Reviews

Arguably the two most powerful kitchen-sink dramas of the early '60s were both adapted from the works of author Alan Sillitoe. Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960), directed by Karel Reisz, provided British cinema with an equivalent to Brando thanks to Albert Finney's electrifying performance as marriage-wrecking factory-hand Arthur Seaton ("I'm a fighting pit-prop of a man who wants a pint of beer, that's me!"). But Finney perhaps lacked the surly sophistication of borstal boy Tom Courtenay in Tony Richardson's later The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962).

John Sayles scripted this Jaws-onland rip-off, with Robert Forster as the cop chasing a giant man-eating monster down in the sewers. Forster's dogged, and some of the set pieces are pretty nifty, but the plot's farcical, and this isn't strong on intellectual content despite its obligatory eco-message. The sequel is a made-for-TV retread, of practically zero interest.

Debut album from seriously connected Canadian twin sisters

Ex-Factory 'ambient' guitarist returns with best album in years

The band who make Slipknot look like S Club Juniors

Texan roadhouse rocker still displays true grit

Better-than-expected debut from All Saints sisters

Second ill-fated album from New York indie crew

Brilliant piano trio music from 1981

Scrag ends from Sonny & Cher of Antifolk