EPISODE · Nov 23, 2025 · 1H 13M

The Noah Baumbach Retrospective

from Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach has spent the past three decades transmuting his experiences into cinema, culminating in his latest film, Jay Kelly, his love letter to movies (and the memories they evoke). We begin with the “quiet crisis” Baumbach found himself in on the heels of releasing White Noise (5:30), finding his way back to the page, with co-writer Emily Mortimer, to create Jay Kelly for George Clooney (10:20), the films that defined his early years (15:00), and the week that Mike Nichols’ production of Heartburn took over his Park Slope childhood home (22:45). Then, we walk through his early, funny work in Kicking and Screaming (29:00) and Mr. Jealousy (30:45), how art imitated life in The Squid and the Whale (32:00), and the start of his lasting collaboration with Greta Gerwig in Greenberg (43:00). On the back-half, Baumbach talks about his love of working with actors (45:30), setting the stage for the infamous Marriage Story fight scene (47:00), his process of writing personal stories (51:30), and how his subconscious seems to always be one step ahead of him (52:00). To close, the influence of Noah’s Hollywood mentor, the late Peter Bogdanovich (58:45) and a prescient essay from Baumbach’s mother, former film critic of The Village Voice, Georgia Brown (1:05:00). Subscribe to our new YouTube channel. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected]. Get 50% Off Monarch, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarch.com/talkeasy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.