Director Watch Podcast Ep. 85 – ‘Working Girl’ (Mike Nichols, 1988)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision-making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 85 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to discuss the next film in their Mike Nichols series, Working Girl (1988).

By the late 1980s, Mike Nichols was back to being a steady force in the industry. After the moderate success of Heartburn, and while filming his other 1988 feature film, Biloxi Blues, he found the script for the next big hit of his career, Working Girl. In finding a tale of an ambitious secretary from Staten Island working her way up the corporate ladder, pretending to be in her boss’s role and proving herself valuable while also falling in love with the man she partners with on a big deal for both of their companies. Working Girl is not only a staple within Nichols’ filmography, but it is a defining film of the 1980s led by extraordinary performances, zippy dialogue, and just the right amount of earnestness to make it a classic. Ryan, Jay, and Sophia talk about their thoughts on the film, Melanie Griffith’s career best performance, just how complex the story is, the hotness of Harrison Ford, the elegance of Sigourney Weaver, which beer brand is the king of cheap beer, discussions on modern popstars, and over a dozen fun tangents that make this episode so long, yet so great.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h44m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of Mike Nichols with a review of his next film, Postcards from the Edge. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)