playing radical trade union leaders (The Molly Maguires) or mutinous soldiers (The Hill). It doesn't say much for Brosnan's taste or courage that, on his sabbaticals, he appears in fare as feeble and soft-centred as this.

OPENS MARCH 28, CERT PG, 94 MINS

A whimsical, mawkish piece of blarney, Evelyn boasts one or two lively performances (notably from Alan Bates as a rugby-loving dipsomaniac lawyer) and a suitably cornball ending, but suffers hugely by comparison with Peter Mullan’s similarly themed, tougher and more honest The Magdalene Sisters. Like Mullan’ s film, it’s inspired by a true story.

Pierce Brosnan plays Desmond Doyle, a feckless, hard-drinking but good-hearted joiner in ’50s Dublin whose wife has just left him. The moment she leaves, the social services come snooping around and put his kids in care. Evelyn (Sophie Vavasseur), his cherubic daughter, is left at the prey of stereotypically vicious nuns while his two sons are thrown into orphanages. Des takes on the Irish legal system to get them back home.

Rather than expose the snobbery and cruelty of the establishment in any meaningful way, Aussie director Bruce Beresford shamelessly sugars his tale, indulging in woeful flights of sentimentality. When Sean Connery took breaks from James Bond, he’d test himself by playing radical trade union leaders (The Molly Maguires) or mutinous soldiers (The Hill). It doesn’t say much for Brosnan’s taste or courage that, on his sabbaticals, he appears in fare as feeble and soft-centred as this.

In This World

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DIRECTED BY Michael Winterbottom STARRING Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah Opens March 28, Cert tbc, 88 mins After his exuberant?if self-indulgent?24-hour trip to Madchester, Winterbottom follows his postmodern story of Factory Records with an altogether more ' worthy' effort. But don't let that put you off; if you ever saw his 1997 examination of the Bosnian conflict Welcome To Sarajevo, you will know that Winterbottom is not one for moralising, sentimentality or political protests. Moving further east than Europe, In This World is the unsparing story of two Afghan refugees who set out on an astounding odyssey to London from their adopted country of Pakistan. Like 24 Hour Party People, it' s shot on DV and highly improvised?but here such freedoms don't lead to the sprawling scenes that blighted the second half of its Manc predecessor. Winterbottom remains focused throughout?the result replicating to an even more acute degree the documentary feel he gave to his London-based drama, Wonderland (1999). Jamal is an orphan born into a refugee camp, earning a dollar a day working at a brick factory. His cousin Enayatullah is to be sent to England to give him the chance of a better life?and, as he speaks no English, Jamal offers to act as his guide. Their transport is a chain of trucks, lorries and container ships, and they take a route not recommended in Lonely Planet guides. Arduous isn't the word for this trek as they battle with boredom and bullets in equal measure. Eliciting two fine naturalistic performances from his two non-actors, Winterbottom recreates guerrilla-style the cross-continental journey refugees face as they move from Pakistan to Iran, Turkey and western Europe. Moving but not mawkish.

DIRECTED BY Michael Winterbottom

STARRING Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah

Opens March 28, Cert tbc, 88 mins

After his exuberant?if self-indulgent?24-hour trip to Madchester, Winterbottom follows his postmodern story of Factory Records with an altogether more ‘ worthy’ effort. But don’t let that put you off; if you ever saw his 1997 examination of the Bosnian conflict Welcome To Sarajevo, you will know that Winterbottom is not one for moralising, sentimentality or political protests. Moving further east than Europe, In This World is the unsparing story of two Afghan refugees who set out on an astounding odyssey to London from their adopted country of Pakistan. Like 24 Hour Party People, it’ s shot on DV and highly improvised?but here such freedoms don’t lead to the sprawling scenes that blighted the second half of its Manc predecessor. Winterbottom remains focused throughout?the result replicating to an even more acute degree the documentary feel he gave to his London-based drama, Wonderland (1999).

Jamal is an orphan born into a refugee camp, earning a dollar a day working at a brick factory. His cousin Enayatullah is to be sent to England to give him the chance of a better life?and, as he speaks no English, Jamal offers to act as his guide. Their transport is a chain of trucks, lorries and container ships, and they take a route not recommended in Lonely Planet guides. Arduous isn’t the word for this trek as they battle with boredom and bullets in equal measure. Eliciting two fine naturalistic performances from his two non-actors, Winterbottom recreates guerrilla-style the cross-continental journey refugees face as they move from Pakistan to Iran, Turkey and western Europe. Moving but not mawkish.

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