Second Cut

HBO documentaries built their reputation on access, scandal, prestige, and difficult truths. In this episode of Second Cut, we look at The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee and Bama Rush to ask what happens when a documentary is shaped by a powerful subject’s own memory, or blocked from fully accessing the story it wants to tell.

We discuss HBO’s documentary history, Sheila Nevins, America Undercover, Bill Nichols’ documentary modes, Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post, JFK, Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, and All the President’s Men. Then we turn to Rachel Fleit’s Bama Rush, sorority culture at the University of Alabama, TikTok panic, class, race, sexual assault, conformity, the Machine, and why the film may be most revealing in the stories it cannot fully investigate.

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YouTube: @SecondCutPod
Substack: https://secondcutpod.substack.com
Socials: @SecondCutPod
Email: [email protected]

Chapters
00:00 Intro: HBO, truth, and Bama Rush TikTok
01:33 HBO Max in the UK and streaming access
02:35 HBO as cable, film studio, and documentary brand
04:07 Documentary theory and Bill Nichols’ six modes
10:36 Subjectivity, “new documentary,” and TV nonfiction
12:08 CBS Reports, PBS, Frontline, Arena, and UK documentary TV
15:26 Sheila Nevins, America Undercover, and HBO’s documentary identity
18:40 HBO’s prestige documentary machine
20:11 The Newspaperman: Ben Bradlee and All the President’s Men
23:13 “No reverence for the truth” and Bradlee’s memoir voice
26:17 Bradlee’s background, Harvard, polio, and privilege
27:35 The Navy, authority, and the foreign correspondent fantasy
30:15 JFK, friendship, journalism, and compromised access
34:46 Bradlee at the Washington Post
36:49 The major story and the editor as celebrity
40:22 The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and Nixon
46:30 Sally Quinn, Kissinger, and Bradlee’s contradictions
47:46 Diversity, Janet Cooke, and the Post’s major mistake
50:44 Bradlee’s family life, regrets, and final years
54:06 The Newspaperman as memoir documentary
59:36 Bama Rush: shifting to sorority culture
01:00:26 Sororities from a UK perspective
01:03:07 Rachel Fleit, TikTok panic, and the access problem
01:07:14 What Bama Rush could have been
01:10:39 The four young women followed in the documentary
01:15:03 Shelby, achievement culture, and pageant polish
01:16:02 Isabella, belonging, anxiety, and self-image
01:17:20 Michaela, race, identity, and Alabama sorority history
01:22:18 Holliday, trauma, partying, and missed inquiry
01:27:09 Sorority conformity and “Kappa first”
01:28:49 Rankings, fraternities, and the male gaze
01:31:20 The Machine, Alabama politics, and what the film avoids
01:35:07 Bid Day, undercover footage, and the missing Rush story
01:36:40 Bama Rush as negative space
01:38:29 Social media footage and future documentary problems
01:39:16 Final thoughts
01:40:10 Plugs and outro

Music:
Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi
https://soundcloud.com/wataboi
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Music promoted by FDL Music
https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

John Waters built a career out of bad taste, queer counterculture, and the glamour of outsiders. We discuss Multiple Maniacs, Divine, the Dreamlanders, underground shock cinema, and Waters’ move toward the mainstream with Cry-Baby. Along the way: Catholic blasphemy, Johnny Depp, Hairspray, camp, class, teen rebellion, and why the Pope of Trash still matters.

Follow Second Cut:
YouTube: @SecondCutPod
Substack: ⁠https://secondcutpod.substack.com⁠
Socials: @SecondCutPod
Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:44 The Pope of Trash
01:12 Waters, Baltimore, and queerness
03:24 The Dreamlanders and Divine
06:04 Camp, bad taste, and outsiders
07:04 First Waters experiences
08:42 Revulsion as applause
11:36 Early budgets and DIY filmmaking
13:25 Waters as carnival showman
14:45 Multiple Maniacs begins
15:34 The Cavalcade of Perversion
17:00 Divine as criminal star
18:10 Divine’s performance style
19:46 The lobster scene
21:03 Catholic blasphemy
24:11 Waters vs. organized religion
25:55 Why “Pope of Trash” fits
26:27 Plot, murder, and Manson echoes
28:47 Queer counterculture history
30:14 Criterion and restoration
31:03 Visual style and the New Wave
33:14 Moving toward Cry-Baby
34:19 Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and mainstream Waters
35:34 Cry-Baby’s wild cast
36:08 Casting Johnny Depp
37:19 Waters’ teen-idol musical
38:34 Greasers, squares, and sincerity
42:45 1950s style, 1990s politics
44:46 Hatchetface
46:32 Polio, tears, and grotesque comedy
48:44 Parents, Patty Hearst, and control
51:00 The courtroom scene
52:43 Iggy Pop and celebrity cameos
54:54 Melodrama and jailhouse music
56:47 Music, lip-syncing, and production value
59:15 Traci Lords and set stories
01:00:33 New Line and production chaos
01:02:52 Waters after Divine
01:04:28 Johnny Depp as pure movie star
01:06:06 The chicken finale
01:07:00 Ed Wood, Depp, and weird directors
01:08:03 Waters’ career arc
01:10:24 Divine, Ricky Lake, and what’s next
01:11:31 Plugs and outro

Music:
Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi⁠
https://soundcloud.com/wataboi⁠
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Music promoted by FDL Music⁠
https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

In this episode of Second Cut, Jacob and Sam dig into the history of mummy movies, from Universal’s Egyptomania and Boris Karloff’s original monster to Hammer’s The Mummy from 1959 and Stephen Sommers’s blockbuster The Mummy from 1999.

We talk Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Terence Fisher, recycled Hammer sets, colonial grave-robbing, British museum logic, brownface casting, romantic monsters, Dracula parallels, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Imhotep, scarab beetles, biblical plagues, bisexual awakenings, and whether shooting a mummy to death is really the best ending Hammer could come up with.

We also touch on Lee Cronin’s new Mummy and why a possession-movie angle might be the thing that finally makes the monster frightening again.

Follow Second Cut:
YouTube: @SecondCutPod
Substack: ⁠https://secondcutpod.substack.com
⁠Socials: @SecondCutPod
Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:48 Why The Mummy this week?
01:50 Casting, representation, and Hollywood Egypt
04:49 Universal’s Mummy, Egyptomania, and the curse myth
09:31 The recurring Mummy formula
11:05 Dracula parallels and romantic monsters
14:22 Is the Mummy tragic, evil, or just unstoppable?
18:20 Lee Cronin’s scarier possession-mummy take
20:56 Hammer’s The Mummy (1959) begins
22:57 Plot: Peter Cushing, tombs, and the Book of Life
26:10 Colonialism, artifacts, and Hammer’s contradictions
34:22 Christopher Lee’s silent physical performance
37:39 Cheap sets, reused locations, and Hammer charm
39:36 The ending: can bullets stop a mummy?
41:16 Terence Fisher and Hammer’s dark fairy tales
44:30 The Mummy (1999): nostalgia, adventure, and tone
48:48 Stephen Sommers, Brendan Fraser, and blockbuster revival
54:21 Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and bisexual awakening
54:50 Plot: Rick, Evie, Imhotep, and Hamunaptra
57:54 Imhotep’s effects and “juicy” mummy horror
59:25 Biblical plagues, scarabs, and world-ending stakes
01:01:06 Comic relief: Jonathan, Beni, and side characters
01:06:23 Rick and Evie’s chemistry
01:10:34 The final act and The Mummy Returns setup
01:12:34 Production stories: Morocco, Clive Barker, and Fraser’s stunt
01:20:19 Jacob’s problems with the 1999 film
01:23:38 Family horror, action adventure, and what still works
01:25:53 Plugs and outro

Music:
Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi
⁠https://soundcloud.com/wataboi⁠
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Music promoted by FDL Music⁠
https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

In this episode of Second Cut, Jacob and Sam look at the strange, mournful, mythic cinema of David Lowery, from his North Texas indie roots to his work with Disney, A24, and his new film Mother Mary.
We talk about Lowery’s background outside the usual Austin/Los Angeles filmmaking pipeline, his recurring collaborators, his relationship to Terrence Malick-style imagery, and his ability to move between studio filmmaking and intimate personal projects. Then we dig into two of his most distinctive films: A Ghost Story and The Green Knight.
In A Ghost Story, we discuss grief, time, Rooney Mara’s infamous pie scene, Casey Affleck under the sheet, the boxed-in aspect ratio, Daniel Hart’s music, and the film’s haunting vision of love, memory, and cosmic recurrence. Then we turn to The Green Knight, David Lowery’s atmospheric adaptation of the Arthurian legend, starring Dev Patel as a not-yet-knightly Gawain forced to confront honor, fear, temptation, and the stories men tell about themselves.
Along the way, we also touch on Pete’s Dragon, Peter Pan & Wendy, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, The Old Man & the Gun, and why Mother Mary feels like another step in Lowery’s career-long obsession with myth, longing, and haunted spaces.
Subscribe for more film criticism, history, and theory-driven conversations.Follow Second Cut:YouTube: @SecondCutPodSubstack: ⁠https://secondcutpod.substack.com⁠Socials: @SecondCutPodEmail: ⁠[email protected]⁠Chapters00:00 Intro
00:46 Why we’re talking about David Lowery
02:00 Lowery’s North Texas background
04:10 Early filmmaking and self-taught roots
07:06 Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Lowery’s breakthrough
08:24 Malick comparisons and Lowery’s style
09:41 Recurring collaborators and creative team
12:32 Lowery as editor and hands-on filmmaker
14:40 Awards, recognition, and Mother Mary
15:43 Pete’s Dragon and Disney remakes
18:53 Peter Pan & Wendy and mythic storytelling
20:46 A Ghost Story begins
21:19 Is Casey Affleck really under the sheet?
22:36 Grief, death, and the emotional premise
25:25 Time loops, houses, and cosmic loneliness
27:36 The pie scene and Rooney Mara’s performance
31:00 The neighbor ghost and waiting for someone
34:45 The hidden note and the mystery of release
37:25 The prognosticator scene and cosmic meaning
41:13 Aspect ratio, marriage, and autobiography
43:30 Low-budget production and Lowery’s intent
45:38 Daniel Hart’s music and emotional overwhelm
49:10 Final thoughts on A Ghost Story
50:33 The Green Knight begins
51:02 Arthurian legend and Gawain/Gowan pronunciation
54:13 How Lowery changes Sir Gawain
57:42 Atmosphere, pacing, and mythic ambiguity
58:47 Jacob’s reaction to The Green Knight
1:00:14 Robert Eggers comparisons
1:04:12 Side quests, folklore, and structure
1:06:23 The temptation test and the green sash
1:08:45 The vision of Gawain’s future
1:10:27 What Lowery was trying to adapt
1:12:16 Looking ahead to Mother Mary
1:13:51 Final thoughts on David Lowery
1:14:40 Plugs and outro
Music:Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi⁠https://soundcloud.com/wataboi⁠Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0Music promoted by FDL Music⁠https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

Anne Hathaway has been a Disney princess, a rom-com lead, Catwoman, an Oscar winner, and one of the most recognizable American movie stars of the 21st century. But what actually makes her work on screen?
In this episode of Second Cut, Jacob and Kieran look at Hathaway through two very different performances: Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada and Fantine in Les Misérables. Using James Naremore’s ideas about film acting as a loose framework, they ask what makes a performance readable, natural, expressive, and suited to the film around it.
Along the way, they talk Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci stealing scenes, whether The Devil Wears Prada is really about a woman becoming “bad” or just becoming good at her job, Tom Hooper’s sung-through approach to Les Misérables, Russell Crowe’s Javert, Victor Hugo, French revolutionary context, and whether Hathaway’s Oscar-winning Fantine is a great performance, a great Oscar clip, or both.

Follow Second Cut:
YouTube: @SecondCutPod
Substack: https://secondcutpod.substack.com
Socials: @SecondCutPod
Email: [email protected]

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:49 Why Anne Hathaway now?
02:08 First encounters with Hathaway
05:48 Rom-coms, “movies for women,” and The Hustle
07:25 Hathaway’s star power and theater background
09:49 James Naremore and how to judge film acting
14:03 The Devil Wears Prada
17:32 What is The Devil Wears Prada really about?
23:12 Andy Sachs, career success, and the boyfriend problem
29:21 Miranda Priestly and the missing cost of ambition
31:53 Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and the supporting cast
33:34 Anne Hathaway’s performance as Andy
40:06 Does the film only feel deeper than it is?
43:19 The Miranda movie we wish existed
48:52 The Devil Wears Prada 2 speculation
50:53 Les Misérables and Tom Hooper returns
54:38 Les Misérables plot summary
57:00 Sung-through musicals and pacing
1:00:35 Valjean, Javert, and the French rebellion
1:01:32 Anne Hathaway as Fantine
1:04:57 The 2012 Supporting Actress race
1:09:54 Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Javert
1:12:53 Performance without dialogue
1:14:07 I Dreamed a Dream
1:14:47 Sweeney Todd energy and the innkeepers
1:19:21 Why the revolution material drags
1:24:55 French history and assumed context
1:26:32 What Tom Hooper could have changed
1:29:27 Final thoughts on Anne Hathaway
1:30:27 Looking ahead to Hathaway’s upcoming films
1:30:59 Plugs and outro
Music:
Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi
https://soundcloud.com/wataboi
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Music promoted by FDL Music
https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k