Uncut Gems Podcast

In this episode of our 50-30 Series we turn our attention to the movie which swept the Oscars in 1995, Mel Gibson's Braveheart . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how Braveheart contributed to the eventual comeback of the canonical historical epic, bolstered with realistic violence and attention to tone and atmosphere, how the historical epic veers from history fo...

In this episode of the show our February trip through the early outings of Antoine Fuqua continues with a conversation about his sophomore movie Bait . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about how Bait fits into the landscape of movie entertainment at the turn of the century, how much it owes to a whole bunch of 90s movies and filmmakers and how it proves that Hollywood studios can...

In the second episode of our new Mike Nichols Marathon, we are following up our last month's conversation with a chat about a movie Mike Nichols was planning to direct as his debut before Edward Albee's adaptation came across his lap, which is The Graduate . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Nichols "graduating" from stage directing into bona fide mo...

In this episode of the show, we are beginning what will be our February mini-survey of the cinema of Antoine Fuqua, which also coincides with Black History Month celebrated in America and Canada. And we begin this journey with a conversation about his debut feature The Replacement Killers . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the way this movie attempts to transplant Hong Kong...

In this episode of the show we are finishing our January survey of the professional relationship between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg and we are doing so with a double bill of Mile 22 and Spenser Confidential . Over the course of our chat you will hear us debate whether the critics were right about these movies or if they couldn't see the forest for the trees and whether it's appropriate t...

In this month's bonus tie-in show we chose to discuss one of the arguable progenitors of the modern docu-drama, the Paul Greengrass-directed Bloody Sunday . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the incredible immediacy baked into this film, Paul Greengrass's journalistic background lending added realism to the movie and the many subtle ways in which the movie add...

In this episode of the show we are talking about the third collaboration between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, which is Patriots Day . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk at length about the power of Berg's Mann-esque realism and how it is additionally bolstered by the emotional honesty smuggled by the characters, whether Wahlberg's composite character is a detractor...

In this inaugural show of our brand new 50-30 series where we will be talking about great movies turning 50 and 30 this year we are getting together for a chat about Hal Ashby's Shampoo . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how we thought this movie fits in the 1975 landscape, what it was that elevated it to the status of the third-biggest box office success of its year...

In this episode of the show our trip through the professional collaborations of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg continues with a conversation about Deepwater Horizon . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about the many problems getting this movie off the ground, the place of a disaster movie genre in the modern landscape of entertainment and the problem of sensitivity when depicting rec...

We are officially launching our brand new comprehensive director marathon where each month we will discuss one movie directed by Mike Nichols. As we all know, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and the step we take today is a conversation about Nichols's feature debut, the 1967 adaptation of the Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richa...

In this first episode of 2025 we are launching our Berg-Wahlberg January, a month where we will talk about the collaborations between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, and we begin this journey by talking about Lone Survivor . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about how the harrowing true story of Marcus Luttrell translated to the screen and how reality met Hollywood, what Pete...

In this final podcast of 2024 we conclude the December Shane Black Christmas series with a conversation about the Renny Harlin-directed The Long Kiss Goodnight . Over the course of our chat you will hear us try to make sense of the action movie landscape in 1996 and how The Long Kiss Goodnight fit or didn't fit into the changing times, Shane Black's crassness and its interplay with Harlin's innate...

In this special Christmas Bonus episode of our podcast we are loosely tying into our Black Christmas operations by way of talking about an action movie set at Christmas, but most importantly, we are tying into one of the foremost movie Christmas traditions out there. We are talking about Die Hard ! Over the course of our amazing chat you will hear us recount the oral history of how this movie was...

In this episode of the show, our December series of Shane Black Christmas continues with Black's directorial debut, the 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang . Over the course of our sprawling discussion you will hear us talk about how important it was to watch this movie around the time of its release to get on board with its vibes, how it struggles to match Black's crass humor with the story reliant on truly...

In this December Bonus Tie-in podcast we are linking to our main show conversations about Shane Black movies by talking about the breakout hit that blew open the door to Hollywood fame for him: the 1987 Richard Donner-directed Lethal Weapon . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the 80s buddy cop movies and how Shane Black both capitalizes on the 70s Hollywood while char...

In this episode of the show we are beginning our December series of (Shane) Black Christmas where we will go through a few movies Shane Black wrote and/or directed in reverse chronological order but in order of increasing Christmasiness. This week we begin with The Nice Guys , an action comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about...

In this special episode of the show we are putting a bow on our year-long journey through the cinema of Spike Lee. Over the course of this conversation you will hear us talk about what we learned by looking at Lee's movies through a magnifying glass, how much more we ended up appreciating his style, his film IQ and his political animus and just how much we are looking forward to what he does next....

In this episode of our 2024 Spike Lee project we are finally getting together to discuss the last (as of now) feature directed by Spike Lee, the 2020 Da 5 Bloods . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the density and business of the movie, the many references to classic cinema hidden within it and whether it is once again using the past to talk about the present. We also...

In this episode of the show we are finishing the main show part of our Spike Lee Joint-a-Thon as we discuss the final minor joint of this retrospective, the 2015 Chi-Raq . Over the course of our chat you will hear us talk about Spike Lee once again getting on his soap box and delivering a dense and busy treaty underpinned by political ire. We talk about the filmmaker speaking to women as opposed t...

In this episode of the show we are putting a finishing touch on our November exploration of the professional partnership between Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham with a double bill of Wrath of Man and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Jason Statham's career trajectory as a latter day action star, Wrath of Man as a temporally complex od...

In this final instalment of our year-long journey through the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow, we are discussing her last directorial effort to date, the 2017 Detroit . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Bigelow telling stories she cares about, the responsibility of the storyteller towards the material and the nuances of telling socially relevant stories in today's climate....

We did it! In the 200th episode of the show we gathered together with a panel of all-star co-hosts to talk about the namesake of the show, the Safdie Brothers' Uncut Gems . In this show we reminisce for a little while about our journey with this podcast, reveal some of our plans for the future and also, naturally, talk about the movie. We talk about Adam Sandler in "serious" movies, how the film's...

In this episode of the show we are taking our Ritchie-Statham conversations into a whole new dimension as the universe of crime comedies complicated by their plot-related shenanigans make space for faux-philosophical musings about the nature of the self in the 2005 Revolver . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about Guy Ritchie trying to lean into Lynchian filmmaking and com...

In this Bonus Tie-in podcast we are adding to our November conversations about the partnership between Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie with a great chat about their arguably biggest hit, Snatch . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the growth of Ritchie and how this movie differs from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels while remaining largely symmetrical in structure and...

In this episode of the show we are beginning our November exploration of the professional partnership between Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie. Thus, we begin with their debut, the 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels . Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the influence of Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez making a mark on British cinema, the complexit...