On this week’s episode, I’m joined by John Magary, editor of the new film Between the Temples. We discuss how he got into the editing business, the role of the editor in building the rhythm and flow of a picture, the aesthetic choices an editor can make in shaping the meaning of a movie, and a little about his work with the Criterion Channel. If you enjoyed this episode, try to find a theater playing the movie near you; it’s in 500 or so screens, which means there’s a decent chance there’s a showing somewhere in your neighborhood. And make sure to share it with a friend!

My guest this week is Valentina El Harizi, an 18-year-old first-time filmmaker who has an entry at the DIFF Shorts Film Festival. (If you get this email early enough and happen to live in the Dallas area, you can head over to the Angelika Film Center Dallas on Mockingbird Lane and catch the film; the “High School Shorts” program starts at 3PM local time.) We discussed her film, “Behind the Scenes,” as well as the difficulties of growing up in a world where social media is the first, second, and third option most kids have to interact with each other. If you enjoyed this episode—or think someone with kids surrounded by social media should hear it—please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Sean O’Connell to discuss his new book, Bruce Willis: Celebrating the Cinematic Legacy of an Unbreakable Hollywood Icon. Breaking down Willis’s career—which has been sadly cut short following his diagnosis of aphasia—by comedies, action movies, work with auteurs, and “Die Hards,” the book is an exhaustive look at, mostly, the highs (and some of the lows) of Willis’s career. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Aaron Reynolds, creator of Effin’ Birds. Having a daily comic read by half-a-million people is cool and all, but what’s really cool is criss-crossing North America to sell merch featuring that comic and other various designs. Aaron talks about the economics of convention life, how COVID has shaped the way conventions work, what it’s like to have a booth at San Diego Comic Con, the crazy economics of attracting huge stars to cons, and, most importantly, what it was like to be endorsed by pop star Britney Spears on her 41.8-million-follower-strong Instagram account. You can follow Effin’ Birds on Twitter and Instagram and Aaaron on Twitter and Instagram.

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On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny is joined by longtime New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, who stops by to discuss his new book Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence. Both a biography of Weinstein and a tick-tock of the trial that ended with the Oscar-winning producer’s imprisonment, Auletta’s new book is a fascinating glimpse at the life and times of a man whose predatory instinct was allowed to go unchecked thanks to the caliber of the movies he made and the way he distributed favors to filmmakers, cultivated journalists, and ingratiated himself to politicians. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to share it with a friend … and pick up a copy of the book! It’s a must-read for anyone who lived through the Miramax era. 

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman to discuss their new history of the John Wick franchise, They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action. (Listen to the podcast to hear how to properly announce this title.) In addition to talking John Wick and the history of the action film art form referred to as “Gun Fu,” we talked about the tricky art of authoring a compelling oral history. Believe it or not, it entails more than just cutting and pasting long chunks of interviews into a Word document! If you’re in San Diego for Comic Con this week, make sure to swing by Ed and Mark’s panel on Friday (you can find it on the full convention schedule here), which will be followed by a signing at the Saint Martin’s booth. Tell them I sent you! And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny is joined by Ron Shelton, the writer/director of Bull Durham, to talk about his new book on the making of the film, The Church of Baseball. In addition to discussing the fights over casting, the weirdly lackluster response from test audiences, and the movie’s impact on the minor league game writ large, we also chatted about some of Mr. Shelton’s other films like White Men Can’t Jump and Dark Blue. 

Make sure to pick up his book; while you’re doing that, the excellent Blu-ray release of Bull Durham is 50 percent off as part of Barnes and Noble’s 50 percent off sale on all Criterion discs. (In the podcast, I also mentioned the Arrow Video release of Dark Blue, but you should only pick it up in the United States if you have a region-free Blu-ray player; luckily it’s streaming on Prime Video right now for free.)

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This week, CNN’s Frank Pallotta rejoins the episode to do a box office victory lap. The movies are back, baby! Older audiences are showing up for Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis; younger audiences are showing up for Minions: The Rise of Gru; and no one’s showing up for Lightyear. Why are the first three hits and the last a miss? What’s the most successful way to sell moviegoing audiences on future movies? And what are theaters going to do over the next few months as COVID-related production slowdowns mean fewer big movies hitting theaters before the Thanksgiving season? All that and more on this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield returns to talk tumult at Disney, what Hollywood might be looking for in a studio head, and how the town is feeling about Netflix. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jason Baker of Callosum Studios, the house that helped design the sure-to-be-iconic mask from the upcoming horror film The Black Phone. They also discussed designing masks for the WWE, pandemic-related slowdowns, working with FX legend Tom Savini, and Jason’s documentary about said legend, Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini. You can stream that now on Tubi or YouTube or hold off until the special edition Blu-ray drops in October. Make sure to check out Jason’s handiwork in The Black Phone, dropping next week. And if you enjoyed the show share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny talks to the CEO of Creative Future, Ruth Vitale, about the costs of piracy. A longtime producer in Hwood, Ruth has seen firsthand the costs of theft on productions big and large, but in an age where stealing a movie or a book or a song is just as easy as popping onto Google and punching in some search terms, how do you convince folks that stealing is, in fact, wrong? And what can the government do to help stop the scourge of Internet-based IP theft? All that and more on this episode of BGTH. If you’ve got any ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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Over Memorial Day weekend, Netflix released a new stand-up special from Norm Macdonald, who unexpectedly died in September of last year. Unexpected to us and his friends; perhaps more expected to the comedian, who had kept his cancer diagnosis incredibly secret. On the occasion of the release of Norm Macdonald’s “Nothing Special,” Washington Post national arts reporter Geoff Edgers published a new piece featuring interviews with his friends and colleagues about the special and his life’s work. I’m very happy to have Geoff on today to talk about Norm specifically and the art of profiling more generally. 

Back in 2016, Geoff wrote a longish feature about Norm that, I think, helped spark something of a reappraisal or reconsideration of his work: though beloved—almost revered—by fellow comedians, Norm had fallen out of the spotlight with normal folks, and this well-read feature reminded them of what they were missing. (The publication of his absolutely brilliant book around the same time also helped in this regard.) And Geoff’s designation of Macdonald as “Tolstoy in sweatpants” in his obit for the Canadian funnyman is a pretty perfect encapsulation of his charms.

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Sonny takes a break from talking to industry experts this week to kvetch about something that’s been bothering him and JVL: Why are theaters so empty of movies for kids? A nearly two-month gap between The Bad Guys and Lightyear feels like studio malpractice; why didn’t Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers get at least a token run in theaters?

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On this week’s episode, I invited David Poland on so he could talk us all of the ledge about the state of theatrical exhibition. And while he didn’t quite do that—his opening words: “It’s, it’s bad! Things are bad”—he did highlight why things aren’t necessarily disastrous and how both the studios and the exhibitors can help get everything back on track. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny is rejoined by CNN’s Frank Pallotta to preview summer movie season. Blockbusters, big horror, comic books, and kid-friendly films are coming to the multiplex—but they’re doing so at a slower clip than years past. What’s changed since the pandemic and how is the industry reacting to it? Plus: Netflix, Disney+, and the evolving streaming situation.

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This week, Sonny is joined by Suzanne Joe Kai to discuss her documentary, Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong Torres. New to Netflix, her doc is a pleasantly vibrant look at the life and work of Ben Fong Torres, who is best known for his era-defining work at Rolling Stone magazine. This documentary covers that ground—just looking at Torres’s box of archival tapes is enough to make one’s mouth water—as well as his family’s story. How did this child of immigrants who came to the country by skirting anti-Chinese laws become one of the most important musical journalists of his, or any, generation? Listen now to find out. Then go watch the movie! It’s on Netflix now. If you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend!

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This week, Sonny talks to Dade Hayes, co-author of Binge Times: Inside Hollywood’s Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix, about the rise of streaming in the face of technological change and a population forced to stay home thanks to COVID. Among the many topics discussed: how will sports factor into the future of streaming; why are so many of the channels leaning toward ad-based models; and why did everyone think Netflix would be the only man standing when the dust settled? All that and more on this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend!

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David Herrin of The Quorum—a must-check site for movie-data nerds—joins us live from the corridors of CinemaCon to discuss the mood of theater owners, the vibes of theatergoers, and the state of the industry as we exit the pandemic. If you enjoyed our chat, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Eric Hoyt, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about his new book on the rise of the Hollywood trade press and how these papers helped shape the movie business as we know it. From covering labor disputes to navigating the waters between big-city and small-town movie houses to engaging in some of the earliest film criticism, the topics covered in this book can help us understand how the movie business evolved into what it is today. You can read the book yourself for free right now by clicking here, and you can check out some of the trade papers examined by Hoyt at the Media History Project, where they are digitizing out-of-copyright publications. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners, to talk about post-pandemic moviegoing, the evolution of theatrical dining, the excitement of CinemaCon, and the potential of theaters as sites for esports and gaming events—both as spectators and as participants. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is very pleased—and a little star struck!—to be joined by Lloyd Kaufman, the mind behind Troma Entertainment, to discuss his latest film, #ShakespearesShitstorm, as well as his 50 years in the business as one of the few truly independent indie filmmakers. Kaufman is probably best known for directing The Toxic Avenger, its sequels, and Tromeo and Juliet, as well as producing Class of Nuke ’Em High. But his company, Troma, has been a hot spring of talent for decades, serving as early homes for James Gunn (The Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park), and Eli Roth (Hostel, Knock Knock). 

Warning: This episode contains slightly saltier language than usual, but what else would you expect from a mind whose greatest film prominently involves gym rats running over a kid on a bike for fun? 

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Keith Phipps about his new book, Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career. Looking at the trends of Hollywood through the lens of Nic Cage’s various personae—as an oddball actor catching the tail end of the 70s auteur wave; transitioning to a “normal guy”; hitting action star peaks in the 1990s; and settling into a series of more-interesting-than-they’re-given-credit-for turns on VOD—the book is a useful glimpse at the changing tastes in Hollywood. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to check out Keith and Scott Tobias’s Substack, The Reveal. And share this with a friend! 

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This week, Sonny talks to the Los Angeles Times’s Ryan Faughnder about a new poll showing that Coda and The Power of the Dog, the frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar at this weekend’s Academy Awards, have been seen by just four and six percent of entertainment consumers, respectively. Then they discuss the walkout at Disney over the Mouse House CEO’s failure to speak up more vocally against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as well as charges of hypocrisy that ethnic cleansing in China didn’t spark similar protests. And, finally, they talk about Amazon’s purchase of MGM and what that means for James Bond and Prime Video. If you enjoy the episode, share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Adam Novak, head of story at one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood, WME. Adam is also the author of the novel Rat Park, out this week, as well as three other novels. Adam discusses his three-plus decades in the industry as a script reader for stars like Bruce Willis and directors like John McTiernan. What’s the role of a good reader in Hollywood? How do they help serve their clients and the world of entertainment writ large? And then Sonny and Adam discuss Adam’s novels and the intricate universe he’s woven around the fictional Omniscence agency. 

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This week, I’m joined by Bobby Miller, the writer/director of The Cleanse, to talk about the film’s long and winding path to a Blu-ray release. (You can buy it at Amazon or for five bucks less at the great DiabolikDVD.) We discussed getting that film made, the struggle to secure a release, and why owning a physical copy of a movie packed with special features like commentary tracks and making-of docs is a real thrill for a filmmaker who grew up absorbing the extras on features like Boogie Nights. We also discussed his voice-directing and editing work and why he wrote a novel. If you enjoyed this episode, please check out Bobby’s movie. And make sure to share it with a friend!

Sonny is joined this week by Andrea Chalupa, the screenwriter of Mr. Jones, the true story of Gareth Jones’s efforts to bring the horrifying reality of the Stalin-made famine in Ukraine that killed between 3.3 and 3.9 million people. They talk about getting that film written and financed, the response to it, and how best to push back against Russian disinformation via the arts.

Mr. Jones is streaming now on Hulu and is a must-watch for anyone who wants to understand why Ukraine is fighting tooth and nail against reabsorption into the nascent Russian empire. After you watch Mr. Jones, make sure to sign up for the online panel this Friday with director Agnieszka Holland, star James Norton, and the folks at the Kyiv Independent; proceeds go to support both the Independent and Ukrainian nonprofit Proliska.

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On this week’s episode, CNN media reporter Frank Pallotta returns to the show to talk about studios boycotting Russia, why AMC is charging you a little more too see The Batman (but not a little less to see Dog), and Disney’s decision to put Turning Red directly on Disney+. Plus: Oscars talk! 

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to George Folsey Jr about his career as an editor. From the blaxploitation classics Black Caesar and Hammer to the great comedies of the 1970s and 1980s like Animal House and The Blues Brothers to assists on classics like Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger and cult classics like Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body, Folsey has had a hand in a number of the movies you love. 

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Deadline’s Dominic Patten to talk about Village Roadshow’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. for killing the profitability of the Matrix franchise, the newly filed wrongful death suit against Alec Baldwin, and the Super Bowl’s big (but maybe not surprisingly big?) ratings. You can see Dominic’s archive here and follow him on Twitter here. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny Bunch is joined by John Zaozirny of literary management company Bellevue Productions. You can see John’s bona fide’s here, but his clients have written scripts set up with virtually every major studio. Bellevue has had 42 screenplays make the last seven Black Lists—an important compilation of un-produced screenplays voted on by people in the filmmaking business—and he details some of his strategies for securing those spots on this show. Sonny and John also talked about the decline of the spec script market, the difference between agents and managers, and a host of other topics. If you enjoyed the show, make sure to share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Erich Schwartzel, author of Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy. Erich’s book is a fairly exhaustive look at the sweep of Chinese influence on Hollywood, from Mao’s shutting the industry out during the Cultural Revolution to the return of blockbusters to the fact that Chinese investment funded the very recliners you sit on in theaters. We also talked about Chinese censorship of American films, American censorship of American films out of fear of losing Chinese marketshare, and the weird ways studios have exerted influence in the country. (Did you know Disney runs a chain of English schools in the country? You will after listening to this!)

If you’re interested in the business of Hollywood, Erich’s book is a must-own. And this episode is a must-listen! You cannot understand the current business climate in Hollywood without understanding the influence the biggest movie market in the world has on American filmmaking.

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This week on the show, Sonny is joined by Janice Min, who has teamed up with BGTH favorite Richard Rushfield to beef up Richard’s fabulous newsletter, The Ankler. Sonny and Janice discussed her career from US Weekly to the Hollywood Reporter to the wild world of Substack newsletters, how the Hollywood trades are defying the death of advertising, their strategy for spinoff newsletters, and why the folks at Y Combinator reached out to her and Richard about the potential of The Ankler to become a billion-dollar property. It’s a fascinating, in-depth look into the business, and the future, of entertainment reporting.

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On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch talks to Rene Reyes, the Paley Center for Media’s Vice President of Public Programming and Festivals. Among other duties, Rene plans the much-loved PaleyFest LA, which has panels featuring some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed shows on television. We talked about the joys (and COVID-related challenges) of in-person festivals and ran through some of the panels that will take place at this year’s event. You can see this year’s full lineup here; highlights include panels on Hacks, black-ish, and a salute to the NCIS franchise. Paley Center members can buy tickets now and they go on sale to the general public tomorrow.

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Kevin Goetz of Screen Engine/ASI and the author of Audienceology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love. Kevin is one of the masters of the art of audience testing, that stressful period of time in a film’s life when it leaves the loving arms of its director and enters the world for approval by the folks who will be paying to see it. Sonny and Kevin discussed how audiences are chosen, what the screening process is like, how COVID has changed how all this works, and a few examples of how movies have been helped by the screening process over the years. Make sure to read Kevin’s book if you want a fuller understanding of one of the most important, and least visible, steps of a film’s distribution.

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Sonny is joined by Philip Gelatt this week. In addition to talking about the art of rotoscoping and the years-long effort to get his new film The Spine of Night made, and then released, we also discuss the state of animation more broadly in America and beyond. As a script adapter on Love, Death + Robots, Netflix’s hit animated anthology, he has a lot of experience and wisdom to share in this realm. And if you’re curious about The Spine of Night, check out the trailer here. Full disclosure: it’s not safe for work and not safe for kids. But it is pretty great, especially if you’re into cult classics like Heavy Metal and Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings adaptation.

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On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine to discuss their searing look at the assault on the Capitol on January 6 perpetrated by supporters of Donald Trump attempting to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. We discussed how they got their footage, why the events are being memory-holed by embarrassed Republican politicians, and how you can help spread the word about this documentary so people aren’t allowed to forget what, and who, they’re supporting when they support Donald Trump. If this interview gets your blood boiling like it got mine boiling, you can watch The Sixth on your VOD provider of choice. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. 

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Chris McKenna who, along with his writing partner Erik Sommers, wrote Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has grossed about $1.2 billion around the world … so far. In this in-depth interview, Chris discusses how a blockbuster of this nature gets made, from pitch meetings to brainstorming sessions to rewrites during the shoot to additional photography to tightening the ship following test screenings. We also talk a bit about the state of the business and why it’ll be a real bummer if the theatrical experience dies off. Plus, we learn that a very special Spider-Villain is a listener of this podcast! (Or, well, has listened to AN episode.)

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Last month the Criterion Collection kicked off its new 4K lineup with what is, arguably, the greatest movie ever made: Citizen Kane. And the disc is absolutely loaded with special features, including a rarely seen BBC documentary on the making of the movie, multiple commentary tracks, and numerous interviews—including one with film historian Farran Smith Nehme. She joined Sonny to talk about Citizen Kane, how it got made, how William Randolph Hearst tried to smother it in the crib, and why it’s considered to be one of the great films. We also talked about her new Substack, which you can check out here, and the transformation of blogs into newsletters.

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Special bonus episode this week, as The Bulwark’s Tim Miller stops by to talk about Don’t Look Up, the new satire from Adam McKay (Vice, Step Brothers), as well as how it felt to return to the multiplex and take in some movies. (You can read Sonny’s review of Don’t Look Up and Red Rocket, two films that are very much about the last five or six years of American life, at The Bulwark's website.) If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Tony Davis of Tessive returns to the show just in time for Christmas to walk you through the upgrades and lateral movements you need to be thinking about if you have home theater gear on your Christmas wishlist. We discuss HDR formats (what’s the difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10, and does it really matter?), why movies and TV shows on Amazon look so bad (hint: they’re compressed to death), and why you desperately need to upgrade those HDMI cables (because we can’t have nice things, that’s why).

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to David Herrin the CEO and founder of The Quorum, a film research firm that has done something rather remarkable in making tracking data available to the public in the same way that box office data is available to the public. “Tracking” numbers are the data points used by studios to help determine how a film will perform in theaters, and The Quorum is building a hearty database for movie nerds to dive into. In addition to discussing The Quorum’s new study examining why audiences are hesitant to return to theaters—spoiler: cost and COVID remain the two biggest factors—we also chat about the state of the business and what’s likely to come. I encourage you to poke around at The Quorum’s website if you’re a fan of sites like Box Office Mojo; there’s all sorts of interesting stuff there. And share this post with a friend if you enjoyed our chat!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Wil Haygood, author of the new book Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World. Haygood’s book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about largely forgotten trailblazers such as Oscar Micheaux, better-known figures like Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, the controversies over movies as diverse as The Birth of a Nation and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, the odd fate of Porgy and Bess, and so much more. Colorization is both breezy and in-depth—the best sort of popular history—and our conversation only scratched the surface of his book. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

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On this week's episode, Sonny is joined by Christian Blauvelt, author of Hollywood Victory: The Movies, Stars, and Stories of World War II. From the pre-war skittishness of the big studios about alienating German markets—and potentially alienating an isolationist homefront, pre-Pearl Harbor—to the wartime efforts to raise funds and produce works of art that inspired Americans to resist the fascist menace, Christian's book tells a wide-ranging and fascinating story.

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On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jim Cummings, whose new feature The Beta Test drops on VOD and in select theaters Friday, Nov. 5. In addition to discussing his few film and its acidic take on the dispute between talent agencies and the WGA, Jim also talks about landing a featured role in Halloween Kills, how he financed and distributed his first feature, Thunder Road, and his horror-comedy The Wolf of Snow Hollow (which topped Sonny’s best-of list in 2020). If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

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When you click “buy” on a digital product at Amazon or Apple, as opposed to “rent,” what do you think that means? Most folks think of it like buying a physical copy of a thing: they can sell it or pass it down to heirs. But as Aaron Perzanowski, a professor at Case Western, notes in his sit-down with Sonny Bunch, that’s not really the case: you’re just buying a license to a thing. And if that license to Amazon or Apple ends? Well, so does your access to the thing you think you “bought.” On this week’s Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny discusses the tricky nature of ownership in an increasingly digital world—and what you need to know before you click “Buy.” If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend!

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This week on The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, CNN’s Frank Pallotta rejoins Sonny to talk about Netflix’s big week! New subscriber numbers, new data numbers, and a newly controversial gloss to the biggest thing in entertainment. Plus, we talk a bit about Halloween Kills, Dune, and the impact of streaming on box office numbers. If you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend!

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I’m thrilled to have Adrienne LaFrance of The Atlantic on the show this week to discuss her profile of Albert Brooks and more generally celebrate his greatness. From movies like Broadcast News and Defending Your Life, to voicework on The Simpsons and Finding Nemo, to his under-appreciated villainy in Drive, Brooks’s talents have wowed multiple generations of moviegoers and TV watchers. 

Ryan Faughnder of the Los Angeles Times’s Wide Shot newsletter rejoins the show this week to discuss the boon—and burden—of sports betting ads. What are some of the rewards, and the risks, of this enormous advertising market? We also discussed Squid Game and Netflix’s efforts to internationalize entertainment as well as the age-old debate: subtitling versus dubbing. Make sure to sign up for Ryan’s newsletter (it’s free!) and if you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend!

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Scott Eyman about his new book, 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio. Zanuck’s reign as a Hollywood mogul ran through nearly every major technological and business innovation Hollywood saw in the first half of the 20th century and beyond, and Mr. Eyman’s book paints a compelling portrait of a producer as both businessman and artist. You can pick up a copy wherever books are sold (here’s an Amazon link for ease’s sake), and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Scott Tobias, formerly of The AV Club and The Dissolve, about his new Substack endeavor with Keith Phipps, The Reveal, as well as the evolving world of film criticism. With so many local newspapers cutting back on movie reviewers for budgetary reasons and so many websites merely hitting the most popular of topics to generate clicks, it’s interesting—and, frankly, heartening—to see Substack using their Pro program to help critics like Tobias and Phipps (along with Ty Burr and Jerry Saltz) stand up their own newsletters to chase their own idiosyncratic interests. Can the “Thousand True Fans” theorem save the world of interesting film writing?

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