Reviews

In Alexander Payne's wickedly mordant satire, newly-retired Warren Schmidt is forced to acknowledge the sheer empty horror of a wasted life that has left him with a ghastly marriage to someone he no longer recognises as the woman he fell in love with, a neurotic daughter who's about to marry an hilariously useless water bed salesman and a past he can't remember because in all the years now behind him he did little of merit and nothing of note. Dysfunctional families are currently all the rage, but About Schmidt has a dark individuality and coruscating comic edge that makes it uniquely compe

Savage garage from Lift To Experience's friendly neighbours

Apocalyptic comeback from post-punk doom lords featuring Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on drums

The best band in Detroit at the BBC

Compiled singles of Canadian laptop scamp

Brooklyn psych-pop pundits follow-up last year's The Better Button

Classics from pre-stadium bore period

Latest chapters in prestigious rock'n'roll roots series

BFI re-release for classic 1953 French comedy

Released along with four other François Truffaut films, this '77 piece is one you either love or hate. The auteur's autobiographical protagonist roves around Paris, picking up and ditching a stream of women, musing over what constitutes the perfect female ankle, and philosophising like Woody Allen on opium. Old-school; intense.