excuse me only Beatrix Kiddo can do this

Of all the bad and insane things about Trump, his proximity to RFK Jr is, I think, the worst and most insane. I've felt this way since the election: He is going to literally get people killed because he doesn't understand how medicine works. www.thebulwark.com/p/is-rfk-jr-...

On the ATMA bonus episode this week, we discussed the concurrent decline of movie theaters and movie stars. Peter asked Alyssa and me the million dollar question: movieaisle.substack.com/p/can-movie-...

"Exciting news: The Pope said everybody has to go to the movie theaters." Well, not quite, but it might be good for your mind, even your soul. @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/pope-leo-a...

Apropos of the Pope's endorsement of the movie-theater experience, check out this list from @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/pope-leo-a...

"There’s an internal element too, an inner peace that comes from entering the sanctum sanctorum of those movie palaces with the wall-sized screens. Don’t take it from me. Take it from a higher authority: his holiness, Pope Leo XIV." New @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/pope-leo-a...

Saying “I don’t need to see this in a theater because it’s not a big blockbuster” totally misses the point of why going to a theater matters. But don’t take my word for it: take the Pope’s! www.thebulwark.com/p/pope-leo-a...

I'm not saying this definitely happened because of us but I'm not not saying it either.

BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER and NOUVELLE VAGUE are both streaming on Netflix now. They’re a rare breed: dramas for adults. I reviews them and tried to suss out why movies like this are so rarely made. www.thebulwark.com/p/ballad-of-...

I hadn’t watched THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE in years and was shocked by how hard the ending—a forgotten, foundational man exiting the scene in a cheap casket—hit me. (Probably means nothing.) Talked to @chrisyogerst.com about it this week on the pod! www.thebulwark.com/p/printing-t...

"Kash Patel's girlfriend is suing MAGA conspiracy theorists for claiming she's a Mossad operative who is covering up Epstein's blackmail ops" is by far the funniest story to come out of this administration so far. www.thebulwark.com/p/kash-patel... x.com/SonnyBunch/s...

My goal in the introductions to these segments is to get someone to call Child Protective Services on Alyssa's parents for neglect in years past. movieaisle.substack.com/p/alyssa-has...

PREDATOR: BADLANDS is a silly movie, but that's what makes it kind of fun to talk about with Peter and Alyssa? The Elle Fanning tribute in this episode from Alyssa was unexpected but appreciated; she really is a delight in this movie. movieaisle.substack.com/p/the-ultra-...

Donald Trump's Truth Social platform has an AI function, and the answers it provides are almost in direct opposition to everything Trump posts on the platform. Wonderful stuff. www.thebulwark.com/i/178598098/...

"A nuclear crisis is not something where the president can pick up the phone and say, Vladimir, cut it out... that's not how any of this works," @radiofreetom.bsky.social says in discussing the film 'A House of Dynamite' with @sonnybunch.bsky.social. "In the real world... things have consequences."

I have complicated feelings about the new FRANKENSTEIN. Del Toro's never made a bad-looking movie. And I know we're to empathize with The Monster; it's in the Shelley. But he's no innocent, and depicting him as such strips the work of some power. www.thebulwark.com/p/frankenste...

I love the movie NETWORK and was excited to pick Dave Itzkoff's brain about it. He literally wrote the book on the flick, which remains eternally relevant almost 50 years later. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-eterna...

"Who needs subtlety when you’re offered up grub grenades on a murder planet?" "Predator: Badlands is not a perfect movie, but it's perfectly pleasing for what it is. @sonnybunch.bsky.social reviews: www.thebulwark.com/p/predator-b...

Two things that can simultaneously be true: 1) Hispanic voters agreed with Trump that illegal immigration is bad. And 2) Hispanic voters are intensely disturbed by all the videos of random Hispanics getting shanghaied by dudes in masks. www.thebulwark.com/p/2025-elect...

This is a review of PREDATOR: BADLANDS (it's an entertaining creature feature but only barely a "Predator" movie as we understand them) and an explainer of what I mean when I say "PREDATOR is a perfect movie," a phrase I utter with startling regularity. www.thebulwark.com/p/predator-b...

Talked BUGONIA with Peter and Alyssa, who both seemed vaguely horrified by my take on the end of the film. But like. The text of the movie is the text of the movie! movieaisle.substack.com/p/bugonia-an...

The new documentary series "Mr. Scorsese" on AppleTV+ is a great portrait of Martin Scorsese, of course. But it's also a crash course in the economics of American cinema over the last 60-some years. A must-watch for students of the business of film. www.thebulwark.com/p/martin-sco...

"The happiness of childhood is the root of all nostalgia, the tragic flaw in each of us: to yearn for a return to the innocence we once had and to understand, on some level, that it’s gone forever." ICYMI @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/bugonia-re...

Today would have been John Candy's 75th birthday. Here's the review by our @sonnybunch.bsky.social of the new documentary about him: www.thebulwark.com/p/john-candy...

MR. SCORSESE is a fine look at Martin Scorsese, artist. But it's also a riveting portrait of how the business of film has evolved. The man has a compulsion to make movies, and that requires no small sum of money. He's figured out how to get it. www.thebulwark.com/p/martin-sco...

I picked @radiofreetom.bsky.social's brain about Netflix's A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, nuclear panic cinema more broadly, and the current, uh, state of things when it comes to nukes. Things got kind of weird this week, huh? www.thebulwark.com/p/what-a-hou...

I don't ask much from you people but I'm officially asking for something now: a grassroots effort to secure Amy Madigan an Oscar nomination for her work in WEAPONS, a bonkers-in-the-best-way performance that ties that whole movie together. Madigan-mentum now! theankler.com/p/oscar-puzz...

I just happened to pause on this screen and, uh, yeah. Wild bonus episode today. movieaisle.substack.com/p/the-gooner...

I apologize for the jump scare in the middle of this review. www.thebulwark.com/p/bugonia-re...

The future is bad and we should burn it down. Don’t watch this without headphones! movieaisle.substack.com/p/the-gooner...

Pay heem. Pay dat mahn hiss mahney. www.thebulwark.com/p/rounders-b...

There was some gambling news last week, which finally gave me an excuse to do something I've wanted to do for a long time: talk about ROUNDERS on a podcast with @jvl.bsky.social and @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE62...

Gambling habits, fake Russian accents, and don't worry, plenty of movie talk. @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social, @jvl.bsky.social, and @sonnybunch.bsky.social talk "Rounders" in the latest Bulwark Movie Club!

On ATMA this week, Peter, Alyssa, and I discussed the insane state of the potential sale of WB to Paramount and then marveled at humanity's capacity for self-destruction in our review of A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE. Nuclear war, baby. It's back! movieaisle.substack.com/p/the-terror...

"I was kind of surprised by how hard and how successfully 'Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere' works to avoid' the typical biopic tropes." That plus "A House of Dynamite" from @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/bruce-spri...

"I can envision certain audiences sitting there and stoically saying, 'Okay, that’s it? Well, that’s not for me.' I, on the other hand, found it to be a tremendously moving portrait of fathers and sons and the search for self-worth." ICYMI @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/springstee...

Kathryn Bigelow's A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE is fascinating because it's very much a throwback: it's a good old-fashioned nuclear panic movie! What does that say about our geopolitical moment? Well ... nothing good! www.thebulwark.com/p/bruce-spri...

more and more people are saying NOMINATE DELROY LINDO, ACADEMY COWARDS

I previewed the awards season films with Katey Rich and Chris Rosen while also discussing Oscar predictions and Ankler Pundits. But the real takeaway from this episode should be "GIVE DELROY LINDO A DANG OSCAR NOMINATION." The man deserves it! www.thebulwark.com/p/delroy-lin...

Please read the last of my horror pieces for @thebulwark.com, this time on the horror fiction of Joyce Carol Oates. (Love the picture of her they found.) www.thebulwark.com/p/joyce-caro...

Jeremy was incredible, Sam Cooke brought me to tears (as did a few other scenes), and with all the interviews I'd seen, I didn't know Marc Maron was is it! You've written an excellent piece. "...feel the textures of," indeed.

“I’d describe the CDC as Swiss cheese, with holes throughout it, or maybe Jenga, where you’ve built it up and then taken out a whole bunch of blocks.” “We are not tipping over yet, but we are very close.” www.thebulwark.com/p/cdc-diaspo...

So eager to see the Springsteen movie, even more after reading this @sonnybunch.bsky.social review www.thebulwark.com/p/springstee...

"We tend to think of artists as biomechanical machines that input adversity and excrete salvation, but Scott Cooper’s film builds toward a revelation that, frankly, I didn’t see coming." @sonnybunch.bsky.social reviews: www.thebulwark.com/p/springstee...

I was kind of surprised by how hard SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE hit me. I'm not really a musical biopic guy, but Cooper's film deviates from the biopic formula in kind of interesting ways. www.thebulwark.com/p/springstee...

The destruction of the White House’s East Wing is giving “Olympus Has Fallen” vibes. @samsteindc.bsky.social and @sonnybunch.bsky.social break down the tear down.

I am basically the target audience for the new Springsteen biopic (I liked it!). But much like the album Nebraska, the making of which is the focus of the movie, it’s a spiky thing, unfriendly to populist sensibilities. Won’t be for everyone but I dug it. www.thebulwark.com/p/springstee...

In his latest newsletter, @sonnybunch.bsky.social writes on South Park's throughline from the early days to this big anti-Trump season. Read the whole thing: www.thebulwark.com/p/john-candy...

"Normally, this sort of thing would be tedious if not outright insulting. But the movie works, and the movie works because John Candy is beloved." @sonnybunch.bsky.social on a new John Candy documentary plus South Park: www.thebulwark.com/p/john-candy...

The new John Candy documentary is great if you’re into feeling good about good people. Me, I like liking things. www.thebulwark.com/p/john-candy...