Across the Movie Aisle

Latest Episodes:

122: Does the 'Batgirl' Cancellation Make Sense? Plus: 'Bullet Train,' Reviewed! Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode of Across the Movie Aisle, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) try to hash out the business reasons for, uh, throwing a whole movie into the trash can. Will WB ever #ReleaseTheBatgirl? We’ll see! And then they review Bullet Train, a movie that sounds like it should be awesome but is instead just … kind of flabby. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Friday for a special bonus episode on trains. Buster Keaton, class politics, and Tony Scott: trains have it all, man! And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend.

121: 'The Gray Man' or the Gray Meh? Aug 02, 2022

Show notes

This week, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss the oncoming movie drought. We’re hitting a period when no big movies are hitting theaters over the next couple of months—but why? Then they review a movie designed to be watched at home while folding your socks: The Gray Man. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

120: Are We a Yes on 'Nope'? Plus: Did Zack Snyder go too far? Jul 26, 2022

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On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) talk about Rolling Stone’s bombshell piece revealing that slightly more social media traffic around the so-called Snyder Cut was generated by bots than on the typical trending topic. And then the gang reviews Nope, Jordan Peele’s sci-fi-western-horror extravaganza. Is it a mess or profound or profoundly messy? Make sure to come back to Bulwark+ on Friday for a special bonus episode on alien design. From H.R. Giger to the Predator, what are some of the best, and worst, looks for aliens on the big screen? And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

119: Is 'Where the Crawdads Sing' Any Good? Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) review Where the Crawdads Sing, a movie playing exclusively in theaters. But before they do that, they ask if the “exclusively in theaters” part is a little, well, elitist, as suggested by Joe Russo in a recent interview. Make sure to swing back to Bulwark+ on Friday for a special bonus episode on southern storytelling. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

118: Should Coders Give Auteurs Notes? Plus: 'Thor: Love and Thunder' reviewed! Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) have a little bit of fun with the idea that the folx coding Netflix’s recommendation algo should have any say in what the algo actually delivers to people. (You can read the story they’re discussing here.) And then they review Thor: Love and Thunder. Did they love it or hate it? Who can say? Make sure to come back to Bulwark+ on Friday for our special members-only bonus episode, where we’ll be talking about the mysterious case of the aging movie star. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend!

117: Gentleminions: Boon or Curse? Plus: 'Elvis' reviewed! Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) try to figure out if the Gentleminion craze sweeping the nation—in which teens and tweens wear suits to see Minions: The Rise of Gru and get rowdy while doing so—is a controversy or nontroversy. Then they review Elvis! Make sure to swing by Friday for the special bonus episode on our own history of rowdy moviegoing. And if you loved the episode, share it with a friend!

116: 'Spiderhead' Review Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss Netflix’s Spiderhead and the tumult at the world’s largest streamer. How is it that a film from the director of the biggest movie of the summer can release a movie starring a key part of the MCU and the star of one of Netflix’s biggest hits ever can just kind of … show up, and then disappear? How does this make sense from a business standpoint? Is the movie of the week model sustainable? Sadly, no bonus episode this week, as our travel/vacation schedules made coordinating impossible.

115: Why Did 'Lightyear' Bomb? Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) try to figure out why Lightyear dramatically underperformed projections. Is this a function of new customer behavior, the burgeoning culture war Disney finds itself embroiled in, or both? And then the gang reviews Lightyear, which is at best fine and at worst not fine. Very not fine indeed. Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ Friday for our conversation about the movies of 1995, sparked by Lightyear’s insistence that Lightyear is a movie that would have appealed to a child in 1995 (spoiler: it would not have). If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

114: 'Jurassic World Dominion' Review Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss the ways in which entertainment companies and the media inadvertently highlight and promote marginalized racists, a phenomenon noted by Kat Rosenfield in this essay for Unherd. And then the gang reviews Jurassic World Dominion, the latest big dumb movie in a series full of big dumb movies. Make sure to come back to Bulwark+ Friday for our bonus episode on David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future! And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

113: 'We Own This City': The Angriest Show on Streaming Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason Magazine) discuss why Top Gun: Maverick is succeeding and whether or not it codes “conservative,” like American Sniper or The Passion of the Christ. And then they review We Own This City, David Simon and George Pelecanos’s angry look at a real-life police scandal in Baltimore streaming now in full on HBO Max. Make sure to come back to Bulwark+ for this week’s bonus episode on Friday, in which we make some more streaming recommendations for you. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

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