Why is Australian Cinema so Grim? Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (Pop Screen 173) Nick Cave

In the same year, Nick Cave sang The Mercy Seat and appeared in this brutal prison drama, the first film from his regular music video collaborator John Hillcoat. You'd ask if he was OK, but it's late-'80s Nick Cave: he absolutely wasn't. A brutal, shocking look at a near-future prison accelerating towards a riot, Cave's cameo as a new inmate who decorates his cell walls with his own blood is by no means the bleakest thing on offer.This week, Pop Screen welcomes Rob Spencer of Caliber 9 from Outer Space to talk about Cave's varying levels of fame across the world - including in his, and Rob's, birth country Australia - plus Hillcoat's career all the way up to his current planned adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. (Good luck there, John!) We also discuss whether artists have to be good people, why Australian films are so often really grim, the unusual musical career of one of Cave's co-stars and pitch a soap opera about the Bad Seeds.You can break a whole host of exciting things out of their confinement by donating to our Patreon, including a bonus episode of this show every month - we're about to release one on Venom: Let There Be Carnage - Graham's other podcast The Arts Hole, franchise review show They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, weekly articles on Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, and more. Follow us on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more info.

Can you believe this is the first Spike Lee movie we've covered on the podcast? Lee is a director who's always had something to say about music, not always complimentary, and his Akira Kurosawa remake Highest 2 Lowest copped some flack for its take on modern hip-hop. It's the story of a legendary record label boss, played by Lee's recurrent collaborator Denzel Washington, who springs into action when his colleague's son is kidnapped.On this week's show, Simon reteams with Graham to talk about this complex, uneven but rewarding film, comparing its narrative priorities to Kurosawa's High and Low and exploring where it sits in Lee's canon. We also discuss its multiple musician cameos, including the weirdly negligible Ice Spice appearance and meatier roles for Princess Nokia and ASAP Rocky. You should listen to it as soon as possible.For the price of an extremely small ransom, you can get a bonus episode of this show - we've just dropped one on Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - as well as other goodies like the end-of-month round-up podcast Last Night..., weekly written articles on The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and Graham's other podcast The Arts Hole. For more on that, come back for our next episode in two weeks' time, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bsky and Facebook.

After the inevitable Christmas number one, the life of an X Factor winner isn't always easy. But Shayne Ward, of 'That's My Goal' fame - stop pretending you don't know it - had something unique to fall back on. A stint on Coronation Street gave him enough acting cred, and willing co-stars, to star in his own murder mystery series where he plays an ex-cop turned cruise ship singer with a murder to solve in every port.Listeners, it is insane. This week, Graham is joined by Mark Harrison of Film Stories and the forthcoming First Question quiz podcast to discuss his chance discovery of a series that has become an obsession. We also talk about the strange world of straight-to-VHS soap opera spin-offs, the show's Guy Ritchie-inspired poker tournament episode, the other shows and films that could benefit from The Good Ship Murder's earworm of a theme tune, and how the show might end up doing an episode about Morrissey.If you'd like to go on an adventure with us in mind, you can donate to our Patreon. We're currently working on a bonus episode of this very show about Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, as well as keeping our two new podcasts - They'll Love Me When I'm Dead and The Arts Hole - running. Backers also get an end-of-month round-up podcast, weekly articles about The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and more - follow us on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to find out more.

Have you ever seen a hitman movie and thought "It's good, but it needs to be shot entirely in infra-red?" No, because no-one has - except Harmony Korine. After looking at his most famous film Spring Breakers a couple of years back, Robyn and Graham now reunite to talk about the first film from his excellently-named production company EDGELRD, a film whose strangeness is not limited to the fact that Travis Scott gives the most sensitive performance in it.Along the way, we'll discuss Scott's unexpected role in The Odyssey, and talk about that time when Korine wanted to make a whole film of people beating him up. We'll also talk about the film's, uh, distinctive promotional roll-out, its use of generative AI and its video game influences. There's also a long detour about how great the new Boards of Canada album is. That's nothing to do with the film, it's just really good.The old world is collapsing, but our Patreon remains strong - backers will get a bonus episode of this show every month, along with Graham's other podcast The Arts Hole, about all the silliest happenings in the world of arts and culture. There's also a review of classic franchises in They'll Love Us When We're Dead, weekly articles on The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and more. Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook to find out more.

Has Pop Screen gone highbrow? A biopic of a classical composer isn't normally the kind of film we'd cover, but then biopics of classical composers aren't usually anything like Lisztomania. The final instalment in Ken Russell's legendary series of films about his classical music heroes, it stars Roger Daltrey from The Who as Franz Liszt, Ringo Starr as the Pope, and this is not even close to the strangest thing about it.Join Graham and Mike as they unpick the real-life animus between Liszt and Wagner that inspired the somewhat unorthodox Nazi-vampire-zombie-Frankenstein-Thor subplot in this movie, as well as the historical phenomenon that gave the film its title - it's not just a Phoenix song! - and, of course, the chequered and glorious career of Uncle Ken. Plus: a plea for better biopics, a history of the Strauss film that forced Russell to leave the BBC, and a defence of Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights.If you don't want to see us reduced to marrying a domineering Russian countess for money, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll get a bonus episode of this podcast every month, plus Graham's other show The Arts Hole, Mike's Twilight Zone reviews, regular essays on Doctor Who's cast and crew and the unclassifiable end-of-month podcast that is Last Night... Follow us on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to find out more.

Madness! Madness, they call them Madness, which is fair enough, because that's their name. At a very early stage in their quest to become one of Britain's most beloved bands, the Nutty Boys starred in a semi-improvised film about their formation and rise to fame. It was called Take It Or Leave It, it was surprisingly serious in tone, and it was, as Suggs put it, "the beginning and the end of our film careers".Well, not in his case, actually - as Graham and Mark note, he had some other acting roles. But what about Take It Or Leave It? It turns out it's well worth revisiting, as a time capsule of both an iconic band in their early days and working-class London in the early '80s. We also discuss the differences between Jamaican, British and American ska, the time the band nearly made a sitcom with the writers of Blackadder, and the reason why you should never let Chas Smash use your hairdryer.Fans of naughty boys in nasty schools will surely enjoy Graham and Mark's other podcast The Arts Hole, which is only available on our Patreon. Backers will also get a monthly bonus episode of this show, weekly articles on Doctor Who and the Twilight Zone, and our uncategorisable end-of-month miscellany Last Night... Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter for more info.

It's playtime! Pop Screen is starting a themed month on "autobiopics" - films where pop stars play themselves, but in a different context to the standard rock doc. The nearest we'll get to documentary is this film by Morgan Neville, which sees Pharrell Williams talk about his incredible career and range of star collaborators - Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z and more - through the medium of, er, Lego.Joining regular host Graham, Mark Harrison talks about the history of "brickfilms", the Lego franchise's move from studio to studio, and the vexed question of whether 'Happy' is annoying or not. We also talk about the film's insight into creativity, the other Pharrell Williams movie directed by Michel Gondry that you'll never see, and, of course, try to imagine what he thought he was doing with that bloody hat. It's the podcast of the summer!Our Patreon brings all the boys to the yard, and no wonder - we've just launched Graham and Mark Cunliffe's exclusive new arts and culture podcast The Arts Hole there. You'll find that along with Patreon exclusive episodes of this show - listen to the end to find out what's next - written articles about The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who, and much more. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find out more.

"So we're doing this, right?" The new film from David Lowery, the director of The Green Knight, is not a love story, it's not a ghost story, and a lot of people aren't sure what it is at all. We know it's definitely about a very Gaga-esque pop star played by Anne Hathaway trying to heal the wounds of the past with her estranged dress designer (Michaela Coel), and we know it's got a storming FKA Twigs cameo which qualifies it for this show. But what lies beyond these facts?Join Graham and Robyn as they look at the many musical and cinematic inspirations Lowery and Hathaway took - from Persona to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour! - and discuss the film's soundtrack cuts from Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and Twigs herself. We also talk about the responses we had to the film - both emotional and stigmatic - talk about Charli's busy year at the movies, and relitigate the eternal question of whether Jack Antonoff is actually a good producer or not. Plus a bit of Billie Eilish concert film talk, if that's your bag.If you don't want to see us doing mildly lewd Gievenchy adverts for money, you can donate to our Patreon where you'll get Graham's new culture podcast The Arts Hole, plus Rob's franchise run-down They'll Love Us When We're Dead, weekly written articles about Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, and more. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.

It's one of the great films of the '90s, from one of the most Pop Screen-friendly directors of all time: Jim Jarmusch, a man who can't even make a little family drama without sticking Tom Waits in there. Here, he's making a Western starring Johnny Depp, Robert Mitchum, a lot of people who would go on to be very famous, and the former lead singer of the Stooges. In a dress and bonnet.It's so good that we've redone the show's theme music in its honour this week. Join Graham and Rob as they discuss the light the film sheds on the Western genre, its place as the first of Jarmusch's offbeat genre exercises, and the film's other hidden punk rock cameo that will blow you away. Plus: the pre-wearing-wacky-hats-for-Disney-money years of Depp's career, Iggy Pop's advice to young musicians and more!If you don't want us to have to go to the town of Machine to earn our fortune, you can donate to our Patreon where we're just about to drop an exclusive episode of this show about Michael Jackson's Ghosts. Also, Graham is about to launch his new podcast The Arts Hole, and there are weekly articles about Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone and more that you won't find anywhere else. Follow us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook for more.

Back to the '90s, and a time when a movie could just be, y'know, anything you wanted. The co-writer of Sid & Nancy, Abbe Wool, went to test this theory with this wilfully inconsequential road movie in which a member of X (John Doe) and a member of The Beastie Boys (Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz) set off to scatter the ashes of a friend of the former musician. It's really the excuse for an eclectic set of cameos, and we mean eclectic - everyone from David Carradine to Timothy Leary, Arlo Guthrie to Flea.But what if there was something deeply profound beneath the surface? Well, we don't quite go that far, but debuting co-host Rob Spencer from Caliber 9 From Outer Space makes a good account of this as a movie of its moment. Joining him to pick over Roadside Prophets's cameos, connections and subtexts is Graham, and their conversation is as free-ranging as the movie: Patty Hearst, cinema's greatest scenes of gluttony, the wonder of Fatma Mohamed and Neil Kinnock's election broadcasts are all under consideration.If you want to help us quit our factory jobs, you can donate to our Patreon, where we've just launched one of our new shows for 2026 - They'll Love Us When We're Dead - with an episode on the Blade franchise. Our new culture show, The Arts Hole, is coming in May, plus Pop Screen exclusives, weekly articles on Doctor Who and the Twilight Zone, and much more. Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook to find out more.