Reviews

Debut by improvisational guitar god Derek Bailey's new five-piece band

Machine dance from (mostly) European eggheads

The seedbed of punk

Expanded '66 debut by Andover's finest

Frances McDormand impresses in triangular love story set amid the West Coast rock fraternity

Ravaged Irish immigrant family up sticks to New York

Dark, hugely inventive '93 animation from Tim Burton, possibly much too spooky for kids (or probably not, the sick little psychos). The Pumpkin King of Halloween tries to co-opt Christmas; the voices of Catherine O'Hara, Pee-Wee Herman and other disreputable types ooh and aah. Dazzling, macabre and faintly mad, an Oscar nominee for visual effects.

Corporate exploitation, US foreign policy, K-Mart, small-town rednecks, the NRA and Charlton Heston are all in the firing line as shaggy documentarian, and now best-selling author, Michael Moore tackles America's self-destructive gun culture. Mostly witty and irreverent, it's also sporadically profound—see the terrifying slow-mo security footage of the Columbine massacre and Chuck Heston's final broken and bewildered interview.

Nothing dates faster than camp, and here The Fifth Element (aka David LaChappelle does Blade Runner), barely six years old, is already fraying around its fluorescent edges. The plot is nonsensical (Gary Oldman's Zorg aiding giant ball of evil etc), the model work is ropey, and the production design very Munchkinland. Thankfully, Bruce Willis' taciturn hero and Milla Jovovich's super-femme still hold firm at the heart.

Solo album by big-in-US band leader