Shoot the DVD Player - Sterne

Shoot the DVD Player #25: Faults / Mistaken For Strangers / Africa United

Tim Howard — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 11:08:51 +0000

Another helping of the xxth-most downloaded movie podcast ever! Listen using the player above, or via the i of Tunes.

This week's films:

Faults (2014, dir: Riley Stearns)

Mistaken For Strangers (2013, dir: Tom Berninger)

Africa United (2010, dir: Deborah ‘Debs’ Gardner-Paterson)

Shoot the DVD Player #24: Tehran Taxi / Listen to Me Marlon / Raiders!

Tim Howard — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 04:38:00 +0000

Once again coming at youse from the Melbourne International Film Festival. Listen using the player above or on iTunes. This week's films:

Tehran Taxi (2015, dir: Jafar Panahi)

Listen to Me Marlon (2015, dir: Stevan Riley)

Raiders! (2015, dir: Jeremy Coon & Tim Skousen)

Shoot the DVD Player #23: Tales of the Grim Sleeper / Welcome to Leith / Mississippi Grind

Tim Howard — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 05:26:19 +0000

Direct from the Melbourne International Film Festival, or at least the vicinity of same. This week, we chat about some of the films we've seen at the Festival. Listen using the player above, or subscribe on iTunes.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014, dir: Nick Broomfield)

Welcome to Leith (2015, dir: Michael Beach Nichols & Christopher K. Walker)

Mississippi Grind (2015, dir: Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden)

Shoot the DVD Player #22: It Follows / Berberian Sound Studio / Living In Oblivion

Tim Howard — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 11:18:28 +0000

Like a film podcast? Great! Because here is one.

It Follows (2014, dir: David Robert Mitchell)

Berberian Sound Studio (2012, dir: David Strickland)

Living In Oblivion (1995, dir: Tom DiCillo)

Shoot the DVD Player #21: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night / Sister / The Riot Club

Tim Howard — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 10:52:27 +0000

G'day. New episode. Give it a listen, if you like, using the player above or via iTunes.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014, dir: Ana Lily Amirpour)

Sister (2012, dir: Ursula Meier)

The Riot Club (2014, dir: Lone Scherfig)

Shoot the DVD Player #20: Nightcrawler / Poltergeist / Basic Instinct

Tim Howard — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 11:26:21 +0000

The big two-oh. My how we've grown.

This week's topics for discussion:

NIghtcrawler (2014, dir: Dan Gilroy)

Poltergeist (1982, dir: Tobe Hooper)

Basic Instinct (1992, dir: Paul Verhoeven)

Shoot the DVD Player #19: Coherence / The White Ribbon / The Social Network

Tim Howard — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 11:46:04 +0000

We're back! Listen using the player above or download the podcast from iTunes or your favourite podcast app.

This week's films:

Coherence
(2013, dir: James Ward Byrkit)

The White Ribbon
(2009, dir: Michael Haneke)

The Social Network
(2010, dir: David Fincher)

Shoot the DVD Player #18.5: We're taking a break! / School holiday movies

Tim Howard — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 02:19:52 +0000

As the title suggests, we're having a break from podcasting. Blame uni, blame work, blame life! Before we go put our feet up, however, here's a special mini episode featuring another school holiday movie wrap-up.

Thanks for listening, we'll see you soon!

Shoot the DVD Player #18: Boyhood / Rocky / Mad Max 2

Tim Howard — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 10:30:15 +0000

This week: [Boyhood, 2014, Richard Linklater] Much bally-hooed by the professional critical establishment, Linklater's unconventionally-produced coming-of-age drama now falls under the gimlet eye of the amateur critical establishment, as represented by, er, us. [Rocky, 1976, John Avildsen] I had a cat named Rocky. He died. Sorry to bring the mood down. [Mad Max 2, 1981, George Miller] He's not mad, he's just annoyed at himself for packing only black clothing for a trip to the post-apocalyptic desert.

Shoot the DVD Player #17: Obvious Child / Prince Avalanche / Point Break

Tim Howard — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:28:26 +0000

This week: [Obvious Child, 2014, Gillian Robespierre] A romantic comedy about abortion?! Those godless New York liberals have done it again. This, friends, is what feminism hath wrought. [Prince Avalanche, 2013, David Gordon Green] Drinking, swearing, casual sex. Is nothing sacred? Certainly not in this outrageous piece of left-wing propaganda starring that serial underminer of American values, Paul Rudd. [Point Break, 1991, Kathryn Bigelow] Bank robbers? Surfers? People named "Keanu"? Lock them up, I say, and throw away the key! But of course the liberal elites behind this vile "entertainment" are too in thrall to Mammon to contemplate ideals of righteous justice.

Shoot the DVD Player #16: Force Majeure / The Last Days of Disco / Total Recall

Tim Howard — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:30:41 +0000

This week's fillums: [Force Majeure, 2014, Ruben Östlund] A skiing holiday with two young children sounds like a nightmare; add an avalanche, an act of cowardice, and a fracturing marriage and you've got two hours of squirm-inducing cinema. The perfect date film, in other words. [The Last Days of Disco, 1998, Whit Stillman] Classic, underseen comedy of manners set during the twilight of the glorious disco era. [Total Recall, 1990, Paul Verhoeven] Fun fact: the original Total Recall stars Breaking Bad's Dean Norris as the mutant partisan Vaginaface (possibly not his actual name); the 2012 remake starred Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as Mars' head honcho, Foreskin Cohagen. Small world, innit.

Shoot the DVD Player #15: Let the Right One In / Bram Stoker's Dracula / The Lost Boys

Tim Howard — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 03:46:49 +0000

This week we're all about vampires! Campy, flappy, and in at least one case crappy vampires! [Let the Right One In, 2008, Tomas Alfredson] Grim goings-on in a grim suburb of Grimburg, Sweden. A bullied young boy befriends a strange young girl, while a series of brutal murders shake the community. Also it's the 80s, for no real reason. [Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola] Not yours, Bram's! [The Lost Boys, 1987, Joel Schumacher] Flashy horror-comedy with two Coreys, a Kiefer, plus bonus beefy saxophonist, whose brief appearance provides at least 50% of the film's comedy and perhaps as much as 70% of the horror.

Shoot the DVD Player #14: Ida / These Final Hours / Stand By Me

Tim Howard — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 10:44:56 +0000

Films discussed on this week's episode: [Ida, 2013, Pawel Pawlikowski] A novice nun and her alcoholic aunt travel through the Polish countryside in search of the remains of the nun's parents, who were murdered during WW2. All this film needs is Mickey Rooney and "a big dubble-ya" and it'd be perfect. [These Final Hours, 2013, Zak Hilditch] What would you do if the world was going to end in twelve hours? Take some drugs? Have some sex? Go some cray? Knowing my luck, I'd probably come down with a cold and miss the whole thing. [Stand By Me, 1986, Rob Reiner] Classic coming-of-age tale about four pubescent lads out to find a dead body and possibly poke it with a stick before saying "Huh. Sure seems dead all right."

Hey, do you like our podcast? Why not review or rate it on iTunes? It will help us reach a few more ears, and make us feel all toasty in our heart-parts.

Shoot the DVD Player #13: The Giver / Once Upon a Time in Anatolia / The Big Sleep

Tim Howard — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 11:07:40 +0000

Lucky episode thirteen! Recorded on location under a ladder. This week's films: [The Giver, 2014, Phillip Noyce] The long-awaited adaptation of Lois Lowry's Newberry-winning novel proves to be a let down, and in fact you'd be better off just listening to the Radiohead song 'Let Down', once you've listened to the podcast, obv. [Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, 2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan] Amazing Turkish cop drama set in the desolate Anatolian countryside where desolate men with desolate souls roam, although it's a lot more fun - well, a lot funnier, anyway - than that might indicate. [The Big Sleep, 1946, Howard Hawks] A classic noir, see, with this guy, see, and this broad, see, and a bunch of other guys and broads, see.

Shoot the DVD Player #12: We Are the Best! / Hard Core Logo / Repo Man

Tim Howard — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:53:21 +0000

A special punk week because your Mom and Pop requested it last night in bed. I mean honestly fuck you. The films: [We Are the Best!, 2013, Lukas Moodysson] Teenage Swedish punks rage against meatballs, flat-packed furniture, and other Nordic cliches, actually I'm just being an idiot it's really good. [Hard Core Logo, 1996, Bruce McDonald] That rare beast: a mockumentary worth its weight in semi-improvised dramedy. Egos clash and guitars smash in the Canadian wastes. [Repo Man, 1984, Alex Cox] Classic cult sf/comedy, set in a desolate LA punk milieu. Nothing is more punk than using words like "milieu". Scratch that: nothing is more punk than Emilio Estevez with a dangly earring.

P.S. I put together a playlist to accompany this episode - try listening to the podcast at the same time to experience true aural bliss/confusion. The playlist is available, with slight differences, on Spotify and Rdio.

Shoot the DVD Player #11: The Sacrament / Frost/Nixon / The Boy Who Could Fly

Tim Howard — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:00:17 +0000

This week's sources of fun and frivolity: [The Sacrament, 2013, Ti West] Does found-footage/mockumentary horror have a future? Perhaps not if Ti West's uninspiring Jonestown riff is anything to go by. Luckily, Anna spices things up by telling us about the time she lead a crazed cult dedicated to the worship of a discarded mandarin peal resembling former High Court justice Michael Kirby. [Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard, 2008] Richie Cunningham offers the story of David Frost, a kind of successful, 1970s version of Alan Partridge, and his landmark interviews with disgraced former President and wily old bastard Richard M. Nixon. [The Boy Who Could Fly, 1986, Nick Castle] Castle played Michael Myers in the original Halloween, but presumably he took off the mask to direct this (forgotten?) family classic. John Carpenter makes a cameo appearance in a music video, while Jason Priestly is also in it as someone called Gary, although we didn't spot him. The Boy Who Could Fly's supposed continuity with The Last Starfighter can be explored here. It'll blow your mind!

Enjoy the podcast? Please review and/or rate it on iTunes. We'll love you forevs if you do.

Shoot the DVD Player #10: All Is Lost / Manhunter / The Imposter / School holiday wrap-up

Tim Howard — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:02:08 +0000

Episode 10! What a milestone. And like the mad scientist in The Human Centipede, we're celebrating with an extra segment.

All Is Lost (2013, J.C. Chandor)
Robert Redford in all his craggy glory plays a yachtsman contending with errant shipping containers, wild storms, and the kind of mast problems that are bound to affect a man of his vintage.

Manhunter (1986, Michael Mann)
As the sun sets over the ocean, throwing pastel pinks onto the cirrus-ridged sky, Michael Mann downs a whiskey and leans against the wall of his minimally furnished, impossibly white shoreside mansion, and contemplates the suspense-inducing qualities of "In A Gadda Da Vita". That is how a master filmmaker rolls.

The Imposter (2012, Bart Layton)
Crazy goings-on down in Texas, as a boy goes missing only to turn up three years later looking significantly older and sounding significantly Frencher than before. Somehow, his family buy it, albeit briefly. This is a true story.

School holiday wrap-up
I am joined by a special guest to discuss the school holiday movie season just concluded, as well as Dirty Dancing, because why not.

Shoot the DVD Player #9: Into the Woods / Welcome to the Rileys / The September Issue

Tim Howard — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 11:01:18 +0000

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a... Oh, hello. Didn't see you there. Ahem.

This week's films:

Into the Woods (2014, Rob Marshall)
Podcasting can happen in the woooooooooods. We review the recently-released adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's revered musical, which Anna loves and wants to make out with behind the shelter sheds.

Welcome to the Rileys (2010, Jake Scott)
You know how it is: your marriage is falling apart, so you decamp to New Orleans and enter into a surrogate father-daughter relationship with a stripper played by Bella from Twilight. That old chestnut!

The September Issue (2009, R.J. Cutler)
Two people whose entire wardrobes are worth approximately $5.99 discuss haute couture, Anna Wintour, and some other things that don't work in this rhyme scheme.

Shoot the DVD Player #8: Frank / Audition / Robocop

Tim Howard — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:00:19 +0000

As the ancient prophecy foretold, we have returned to destroy the world/discuss the following films:

Frank (2014, Lenny Abrahamson)
Co-written by everybody's favourite weirdo-conduit, Jon Ronson, Frank is about music and ambition and madness and hiding your true self behind a big ol' prosthetic head. We've all been there, although in my case it was a prosthetic uvula. As a result, my Year 10 formal was extremely awkward, but hey, this is not about me.

Audition (1999, Takashi Miike)
The search for true love hath many an obstacle: indifference, heartbreak, creative use of acupuncture needles and piano wire. If that sounds nasty... well, it is. So why not save yourself the trauma, and just listen to us natter about it.

Robocop (1987, Paul Verhoeven)
Part man, part machine, part lips (ooh-er that's a bit rude), all cop! We take on this classic 80s sf action film, all the while pretending like the recent remake doesn't even exist.

Shoot the DVD Player #7: Noah / Rashomon / Jesus Camp

Tim Howard — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 11:10:31 +0000

It's raining religious nutters - and regular rain - in this week's episode. Pack a brolly.

Noah (2014, Darren Aronofsky)

Our spirit animal returns! Russell Crowe is Noah; some other people are some other people; all of them are very wet. Noah is the Aronofsky Biblical fantasy saga we've all been waiting for, or at least the one we got.

Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)

The classic clash of unreliable narrators. Anna says she watched it on Tuesday. Tim says he watched it Wednesday. Who is correct? (Anna. Tim's a drunken fool.)

Jesus Camp (2006, Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing)

To quote the Book of the Doobie Brothers, Jesus is just all right with me. What's not all right is all the brainwashing and abuse perpetrated by the authoritarian bell-ends in this here documentary. Not all right AT ALL.

Shoot the DVD Player #6: Starred Up / The Vanishing / Howard the Duck

Tim Howard — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 10:55:41 +0000

Happy new year! Here, have a podcast. First in a series of school holiday episodes recorded with a teenager in the next room, shaking her head at the idiot adults and their funny little internet radio show. This week:

Starred Up (2013, David McKenzie)
Shit goes down - and on at least one character's forehead - in this grim, gripping British prison drama.

The Vanishing (1988, George Sluizer)
A woman disappears while shopping at a highway service station. Man, prices at those places can be deadly, amirite? Then her bf gets all obsessed and the kidnapper's all like yeah I'll fuck with you too now haha coz I'm psycho stroke my beard.

Howard the Duck (1986, Willard Huyck)
← 'Nuff said.

Shoot the DVD Player #5: The Wind Rises / The Young Poisoner's Handbook / Cube

Tim Howard — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 12:39:59 +0000

It's Christmas, or at least it was, but let's not talk about that. This week's fillums:

The Wind Rises (2014, Hayao Miyazaki)
Miyazaki's final (or is it?) film. This one's about planes, this time with human, rather than porcine, pilots. Not as potentially delicious, but we're not here for the eats.

The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995, Benjamin Ross)
The protagonist of this film - based on a real life mur-diddly-urdler - is named Graham Young, which I guess makes the title a pun. Only took me 20 years to get it. Anyway, this film will teach you how to poison people, and on the podcast we poison someone on mic for your entertainment. Someone bad, mind.

Cube (1997, Vincenzo Natali)
Imagine a giant Rubik's Cube, only instead of trying to impress your friends by removing the stickers and putting them back on in colour groupings you're trapped inside it with a bunch of shrieking arsehats and facing grotesque death at every turn. Still better than the sodding Rubik's Clock.

Shoot the DVD Player #4: Locke / Stranger By the Lake / Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Tim Howard — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:47:01 +0000

The podcast world is in a spin about the final episode of Serial, but those of us who don't have insane speculative subreddits devoted to us - yet - have to push on, too. This week:

Locke (2013, Stephen Knight)
85 minutes trapped in a car with Tom Hardy could get weird, especially if he's wearing the Bane mask. Fortunately, in Locke he's wearing a Tom Hardy mask, and very convincing it is too.

Stranger By the Lake (2013, Alain Guiraudie)
The peen flows thick and fast in this French psychological thriller (of sorts), as a gay cruising spot becomes the hunting ground of a moustachioed killer. Man, don't the French love their unsimulated sex scenes? Not like us Anglosphere types who prefer to do it with the lights off and in adjoining rooms if possible.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986/1990, John McNaughton)
Portrait of a serial killer, I forget his name.

Shoot the DVD Player #3: The Trip to Italy / Still Walking / Moon

Tim Howard — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 11:09:51 +0000

We're back like Backstreet, and you better believe we are sex-U-al, not that it's any of your business. This week's fillums:

The Trip to Italy (2014, Michael Winterbottom)
When the words "improvised hilarity" are uttered, intelligent people tend to think first of our humble podcast. However, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are pretty good at it too. Is The Trip to Italy a rave to rival a week of venereal disease-trading on Fairstar the Funship c. 1985? Or is it more like Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes except it's through Italy and the donkey is a horse that has been flogged to death do you see what I'm saying? Is anyone reading this? Because I'm still writing it, apparently.

Still Walking (2008, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
From the director of Nobody Knows and I Wish, Still Walking is a meditative, gentle family drama. Anna and I think this guy is tops. Why? Listen and we'll tell you at some length.

Moon (2009, Duncan Jones)
Yes, Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son, and probably had to put up with all kinds of stupid space odyssey jokes while making and promoting this film. So let's not belabour the point here. That kind of thing is well out of fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion.

Shoot the DVD Player #2: The Mule / A Field In England / Proof

Tim Howard — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 11:05:49 +0000

Angus Sampson swallows condoms full of heroin, David Stratton trades fluids with various notable directors, and Tim has a thing for Hugo Weaving’s cane. Our second episode is film criticism at its peak something-or-other.

The Mule (2014, Tony Mahony, Angus Sampson)
We swallow our pride, among other things, to review this new Australian black comedy. The gags make Anna gag, while Tim questions the distinctiveness of Hugo Weaving’s moustache. In the end, everybody enjoys a nice dump. (Not recorded.)

A Field In England (2013, Ben Wheatley)
Weird druggo alchemical 17th century craziness, courtesy of the director of Kill List, Sightseers, and, er, Doctor Who.

Proof (1991, Jocelyn Moorhouse)
The regular Russell Crowe portion of the show takes in this early 90s gem. Hugo Weaving gets blind, Russell gets his ‘tocks out, and Genevieve Picot is as cold as ice, and is, if reports are to be believed, willing to sacrifice our love.

Shoot the DVD Player #1: The Babadook / Winter's Bone / Romper Stomper

Tim Howard — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 22:58:51 +0000

Our first episode! They said we'd never make it, or they might have had they known we were doing it. They! What a bunch of negative tossers.

Anyway, here we are. Forty-five-odd minutes of Anna and me yakking about movies, plus some musical interludes to give you brief respite from us yakking about movies. We hope you enjoy our maiden effort. Comments are of course welcome, and you can find us on twitter @timsterne and @ARPy_.

[02:24] The Babadook (2014)
Jennifer Kent's domestic monster movie has Tim questioning his fright-fitness, while Anna conjures a satanic sock-and-lint man. The verdict? Parenting is the real horror story. (Sorry, kids. We love you.)

[17:41] Winter's Bone (2010)
Methamphetamine, Jennifer Lawrence and "historical banjos" meet in this bleak but not-too-bleak Ozarks mystery. Meanwhile, Anna doesn't know about the awful thing that happens in Deliverance, so let's keep that a surprise.

[27:32] Romper Stomper (1992)
Russell Crowe loves Hitler, while Tim has eyes only for Jacqueline McKenzie's moonlit arse. Has this controversial Australian film retained its power to shock? You'll have to listen to find out.

Artwork

Tim Howard — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 21:42:59 +0000

Photo source. Used under Creative Commons licence.

A peek inside our hi-tech recording studio...

Tim Howard — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 05:55:22 +0000