Always glad to talk to the Entertainment Strategy Guy (read him here !) about the state of play in the world of streaming and beyond. Among the topics discussed this week: Whether or not F1: The Movie is a hit (and what being a “hit” means for a $200 million original for Apple as opposed to a different type of movie for a different type of studio); whether F1, the sport, is a butts-in-seats phenomenon in the United States; why the streaming wars are tightening and other streaming services are cl...
Jul 03, 2025•46 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Daniel Drezner—cohost of the Space the Nation podcast with Ana Marie Cox and proprietor of the Drezner’s World Substack —to discuss the eternal popularity of zombies (most recently via the hit movie 28 Years Later , which I reviewed here ) and the continued relevance of his book, Theories of International Politics and Zombies , which is now in its third edition. We chatted about the ways different political theories might confront waves of the undead and dis...
Jun 27, 2025•14 min
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Bart Weiss to discuss the evolution of the iPhone-shot movie from Tangerine to 28 Years Later and his recent book, Smartphone Cinema: Making Great Films with Your Mobile Phone. You have the power to make a movie in the palm of your hand: will you use it? If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
Jun 20, 2025•43 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Lane Brown of New York magazine to discuss his feature on an increasingly rare phenomenon: the film or TV show shot in Los Angeles. From foreign tax credits to the cost of permits, Los Angeles is getting more expensive to shoot in, meaning that more productions are moving out of Los Angeles altogether. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to read Lane’s piece . And please, share this with a friend!...
Jun 13, 2025•39 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by New York Magazine features writer Lila Shapiro to discuss her feature story on the growing utilization of generative AI by Hollywood studios to cut costs and speed up production times. From a party hosted by an AI studio to the work being done by Runway to the growing sense that, hey man, this is just The Future, it seems like AI is, as several folks in the piece put it, “inevitable.” If you enjoyed this episode or learned something in it, please share it wi...
Jun 06, 2025•46 min
On this week’s episode, I strayed a bit from Hollywood to talk to David C. Lowery of the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven about his new album, Fathers, Sons, and Brothers. You can check out the album here and peruse the accompanying Substack here . We had a fascinating chat about how the industry has changed over the last 40 years (for better and worse), how folks discover new music, and how his experiences growing up helped shape his musical tastes and self-conception as an American. If y...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 4 min
I’m joined by Ann Foley this week to discuss her work as costume designer on the hit HBO show The Last of Us . From sourcing vintage clothes to weaving the infected’s fungal-explosions in with the clothes they were wearing when they died to her graduate school on the sets of Agents of SHIELD , Ann’s insights into translating the world of the game to the world of the screen are pretty fascinating. At the end of the episode, Ann mentions Ellie’s Converse sneakers; you can see what Bella Ramsey scr...
May 23, 2025•29 min
I’m joined by Matthew Specktor, author of The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood . Part novel, part memoir, and entirely entertaining, Matthew’s book is a revealing look at life in Hollywood when you’re not on the A-list but occasionally adjacent to it. In addition to relating the drama that makes any family intriguing, Matthew’s book is a keen look at Hollywood in a time of flux, as the rise of the super agencies and the internationalization of the Hollywood studios radically...
May 16, 2025•39 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Evan Jonigkeit, the star and producer of Henry Johnson . Based on the play of the same name by David Mamet, Henry Johnson is Mamet’s first film in a dozen years and a beguiling provocation; I greatly enjoyed discussing not only the meaning of the movie with Jonigkeit but also how difficult it is to get a picture like this—a series of Socratic dialogues, a movie of complex ideas made for adults—in front of audiences. Henry Johnson is available to rent now fro...
May 09, 2025•47 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Jeremy Workman, the director and producer of Secret Mall Apartment . We discussed the difficult process of getting your subjects to trust you, the trickiness of distributing an indie documentary in the modern cinematic landscape, and the importance of having a big star like Jesse Eisenberg willing to do a little press for you. The movie’s playing in theaters now; you can see if it’s in a cinema near you here . And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it...
May 02, 2025•41 min
On this week’s episode I’m rejoined by Scott Mendelson of The Outside Scoop to talk about the state of the box office thus far through 2025. It’s better than 2024—thank you, Minecraft —but not as good as 2023. Plus, we delve into some of the discussion surrounding Sinners ’s box office, particularly the foreign and domestic splits. Does its strength in North America demonstrate that Hollywood should be less concerned with appealing to foreign audiences and more worried about making big bucks (an...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 1 min
On this week’s episode, I talked to Andrew Ortenberg of Briarcliff Entertainment about distributing tricky movies like The Apprentice and Magazine Dreams . How have the economics of cinematic distribution improved for distributors with the infrastructure in place to handle it? How have the various video-on-demand tiers shifted over the last few years? What should folks keep in mind before they declare a movie a hit or a flop? And why are family movies an under-utilized resource for the indie set...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 12 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson to discuss her new book about Joan Didion, We Tell Ourselves Stories . I mentioned the book in a newsletter a couple of weeks back, but I wanted to focus on the ways in which the political world has borrowed showbiz’s penchant for image calibration, from the ways in which issues are decided upon to the means by which politicians decide which voters to target. Didion, of course, was a natural observer of these shift...
Apr 11, 2025•44 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Ray Mendoza, who cowrote and codirected the new A24 movie Warfare with Alex Garland ( Civil War , Ex Machina ). We discussed the journalistic process of rebuilding the day’s actions portrayed in the film from the memory of those who participated, Mendoza’s work with Garland on Civil War , and the cinematic experience of trying to help people understand what it’s like to go into battle after getting your brain rattled. The movie releases on April 11, and I st...
Apr 04, 2025•31 min
I am pleased to be rejoined this week by Bobby Miller to discuss his new novel, Situation Nowhere . Imagine Brazil by way of Idiocracy but goopier: That’s Situation Nowhere . We talked about some of his influences, the state of our increasingly recursive culture, and why we need to bring back shaming folks for selling out. If you’re in Los Angeles, check out Bobby’s event on Saturday at The Redwood Bar ! And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. (And listen to last year’s e...
Mar 28, 2025•35 min
On this week’s episode I’m joined by Ross Benes, the author of the forthcoming book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times . It comes out in a few weeks and I hope you take a gander at it; we spent most of our time discussing the ways in which professional wrestling and the Insane Clown Posse help explain the phenomenon that is Donald J. Trump and his ascent through the political landscape, but there’s more to the book than that. And if you enjoyed this ep...
Mar 21, 2025•36 min
Sonny Bunch sits down with filmmaker Jonathan Gruber to discuss his new documentary, Centered , which explores the life and legacy of Joe Lieberman. As the first Jewish Vice Presidential candidate, Lieberman made history—only to later shake up politics by breaking with his own party. With the film releasing today, they dive into his career, key political battles, and the impact of centrism in modern politics.
Mar 18, 2025•19 min
A weird question I sometimes get is this: “I want to get into buying movies on disc, Sonny, but I don’t know where to start.” I say it’s weird because the answer seems obvious to me: just buy movies you like to watch! But there are issues I take for granted like formats and resolutions, so I thought it would be useful to talk to Aidan Ryan of the Boston Globe about his recent piece in that newspaper’s magazine focused on the Gen Z/Young Millennial cohort that has gotten really into collecting mo...
Mar 15, 2025•38 min
On this week’s episode, I’m plesaed to be rejoined by Brandon Struessnig to discuss one of my favorite packages of the year, Vulture’s annual stunt awards. Who were the big winners? What were some of the surprises? Just how long did it take George Miller to shoot that war rig sequence in Furiosa anyway? All that and more on this week’s episode. Make sure to check out the winners before listening to us discuss them. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!...
Mar 08, 2025•39 min
This week I was joined by Jake Rademacher, the director of Brothers After War to talk about his new documentary checking in with folks who have returned from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and how they are reintegrating into society. It’s a powerful and moving documentary, and I highly recommend checking it out if you get the chance, particularly if you have a veteran in your life. You can find showtimes nearest you here . And if you’re a veteran, you should still be able to get free tick...
Mar 01, 2025•43 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by the New York Times’s James Poniewozik to discuss SNL’s (rather lengthy) 50th anniversary celebration. (Here’s a gift link to James’s piece on his favorite episode of SNL.) We discuss the show, how it has changed, and how changes in how people watch the show change its meaning (and our relationship to it). I also asked James about his book, Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America and how to best cover Trump without succumbing ...
Feb 23, 2025•44 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Jake VerKesen—some of you in the comments might know him by his handle, Jake VK—on the long and winding road to turning an idea for a micro-budgeted indie movie like I Agree With You from a dream into a reality. We discuss the paperwork, the delays, the fundraising, the shooting, the food, the editing, and, finally, the showing, that goes into getting an indie movie made and delivered to the people. As discussed on the episode, the movie’s not out just yet, ...
Feb 15, 2025•1 hr 9 min
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by writer/director Philip Gelatt and novelist Paul Tremblay (author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World , among other scary books) to discuss the new Substack-hosted docu-horror series Etch . The concept is pretty cool: Philip has interviewed a quintet of horror authors—Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, and Mariana Enriquez—and every week he’s dropping another episode that combines that interview with a reading of...
Feb 08, 2025•38 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch is rejoined by Jesse Nelson of DiabolikDVD and Cauldron Films to discuss the state of home video. We get to the tariff discussion around 32 minutes in, but before that, Jesse dispels some of the concerns about Sony’s recent announcement that they’re discontinuing recordable media like Blu-ray, what collectors are looking for from his store, and how he and his business partner go about deciding out what titles to distribute via their label, Cauldron Films. As m...
Feb 01, 2025•45 min
On this week’s supersized episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, I’m rejoined by Matthew Ball to discuss his epic examination of the state of the video game industry and how its growing pains reflect what we’ve seen in other entertainment industries like film. I’d recommend at least scanning his report (you can download the pdf here ) even if you’re not a gamer—I am, as discussed in the opening moments, at best a “filthy casual”—because if you’re familiar with the growth patterns of nearly an...
Jan 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Bill Ryan and Dennis Cozzalio to discuss their contribution to the new Arrow Limited Edition release of Inglourious Basterds on 4K. The booklet features a blog-era (remember blogs?) conversation about the film that occurred when it was initially released, in addition to, among other things, a postcard with a recipe for apple strudel (whip cream NOT optional). It’s a great set with lots of extras and I highly recommend picking it up if you can find a copy. We...
Jan 18, 2025•57 min
This week I’m joined by Richard Rushfield and Katey Rich of The Ankler to discuss the state of the awards season post-Golden Globes and in the midst of the Los Angeles fires. (Indeed, Los Angeles resident Richard is in the city to give us an on-the-ground update of the state of things from his perspective. Please excuse any background noise/distortion that you may hear as a result!) We talked about how the Globes might affect the Oscars , how the Globes has devolved into an incestuous web of sel...
Jan 11, 2025•49 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Steven Hyden, who—in addition to being the author of books on Bruce Springsteen , Pearl Jam , and Radiohead , and a prolific author at Uproxx —served as the story producer on HBO’s new film, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary . In addition to discussing just what it means to be a story producer on a documentary, we discussed the making of this film, the evolution of the term “yacht rock,” and why (some) artists have (slowly) warmed to the term. I really can’t recomm...
Jan 04, 2025•46 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Brandon Wainerdi to discuss DK’s hefty and handsome new reference book, Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy . We discussed how he broke into writing about Star Wars, researching his entries for the book, and why so much of what we obsessives know about Star Wars comes not from the films but the surrounding products. Brandon’s interview podcast, Talking Bay 94 , is a must-listen if you’re a fan of the series. I’ll just say,...
Dec 21, 2024•50 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by novelist and Broadway producer Michael Wolk to discuss his new interactive novel, Devil’s Game. You can check it out yourself here ; it’s an interesting mix of web-first design and apocalyptic airport thriller. We talked about what drove him to write this novel and also discussed the state of Broadway and live theater more generally. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
Dec 14, 2024•30 min
