Uncut Gems Podcast

In this episode of the show we are soaring into the skies together with The Great Waldo Pepper , which is the 1975 George Roy Hill movie that the filmmaker held as the most personal and important movie he had ever made. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the ways in which The Great Waldo Pepper connects to George Roy Hill's lifelong passion for flying as well as hi...

In this episode of the show, we are continuing our August with George Roy Hill as we talk about his audacious anti-war epic Slaughterhouse-Five . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the ways in which this movie adapts Kurt Vonnegut's seemingly unadaptable prose, the comments it makes about the morality of war and two wrongs not making a right, and how its impenetrab...

In this episode of our comprehensive retrospective of the cinema of Mike Nichols we are talking about his second collaboration with Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron, the 1986 Heartburn . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the complex genesis of this movie, how bringing a real-life story to the screen was complicated by the people portrayed in the movie, and how it marked M...

In this episode of the show we are beginning an entire month of conversations about the cinema of George Roy Hill and we are kicking things off with his western classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the ways in which this movie fits into the twilight zone between the withering Old Hollywood and the incoming New Hollywood tidal...

In this episode of the show we are concluding our July adventure with Richard Lester with a double header of Superman II and Superman III . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how Superman II wrote the playbook for a comic book movie sequel, how it humanizes Superman while also further denuding the many problems this character will continue to have in future movies. We...

In this episode of the show we are tying into our Richard Lester conversations with a debate about the seminal comic book movie, the Richard Donner-directed Superman . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the ways in which Superman wrote the playbook for what later became a comic book movie genre, how the many cuts of the movie that are in existence complicate the plot,...

In this episode of the show we are discussing another off-kilter Richard Lester movie, the 1979 Cuba . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how this movie connects to Casablanca and The Battle of Algiers , how important it is to make sure the chemistry between two romantic leads is undeniably there and whether the post-Bond Sean Connery was the man to evoke it. We also t...

In this episode of our ongoing 50-30 series, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's Jaws . Over the course of our incredible conversation you will hear us talk about our relationship with this movie, the numerous production legends surrounding it and just how influential it was on the culture at large. We also talk about how Jaws fits in between the legacies of The New H...

In this episode of the show, probably one of the shortest on record, we continue our Richard Lester conversations by talking about one of his period epics, Robin and Marian . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about how on paper this movie works as an intellectual subversion of the swashbuckling genre and how in reality it only gets to buckle a few swashes. We also talk about Richar...

In this episode of our Mike Nichols marathon, we reunite with the battle-worn director to talk about a movie that took him out of his self-imposed Hollywood exile, Silkwood . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how this movie contributes to the spawning of a crusader realism subgenre, the genesis of his fruitful collaboration with Nora Ephron and Meryl Streep and how th...

In this episode of the show we are embarking on a July expedition into the cinema of Richard Lester and we shall begin by talking about his 1974 cruise ship thriller Juggernaut . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us debate (because it seems to be one our favourite pastimes recently) whether this movie fits into the legacy of 70s disaster movies, how it leverages the authenticity of...

In this episode of the show we are closing the books on Robert Altman June with his 2001 period-set whodunnit Gosford Park . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us debate whether this movie is a murder mystery, if it wants to be one and if the intent is for it to subvert the genre. Or maybe if it is supposed to be a platform for Altman to exercise his signature moves. We also talk ab...

In this podcast we are tying into our June conversations on Robert Altman with a debate about his biggest commercial success, the 1970 anti-war satire M*A*S*H . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the many ways in which Altman attempted to redefine and deconstruct the perennial genre of a war movie, how the audiences chose to respond to this over Catch-22 and how this m...

In this episode of the show we are moving our Altman conversation to the 90s as we discuss his sprawling epic, some would say a tapestry, Short Cuts . Over the course of our equally sprawling conversation you will hear us talk about Altman emerging from the shadows and reclaiming his position as a critical darling, the many reasons why film critics tend to see Short Cuts as one of the best of its...

In this episode of our 2025 series where we talk about gems from 1975 and 1995 we decided to go whole hog and commit the entire month to Robert Altman by discussing his 1975 Nashville . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us debate this movie as a tapestry of American society, how it is timely and timeless in equal measures and how it interweaves personal vignette stories into a narr...

In this episode of the show our Alt-June continues with a discussion about Altman's 1977 3 Women . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us try to get to the bottom of what exactly this movie is about, whether it can be interpreted in a logical manner and if its symbolism carries some depth. We also talk about Altman imitating Bergman and anticipating David Lynch, the concept of st...

In this episode of the show we are continuing our June celebration of Robert Altman's centenary with a great discussion about The Long Goodbye . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how Altman chose to deconstruct film noir, chiefly by stripping it of its iconography and by treating his protagonist as a fish out of water. We dig into how this movie still tries to ful...

In this instalment of our ongoing Mike Nichols Marathon we are setting sights on The Fortune , a movie that nearly ended its director's career. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how this movie came together as a package deal with Warren Beatty's passion project Shampoo , how it carried an immense promise because of the talent attached to it, and how it all cam...

In this episode of the show we are beginning, albeit a little bit prematurely, our June excursion into the cinema of Robert Altman who would be celebrating his 100th birthday if he was still with us. And we are starting off with his anti-western McCabe and Mrs Miller . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how Altman fits into the landscape of New Hollywood, how he set ou...

In this podcast we are tying into our Elaine May May conversations with a chat about a movie she co-wrote and for which she got an Oscar nomination too, namely Heaven Can Wait . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us try to figure out how and why this movie ended up as successful as it did, if it was a bellwether of the changing times suggesting that the world had had enough of the N...

In this episode of the show we are concluding the main part of our Elaine May May with her last directorial outing to date, the 1987 Ishtar . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk, again, about the uphill struggle of getting this movie made, how it may have been out of step with the 80s milieu and maybe how it tried to fit in the landscape of newly reborn comedy. We also talk a...

In this episode of the show we are adding the third instalment into our Elaine May May where we talk about her 1976 Mikey and Nicky . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the arduous and crisis-laden production history of this movie, how Elaine May channeled the spirit of rogue indie filmmaking and how her movie works as a bridge between Cassavetes and Scorsese. We also...

In this podcast we are looking back at the Summer of 95 to talk about the Tony Scott-directed Crimson Tide . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about what makes this movie so immersive and compelling, how an intersection between performance, writing and production design may be the key to its magic and how Tony Scott flawlessly found balance between authenticity and preposte...

In this episode of the show our Elaine May May continues with her sophomore directorial effort The Heartbreak Kid . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us dig deep into the movie to find how it subverts the genre and works as a polar reversal of The Graduate , how the many production woes surrounding this movie proved that Hollywood was a hostile environment for female filmmakers at...

In this episode of our Mike Nichols Marathon we are moving onto the 1973 The Day of the Dolphin . Over the course of our conversation we will attempt to understand how a movie about George C. Scott talking to dolphins fits in the catalogue of someone who brought Hollywood into the new age with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate , whether this movie had a chance of succeeding in t...