Pop Screen

It's the film that's so punk, it annoyed even the punks - Derek Jarman's Jubilee, with its motley cast including Toyah Wilcox, Rocky Horror legend Richard O'Brien, a pre-fame Adam Ant and at least one former tightrope walker, is our subject of discussion this week. Join We Are Cult's Mark Cunliffe and regular host Graham Williamson as they discuss Jarman's influence as a film-maker, a gay rights advocate and even a gardener, as well as the film's fascinated yet critical overview of Britain's first wave of punk.
There's also room to consider the divergent careers of the film's stars, from the hugely influential original punk scene kid Pamela "Jordan" Rooke to Ian Charleson and Karl Howman: incestuous brothers in Jubilee, but the actors went on to have very different later careers. We also talk about punk's questionable, semi-ironic use of fascist and serial killer iconography, as well as the vexed question of why the British scene burned out so quickly - albeit leaving some tremendous music.
Obviously money is a deeply un-punk statist control system created by the Man to keep us down, but we still need it. If you donate to our Patreon you can get a monthly Pop Screen bonus episode, as well as access to our other film podcast Directors Lottery and Graham's classic Doctor Who reviews. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with everything we've got coming in the future!
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Pop Screen continues its dive into the strangest products of the 1980s trend towards long-form music videos with a lost gem of British pop surrealism - Jack Bond's It Couldn't Happen Here, starring the Pet Shop Boys. Arguably the first stumble in the relentless upwards trajectory PSB were enjoying, it's been disowned by the band and archly reappraised by Bond as "the first post-Brexit movie".
After joining Graham to review Spice World in Episode 2, Ewan Gleadow makes his Pop Screen return for this utterly befuddling film, which sees Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe embarking on an epic road trip involving existentialist ventriloquist dummies, burning men walking calmly through Kings Cross and Barbara Windsor. We also discuss the label of "irony" that hung around the band's necks for much of their early careers, their unfortunate habit of releasing anti-consumerist songs whose messages went over the heads of Thatcher's Britain, and the vexed question of what the best Pet Shop Boys album is.
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Brian De Palma is not a name commonly associated with campy rock-opera frivolity, but his 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise is closer to Rocky Horror territory than you'd expect from the Carrie auteur. A gonzo melange of Gaston le Roux, the Faust myth and the 1970s music scene before it figured out how to be cool, it's like nothing else you've ever seen before, and this week Graham joins his Directors' Lottery colleague Rob Simpson to figure it all out.
Along the way, we discuss De Palma's career, its roots in experimental hippie-era satire and its many highs and lows. We also discuss Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's 2015 documentary about the director, and how it affected our understanding of this film. There's also room for some consideration of the film's star, singer-songwriter Paul Williams, a delightful anecdote about a young Guillermo del Toro and a quiz about the many, many lawsuits this film unexpectedly faced.
If you don't want to see us reduced signing our life's work away in blood to make money, you can donate to our Patreon. Donors will get exclusive access to bonus episodes of Pop Screen, Graham's Doctor Who reviews and the aforementioned Director's Lottery. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and leave a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this show.
#popscreen #moviereviews #phantomoftheparadise #briandepalma #phantomoftheopera #faust #musicals #jessicaharper #1970s #paulwilliams

Today we know Morrissey as a character on The Simpsons, but are you aware he also taught Villanelle how to do local government admin? This is just one of the revelations in Mark Gill's 2017 film England is Mine, a film about Morrissey's early life starring Jack Lowden as the indie icon-in-the-making. Released just as Morrissey exhausted the patience of his remaining fanbase by threatening to sue Der Spiegel for accurately reporting his terrible opinions, it vanished quickly - but did it deserve better?
This week, Mick Snowden of Behold! podcast joins Graham to mull that question over. They also discuss their shared love of The Smiths, including the evergreen hobby of picking out the references to old films and girl-group hits the band's lyrics and record sleeves are studded with, and share theories about why Morrissey's official Facebook page is so very, very strange.
"I've never had a job/ Because I'm too shy", and if you want to help me maintain this unsupportable lifestyle you can donate to The Geek Show's Patreon, where you'll find exclusive bonus episodes of Pop Screen, our other movie podcast Director's Lottery, the best damn Doctor Who reviews on the internet and more. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to hear about what we've got coming up next.
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Phoebe Bridgers! Snail Mail! Fred Durst?! The list of Pop Screen-qualifying cast members is only the beginning of the weirdness in Jane Schoenbrun's sophomore film I Saw the TV Glow. Released in the UK after a wait almost as punishing as the film's devastating time-jumps, it's the story of two kids who really, really like a TV show. That is, if you're satisfied with a surface-level reading.

If you're not, allow Graham and Robyn to take you through the film's multitude of trans and queer readings, its nods to 1990s telefantasy classics from Buffy to Twin Peaks, its use of - and critique of the abuses of - nostalgia, its subtle coding of each time period it's set in, and of course its soundtrack, whose mix of modern artists and '90s vibes has already made it a cult classic independent of the film it's soundtracking. We also discuss Harmony Korine's short films, the weirdness of early internet video and so much more. It's for the ladies, the fellas and the people who don't give a [censored] - which, we now realise, is an acknowledgement of nonbinary identity. Who knew?

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