In this episode of the show we discussed Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others, a supernatural horror film that came as part of the post-Shyamalan wave and eventually disappeared from the zeitgeist to become a pub quiz question or an entry in a listicle about films with cool twist endings.
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I don’t think we often tie in the topics of what we cover on the show to a theatrical release. The closest we have ever come to acknowledging the outside world (though I might be wrong) was when we talked about Solo – A Star Wars Story around May the 4th and Alien 3 around April the 26th. But that’s about it. This time we made a conscious choice to tether ourselves to the discourse surrounding the release of Old (brief as it may be in the grand scheme of things) and decided to have a conversation about M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village.
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If you’ve ever bothered to listen to the show, you will know that we clearly don’t set any time constraints, unlike the absolute vast majority of podcasts out there. I know there’s a bajillion think pieces about making a successful show, just as there’s an even larger amount of ‘great advice’ aimed at creating a stunning blog and attracting traffic of comparable volume to the M25 on a Friday afternoon before a Bank Holiday weekend.
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For a bunch of weeks in a row now we have covered on The Uncut Gems Podcast movies that I hold up as bona fide masterpieces. I suppose you could accuse me of some kind of gerrymandering because it is ultimately in my power to decide what we talk about, but it just so happens that movies like Unstoppable, Vanishing Point, Death Proof and this week’s hero – Duel – fit into a theme and also, coincidentally, tend to be overlooked.
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If there is ever a reason to start a podcast, it is to force a bunch of people to watch a movie they won’t like. Just kidding. Or am I?
Seriously though, I honestly created The Uncut Gems Podcast with the expressed desire to talk about movies like Death Proof. Even though it has recently gained some appreciation (as evidenced by the improving reviews found on Letterboxd), it is still considered a bit left-handed (to borrow a phrase from Tarantino himself). But at least in my opinion it is an absolute misunderstood masterpiece of action and suspense and – most of all – a love letter to men and women who put their lives on the line to bring the magic of cinema to life. Therefore, I was really looking forward to having this conversation and to see how others (whose tastes in cinema are quite eclectic too) read this movie. Suffice it to say, it almost came to blows… But seriously, I think we dug quite deep trying to interrogate Death Proof as we talked about Tarantino himself, projected a handful of social commentaries on the film, and tried to identify what makes this movie click for some (here!) while it disgusts others.
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Our high-octane escapade continues as in the last episode we tackled the 1971 cult classic Vanishing Point. In fact, this episode is best seen as a first part of a nested double bill within this series, as it is paired up with a movie that – at least from where I am sitting – is a love letter to Sarafian’s seminal classic, Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. But more on that in a few days.
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In this episode of our show we continued our little series of high-octane adrenaline-infused journey through American cinema. In fact, I shall have you know we still have a good handful of episodes to blow through in this series and I can promise you things will get wild. Not that this episode was not wild enough, because it most assuredly was. After all, how can one even discuss The Cannonball Run in a tame way?
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In the last episode of The Uncut Gems Podcast we took a train to Adrenalinetown and talked about Andrey Konchalovsky’s Runaway Train as well as Tony Scott’s Unstoppable. I think I shall spare you any more train puns even though I have a whole bunch of them ready to leave the station… Ok, I’ll stop.
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I have always thought of Steven Spielberg as a universally-liked and appreciated director. Well, I was wrong.
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Mother (stylized as mother!) was released in 2017 and instantly became one of the most unforgettable cinematic experiences for me. For reference, you can always check out my original review on Letterboxd where I did my level best to summarize the insanity I was subjected to. Interestingly, despite sparking quite a number of controversies, Aronofsky’s film quickly disappeared from the cultural radar. Which is where we step in.
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