Reviews

A welcome release for three Akira Kurosawa classics from the BFI. In Ikiru, Takashi Shimura delivers a fine, understated performance as a dying bureaucrat. Sanjuro stars longtime Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune, playing mostly for laughs as the eponymous hero, a slovenly but experienced samurai who teams up with nine younger, idealistic warriors to defeat corruption in their town. The climactic duel shows the great Japanese director at his controlled, no-frills best.

Chilled follow-up to debut Passo Fundo

Incandescent instrumental rock from Austin, Texas

Confrontational solo artist conceives simultaneous, equally inspired albums

First time on CD for long-neglected folk timepiece from '65

After the superb Mutant Disco and No Wave compilations, stage two of the Ze reissue programme

Tense neo-noir from One False Move man

Slick, entertaining debut from first-time director George Clooney, working from a typically off-beat Charlie Kaufman screenplay. The often irritating Sam Rockwell is outstanding here as trash TV pioneer Chuck Barris, who's either an arch-fantasist or the oddest CIA hitman ever.

Fairly dismal sequel to True Grit, with John Wayne reprising his Oscar-winning turn as the titular one-eyed US Marshal, teamed here with prissy spinster Katharine Hepburn who's out to avenge her father's murder. The stars are no more than passable, the movie wholly unremarkable.

Thanks to the star guests on albums such as The Healer and Mr Lucky, John Lee Hooker sold more records in the final decade of his life than he had in the previous 40 years. Face To Face was in the making when he died in 2001, and includes collaborations with Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Canned Heat, George Thorogood and Van Morrison. The delay in its release suggests a certain posthumous touching-up was required, and his voice was clearly in decline.