Reviews

Postmodern country from balmy-voiced Lambchopper

Not so much a greatest hits as a musical autobiography, including new tracks and re-recorded B-sides

Twenty seasonal helpings of doo wop, country, blues and rockabilly

Formed around the original Ants, Bow Wow Wow were often dismissed as a cheap and nasty imitation of Adam's tribal formula. If anything, they were bolder, singing about tape piracy ("C30, C60, C90, Go!") and satanism ("Prince Of Darkness") while their Burundi-Drummers-meets-Ennio-Morricone interface often left the Ants trailing.

Oddball two-dimensional anti-hero Harvey Pekar comes to the big screen

OPENS DECEMBER 12, CERT 15, 106 MINS In 1985, British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates made a bold assault on the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They became the first (and so far only) climbers to conquer it, but their triumph turned to purgatory as they tried to get down again. After Simpson broke his leg, Yates tried to lower him down the mountain by rope. They'd almost made it when Simpson slithered over a precipice, forcing Yates to cut the rope to save himself. Fantastically, Simpson survived and crawled back to base.

The wildly erratic Fred Schepisi (Fierce Creatures, Last Orders) here hits sludgy middle-ground with the outré screwball story of goofy garage mechanic Tim Robbins, who falls in love with quantum physicist, er, Meg Ryan and, with the aid of kindly Uncle Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau), manages to snare her away from her bloodless sociologist fiancé Stephen Fry. Tired and uninspired.

At a provincial asylum, a down-at-heel doctor agrees to shelter an anonymous patient for the US government; soon his village is swarming with international spies, all trying to discover the new inmate's identity. This minor but hugely odd 1957 effort from Henri-Georges Clouzot has none of the suspense, nor the thrills, of his incredible Wages Of Fear or Les Diaboliques, but the atmosphere is strangely compelling.

Woad-caked, ultra-heavy rock from the West Country

Genteel Bristolian electronica