Reviews

Beautifully played, smartly directed low-key change of pace from Ridley Scott. Nic Cage plays a neurotic compulsive-obsessive grifter who has to deal with the unexpected arrival of his teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) as he and his partner (Sam Rockwell) prepare to pull off an elaborate con. It failed to ignite at the box office, but is well worth catching now.

Respect, of course, to Grohl and co for the consistency of their earnest and industrious take on rock, presented with typical reliability throughout these selections from their 2002/2003 world tour. But three hours of electric, acoustic and—oh dear!—audio-only music is enough to bore the denims off all but the most besotted worshippers.

Second album of curious psych/hip hop follows eponymous 2001 debut

Previously only on import, this now gets a British release, because 80 per cent of the UK proletariat like singing along to: "And the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had." Especially during festive periods. And fair play to them, eh readers? Apparently reprints of Camus and Kafka are now outselling beer, and Lou Reed's "Berlin" is widely tipped for next year's Christmas No 1. A mad world, and no mistake. Michael Andrews' soundtrack is chiefly instrumental, dark and wilfully weird.

Debut from London quartet named after an Arlo Guthrie creation, not an Alec Guinness character. Sorry

'80s pop acts, from the winsome to the tonsorially challenged

SACD reissues of '80s electro monoliths

Two-fer of late-'60s synth-rock oddities. Not that odd, really

Beautifully realised coming-of-age flick

Imagine Ghost replayed as a slow, spiritually-charged polemic set in the bleak housing complexes of martial law-era Poland, and you're close to Krzysztof Kieslowski's 1984 drama. The spirit of a dead lawyer watches over as his young wife descends into grief and one of his former clients is pushed toward compromise to save his neck. In cinema terms, food for the soul—but it really needed Whoopi Goldberg and a potter's wheel to make it a hit.