Cinema Eclectica

Can you believe Telly Savalas, Claudia Cardinale, David Niven, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono and Mr. Bronson from Grange Hill were in the same movie once? We can't - and this is before you get to lovely old Roger Moore playing a Wehrmacht captain! It can only be Escape to Athena, one of a series of star-studded flops produced by British TV mogul Lew Grade - and this one has an ace up its sleeve in the form of future Rambo: First Blood Part II director George P Cosmatos. It's the kind of film about a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp that always gets shown at Christmas, which is an odd state of affairs when you stop to think about it. On this episode of Pop Screen, Graham is joined once again by We Are Cult's Mark Cunliffe to discuss the evolution of the World War II movie, as well as Grade's chequered career. There's also room to debate the best screen incarnation of Philip Marlowe, reveal how Sonny Bono shaped modern Hollywood and decide which Muppet clearly inspired Elliot Gould's performance in this film. If you

Wilko Johnson, the Dr Feelgood guitarist with the eyes of a killer and the legs of a Riverdancer, died last November, which sent Aidan and Graham back to his previous obituary. Made as the pub rock pioneer fought an apparently terminal cancer, The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson is less a rock documentary and more a fable about life, death and the creative spirit - a typically modest affair, then, from Julien Temple. Temple, perhaps the ultimate Pop Screen director, is not new to these shores, but our hosts quickly discover this might be the Julien Tempest film ever made. Along the way, we unpick the film's myriad allusions to cinema, poetry and astronomy, as well as discussing Temple's previous attempt at chronicling Dr Feelgood in Oil City Confidential. It's a magical film that definitely isn't just for Wilko fans. Look, the film's about cancer so I'm not going to make a joke here, I'll cut to the chase - you get so much more on the Geek Show Patreon, from our brand new movie miscellany podcast Last Night..., to t

Hey you! Pop Screen welcomes in 2023 with a dose of los paranoias as Graham and Rob tackle Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. The only adaptation - and likely to remain that way - of a Thomas Pynchon novel, it has an all-star cast headed up by Joaquin Phoenix's stoner PI Doc Sportello, and features suitably ethereal narration from the world's coolest harpist - again, not much competition - Joanna Newsom. On this week's Pop Screen, we tune in our doper's ESP to the karmic thermals - or something - of Anderson's unjustly maligned film. We comb the film for Thomas Pynchon's cameo, discuss its critical take on '60s nostalgia, and still find space to be rude about Hans Zimmer. The Vicenaissance starts here! If you want to help us establish a free housing complex in the desert or whatever it is, you can donate to our Patreon. We're just about to release a spoiler-packed chat about Glass Onion, and we've just launched a new movie miscellany podcast Last Night... Plus, Graham's Doctor Who reviews, Rob's champion

This week on Pop Screen there's a new Sherrif in town. Well, just for this one single episode, anyway. This is Rob of Directors Uncut typing right now. You can find Directors Uncut here Pop Screen has crossed over with our sister podcast, Directors Uncut, for an epic review of 2022. You can already find part a bonus to these bonus episodes for free on our PATREON. The snake truly is eating itself with that one. This is part two of said coverage, which looks at the 10-6 from this lovely bunch of people - besides Graham and Rob, there is Naomi, Kat, James, Vincent, Oliver, Cliff and Andy. And you better believe there are a lot of films from all over the movie map up for discussion, maybe too many? No, that'd be a ridiculous thing to say in a show description. So I better not be caught saying that.  Part two of this coverage and the finale of our 2022 in-review coverage can be found on the Directors Uncut feed tomorrow. Normal service resumes on this next episode of Pop Screen.   You can donate to our

The year is nearly done, but Pop Screen lingers on with an episode about Todd Haynes's documentary The Velvet Underground. Covering the turbulent career of one of the most confrontational yet influential bands of the 1960s, it's a film that's got everything from deep discussions of minimalist composition to amusing anecdotes about how their black-clad smack-addled racket played with California's hippie scene. (Spoiler alert: badly!) This week, Graham is joined by Left Lion's Oliver Parker to discuss Haynes's unusual swerve into documentary, the legacy of Lou Reed, the, uh, distinctive singing voices of Reed and Nico, and the film's portrayal of New York and Andy Warhol's Factory. They also agonise about what the best Velvet Underground album is - don't lie, you've struggled with the answer yourself - and get a sly diss at Drake in somehow. We're still not sure how that got in there, but it was worth it. If you want to give us The Gift - eh? eh? - of support, you can donate to our Patreon, where you'll get a m

[drum hit] AND IIIII-EEE-AAAYYY... Yes, some songs are born Christmassy, some achieve Christmasiness, and some have Christmas thrust upon them, as is the case with Whitney Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You. Arguably the best-remembered Christmas number one of the nineties, it prompted us to make a festive episode about The Bodyguard, the Lawrence Kasdan film whose soundtrack it graces. Here's something they don't tell you: The Bodyguard is a really tonally weird film. Graham is joined this week by Film Stories' Mark Harrison to unpick its oddities, including its accelerated opening, its nods to Akira Kurosawa and Fritz Lang, and its possibly intentional in-jokes about Kevin Costner's screen persona. We also speculate on what the long-mooted remake might look like, delve into the many stars who nearly played Houston and Costner's roles, and make an unbelievable discovery about the film's cancelled sequel. If you want to wish us joy and happiness through the medium of money, you can don

Pop Screen has confronted some horrors in its recent Halloween month, but nothing like what Graham and Mark come up against this week: Noel Edmonds. The DJ-turned-mystical guru pops up in Glitter, one of two episodes of the 1970s anthology series Second City Firsts that feature pop stars, and it's enough to send Graham into a journey into the heart of Blobbyland. But there's also the film's main star to reckon with - Toyah Wilcox, captured here just before her punk makeover, committing the ultimate sin of singing with a band called Bilbo Baggins. Second City Firsts also dipped its toe into the pop pond with Squire, an excellent, magic-realist tale of a working-class dreamer played by Lindisfarne's Alan Hull. Which of our two hosts - the North-Easterner Graham, the North-Westerner Mark - is a Lindisfarne fan? The answer may surprise you! We also discuss the many, depressingly business-related reasons why the single television play fell from fashion, the recent British film that reminded us of Squire, the myste

This week, Pop Screen is taking you to Spatula City with this episode about America's pre-eminent polka-crazed pop parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic and his 1989 film UHF. Prior to this month's parody biopic Weird - in which he's played by Daniel Radcliffe, in Radcliffe's second era-defining role after Swiss Army Man - this was Al's only major motion picture. But that still leaves decades of recordings to discuss, and that's why Al superfan Jeff Pizek is back on the podcast to help bewildered Briton Graham get to the meaning of Al. Along the way, we discuss the film's inspired casting - including a chance to appreciate the comedic skills of a couple of people who, let's say, don't get the roles they used to? For very specific reasons? - its connection to The Simpsons, its vision of small-town America, and indeed the vexed question of where UHF is actually set. Is it a small town at all? We also pose a question about Dire Straits's Money for Nothing video which we forget to answer on the podcast, so let's do it he

Listeners, are you in the mood for some folk horror? Some folk horror with Bjork? Some, if you will, fjork horror? If so, do we have the podcast for you, as Aidan F rejoins the podcast to discuss this early entry in the Icelandic maverick's small but impeccably on-brand screen canon. Along the way, we discuss her collaborations with Robert Eggers, Matthew Barney, Peter Strickland and David Attenborough, as well as naming our favourite Bjork records. None of this, quite rightly, overshadows the film itself, a strange, Bergmanesque drama inspired by - though not quite adapted from - a Brothers Grimm story. We salute its offbeat director Nietzchka Keene, and the equally offbeat plot summaries of her films, and delve into the history of Bjork. Includes Graham making lots of heavy weather about the difference between her debut album and her album Debut, a joke which never really gets any funnier! We'd have a very Grimm future if it wasn't for our Patreon backers, and as a thank-you we give you a bonus episode of

Listeners, are you aware that Shuhada Sadaqat - or Sinead O'Connor, as she was - once played the Virgin Mary? If that sounds like a provocative idea, you ain't seen nothing yet. Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy is one of the darkest and most mordantly funny entries in a directorial career that's also included Interview With the Vampire and The Company of Wolves, and we've got We Are Cult's Mark Cunliffe back in to talk about every deliriously sick moment. The story of a school bully spiralling into psychopathy against a backdrop of early '60s nuclear paranoia, it features an astonishing lead performance from Eamonn Owens and a stacked supporting cast of superb Irish thesps. (You'll never look at Milo O'Shea in the same way again) We discuss how the film defies '90s media cliches about Ireland, as well as the unusual circumstances of its funding from David Geffen. Plus a lot of chat about O'Connor's career, and an appreciation of Kris Kristofferson for offering support at the height of her post-SNL backlash. U

It's spooky season again on Pop Screen, and this month we're kicking off with a look at Ti West's saucy seventies slasher X, starring Kid Cudi along with Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Martin Henderson and Mia Goth again. And since it's not a Halloween show without Directors Uncut host Rob, we've got Rob back in to talk about the film's generational politics, praise its light-touch evocation of the 1970s, and wonder if it's more of an insult to call this elevated horror or un-elevated horror. Along the way, there's discussion of Kid Cudi's odd, ambitious acting career, the sense of imminent dread that seizes audiences every time Mia Goth appears in a film and West's projected trilogy based on this film's characters. We also pitch a new horror movie to A24 which is just an old person eating a sandwich, but shot really well. They might go for it? If you want to keep us broadcasting from the home of a creepy old couple who don't know what we're doing yet, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll also find Rob cham

It was sixty years ago... well, not today, exactly, but soon, when the Beatles released their first single, so to celebrate Pop Screen is returning to their screen canon for the first time since our very first episode. An experimental, influential animated freak-out, Yellow Submarine was made to fill out the band's movie contract but became so, so much more (although being more than that isn't difficult. Whatever. It's good). To celebrate, we've helpfully reminded Mick from Behold! podcast that yes, he did put his name down for this one, and brought him back on. Listen as he reveals which previous Pop Screen-endorsed movie this reminds him of - it may not be the one you think. We also uncover the strange stories that the movie's almost-Beatles-sounding voice cast have to tell, and take a look at the eye-searingly horrible concept art for Robert Zemeckis's abandoned CGI remake. If you want to help us bring the gift of music to Pepperland, you can donate to our Patreon, where you'll find a raft of new feature

Ah-hah, hush that fuss, Pop Screen is back with Graham and Dreaming Machine's Joe to take a look at OutKast's 2006 movie vehicle Idlewild. It's not uncommon for rappers to make their big-screen debuts by playing gangsters, but as ever Andre 3000 and Big Boi found their own unique way of doing things, by setting it all in an anachronistically-scored Black bohemia in the 1930s. It's a gangster movie, it's a backstage musical, it's a Prohibition drama, it's a hip-hop film... it's so many things, in fact, that the audience were confused and stayed at home. While not perfect, it deserved a better fate. Join Graham and Joe as they discuss the film's dynamite cast, its odd but intriguing parent album - which is, as of 2022, the last OutKast record - and the shadow that one immortal Key and Peele sketch has cast over OutKast discourse. We also consider how the band's legacy only appears to have grown since their split, and reference that weird news story from a few years back about someone spotting Andre Benjamin ju

This week's film is one that Graham struggles to accept really exists - which is why it's a good job Mark Harrison from Film Stories has rejoined the podcast to reassure him that this wasn't a hallucination. Did we really watch a movie where Status Quo try and foil SNL veteran Jon Lovitz's underground organ trafficking ring in an extended homage to The Deer Hunter? It appears that we did, and now you can enjoy our confusion in podcast form. Among the many topics of discussion, we talk about Status Quo's very different reputations on both sides of the Atlantic, about their ill-fated 1990s lawsuit against Radio 1, about Lovitz's three claims to eternal fame, and about the film's mysterious attitude towards the news-gathering profession. There is also a bit about lollipops and a certain Steven Spielberg movie which made Graham laugh out loud when he was editing this, and that's never happened before. It's a good one, folks! If you want to keep us making podcasts that make us - and hopefully other people - laug

This week's Pop Screen is for people who like their cars fast, their movies mellow and their Californian singer-songwriters practically horizontal, as Aidan returns to the podcast to look at Monte Hellman's cult road movie Two-Lane Blacktop. A none-more-70s tale of dead-end lives on the open road, it owes something of its laid-back cool to its two lead actors: Laurel Canyon mainstay James Taylor and Beach Boys alumnus Dennis Wilson. It would be fair to say Aidan and Graham have differing opinions on this film, but you'll have to listen to the podcast to find out who's making the case for the defence. Along the way, there's space to delve into the short, sad life of their brilliant co-star Laurie Bird and praise the timeless class of Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton. Also, needless to say, Beach Boys superfan Graham explains what very specific thing Dennis brought to the legendary band, and which unlikely figure offered family therapy to the Wilson brothers... If you'd like to rescue us from our desperate

Dust off your tinfoil hats, Pop Screen is going conspiracy barmy with this week's episode on 1983's Wavelength. A Roger Corman-produced science fiction thriller starring The Runaways' Cherie Currie as a psychic who guides her singer-songwriter friend towards a military base full of captured extraterrestrials, it's notable for a great Tangerine Dream score, striking location shooting at LA's ominous Lookout Mountain facility, and having nearly been released before Spielberg's ET before it was delayed for additional special effects work. This week, Rob from Directors Uncut rejoins the podcast to look at this unjustly forgotten film, talk about the legacy of The Runaways and look at the many famous films that Currie was nearly in. We also end with some praise for Peter Bogdanovich and some pleasingly gratuitous slams towards an old podcast enemy... If you want to help us make contact with another species using Moog synthesisers, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll find a monthly bonus episode of this ve

This is (for) hardcore (fans): in celebrating the work of singer, radio host, memoirist and Greatest Living Englishman Jarvis Cocker, we could have picked anything from a Wes Anderson film to a Harry Potter one. Instead, Graham and Ewan have reunited for a look at a true collectors item, his 1999 Channel 4 documentary series about outsider art. See Jarvis tour the world visiting houses, gardens, castles and churches made by people with no architectural training, all of which look better than that description implies. Along the way, we'll be diving into the rest of Jarvis's screen career, including the 2014 documentary Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets, which Ewan has just covered elsewhere. We'll also be talking about the legacy of Britpop - which, yes, means Graham gets to tell the "cagoules" story again - speculating on Johnny Marr's pub habits and deciding, once and for all, what the best Pulp album is. The answer may surprise you! If you want to help us rent a flat above a shop - something

This week, Pop Screen is warming up its fingers to peruse the lexicon of love with Mantrap, a short film starring ABC - but mostly their lead singer Martin Fry - and directed by Pop Screen's patron saint Julien Temple. Once again, we're joined by Gav Smith from the very fine My Favourite Film podcast, as he takes on his most challenging assignment to date - persuading Graham that early '80s synth pop is good, actually. Along the way, we discuss the film's romantic lead Lisa Vanderpump and her later career on reality TV, the wayward career of the prolific Temple and whether The Fast Show has rendered jazz inherently 'nice'. If this strikes you as a fairly obscure choice of film even for our podcast, you're not wrong - this is the first, and no doubt last, film we'll cover that was originally released on Laserdisc... If you don't want us to have to run away with a touring New Romantic band in order to make ends meet, you can support us on Patreon where you'll also get a plethora of articles about forgotten As

It's in the trees! It's coming! Yes, this week Pop Screen is gleefully hopping on board the Kate Bush bandwagon - what else were we going to do, wait for a new album or tour? - with a look at the Blessed Kate's two main acting credits. The Line, The Cross and the Curve is her now-disowned directorial debut, released to tie in with her album The Red Shoes and loosely inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of that name. Join Graham and Mark Cunliffe of We Are Cult as they dig into its origins and its surprising guest cast, not to mention the surprisingly high number of Doctor Who and David Lynch connections. Well, it is Pop Screen. But that's not all! In our first-ever double-bill, we also look at Les Dogs, an instalment in the British comedy anthology series The Comic Strip Presents... where Kate plays a newlywed who Peter Richardson becomes infatuated with. (Well, he's only human) A notoriously cryptic entry into a series normally defined by anarchic satire, we're pretty confident that, by the end

Pop Screen's Bowie month ends in the only way it was ever going to: with a lot of talk about Muppets and 'packages'. Made during a critical and commercial low point in Bowie's musical career, this elaborate Jim Henson-directed fantasy nevertheless gave him one of his most celebrated screen roles - and, in its maddeningly catchy musical numbers, gave us easily the most enjoyable songs of his mid-80s lull. This week, Archaeon rejoins the podcast to talk about traumatic childhood memories, the surprisingly lasting influence of Bowie's enormous barnet, and the screen career of his young co-star Jennifer Connelly. There are also digressions covering the limited options this movie offers for clickbait writers, the general scariness of 1980s children's films, and the real reason why we've never done a K-pop episode. Come for the crotch jokes, stay to learn which leading modern sculptor voiced one of the puppets! If you want us to keep making podcasts where we refer to a rock legend's genitals as "non-Euclidian", y