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 festive-themed episode, Steve encounters some amateur dramatics thanks to Kenneth Branagh's In The Bleak Midwinter. Will the cast be able to successfully perform Hamlet for Christmas, or will the production end up like poor Yorick? Dan finds himself In Bruges along...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow , which comes to you tonight from the streets of Los Angeles. In this episode, we celebrate films adapted from the novels of legendary crime novelist James Ellroy. Ellroy biographer Steve Powell goes back to the 1950s and looks at L.A. Confidential , in which three LAPD cops search for Mickey Cohen’s missing Big H while the notorious crime kingpin is doing time at Big Q...

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 celebrate films which are all talk. Steve looks at My Dinner With Andre , a film in which Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory discuss the big issues in life while enjoying a delicious meal in a New York restaurant. Dan’s pick is Before Sunrise . Ethan Hawke...

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 celebrate the work of maverick Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and look at two seminal films of his career. Steve looks at the gripping wartime drama Black Book and argues it deserves its distinction as the most successful film ever made in the Netherland...

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 claustrophobic films which hinge on one powerhouse performance. Steve's choice is Locke , in which construction foreman Tom Hardy tries to hold his crumbling life together through a series of phone calls while travelling on the M6. Locke will ta...

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 episode, we look at psychological horror films that are perfect viewing this All Hallows Eve. Steve discusses The Man Who Haunted Himself , a doppelganger story in which Roger Moore is stalked by a double who turns his life into a living hell. Dan...

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 the work of Tennessee Williams on screen, and two film adaptations of his plays starring Elizabeth Taylor. Dan argues that Suddenly, Last Summer is a near-perfect adaptation of Williams' work, mixing Southern Gothic and Queer Cinema with aplomb....

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 go down the rabbit hole and examine high-stress/high-octane movies set over the course of twenty-four hours. Steve examines Martin Scorsese's After Hours , the film in which Griffin Dunne's potential one-night stand turns into one night in Hell. And ask...

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 celebrate the work of British director Stephen Frears and look at two seminal films of Frears' career. Steve discusses the gangster road movie The Hit and argues it will take you on a journey towards cinematic heaven. Dan argues that the music, romance a...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In today's episode, Steve discusses Sexy Beast and argues it is the last great British gangster film. Meanwhile, Dan makes the case for Shoot 'Em Up being the best film to have spoofed the action genre. As always, dear listener, you make the final decision as to whether St...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture.  In today's episode, Dan examines Wolfgang Peterson's classic submarine drama Das Boot . Is it the greatest war movie of all time, or should it just stay submerged? Continuing the Naval theme, Steve talks about his fondness for the Steven Seagal action film Under Siege...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special War movie-themed episode, Steve discusses the World War Two murder mystery The Night of the Generals . Is it a perfect marriage of two genres - war and mysteries - or does it fail on all fronts? Dan argues that Rogue One is among the best films in the Star...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this special Horror-themed episode, Steve discusses the Vincent Price comedy-horror Theatre of Blood , in which Price plays an actor who murders critics who have been rude about his performances. Is it a case of justifiable homicide or just Price chewing the scenery? Da...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode, Steve examines Ken Russell's biopic Lisztomania . Is it a work of genius or such a bad film that watching it could induce madness? Whereas Dan tries to salvage the reputation of the musical Xanadu . It was a notorious bomb, but can Dan persuade you that it...

A behind-the-scenes snippet of the preparation we put in and sacrifices we make in the name of entertainment....

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture.  In this special James Bond-themed episode, Dan defends the gritty, serious Bond played by Timothy Dalton in Licence to Kill to Steve who feels that Dalton just has a Licence to Bore.  Whereas, Steve defends the tongue-in-cheek, light portrayal of Bond by Roger M...

(This episode was recorded shortly before the death of Electric Dreams star Lenny Von Dohlen was reported in the news.) Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow . The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In this episode, Steve defends Peter Greenaway's arthouse classic The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Love r to Dan who felt the title wasn't...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The show where our podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery pit high art against low culture. In our last episode, Steve defended the epic Barry Lyndon to Dan who thought it was an epic bore, and Dan defended The Expendables to Steve who argued it was ripe for the cinematic dustbin. In this episode, we look at neo-noir and the action thriller. Steve defends the Geor...

Welcome to Highbrow Lowbrow. The podcast where we pit high art against low culture and vice versa. In tonight's episode, Steve Powell defends Stanley Kubrick's magnum opus Barry Lyndon to a sceptical Dan Slattery, and Dan argues that when it comes to big-budget action movies The Expendables is indispensable.

Arthouse, Action Movies, Auteur Theory and Adventures Films, Highbrow Lowbrow is the podcast that has it all.  Podcast hosts Steve Powell and Dan Slattery argue about the merits, or lack thereof, of high and low culture.  Steve and Dan each pick one film that could be classified as either highbrow or lowbrow and have to defend their choice to each other, even though they know it’s a film...