Screen Shrapnel // news

peeping shrapnels

Screen Shrapnel // 27.11.10 // Peeping Shrapnels

Critics are morons! They couldn’t spot a classic if it rammed a tripod spike into their jugular. Take recently rereleased classic, Peeping Tom, a film so derided upon its original 1960 run that it effectively ended the career of Michael Powell, its director. On this week’s show we try to right some similar wrongdoings by choosing our top three misunderstood classics.

Also on the show we discuss the unstoppable Tony Scott and his cinematic love affair with Denzel Washington – their latest unholy collaboration, Unstoppable, being the sixty-ninth film they’ve made together. Once a year these two Hollywoods giants collide for frantic, passionless, meaningless sex. Tony and Denzel may be having fun, but it’s we the audience who have to witness the results of these perennial tryst – grotesque, deformed, mutated creatures such as Man on Wire, Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 and, unfortunately, Unstoppable. Time to start using protection boys.

Posted at 19:13, 28th November 2010

screenshrapnelmasochism

Screen Shrapnel // 13.11.10 // screenshrapnelmasochism

Like Luis Bunuel, Francois Rabelais and the Marquis de Sade, Screen Shrapnel are equally at home with the esoteric complexities of the human mind as we are with the debased shit stained gutter of mankind’s grizzly underbelly. (Well, maybe not equally.) Today we celebrate our postmodern eclecticism by discussing the high-brow humanism of Another Year, the latest film from Britain’s finest filmmaker, Mike Leigh, and the low-brow sadomasochistic delights of MTV’s No.1 export, Jackass.

Following on from the Jackass boys, the modern day inheritors of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd's daredevil stunts, we choose our favourite slapstick moments from cinema.

The show’s also notable for the guest appearance of Chris Fyvie, the second most handsome and intelligent redheaded gentleman in Glasgow.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

(ps: feel free to bombard Graham Fulton with abuse for having the bare faced cheek to praise Hugh Grant's bumbling English gent shtick one minute, and dismiss the rapid-fire wit of Groucho Marx the next.)

Posted at 16:57, 13th November 2010

screen shrapnel: on the r(o)adio

Screen Shrapnel // 06.11.10 // Screen Shrapnel: On The R(o)adio

“Get your motor runnin’ / Head out on the highway”, the musical mantra to one of the most satisfying of film genres – the Road Movie. From the classic Hollywood of John Ford and Preston Sturges through to the european masters of Wim Wenders and Michelangelo Antonioni, the literal and metaphorical journeys of the Road Movie have provided some of the most cinematic and moving moments in film history. Does ‘Due Date’, the latest male bonding shenanigans from Todd ‘The Hangover’ Phillips, starring miss-matched traveling companions Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, meet the heights of ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ or ‘Midnight Run’, the two quintessential buddy comedy road trips? Well, maybe not, but Graham and Jamie are on hand to reveal what they consider the best of the best from cinema’s rich pickings of Kerouac-esque journeys of self-discovery.

Also on the show we discuss the latest comedy of manners from American director Lisa Cholodenko, ‘The Kids Are All Right’. A film that’s definitely more than alright, Cholodenko takes a sitcom premise – ‘My Two Moms’ is surely being pitch somewhere in Hollywoodland as I type – and creates a hilarious and poignant family drama. And any film containing the acting talent of the lesser spotted Annette Bening is to be cherished.

Join us on the road to enlightenment (or is it the road to Hell?) on this weeks Screen Shrapnel.

Posted at 14:01, 6th November 2010

scream shrapnel 2: the revenge

Screen Shrapnel // 30.10.10 // Scream Shrapnel II: The Revenge

It’s that time of year again, folks. The shuffling zombies and fetid gargoyles that parade the street of Glasgow week-in-week-out will be joined this weekend by Glaswegian youngsters only pretending to be axe murderers and bank robbers. Why? Because it’s All Hallow’s Eve, silly. To mark the occasion, Graham Frankenstein and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis will be choosing for you good people the ultimate horror film playlist to scare yourself silly this Halloween.

We also miss Old Nick (Green) more than usual this week as we discuss a film that falls into his favourite film category. Namely: the hot American teen-girl high school comedy genre that Nick is such an expert in. The film in question being Easy A. For those of you who prefer your screen hotty to have a willy, were also discussing Gorgeous George Clooney’s sexy hitman-cum-gunsmith movie, The American.

These are the demented howls of Scream Shrapnel. Have a listen, you'll only be slightly terrified. And remember: Stay on the road, keeps clear of the moors and, most importantly, beware the moon!

Posted at 20:24, 4th November 2010

the geek will inherit the earth

Screen Shrapnel // 23.10.10 // The geek will inherit the earth

On this episode of Screen Shrapnel we celebrate the characters that don’t get enough appreciation: the arseholes. The heroes get the girls and the baddies get to have fun murdering and pillaging, but spare a thought for the omega-males (sorry ladies, the arsehole is almost always male) who don’t tip their waitress, cheat the protagonist out of their promotion or steal from their elderly mothers purse. To celebrate the release of The Social Network, the true story of how uber arsehole Mark Zukerberg got rich by shafting his mates, two other real-life dickheads, Jamie and Graham, will be choosing their top cinematic arseholes. Who are yours?

Also on the show: we gush over 'The Social Network', the film that will perhaps come to define the decade we called the Aughties; we give some faint praise to Matt Reeves and 'Let Me In', his english language adaptation of 'Let the Right One In', one of the finest films of last year; and we give a quick rundown of the films we loved at the LFF.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed.

Posted at 15:31, 23rd October 2010

screen shrapnel never sleeps

Screen Shrapnel // 09.10.10 // Screen Shrapnel Never Sleeps

If you can remember the 80s, you weren’t there, man. Believe it or not, both Graham and Granddad Dunn are too young to recall the decade that fashion forgot, save for hazy half remembered visions of Scooby-Do cartoons, dancing to Jive Bunny at birthday parties and a scary old witch in a blue shoulder-padded blazer and sensible shoes who stole our milk. But if we ever need reminded of those dark days we flip on the DVD of Oliver Stone’s 1987 Wall Street, a film which condenses the years of Reaganomics, bad clothes and big hair into a 100 minute faustian tale where a young Charlie Sheen sells his soul to Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko, a slick haired shark with a mobile phone the size of a toaster and a talent for spouting zeitgeisty slogans. Will youngsters growing up in the 00s be looking back to Oliver Stone’s sequel to understand the insanity of our current financial institutions? Have a listen to find out.

As well as the crooks of Wall Street we also discuss the more loveable blue-collar thieves of Ben Affleck’s The Town. After his impressive directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, he’s back in Boston and back in front of the camera for a muscular heist film in the Heat vein, with some added romance.

Finally, Graham delves into the back of his DVD collection to reveals a Dirty Little Secret: he loves Ocean’s Twelve, the unwanted ginger-haired bastard child of Steven Soderberg’s Ocean’s trilogy. But can he convince Jamie, a card-carrying Sorderberg-sceptic, that it’s more than just a glorified holiday video for Clooney, Pitt, Roberts et al.

Posted at 17:24, 9th October 2010

the horror... the horror ...

Screen Shrapnel // 02.10.10 // The horror... the horror ...

The horror...the horror... No, I'm not talking about Elizabeth Berkley's acting in “Showgirls”, that's brilliant. I'm talking about the primordial horror that is Joe Dante's “The Hole”, the gruesome horror that is Adam Green's “Frozen”, and the artistic horror that is “Peepli [Live]”. All three are reviewed on this week’s show.

As well as this pre-Halloween fright-fest, we’re also discussing the aforementioned Ms. Berkley and the horror show that was the critical mauling that greeted her 1995 feature starring debut “Showgirls”. The winner of eight Razzie awards, including the ignominious worst film of the decade award (only L. Ron Hubbard adaptation “Battlefield Earth” has won more), Paul Verhoeven’s Las Vegas set extravaganza is perhaps the most misunderstood film in cinema history. On this week’s show one Shrapnel member defends its honour, arguing that it’s one of the great satires of the American Dream and the Star-is-Born films that perpetuate its myth.

Have a listen and join Graham and Jamie as they enter the heart of darkness.

Posted at 13:28, 2nd October 2010

twisted sister/brother/father/mother

Screen Shrapnel // 25.09.10 // Twisted Sister/Brother/Father/Mother

After last week’s fatal mother/son relationship in Herzog’s “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?” we’ll be discussing three more films that explore dysfunctional parent/child dynamics – “Mother”, from the genre blending mind of Bong Joon-ho, the Robin Williams starring “World’s Greatest Dad” and Ozark set hillbilly thriller, “Winter’s Bone”. The question is though: what is cinema’s most twisted filial relationship? The Screen Shrapnel team delve into their traumatised cinematic pasts to choose their favourite fucked-up family units.

Similar to a family bond is the director/actor unions that form through multiple film collaborations. These tight knit relationships have created some of finest films ever made – think of the trio of gangster films from Jean-Pierre Mellville and Alain Delon, the string of 80s masterpieces from Woody Allen and his muse Mia Farrow, or Hitchcock’s quartet of pictures with Jimmy Stewart, where the rotund englishman morphed cinema’s blue-eye boy into a dead-eyed old pervert. But who are today’s great director/actor team-ups? Forget your Burton and Depp love-ins, the Soderbergh and Clooney vanity projects or the shaky cam shenanigans of Greengrass and Damon, for our money the most consisted Hollywood director/actor team-up of late has been the nutty Dadaist insanity of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell (“Anchorman”, “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers”). Tune in to hear us delve into their riotous new collaboration, “The Other Guys”.

And finally, it falls to Graham to reveal a dirty little secret: he likes “Sleepless in Seattle”, the 1993 vomit-inducing snore fest from perennial purveyor of puke, Nora Ephron. But with Anthony Lane and Amy Brennan in his corner, can Jamie convince him of the error of his ways. Tune in to find out.

Posted at 18:34, 25th September 2010

screen shrapnel, the wrath of klod

Screen Shrapnel // 18.09.10 // Screen Shrapnel, the Wrath of Klod

“Ecstatic truth. I've always tried to strive for a much deeper truth in the images, in cinema, in storytelling, on a screen, so whether I've achieved it or not remains to be seen. . . . There are short fleeting moments when I know that I have achieved it. And to work for that and to strive for it and to try, gives at least some dignity and some meaning to my existence.”

-Werner Herzog, from "Herzog on Herzog"

After gorging on the bland characters and cliched plots of the summer blockbuster last week we delve into the far more nourishing cinema of Werner Herzog, director of German New Wave classics “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser”. The Bavarian maverick’s latests search for aesthetic truth, “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?”, sees him teaming up with Michael Shannon, an actor who can give Herzog regulars Klaus Kinski and Nic Cage a run for their money in the wild-eyed lunacy stakes, for a tale of matricide and madness. Graham and Jamie also look back across Herzog’s prolific career to pick their three personal favourites of his films.

Oedipal themes and borderline personality disorders are also present in “Cyrus”, mumblecore movement directors Jay and Mark Duplass’ major step towards the mainstream. Jonha Hill plays the titular momma’s boy weirdo who starts a battle of wits with his single mother’s (Marisa Tomei) new suitor John (John C. Reilly). The three leads are outstanding, but how is the film as a whole? Have a listen to find out.

Also on this week’s show, we introduce two new features: Dirty Little Secret and Something for the Weekend. Neither are as sexy as their risque titles suggest.

Posted at 17:17, 18th September 2010

screen shrapnel vs the film world

Screen Shrapnel // 11.09.10 // Screen Shrapnel vs The Film World

The 35th anniversary of the first ever ‘Event Movie’, Jaws, hasn’t exactly been a classic in terms of high octane fun, but there were a few golden nuggets to be found on the bitter coalface that was summer movies 2010.

But what were these gems? The Screen Shrapnel trio reunite (well, kind of) to run through ten of the silly season's biggest hits and sort the Speeds from the Speed 2: Cruise Controls. Expect to hear some gratuitous gushing from Jamie for one film in particular, some existential angst from an out-of-sorts Graham and the usual positive contribution from a strangely taciturn Nick.

These are the piercing sound fragments of Screen Shrapnel. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

Posted at 12:58, 11th September 2010

how time flies

Screen Shrapnel // 12.06.10 // The Jacques Audiard Memorial List

For the last show we run down our favourite films from the first half of 2010... enjoy.

Graham’s picks - Un Prophete, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Four Lions, The Ghost, I Am Love, Up In the Air, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The House of the Devil, Revanche, That Evening Sun

Jamie’s picks - Four Lions, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Lourdes, How to Train Your Dragon, Un Prophete, The Ghost, The Girl on the Train, I Am Love, Greenberg, The House of the Devils

Nick’s picks - Un Prophete, Lebanon, Dogtooth, The Killer Inside Me, Four Lions, Youth In Revolt, Cemetery Junction, Kick-Ass, Whip It, The Road

Posted at 00:16, 13th June 2010

it’s like we’re looking in a mirror

Screen Shrapnel // 05.06.10 // The Gerard Butler Memorial List

It’s a sad day when you realise that you no longer identify with the young beautiful people of the film world but, rather, you’re drawn to its misanthropic, aging ne’er-do-wells. This is the epiphany of Screen Shrapnel’s elder statesman, Jamie Dunn, when he watched Greenberg, the latest film from Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) – he empathised totally with the film's titular middle-aged curmudgeon/psychopath who’s clinging to his youth like a limpet.

Talking of identifying with film protagonists, She’s Out of My League’s main character is Kirk (Jay Baruchel), an average schmuck, who's barley a five on the attractiveness spectrum, but by some miracle manages to bag himself a beautiful, cool, super-successful woman i.e. a hard ten. Sound familiar Graham?

As well as reviews of Greenberg and She’s Out of My League, we discuss Ajami, an epic, multi-stranded gangster picture from the film nation currently a la mode, Israel. And as a primer to next weeks year roundup we look at the stinkers of the last six months - we’re looking at you Sex and the City 2 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Go on, have a listen. You’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 00:10, 13th June 2010

dicks talk chick flicks

Screen Shrapnel // 29.05.10 // Sex and the Shitty 2: this time it’s menopausal

There’s a distinct whiff of estrogen in the studio today as we discuss the films aimed towards, and made by, the fairer sex. First off, Graham recounts his tale of how he braved the Dior hand bags, Gucci shoes, GBFs and menopausal women at the opening night of Sex and the City 2. (He claims he was dragged there by his girlfriend Lucy, but we don’t buy that for a second.) Jamie, meanwhile, had a far more enjoyable time watching Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7. The unsung gem of the the Nouvelle Vague, it forms the heart of the Agnes Varda session currently at the GFT, which included other masterpieces such as Le Bonheur, Vagabond, The Gleaners and I and last year’s beguiling The Beaches of Agnes. We finish the show by choosing our favorite ‘chick flicks’. We also throw some testosterone into the mix by reviewing Antoine Fuque’s Brooklyn’s Finest.

Expect to hear some misogyny from Graham, some school boy level ‘wit’ from Nick and some pretentious waffling from Jamie. Basically it's like every other Screen Shrapnel show then.

Posted at 16:00, 30th May 2010

the critic inside me

Screen Shrapnel // 22.05.10 // Bad Cop / Worse Cop

Remakes are terrible, aren’t they? Cynical cash-ins from the creatively bankrupt; hackney art vacuums designed to sell popcorn from shallow filmmakers like Tony Scott (director of The Taking of Pelham 123 and the upcoming The Warriors) and Michael Bay (producer of Halloween, The Amityville Horror and the recent Nightmare on Elm Street). They’re the cinematic equivalent of fake Kappa trackies. But every once and a while one of these cheap counterfeits is equal to its original; even rarer, it improves upon it. Think John Carpenter’s The Thing, Phillip Kaufmann’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Michael Mann’s Heat. This week sees another film that can be added to this list: Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant. With its release this weekend the Screen Shrapnel team will be revealing their favourite re-makes.

Also on this week’s show Screen Shrapnel get inside the mind of two disturbed law enforcers: we have a bad trip with eponymous bad lieutenant Nicolas Cage in Herzog’s re-imagining and we enter the shattered psyche of Lou Ford (Casey Affleck), the sheriff protagonist of Michael Winterbottom’s neo-noir The Killer Inside Me. We also hitch a ride in a sweaty tin-can in Samual Maoz’s tank set sophomore film, Lebanon

Posted at 12:31, 22nd May 2010

jihadi jesters and an angry, tight-wearing kiwi

Screen Shrapnel // 15.05.10 // Boyz n Da (Robin) Hood

There’s a new dawn in Downing Street: New Labour is old news as Cameron and Clegg become Britain's first homoerotic Prime Ministerial double team. (How will these handsome devils get any work done with all that man-love?) No such problems at team Shrapnel as Jamie and Graham have their now weekly argument about the latest blockbuster - in this week’s case, it’s Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Can Scott’s leading man of choice, Russell Crowe, match fellow Antipodean Errol Flynn’s take on the English hero or the charming vulpine outlaw in Disney's version? Tune in to find out.

Also on this week’s show: Chris Morris brings his brand of satire to the big screen in Four Lions (think of a Jihad Dad’s Army, with a terrorist cell of child-men instead of a hapless Home Guard); Austrian anti-thriller Revanche; and we choose our favourite buddy movie.

These are the demented sound fragments of Screen Shrapnel; prepare to be underwhelmed

(ps. Nick Green fans - if such people exist - may be disappointed this week as their favourite film loving slap head is MIA. Rumors that he’s hanging out on the Croisette with his secret lover Dame Judi Dench and dossing on Palme d’or jury president Tim Burton’s haunted yacht are yet to be confirmed)

Posted at 14:51, 15th May 2010

badfellas and un-wise guys

Screen Shrapnel // 13.03.10 // Badfellas

What a week of releases we have! First off, Martin Scorsese - arguably the finest American director currently working - is back this week with Shutter Island, a slice of pulpy B-movie goodness staring Marty’s current leading man of choice, Leonardo DiCaprio. Nick and Graham hitch a ride on the last ferry to the titular wave battered rock to review the insanity within.

If that wasn’t enough, the golden duo of Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon, director and star of the - almost* - universally adored Bourne movies, hit the big screen this week with their familiar shaky-cam shenanigans in Green Zone, the fourth Bourne installment in all but name.

In a subliminal homage to these films this week’s show is a macho affair, brimming with testosterone filled arguments and gratuitous swearing. Screen Shrapnel don’t make up for their sins in church. They do it in the cinema. They do it in the Subcity studio. They talk a lot of bullshit and they know it.

Go on, have a listen; you'll only be slightly disappointed.

*for the record, one of the Shapnel trio think that Doug Liman’s first Bourne installment (The Bourne Identity) is far superior to Greengrass‘ efforts

Posted at 23:46, 15th March 2010

street art good, body art bad

Screen Shrapnel // 06.03.10 // The Girl with the Dragon Tattpoo

You might have noticed that there are some film awards happening this weekend. That’s right! the inaugural Shrapnel awards come to a close with awards going to the finest directors and films of the year. Oh, we also discuss a smaller, less prestigious award ceremony happening tomorrow night (7 March): the Oscars.

On to this weeks releases…step aside Harry Potter; get lost Twilight; that goes for you too Lovely Bones, because there is a new literary sensation about to spew into our multiplexes: the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, a triptych of thrillers that sees odd couple protagonists Mikael Blomkist, a straight laced, middle-aged hack with a face like a potato, and Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious twenty-four-year-old streetwise hacker with the arms of a lumberjack, investigate the nefarious goings on in that dangerous crime hotbed, Sweden. But does the first in the trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, do for the crime thriller what Let the Right One In did for the vampire movie? Tune in to find out.

Also on the show: we discuss the directorial debut from Bristol’s cultural icon Banksy, street artist, provocateur, vandal and now, with Exit Through the Gift Shop, documentarian; and we hear from horror expert and all round lovely chap Alan Jones, who tells us about a 1970s horror film that any cineaste worth his/her salt should own.

These are the demented sounds of Screen Shrapnel. Have a listen, but please…don’t have nightmares

Posted at 13:47, 6th March 2010

dr. kermode and mr. darcy

Screen Shrapnel // 13.02.10 // The (good) doctor will see you now

The Glasgow Youth Film Festival kicked off in earnest on Thursday (11 Feb) with Scouting Book for Boys, the directorial debut of Tom Harper starring Thomas Turgoose (This is England, Somers Town). Screen Shrapnel was there, listen to find out what we thought.

From unrequited love to the love that dare not speak its name, we review A Single Man, directed by another debuting Tom – fashion genius and savior of Gucci, Tom Ford.

Also on this week’s show: we kick-off our new, awkwardly titled feature – Films the Great-Unwashed Should Have Seen but Probably Haven’t – with a contribution from the finest radio critic working in the UK (Screen Shrapnel being a close seconds, by-the-way), the inimitable Dr. Mark Kermode; and the shrapnel awards continue this week with some metaphorical statuettes winging their way to the finest male actors of the year.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 00:03, 16th February 2010

the award for worst film-based radio show goes to

Screen Shrapnel // 06.02.10 // Inshittus: the cinematic equivalent of a cuddle

Dresses are being chosen; tuxedos are being pressed; ‘for your consideration…’ ads are appearing in the trades; cinemas are awash with middle-brow, issue-laden worthyness; and brown envelopes are being exchanged. Me thinks me smells the sycophantic funk of Hollywood’s garish, self-congratulatory award season. We’ve had the Golden Globes, the various Critics’ circles, and the announcement of the Bafta nominees, but we know you’re all waiting for the big one…the Shrapnel awards.

On this week’s show we’re choosing our best supporting actors of the year, male and female. In terms of those second rate awards, the Oscars, the statuettes for these categories are practically engraved already – if both Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique don’t go home with a 10” tall naked gold bald man feel free to kick me in the balls – but we’re hoping to pull out some surprises with our winners.

If you have a favourite supporting actor of actress that you’d like to big-up, post it up on the Shrapnel facebook wall.

Also on this week’s show, we review of a couple of bio-pics: Clint Eastwood’s immortalisation of Nelson Mandela in Invictus and Michael Hoffman’s look at the last few months of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 11:17, 6th February 2010

screen shrapnel: based on the book ‘pish’

Screen Shrapnel // 30.01.10 // Screen Shrapnel: based on the book ‘Pish’

Screen Shrapnel get emotional this week – well one of us does anyway – as we discuss the films that get our tear glands a workin’.

We also discuss Precious: based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, a film that is tear inducing, less because of the plight of its eponymous protagonist and more because of its pretentious/stupid title – what next? Hamlet: based on the play ‘Hamlet’ by Bill Shakespeare, Leaving Las Vegas: based on the life of ‘Mel Gibson’ by Jack Daniels. Talking of everyone’s favourite antipodean bigot, Edge of Darkness sees the return of Mad Mel to the front of the camera after a seven year hiatus – what was Mel up to during those years, I wonder?

The show is also worth listening to for an occurrence as rare as a decent Vince Vaughn movie: Nick and Jamie agree!

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 23:27, 4th February 2010

lost prophètes

Screen Shrapnel // 23.01.10 // Screen Shrap-Gaul

Screen Shrapnel come to you this week with an alcohol-blood level to rival Mel Gibson’s.

Reviews include Un Prophete, the latest film from French auteur Jacques Audiard, a muscular prison movie of the highest order; and Spiderman IV: lost in Afghanistan, or Brothers if you prefer the official title, where a presumed dead war hero (Toby Maguire) returns home shell-shocked to find his ne’er-do-well ex-con brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) has muscled in on his childhood-sweetheart wife (Natalie Portman).

We also do some prophesying ourselves, as we reveal our most eagerly anticipated releases of 2010.

These are the piercing sound fragments of Screen Shrapnel; prepare to be underwhelmed

Posted at 12:38, 23rd January 2010

what’s wrong with you people?

Screen Shrapnel // 16.01.10 // 44 Inch Waist

Humans perplex me. Basically we’re shuffling sacks of neuroses, stumbling through our pitiful lives expelling bad smells, bad manners and bad taste. If you want evidence for all three of these charges just head to cineworld any night of the week. In that garish tower of steel and glass, mingling amongst the smell of rancid hotdogs and the dull drone of elevator music you’ll find even more unpleasant odors and sounds, all emanating from the average film audience, be it cackling teenagers on mobiles, horny couples getting frisky on the back row, corpulent Harry-Knowles-esque nerds with hygiene issues, nattering pensioners sucking on Worther’s Originals, and, worst of all, pretentious cinephiles pontificating on where the director went wrong…I hate those guys.

But even more infuriating than these skin-bags are the films that they cherish. Listen again to this week's show to find out which much beloved movies the shrapnel team can’t stand.

Also on this week show we discuss the Oscar tipped Up in the Air and the expletive laden 44 Inch Chest.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 00:38, 19th January 2010

post-apocalypse...now!

Screen Shrapnel // 09.01.10 // post-apocalypse...NOW!

The bombs are falling, the dooms-day clock has ticked its last tock, UFOs are hovering above The White House, your flat-mate it trying to eat your brains and you’ve just decapitated your rabid five-year-old daughter with a shovel…welcome to the Apocalypse. It’s on this cheery note that Screen Shrapnel kick-off the new decade, and, coincidentally, cinema has provided us with a couple of dystopian nightmares for the boys to mull over.

First up is John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer winner The Road, a hellish vision of a father and his young son’s attempt to survive in a lawless world following an unspecified global cataclysm. From the sublime to the ridicules, we also discuss Daybreakers, a far less subtle imagining of the end of humanity where vampires rules the planet and humans are hunter for their tasty hemoglobin

The team will also be discussing their favourite post-apocalyptic movies and, in Nick Green’s absence, we’ve roped in hirsute raconteur and all round cinema geek James Kloda to add some class to the preceding. It’s the End of Days people, it’s going to be gooey, gory, and a lot of fun.

Posted at 12:20, 9th January 2010

3 women

Screen Shrapnel // 12.12.09 // The obligatory top ten show

What’s the point of film critics’ end of year cannons? Solipsistic, ego-wanking lists that give the listers kudos among their peers, while simultaneously they shame the movie-going hoi polloi for not having seen the latest Bella Tar bore-fest...the bastards. But who are we at Screen Shrapnel to break with this reductive and hackney tradition. So here it is, the greatest films released in the UK in the last 12 months according to your favourite ill informed film-tits, Jamie Dunn, Graham Fulton and Nicholas Green.

So what do our top tens reveal about the Screen Shrapnel team? Well, firstly, we have quite eclectic tastes. Nick, for example, like some schizophrenic Barry Norman, has both a worthy costume drama and a straight-to-video assault on the senses vying for his top spot. Graham, meanwhile, finds space for both a crack-pot Bavarian maverick and an animated family adventure movie.

Also, contrary to our innuendo filled geezer antics in the studio, we’re quite a sensitive trio. Not only did we all plump for sensual studies of passion for our year's best, but our favourites were all filmed by the fairer sex. New age men or what?

What might not surprise you, however, is that there’s little agreement between us, with only two films making all three of our lists: The White Ribbon and Let the Right One In. All in all we have chosen twenty-two films, which include Bright Star, Vinyan, A Serious Man, The White Ribbon, Let the Right One In, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Anti-christ, Moon, 35 Shots of Rum, The Cove, After School, Fish Tank, The Wrestler, Zombieland, Synecdoche NY, District 9, Sleep Furiously, Frozen River, Encounters at the End of the World, Il Divo and UP!.

Get on the facebook page to let us know what we’ve missed.

Posted at 00:19, 18th December 2009

goys, teen angst and prophets

Once again the Shrapnel goys schlep their dybbuk like golems to the subcity sudio to offer up their weekly cinematic kibitz. Expect glitches, schlock and meshuga from your three favourite schmucks.

The Coen brothers are back, and this time they’re serious…well, kind of. A Serious Man sees the Coens continue their great run of form, following the masterful No Country and the under rated Burn After Reading, with their most personal film to date, a Job-like tale of suffering set in 60s Minnesota. Also suffering is Shrapnel’s chief putz, Graham. This week he has bravely endured nauseating dialogue, body issues and the deafening screams of Rpat worshiping tweens to bring you coverage of the event that is Twilight: New Moon. From the ridiculous to the sublime, we discuss Jacques Audiard’s Au Prophet, one of the highlights from a programme of French films showing at the GFT this month.

Plus, we reach the half way point of our hugely popular countdown to the greatest films of the decade. Catwomen, anyone?

These are the piercing sound fragments of Screen Shrapnel, prepare to be underwhelmed.

Screen Shrapnel are also available for Bar Mitzvahs

Posted at 12:47, 21st November 2009

broken britain, corrupted youths and haunted souls

Screen Shrapnel // 14.11.09 // Knees up Harry Brown

Cinema got dark this week. First up, Harry Brown, a Tory-blue tinted vision of 21st century London, where nihilistic teens terrorise residents of a dilapidated council estate. Only Old Testament-style fire and brimstone can cleanse this modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, apparently; step up Michael Caine as the titular gun-tooting pensioner to blow the hoodies’ bloody heads off. Similar neighborhood disturbances abound in a monochrome turn-of-the-19th century Germany in Palme d’Or winning The White Ribbon. But this is a Michael Haneke film; there are no easy answers to be found in this director’s twisted cinematic worlds. There are, however, in Cold Soul, a Kaufman-lite universe where damaged souls are removed as easily as genital warts and traded like Panini stickers. (We didn’t even get a chance to see Armageddon in world demolition expert Roland Emmerich’s 2012)

Who better to lead you through this cradle of filth than three men who make Larry David look like Claudia Winkleman: Nicholas Green, Jamie Dunn, and a very tired, very grumpy, (and very late) Graham Fulton. Individually they are cinephilic curmudgeons. But together they are the golden triumvirate that is, Screen Shrapnel.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed.

Posted at 21:06, 16th November 2009

the men who stare at fox

Screen Shrapnel // 07.11.09 // The men who stare at Fox

How the years fly by. It seems like only yesterday that a nineteen-year-old Jamie was bringing in the millennium in Georges Square and a fourteen-year-old, shell suit clad Graham was down the park quaffing cheap cider and terrorizing old-folk, but ten years later providence has brought these cineastes together to reveal their favourite films of the decade, beginning with the finest efforts from 2000 and 2001. The Oscar indorsed movies of these years were, respectively, overblown sword-and-sandals romp Gladiator (Ridly “not-made-a-great-film-since-Blade-Runner” Scott) and asinine sucrose-slop A Beautiful Mind (Ron “not-made-a-decent-film-since-Parenthood” Howard). But, as all film fans know, the Academy Awards are sycophantic horseshit; here at Screen Shrapnel is where the real film discoveries are.

Also on this week’s show: the Shrapnel boys discuss the vulpine charms of Megan Fox in Diablo Cody’s sophomore writing effort, Jennifer’s Body; we debate the virtues of the Nick Hornby scripted An Education; and we lament the travesty that is Ewan McGregor’s attempt at an American accent in The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 13:37, 7th November 2009

not one for the faint hearted

Screen Shrapnel // 31.10.09 // Scream Shrapnel

So the grand Halloween special initially planned did not come to fruition. Why? Well a late night Halloween party the night/morning before put paid to the guests we had planned. Luckily (perhaps not) your 3 favourite reviewers ignored their bodies initial reaction to too much drink and too little sleep, and in true zombie style shuffled their way wearily into the famous Subcity studio.

And what a show it was.......with initial plans out of the window due to the lack of guests; the current cinema releases took a back seat and the show took on a more shall we say, fluid structure than usual. We discussed the re-issue of An American Werewolf in London, touched on Rob Zombie's latest: Halloween II, and Nick and Jamie clashed yet again over low-budget French horror film The Inside.

Plus, Nick and Jamie went head to head on the scaled down Halloween quiz, Jamie decided to enlighten us with his sordid stories from the night before, and there were strange noises a plenty as Graham got a little carried away with the sound effects he obtained especially for the show.

It's another fun-filled edition of Subcity's #1 film show. Have a listen, you'll only be slightly disappointed.

*As we were slightly late, when you listen again, fast forward to 13 minutes in for the show to start*

Posted at 00:24, 2nd November 2009

the three stooges

Screen Shrapnel // 24.10.09 // Shite Star

They say “three is the magic number”, and who are we at Screen Shrapnel to argue with this arbitrary statement. Therefore, Subcity’s number one (and only) film review show has squeezed a triumvirate of critics into the studio for this week’s show: Graham Fulton, Jamie Dunn and Nick Green.

Fueled on a heady cocktail of sleep depravation, gut-rotting energy drink and testosterone, topics of discussion include Meg Ryan nudity, Question Time and dolphin rape. We also manage to do some reviewing: Wes Anderson’s foray into animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, kicks off the show; Jane Campion’s Bright Star, a measured study of romance between John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawn, splits the Shrapnel team; and we look at eco-doc-cum-heist-movie, The Cove. To round off the show, Graham, Jamie and Nick choose their favourite documentaries.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 12:40, 25th October 2009

when man is ill, the dead shall be on the radio

Screen Shrapnel // 17.10.09 // morning of the living dead

Like Christmas, Halloween seems to come earlier each year, and with two weeks to go till All Saints’ Eve, cinema screens around town are echoing with the demented screams of zombies, vampires and ghosts of movies past.

But it’s not just onscreen that the dead are walking the Earth: this week Nick shuffled into the Subcity studio looking like an extra from Zombie Flesh Eaters, complete with blood-shot eyes, laboured movement and oodles of mucus. Despite the dreaded man-flu, however, he struggled on through.

This week’s releases include the bizarre (Thirst), the mysterious (Triangle), the hilarious (Zombieland) and the disheveled (The Imaginarium of Doctor Pernassus). We also discuss our ignorant socio-political theories surrounding the living-dead and choose our favourite vampire pictures.

These are the piercing sound fragments of screen shrapnel. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

Posted at 23:29, 17th October 2009

carlgate

Screen Shrapnel // 10.10.09 // Racist Radio

Another week, another half arsed attempt at a film review show from Screen Shrapnel. What do Screen Shrapnel sound like, you ask? Imagine, if you will, a Derek & Clive record with more film chat, less swearing, that’s not very funny, and you’re half way there.

This week, in between elocution lessons and casual racism, we discuss the latest film from the near infallible animation studio Pixar, muse on Shane Meadow’s semi-improvised mocumentary, Le Donk & Sorzayzee, and try not to give away the plot of Peter Strickland’s Transylvania set revenge film, Katalin Varga.

Also on this week’s show: the nation’s favourite high-brow discussion feature, The Cultural Highlight of the Week, is back by popular demand, along with a brand new theme tune; anglo-scots tensions reach fever pitch over the pronunciation of the name Carl; and Screen Shrapnel set the Women’s Movement back decades with our ignorant feminist reading of Katalin Varga.

Go on, have a listen. You’ll only be slightly disappointed.

Posted at 11:23, 10th October 2009

the sound of music

Screen Shrapnel // 03.10.09 // Screen Shrapnel: The Musical

Welcome again to Subcity’s best (and only) film review show, Screen Shrapnel.

The tenth month of the Gregorian calendar marks the beginnings of a strange limbo in the film world: an unpredictable period between the high-octane blockbusters of the summer months and the award chasing art-house pictures of winter. The cinematic releases of October are the waifs and strays of Hollywood; they are the unlabelable and the unwanted. And it is our job at Screen Shrapnel to let you know which of these mongrels deserve a loving home and which need a lethal injection.

On this week’s show we tell you the truth about chubby little fatman Ricky Gervais’ latest vehicle, The Invention of Lying. We review Pandorum, a deep space dystopia with an aesthetic that’s somewhere betwixt Alien’s Nostromo and a Prince video circa 1985. And, despite Nick’s protestation, we take a look at the remake of Alan Parker’s 1980 crime against fashion, Fame.

Those brave enough to listen will also hear the debut of our new, brilliantly conceived feature called The Cultural Highlight of the Week. You can also savour some a cappella singing from Nick and hear Jamie’s emasculating confessions of cowardice in the face of a couple of Glaswegian Vicky Pollards.

These are the piercing sound fragments of Screen Shrapnel. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

Posted at 21:11, 3rd October 2009

the lamentable debut of nicholas green esq.

Screen Shrapnel // 26.09.09 // Listen, you muppets! We is well naughty

Welcome to another hour of cinematic stream-of-consciousness cum film review show. Graham is off roaming in the gloaming this week, but fear not, stepping into his substantial shoes is Nicholas Green – self confessed misanthrope and mediocre love-maker.

On this week’s show you’ll hear some impersonations that waver between Upton Park and Hillsborough, some libelous claims against Robert Downey Jr.’s manhood and some ill informed film chat.

We open with a review of The Firm, the latest film from geezer, auteur, and ardent Danny Dyer supporter, Nick Love. Joe Wright’s awards chasing syrup bucket, The Soloist, gets chewed over and spat out. And Nick and Jamie reminisce about blood drench warrens, lagomorpha as big as dobermans, lost hedgehogs and iron giants, in our animation feature.

All this, plus a play-list that includes The Smiths, Art Garfunkel and Neil Diamond.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed.

Posted at 00:46, 27th September 2009

the tricky second show

Screen Shrapnel // 19.09.09 // The Patrick Swayze tribute show

The first FM show! And we made it through unscathed: no swearing, no racism, and no on-air breakdowns. Unfortunately, though, we are still working the mixing desk with all the elegance of a drunken equine. But we’re getting there.

On this weeks show we reminisce about the decade that fashion forgot while discussing 80s set Adventureland, Greg Mottola’s follow-up to the hilarious Superbad. Talking of fashion, we consider the new sub-genre which appears to be the very button of fashion at the moment, the fashion film, which culminates this week with the release of The September Issue. We also discuss Away We Go, the new film from Mr Kate Winslet.

All this, plus we get our first caller, Nick Lindner, which is all the more remarkable given that we are not a call-in show. There is some tension in the studio as Graham takes umbrage with Jamie's surprise choice for most influential film of the decade. And there are some tears as we celebrate the career of the late – and almost great – Patrick Swayze.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed

Posted at 19:41, 19th September 2009

let there be screen shrapnel

Screen Shrapnel // 12.09.09 // (60) minutes of bad radio

Subcity programmers foolishly said, “Let there be Screen Shrapnel”, and there was Screen Shrapnel.

So, the first show is in the can, and what a show it was. With production as graceful as a virgin unhooking his first girlfriend’s bra-strap and with song links as smooth as Robin William’s knuckles, Screen Shrapnel genesis is satisfyingly shambolic. But look beyond our limited DJing abilities and you’ll find some two-carrot nuggets of film criticism.

We discuss Fish Tank, the latest release from late blooming directing talent Andrea Arnold. And we consider Neil Bloomkamp's not too fantastical imaginings of an Earth invaded by some anti-social Aliens in District 9. We also debate the best of the current releases and reveal our favourite British film of the millennium so far.

Go on, have a listen; you’ll only be slightly disappointed.

Posted at 22:22, 12th September 2009