Tradition dictates that whenever a month comes to a close, I tally up all activities at the Uncut Gems Podcast and its Patreon bonus stream. December saw us conclude the year where we spoke about a dozen different directors and it’s time to round things up and draw a line under 2025 as far as podcasting is concerned.
The final director in our little Director Zodiac was Ben Affleck and we made sure to discuss all of his directorial efforts on our show. We traced his career behind the camera from Gone Baby Gone all the way to Air while discussing his influences, prestige slant mixed with familiar authenticity and what we termed “emotional realism” that gives many of his movies incredible rewatchability. Because we didn’t have enough weekends in December to fit all Affleck’s movies on the main show, we chose to discuss Argo as our monthly tie-in episode available on our Patreon. However, we decided to open this conversation up to everyone, which means you don’t have to pay a single penny to hear us talk about this Oscar-winning movie.
Episode 254 (Gone Baby Gone)
Episode 255 (The Town)
Episode 256 (Live by Night)
Episode 257 (Air)
Bonus Tie-in 55 (Argo) (full episode on Patreon)
The 50-30 series came to its climax as well this month. To give this experiment a proper send-off we chose to talk about one of the 1995 icons, the Martin Scorsese-directed Casino. This podcast is also available to listen for free on our Patreon or on Spotify below.
The 50-30 Series 12 (Casino) (full episode on Patreon)
Last but not least, the Mike Nichols marathon continued with our discourse moving to his 90’s movie written by none other than J.J. Abrams, namely Regarding Henry.
Mike Nichols Marathon 12 (Regarding Henry) (full episode on Patreon)
That’s all folks. In 2025 we have podcasted about twelve different directors, ranging from action stalwarts like Andrew Davis and Antoine Fuqua to auteurs like Robert Altman and indie iconoclasts like Kelly Reichardt and Elaine May. In 2026 we have plenty new conversations lined up and things are going to get quite exciting as the big overarching theme tying the entire year together will be the cinema of the 1980’s. Get ready for some quality chats about cool movies full of nostalgia, camp and glam.
Happy New Year!
Flasz On Film 
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