David Mamet

Mamet’s directorial debut, House of Games, follows a psychiatrist who wrote the book on obsession—literally—into a world of professional con men. Pete and Andy discuss.

David Mamet’s always one to put cons in his films, even when the film is a fight film taking place in the world of mixed martial arts. His 2008 film, “Redbelt,” feels like a mash-up of genres — a con film, a fight film, a film noir, a samurai film, an intimate character portrait. It’s a bit of all of these, and probably because it’s hard to pin it down, it couldn’t find its audience when it was released. Despite that, we wanted to include it in our David Mamet Directs series.

David Mamet has made a name for himself as a playwright, as a screenwriter, as an author, and as a writer/director. His fifth film that he wrote and directed, “The Spanish Prisoner,” didn’t make many waves when it came out in 1998, but it seemed to impress the critics and it ended up in the black. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we begin a short David Mamet Directs series by talking about this film.