MUBI Podcast

MUBI Podcast

The MUBI Podcast is an audio documentary series about how great cinema happens, and why it matters. Every season’s a deep dive into a different corner of movie culture — from classic needle drops, to movie theaters that changed the world. Plus, between seasons: intimate interviews with some of the best filmmakers alive. Nominated for multiple Webbys, Ambies, and British Podcast Awards. Hosted by veteran arts journalist Rico Gagliano. “It’s like This American Life for filmmaking stories” — Matt Wallin

Episodes

August 21, 2025 31 mins

Director Alex Ross Perry's PAVEMENTS is a rock doc like no other — a sprawling, funny, self-reflexive, weirdly touching meta-movie about '90s indie rock heroes Pavement. Host Rico Gagliano talks to Alex LIVE at MUBI Fest Chicago about the movie, the band's music, and why they don't return emails.

PAVEMENTS is now streaming on MUBI in the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada and more.

To stream some of the films we&apos...

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The film and TV biz defines LA—so what's it look like as the biz moves abroad? Host (and longtime Angeleno) Rico Gagliano takes a tour of a changing city, from the Hollywood sign to a new crop of booming rep cinemas. Guests include THE STUDIO co-creator Evan Goldberg, indie icon Charles Burnett (KILLER OF SHEEP), and Sean Fennessey, host of THE BIG PICTURE podcast. 

Part travelogue, part deep-dive storytelling, the latest seaso...

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Our full interview with the writer/director of the Northern Irish indie phenomenon KNEECAP. Host Rico Gagliano visits Rich at his Belfast pad, to talk about wrangling the movie's titular hard-partying provocateurs, the rise of Northern Ireland's film industry, and why he briefly resented a Quiet Girl. 

Part travelogue, part deep-dive storytelling, the latest season sees host Rico Gagliano jet off to Ireland, Amsterdam, Mex...

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Superstar Gael García Bernal (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) and legendary set designer Eugenio Caballero (PAN’S LABYRINTH) help take host Rico Gagliano on a tour of Mexico City’s streets and its cinema — from the golden era of “ranchera” musicals to the making of Alejandro Inarittu’s tectonic breakthrough AMORES PERROS.

Part travelogue, part deep-dive storytelling, the latest season sees host Rico Gagliano jet off to Ireland, Amsterdam, M...

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The Netherlands isn't known for tons of great movies... but its capital city of Amsterdam is packed with tons of great movie theaters. Rico takes us on a tour of his favorite town, to learn why. (Spoiler alert: Breaking into buildings played a role). Guests include director/actor Halina Reijn (BABYGIRL, BLACK BOOK), NY Times contributor Nina Siegal, and more.

Part travelogue, part deep-dive storytelling, the latest season sees ...

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Rico travels to Dublin and Belfast, and hangs with an epic lineup of local heroes, to learn how Ireland went from a backdrop for Hollywood rom-coms... to one of the hottest film cultures on the planet. Featuring directors Rich Peppiatt (KNEECAP) and John Crowley (BROOKLYN), superproducer Ed Guiney (POOR THINGS), and acting legends Fiona Shaw (MY LEFT FOOT, KILLING EVE) and Carrie Crowley (THE QUIET GIRL).

Part travelogue, part deep-...

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GRAND THEFT HAMLET tells the radical tale of a band of artists who stage a virtual production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the online video game Grand Theft Auto. But it’s hardly the first time filmmakers have messed with Shakespeare’s great Dane.

Host Rico Gagliano learns the history of Hamlet on screen, with help from the movie’s cocreators, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, director Michael Almereyda (HAMLET 2000), and Rico’s own pla...

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The Oscar-nominated THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is inspired by the grim, gripping true story of one of Denmark's most infamous criminals.  Director/co-writer Magnus von Horn tells guest host Anna Bogutskaya about recreating the horror of a century ago, and how it might not be all that different than right now.

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is now streaming exclusively on MUBI in North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austr...

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For their first project together since last year's steamy hit CHALLENGERS, director Luca Guadagnino (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME) and writer Justin Kuritzkes tackle another story about a sensuous 1950s romance of desire and longing: an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' novel QUEER. The pair tell host Rico Gagliano about why they vibe, how they make audiences feel the heat, and how their films are like a MAD MAX movie.

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After THE MATRIX and V FOR VENDETTA, the Wachowskis were ready to turn from darkness, into the bright, bright candy-colored light. The result was SPEED RACER, an eyepopping postmodern explosion that honored the gravity-defying spirit of old-school anime… and which audiences couldn’t quite figure out.

Host Rico Gagliano talks with the SPEED RACER star Roger Allam (THE THICK OF IT), legendary special effects artist John Gaet...

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When screenwriter Charlie Kaufman started making his epic, heartbreaking directorial debut SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, he was the toast of Hollywood. Then it flopped, put a pause on his career, and arguably marked the end of the heady “indiewood” era of the oughties. Host Rico Gagliano talks to one of the film’s stars, Daniel London (MINORITY REPORT), comedy star and SYNECDOCHE superfan Jamie Demetriou (FLEABAG), and LA Times critic Amy ...

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In 1994, indie darlings the Coen Brothers went for the big time with a playful pastiche of classic Hollywood movies that pulled out every visual and comedic stop… and still crashed and burned at the box office. Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of the soaring Coens movie that paved the way for the flatlands of FARGO. Guests include HUDSUCKER’s legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins (BLADE RUNNER 2049), acclaimed film podcaster Ka...

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It’s hard to imagine Katharine Hepburn as anything but a Hollywood icon. But in 1935, director George Cukor’s dreamy, gender-fluid comedy SYLVIA SCARLETT derailed her career for years. Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of a movie with sexual politics way ahead of its time — and which paid for it dearly at the box office. Guests include movie star and Hepburn devotee Rebecca Hall (THE PRESTIGE), film scholar Elyce Rae Helford (WHAT...

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The first BABE was a family-friendly megahit. So for the sequel, why did director George Miller thrust his sweet porcine hero into a family-unfriendly nightmare?  Host Rico Gagliano takes a trot down the mean streets of BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, telling the story of its rise and box-office fall with the help of guests including Farmer Hoggett himself, James Cromwell (SUCCESSION), and voice-of-Babe E.G. Daily (PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE)....

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In the mid-’70s, legendary director William Friedkin — fresh off THE EXORCIST — helicoptered into South America with tens of millions of dollars… and emerged with malaria and a bleak, thrilling masterpiece called SORCERER. The only problem was the competition: A little movie called STAR WARS.

Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of how SORCERER crashed and burned at the box office — with help from the film’s screenwriter Wal...

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Director Kyle Edward Ball had a nightmare as a child: "I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster." Turns out, this is a nightmare a lot of people have had. After honing this craft on his YouTube channel, he finally made his film… and then it leaked online. 

Joined by Ball himself and Dread Central’s editor-in-chief MaryBeth McAndrews, Anna explores how SKINAMARINK became the perfect haunt...

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Few films have garnered the rabid, cult following over the years is a sight to behold. Giant cats. Talking houses. Heads coming out of wells. The images might be familiar, but the story behind the film is less so. The debut feature from experimental filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi was done in collaboration with his 10-year-old daughter.

Season 6, titled Haunted Homes, explores how haunted house movies have mirrored our relati...

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The most famous haunted house in America is a large Dutch Colonial family home that became a bestseller, super-successful horror movie and a franchise that has spawned over 60 movies (and counting). And it’s all based…on a con. Together with horror critic Jenn Addams, FANGORIA editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr. and Bloody Disgusting critic Joe Lipsett, who is possibly the only person in the world to have watched all the Amityville fil...

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After a bad experience in Hollywood, Guillermo del Toro had lost his spark. He got it back with a story of a haunted orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, a script he wrote when he was still a student. 

Together with the film’s producer Rosa Bosch, BFI’s Creative Director and author of THE FABER BOOK OF MEXICAN CINEMA Jason Wood and co-host of the Filmspotting podcast Josh Larsen, guest host Anna Bogutskaya finds out how THE DEVIL...

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Before POLTERGEIST, haunted house movies took place in old, creepy mansions. Regular host Rico Gagliano visits the original suburban house in California to check for ghosts and hands over to guest host Anna Bogutskaya to explore how POLTERGEIST transformed horror movies forever with the help of the movie’s star JoBeth Williams, original publicist Mick Garris and horror filmmaker Vincenzo Natali. 

Season 6, titled Haunted Homes, expl...

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