Highbrow Lowbrow

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode dedicated to the films of German director Volker Schlöndorff, Steve discusses The Ogre, a World War Two drama which was never theatrically released in the US or UK but features one of John Malkovich's finest performances.Dan's choice is The Handmaid's Tale. This big-screen adaptation of Margaret Atwood's classic novel has been somewhat overshadowed by the television version, but Dan argues that it shouldn't be ignored.Will we convert you into Schlondorff aficionados, dear listener? Let's find out. Beware spoilers. Enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode dedicated to the work of Nicolas Roeg, we look at two films helmed by one of Britain’s most avant-garde directors. Steve’s pick is Eureka, a big-budget disaster that nearly destroyed Roeg’s career when it was released. Steve argues that its arty mix of colonial-era murder mystery and Caribbean courtroom drama is an overlooked gem. Dan’s choice is Castaway, in which Amanda Donohoe and Oliver Reed agree to spend a year living together on a deserted, tropical island. Will they survive the forces of nature and being in each other’s company for all that time? We hope you enjoy our Nicolas Roeg choices, and as for which is best, as always, dear listener, the final decision is up to you. Beware spoilers, and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this claret-themed episode, Steve watches sorority sisters come to a sticky end in Black Christmas, the film that launched a thousand slasher movies. Just where are those phone calls coming from? Dan's pick sees (the real) Santa brutally dispatch some home invaders using ice skates and candy canes during one Violent Night. But will little Trudy's parents kiss and make up? Our Christmas Carvery is open for business, dear listener. Come and feast your ears, mind the spoilers and enjoy the slay-ride....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special Halloween-themed episode, we look at two films which are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine. Steve’s pick is Ken Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm. Russell’s screenplay mixes Bram Stoker’s final novel with Lambton Worm mythology with devilishly good results. This is also the film which seared Amanda Donohue, Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi into the public consciousness. Once seen, it’s never forgotten. Dan’s choice is the mockumentary Ghostwatch. Established BBC presenters Michael Parkinson, Craig Charles, Sarah Greene and others are roped into an elaborate hoax played on the British public. Is the Early family of Foxhill Drive really living in a haunted house? Ghostwatch provides the answer with chills, laughs and moral panics along the way. We hope you enjoy our Halloween choices, and please don’t have nightmares. Mind the spoilers. Enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special episode devoted to the pioneering acting career of Olivia de Havilland, we look at two of de Havilland’s standout performances. Dan’s highbrow pick is The Snake Pit, a psychological drama that was both controversial and ground-breaking in its portrayal of mental health issues when it was released in 1948 and still packs a punch today. Steve’s lowbrow choice is Lady In A Cage, in which an electrical fault causes de Havilland to be stranded in her mobility lift, where she is terrorised by a gang of home invaders. We hope our choices pay a fitting tribute to the strength and longevity of de Havilland’s extraordinary career. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special episode devoted to the work of actor/dancer/writer and director Christopher Walken, we look at two of Walken’s finest performances. Dan’s highbrow pick is At Close Range, in which Walken’s psychopath gang leader comes undone when his son, played by Sean Penn, does not inherit the sins of the father. Steve’s lowbrow choice is the James Bond film A View To A Kill, in which he argues that Walken’s performance as the villainous Max Zorin has made this formerly underrated Bond film become one of the most loved additions to the series. We hope our choices do justice to Mr Walken’s extraordinary career. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode, we look at two classic Hammer Horror films. Steve’s pick is The Nanny, a chilling psychological thriller in which Bette Davis plays a babysitter that you won’t be rushing out to hire to look after your kids. Dan’s choice is The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death. While he concedes that it is not the most successful take on Susan Hill’s spinetingling tale, it still has enough scares to be worth your time. We hope our choices don’t leave you too afraid of the dark, dear listener. If things get too frightening, keep reminding yourself… it’s only a movie. It’s only a movie. Beware spoilers and the shadows. Enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special comedy-themed episode, we look at two films which are guaranteed to have you rolling in the aisles. Steve’s pick is Noises Off, an adaptation of Michael Frayn’s play within a play in which everything goes horribly and hilariously wrong! Dan’s choice is The Tall Guy, in which Jeff Goldblum’s struggling actor comes to terms with life, love and Weetabix without milk. We hope our rib-tickling choices will leave your sides on the brink of splitting, dear listener. Prepare to turn that frown upside down and, as always, beware spoilers and enjoy the show....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special episode devoted to the work of Martin Scorsese, we look at two films which have been unjustifiably overlooked in the career of one of the world’s greatest directors. Steve’s pick is The Age of Innocence, in which Daniel Day-Lewis plays a nineteenth-century lawyer torn between true love and the expectations of the high society he belongs to. Dan’s choice is Bringing Out the Dead, which he argues features Nicolas Cage’s greatest performance as a burnt-out paramedic haunted by the ghost of a patient he failed to save as he drives an ambulance through Hell’s Kitchen every night. We hope our choices will drive you back to the more overlooked films in Mr Scorsese’s eclectic career. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special biopic-themed episode, we look at two films which celebrate the highs and lows in the lives of artists. Steve’s pick is Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, in which Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the titular Dorothy Parker, a gifted but melancholy writer who spent ten years partying hard with the writers of the Algonquin Round Table. Dan’s choice is the rockumentary Anvil!, which takes a look at the fortunes and misfortunes of Canadian Heavy Metal band Anvil. Once the darlings of the rock world, Anvil have fallen on hard times, but can a new European tour restore them to their former glory? Does fame and success bring the artist happiness?  Listen up, dear listener, and we’ll leave the final decision to you. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special episode devoted to the work of Peter Weller, we look at two films which highlight the talents of one of Hollywood's most versatile actors. Steve’s pick is The New Age, in which Peter Weller and Judy Davis play a married yuppie couple who lose all of their money and have to find a new purpose after giving up the finer things in life. Will they find happiness? Steve argues that it's hilarious watching them try. Dan’s choice is the sci-fi flick Screamers, which he argues transcends its genre limitations to become one of the strongest Philip K Dick adaptations ever made for the screen. We hope our choices do Mr Weller justice. Part actor. Part academic. All talent. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this festive special, Steve is off to Montreal to see if Patrick McGoohan and Alexis Kanner are Kings And Desperate Men in a radio station hostage drama on Christmas Eve. Does it deserve regal status, or should it be clapped in irons? Meanwhile, Dan takes cover as Bruce Willis takes on some terrorists (again) on Christmas Eve (again), this time at Washington DC's Dulles Airport. Does Die Hard 2 start the holiday season with a bang, or is it a damp squib? The final decision, dear listener, is up to you. Beware spoilers. Enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special Halloween-themed episode, we look at two films with only one thing in common: the capacity to disturb. Steve’s pick is The Rapture, in which a call-centre operator played Mimi Rogers, bored with her dull job and swinging sex life, converts to Christianity and becomes obsessed with the Rapture. Her new religious lifestyle does not go entirely to plan, but it’s not the end of the world. Or is it? Dan’s choice is the blood-soaked horror classic Saw. Despite its grisly reputation, Dan argues that the true star of Saw is its great script and inventive special effects pulled off on a miniscule budget. Forget the torture-porn label; Saw is a film you should see. Which one of these films will leave you the most sleep-deprived and freaked out this Halloween? As always, dear listener, the final decision is up to you. Beware spoilers. Enjoy the show....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special episode dedicated to the director William Friedkin, who died in August of this year, we look at two lesser-known films from the auteur’s canon. Steve’s pick is Sorcerer, in which a group of desperate men transport unstable dynamite across two hundred miles of the Amazon jungle. A critical and commercial bomb when it was first released, Steve argues that Sorcerer is a journey worth taking and shouldn’t be considered dead on arrival. Dan’s choice is To Live and Die in LA. It’s a crime film often described as The French Connection of the 1980s West Coast, but does Friedkin pull off the transition? As always, dear listener, the final decision is up to you. Beware spoilers. Enjoy the show....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture.  In this episode, the clock is ticking in a countdown to Suspense. Dan's choice is The Andromeda Strain, a techno thriller based on a Michael Crichton novel in which science is the star. Steve takes a look at Juggernaut, in which an all-star cast finds themselves lost at sea on a cruise with only a mad bomber for company. Expect some sweat on the brow and prepare to bite those nails in this suspense-themed special. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show....

An unedited video version of our wellbeing episode. Thanks to Chris Simon for the recording.

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture.  In this special wellbeing episode, Steve and Dan are joined by University of Liverpool staff member and all-round good guy Chris Simon to discuss three education-themed films which always make us feel happier and that we hope will resonate with students today who need a good movie to decompress from their studies. Steve's highbrow pick is Educating Rita, in which Michael Caine's moribund academic career is brought back to life when he meets a feisty mature student played by Julie Walters. Chris's middlebrow pick is School of Rock, as he loves to rock out to Jack Black's unconventional teaching methods, which turn a prep school upside down. Dan's lowbrow pick is Scream, as he argues that horror films help to release our anxiety, especially this Wes Craven classic in which a group of high schoolers are stalked by a masked killer. Time to swot up on those college movies, dear listener; remember those growing pains and be prepared to relive the best years of your life. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture.  In this episode, revenge is a dish best served cinematically as we look at two films where the lead protagonists get mad and then get even. Steve’s choice is The Reckoning, in which Nicol Williamson puts his marriage, career and liberty on the line to find the man who killed his father. Dan’s pick is Dirty Weekend, a Michael Winner revenge flick in which Lia Williams goes on a killing spree after waking up one day and deciding that she’d had enough. Stop nursing that grudge, dear listener. Put that petty feud to one side. We’re getting serious about revenge and we take revenge very seriously. Beware spoilers and enjoy the show...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow, the show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode, we look at two films which are both marvels of narrative cinema, and also landmark works in technical innovation. Steve’s choice is John Huston’s twisted melodrama Reflections in a Golden Eye, a film which was originally released in an all-gold colour palette. Dan takes a look at Searching, a film for the internet age where all of the footage is taken from social media accounts. Do these experiments in cinema work? As always, dear listener, the final decision is up to you. Beware spoilers. Enjoy the show....

Coming up on the next Highbrow Lowbrow...what was its title again?!