Across the Movie Aisle

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa discuss what Taylor Sheridan’s decision to leave Paramount+ for Peacock means for the streaming landscape. Then they review Bugonia, which joins Eddington, After the Hunt, and One Battle After Another as key texts for our cultural moment. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend!  Also: If you need help setting up a private RSS feed so the episodes will go directly to your Apple (or other) app, let us know and we will walk you through it. It’s slightly tricky; you have to do it from the web, the app won’t let you. But we’ll help you out. 

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa discuss the Ellison family’s (literal) trump card in its pursuit of Warner Bros.-Discovery. Then they review A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s star-studded nuclear panic movie for Netflix. Sweet dreams, kiddos! Make sure to swing by movieaisle.substack.com for our bonus episode on this genius and harrowing feature piece on a niche internet subculture that … well, you’re just going to need to read about them. It’s a trip. You are definitely going to want to watch that episode on Thursday. Sonny makes some faces. Buy some merch! Our Dashery store is “lit.” And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend! 

A few housekeeping items: This episode is the first main episode that is available to our subscribers before anyone else.  We have merch! Just a couple items right now, more to come, hopefully. You can see the Dashery store here. Alyssa’s wearing the shirt on the show today! It looks like a movie ticket! Because movies! BUY ONE TODAY. OK, the episode itself. We discussed AMC finally granting Netflix some space in their multiplexes. Is this glasnost between the world’s biggest streamer and the world’s biggest theater chain? What comes after? Then we discussed After the Hunt, Luca Guadagnino’s post-MeToo cinematic provocation … albeit one with a purpose. This movie’s getting hammered by critics but … not by us. Probably because it’s a good conversation starter and we love having conversations!  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! Evangelizing the show is the best way to help it grow and make sure it continues!

This is a tease of the bonus episodes on Thursdays! They have video too over at the Substack! MovieAisle.substack.com. Go sign up!  On this week’s special bonus episode, you get video, you get audio, you get it all. You get everything. (I’m still tinkering with the Riverside video editing software but … it’s pretty good? Just need to figure out how to incorporate clips and the such. Maybe next week you’ll get the intro and outro music the audio episodes have.)

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa said goodbye to Diane Keaton, a key part of one of all of their favorite movies, The Godfather. Then they reviewed Tron: Ares, a music video in search of a purpose. Make sure you swing by movieaisle.substack.com on Thursday for our bonus episode.  If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend. And if you have a problem with the sound quality, let Sonny know in the comments! He’s tweaking some stuff. Playing with Audition’s presets and the such. 

Before we get to the episode, a quick note: we are spinning off Across the Movie Aisle into its own separate thing; it will no longer be part of the Bulwark network of shows, but it will still exist on Substack at movieaisle.substack.com. If you listen via Apple, nothing much will change for the moment; if you listen via Substack there may be a few changes for you. But we’ll cover that next week in our first episode at the new spot. —SB On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa look at the perilous state of film and television production in Los Angeles. Is Hollywood’s time as the undisputed king of film production at an end? What does that mean for the people who make a living out there? And what does it mean for the idea of an American film industry? Then they review The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson and Benny Safdie’s award season play. Is this the movie The Rock needs to regain some credibility as an actor? Or does it miss the mark? 

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa discussed Apple’s move to shelve the TV show The Savant in the wake of multiple bouts of politically inspired violence. Then they reviewed One Battle After Another, the latest movie from Paul Thomas Anderson starring Leonardo DiCaprio. (Here’s a link to the New York Times profile of PTA mentioned briefly in the podcast this week.) Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Friday for a bonus episode about PTA. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, delayed slightly due to technical difficulties, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa broke down the struggle between Jimmy Kimmel, Disney, Nexstar/Sinclair, and Brendan Carr at the FCC. Is this just business as usual at the FCC, or has the regulatory administration overstepped its bounds here. Then we said goodbye to Robert Redford, looking at some of his 1970s classics like All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, and The Sting, among other titles. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch, Alyssa Rosenberg, and Peter Suderman discuss Comedy Central’s decision to pull a recent South Park from the rerun rotation after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Then they review The Long Walk, a movie that is either appropriately brutal or exploitatively violent. Which? Hard to say, but the end result is pretty depressing, regardless. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Thursday for a bonus Stephen King adaptation draft. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend.

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Alyssa, and Peter asked why Activision would turn down a chance to have Steven Spielberg direct a Call of Duty movie. Then they reviewed Highest 2 Lowest, the latest collaboration between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. Spoiler: We all loved the score, which is apparently a controversial opinion in some quarters! (Also the rest of the movie is pretty good too.) Make sure to swing by Thursday for a bonus Spike Lee draft. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Alyssa, and Peter discuss the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots at Disney World, as chronicled in this New York Times piece. Then they review Caught Stealing, the new Darren Aronofsky film that’s being marketed like a Guy Ritchie caper but is something else entirely. Some spoilers over the last 15 minutes or so of this pod, so just keep an ear out if you’re worried about that sort of thing. Swing by the Bulwark on Thursday for a bonus episode on High and Low and King’s Ransom, the movie and book, respectively, on which Spike Lee’s new film, Highest 2 Lowest is based. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Alyssa, and Peter highlight the shocking success of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters at the box office last weekend and muse about what it means for the streamer’s overall strategy. Then they review the first three episodes of Alien: Earth, the gory, thought-provoking new show on Hulu. Is it another hit for Noah Hawley (who made the TV shows Fargo and Legion?) Or a misfire lost in its own metaphors? If you enjoyed this episode, leave a comment or share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny, Peter, and Alyssa discussed the problem of productions fleeing Georgia for other locales with bigger tax incentives. Then they reviewed Nobody 2, one of the rare films to, possibly, be a too-tight 90. No bonus episode this week, see you guys next Tuesday!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch, Alyssa Rosenberg, and Peter Suderman discussed how to best respond to South Park’s war on the Trump Administration and its cronies. Then they reviewed Weapons, the funniest scary movie of the year (so far!) that nevertheless has a poignant, melancholic core. (There are spoilers in this chat, so just let it be known that all three recommended it heartily if you’re worried about that sort of thing.) Make sure to swing by Thursday for a discussion of the shifting political winds in Hollywood. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! 

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch, Alyssa Rosenberg, and Peter Suderman ask why The Wizard of Oz is being mutilated via the alchemy of AI to be shown on the enormous 16K-resolution screen at The Sphere … and why Sonny is, honestly, kind of into it. (You can watch the CBS Sunday Morning segment on Oz at The Sphere here.) Then they review The Naked Gun, a movie so funny it brought this episode to a screeching standstill when Alyssa couldn’t keep it together while trying to recount one of the jokes. Funny movie! You should go see it! No bonus episode this week, but we’ll be back Monday with a brand new one.

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discussed the New York Times’s decision to move away from traditional reviews for certain cultural products. (You can read the Richard Brody piece discussed here.) Then they reviewed The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a perfectly fine movie that strenuously avoids really digging into any of the ideas the film hints at. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Thursday for a bonus episode on one of the worst movie lists ever made. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discussed the cancellation of The Late Show. Is this move being motivated by politics or the declining economic prospects of linear TV more broadly? Then they reviewed Eddington, Ari Aster’s gonzo look at life in 2020, the year of Covid and The Doomscroll. Make sure to swing by Thursday for a bonus episode on Christopher Nolan’s gutsy strategy for The Odyssey. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

Apologies: an editing snafu led to last week’s episode being reedited and uploaded in the initial version of this post.  On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) ask why Keanu Reeves, of all people, is the most-impersonated celebrity by scammers and how AI is being used to take money from lonely elderly people. (For more, read Rebecca Keegan’s great piece in the Hollywood Reporter on this terrifying, saddening subject.) Then they review Superman, an oddly Dubya-coded superhero movie. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Thursday for a bonus episode about Superman’s place in the cinematic canon. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discussed the bad precedents set by media outlets being bullied by Donald Trump into backing down from defending the free press. Then they review Jurassic World Rebirth, a dino adventure more interested in the ethics of big pharma than big dino. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Friday for a special bonus episode. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss Denis Villeneuve’s new gig: director, Bond director. Is he the man for the job? And who should he bring on as his James Bond. What does James Bond even mean in the modern world? Then they review F1: The Movie, Apple’s first big theatrical hit. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Thursday for a bonus episode on the New York Times’s top 100 movies since 2000. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!