Uncut Gems Podcast

In this episode of the show we are taking a close look at the 2005 directorial debut of none other than Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada , a fragmented neo-Western that harbours much more under its bonnet than meets the eye. We try to unpack its multiple thematic strands embedded in the narrative conjured by Guillermo Arriaga ( Amores Perros , Babel ), wonder if it is a lov...

In this episode of the show we are setting our sights on M. Night Shyamalan's conclusion to 'The Eastrail 177 Trilogy' (aka 'The Unbreakable Trilogy'), Glass . We leave no stones unturned as we grapple with the film's status as a potentially misunderstood masterpiece, get to the nitty-gritty of Shyamalan's filmmaking style, screenwriting quirks, indulgences and inspirations, and try to figure out...

In this episode of the show we are taking a look at the 1988 sci-fi buddy cop movie starring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin, Alien Nation , and pitting it against a film that could be seen as its spiritual descendant, the David Ayer-directed Bright . We are trying our best to understand why one of these films feels organic, lived-in and fun, while the other comes across as offensive to the senses (...

In this episode we stay in the 1970s and take a very close look at John Frankenheimer's forgotten blockbuster, Black Sunday . We dig deep into Frankenheimer's place as an iconic filmmaker of the decade, wax poetic about the film's unique aesthetic, attempt to identify just how much of it has crept into the subconsciousness of popular culture and even try to tease out the connective tissue present...

In this episode of the show, we are travelling back in time to the seventies and talk about Sam Peckinpah's penultimate directorial effort, Convoy . Together with our guests we try to decide if Kris Kristofferson is hot or not, figure out how the film stacks up to Smokey and the Bandit , try to tease out its convoluted legacy as well as its own identity as a post-western, and dive deep into the nu...

In this episode of the show, we are taking a look at Sam Levinson's Assassination Nation and scratching our heads as to why this jazzy and colourful social satire has all but completely disappeared from cultural consciousness a mere few years after its initial release. We delve into the film's place in a long lineage of culturally significant movies that (perhaps sometimes unwittingly) managed to...

In the inaugural episode of the show, we take a closer look at the mostly forgotten and disregarded science-fiction epic directed by Brian De Palma , Mission to Mars , try to get to the bottom of whether it is a true De Palma feature, to whom it tips its hat and why it bombed mercilessly at the box office when it was released theatrically over two decades ago. As an added bonus, we also expand the...