Reviews

The Human Stain

Superior adaptation of Philip Roth novel

Android

Quirky variant on the Frankenstein riff. Klaus Kinski is a scientist working on a space station with his android assistant Max404 (Don Opper, who co-wrote). Max is going through android adolescence—he's restless, sulky, curious about sex. Then a trio of escaped convicts invade, and one of them's a girl. Funny and compelling, and worth catching for Opper's geeky performance alone.

Cowboy Junkies – Open Road

Hard to tell what's the main feature and what are the extras in this excellent four-part, three-hour package from Canada's heroes of spooked alt.country. There's an hour-long documentary on the Junkies' 2001 world tour, a Quebec festival appearance, Margo and Michael Timmins playing an acoustic set and the same pair in lengthy conversation to make it a must for all Cowboy Junkies fans.

Ashley Park – The Secretariat Motor Hotel Darling

Third album from mellifluous Vancouver country-popheads

Kid 606 – Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You

Californian often hyped as the US Aphex

Cracker – Leftover Salmon

Two-band collaboration revisits Cracker faves in Richmond vs Nashville showdown

Joan Baez – The Complete A&M Recordings

Across five studio albums and a live set, the first lady of folk comes to terms with new movement of singer/songwriters

Candi Staton

Rare southern soul sides from disco diva's Muscle Shoals days

Child’s Play

Van Sant's stark, poetic recreation of Columbine

Brannigan

This late John Wayne movie has The Duke as a Chicago cop trailing his man to London, while a hitman seeks to fulfill a contract on Wayne's life. It's middling, fish-out-of-water fare, the kind of bawdy, roustabout stuff Wayne did far too often, but by way of compensation you get Richard Attenborough as Wayne's finicky Scotland Yard sidekick.
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