Director Watch Podcast Ep. 89 – ‘Closer’ (Mike Nichols, 2004)

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 89 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to discuss the next film in their Mike Nichols series, Closer (2004).

Things got a little rough for Mike Nichols at the start of the 2000s, with one of the worst films of his career and the decade with What Planet Are You From?; an horrendous idea of a film from the mind of comedian Garry Shandling. Just a few short years later though, Nichols returned to the big screen with a film adaptation of the popular play Closer, about four people entangled in a romance in rather sadistic ways. A controversial piece of work, this is a call back for Nichols, who much like earlier in his career, was fascinated by relationship dynamics and the idea of sex, as covered in films previously in this series, i.e. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Carnal Knowledge. Led by an excellent ensemble, Closer feels somewhat like the culmination of filmmaker, though no everyone on this episode will agree with that statement. Ryan, Jay, and Josh break down their thoughts on the film, if it has aged well, which of the four actors gives the best performance, the dated needle drops to throughout the film, and how Closer uses the idea of time passing throughout the film.

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 2h28m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their series on the films of Mike Nichols with a review of his last film, Charlie Wilson’s War. 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).