Best Bets
Music Carrie Underwood. As American Idol restarts itself this month, the show in its 10th year vows to focus on the contestants. That's fantastic, because the last time a winner even mattered was Underwood. (Since her Season Four win, Underwood has become the most successful Idol victor in the United States.) The Idol-dom crowning and even the multiplatinum successes
Music
Carrie Underwood.
As American Idol restarts itself this month, the show in its 10th year vows to focus on the contestants. That's fantastic, because the last time a winner even mattered was Underwood. (Since her Season Four win, Underwood has become the most successful Idol victor in the United States.) The Idol-dom crowning and even the multiplatinum successes
of Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, and Play On couldn't have won her the respect of Nashville's country music community if Underwood didn't have the juice. This small-town singer with the big, friendly voice has got the chops. Besides, she co-writes her most memorable songs.
- A.D. Amorosi
Drive-By Truckers. "There's no critic in America as nasty as those guys and that gal," says Patterson Hood of his Truckers bandmates. That frankness has helped the band be reliably excellent; few bands have been as prolific and consistent since Hood and Mike Cooley joined forces 15 years ago in Athens, Ga. The band's about to release its 11th album, Go-Go Boots, in February, and it's one of the best. The Truckers come to TLA on Saturday night. Any concerns we'll get a show exhibiting the ill effects of New Year's Eve celebrating? "No, no. And if you do, consider that an extra bonus point," Hood says, "because we play extra good hung over."
Film
Little Fockers ** (out of four stars)
Robert De Niro is the father-in-law who places unreasonable expectations on his daughter's spouse, Ben Stiller. Sporadically funny, with Viagra jokes that don't provoke laughs as much as cringes. PG-13 (sexual candor).