Uncut Gems Podcast

We are slowly closing in on the conclusion of our 2024 Kathryn Bigelow Marathon. With only two movies to go, we are this time setting our sights on Zero Dark Thirty . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the many controversies surrounding this movie, from the portrayal of torture and alleged endorsement of right-wing politics to the filmmakers' choices to introduce composite cha...

In this episode of the show we are beginning John Carpentober, our October journey through the cinema of John Carpenter. And we go back in time to 1976 to examine Assault on Precinct 13 , Carpenter's auspicious take on a siege movies and a gritty love letter to the works of Howard Hawks like Rio Bravo . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the elements of the movie demarcating i...

In this episode of the show we are once more catching up with our ongoing Spike Lee project and this time we are talking about his 2013 remake of the cult classic Oldboy . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the many possible reasons why Spike Lee would end up attracted to this project, how his vision may have differed from what we received and how we might never find out if th...

In this episode of our sprawling Spike Lee Retrospective we are talking about Miracle at St. Anna . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us wonder if this movie signifies a shift in Spike Lee's interests, how it could be seen as Lee's The Longest Day  and whether it functions as a pre-eminent war drama capable of standing toe to toe with some of the classics of the genre. We also talk...

In this episode of the show we conclude our September journey through John Wayne's post=Western career by talking about Brannigan . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about how after resisting for so long, The Duke decided to lean into the Dirty Harry craze, how getting him out of the country might have given him an opportunity to act outside of his comfort zone and how this mov...

In this episode of our 2024 Kathryn Bigelow Marathon we are finally touching base with arguably the biggest success in her career, The Hurt Locker . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about whether this movie is Bigelow unfiltered, how her views on masculinity and genre have evolved over time and how her professional relationship with Mark Boal may have supercharged her own...

In this episode of the show we are discussing the 1968 Hellfighters starring John Wayne. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us wonder about John Wayne trying to find new avenues for himself in an increasingly post-western movie landscape, sticking to an all-American hero in a red onesie, and going out on location for a change to put out some fires. We also talk about the highly prob...

In this special bonus episode we are joined by our great friend Hillary to talk about John Wayne and his two westerns, True Grit and Rooster Cogburn . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about John Wayne making movies of the old while the world was moving on, whether True Grit is even a western and if Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper add any spice to the movie. We also talk about both...

In this episode of the show we are beginning our September with the Old Duke, a short survey of movies John Wayne made when he got older. This week we talk about McQ , a movie where The Duke tried to catch up to the stoic silent cop movies like Dirty Harry  and Bullitt . In our conversation you will hear us talk about movies being written around John Wayne and whether he needed to move on with the...

In this episode of our 2024 Spike Lee Retrospective we are touching base with Inside Man . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk at length about Spike Lee in the mid-2000s, Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor playing good cop-bad cop, Clive Owen's brief moment in the limelight and the idea of bringing New York together as a melting pot. We also talk about hiring easily r...

In this episode of the show we are once again reconnecting with Spike Lee as we are talking about She Hate Me .  Over the course of our conversation you will hear us try to deconstruct this movie and identify its beating heart within in its complex structure. So, we talk about paranoid corporate thrillers, sex comedies, Frank Capra movies and everything else that adds up to this movie. We talk abo...

In this episode of the show we are marking Jakub's 40th birthday by talking about one of his favourite movies, James Cameron's True Lies . Over the course of our sprawling conversation you will hear us talk about how one of the highest-grossing movies of its year is somehow forgotten and whether its troubled hi-def release has had something to do with it. We also ask if its an action comed...

In this episode of our ongoing 2024 Kathryn Bigelow Marathon we are talking about her submarine movie K-19: The Widowmaker . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk - after we dispense with attempting Russian accents, that is - about Bigelow making a turn towards prestige filmmaking, the parameters of a submarine movie and the conventions of portraying Russians by giving Liam Nee...

In this episode of the show we are wrapping up our August deliberations about Ben Stiller in 1998 with a conversation about Jake Kasdan's Zero Effect . Over the course of our chat you will hear us bicker over whether this movie is a great gem or if it indeed has zero effect on the viewer, whether Jake Kasdan is a glorified nepo-baby and if Bill Pullman is as funny as he seems to be. We also ta...

In this very special episode of our show we have the immense pleasure to interview Neil LaBute, the writer and director of many great films, one of which happens to be Your Friends & Neighbors . We talk to him about the ins and outs of making an indie film in the 90s, the importance of rehearsing and the little annoyances of trying to get a movie made with no major studio backing. We also talk...

In this episode of the show we are continuing our August conversations about Ben Stiller in 1998 and we are talking about the mostly forgotten gem written and directed by Neil LaBute, Your Friends & Neighbors . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the many ways in which this movie fits (or does not) in the 90s indie Hollywood scene, how much it owes to Woody Allen, M...

Here's a short teaser of our brand new Patreon-exclusive episode of Uncut Gems Tie-ins, a monthly series where we take a classic movie and connect it to a film discussed on our main show. In this podcast we are tying into our August conversations about movies Ben Stiller made in 1998 with a chat about his arguably biggest hit of the time, There's Something About Mary . Over the course of o...

In this episode of the show we are joined by two great guests, Hillary and Tony, to talk about Permanent Midnight , the first of four conversations about Ben Stiller movies from 1998. Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the way this movie handles the theme of addiction, how it could have leaned into one of its potentially interesting thematic ideas and how its brisk format perh...

In this episode of our ongoing 2024 Spike-a-Thon we are finally getting to his 2002 joint 25th Hour . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the many reasons why Spike Lee would have gravitated to David Benioff's book, how this movie tries to grapple with the looming spectre of 9/11 and how it speaks to all New Yorkers with whom Spike Lee feels immense kinship. We also...

In this episode of the show we are joined by our great buddy Jak to talk about Spike Lee's Bamboozled . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Spike Lee embracing consumer-based filmmaking tools, the film's complex satire on Hollywood and how it has been mostly misunderstood and hidden from view. We also talk about making radical aesthetic choices to upset the view...

In this episode of the show we are concluding our month-long male therapy session as we talk about Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Ferrara's stylistic and thematic relationship with Martin Scorsese, the movie being a journey towards spiritual catharsis, and rogue filmmaking. We also talk about Harvey Keitel's audacious rol...

In this episode of the 2024 Kathryn Bigelow Marathon we are joined by our good buddy Jak to talk about The Weight of Water . Over the course of our conversation, which is arguably more interesting than the movie itself, you will hear us talk about possible reasons why this film came to exist in the first place, what may have drawn Bigelow to the project and why it was initially shelved for a year,...

In this episode of the show we are continuing our July debate about Men in Crisis as we take on a real humdinger of a movie, Steve McQueen's Shame . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how this movie is equally something everyone should see and something everyone will wish to never see again, how Steve McQueen's meticulous and relentless directorial choices infl...

Here's a short teaser of our brand new Patreon-exclusive episode of Uncut Gems Tie-ins, a monthly series where we take a classic movie and connect it to a film discussed on our main show. In this podcast we are tying into our month-long conversation about male mental health and men in crisis and we are talking about David Fincher's Fight Club . Over the course of our sprawling and amazingl...

In this episode of the show we are beginning our July conversations on Men in Crisis, jumping directly off a month on Distressed Dads, and we commence with a great chat about The Art of Self-Defense . Over the course of our debate you will hear us talk about this movie fitting in the legacy of David Fincher's Fight Club , Jesse Eisenberg's awkward presence and the story's potentially d...