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PODCAST

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

Sonny Bunch hosts The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, a new podcast featuring interviews with folks who have their finger on the pulse of the entertainment industry during this dynamic—and difficult—time.

tv & film film interviews

All Episodes

38:58

Why Productions Are Fleeing Los Angeles

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/06/13

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!

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46:22

How the Studios Are (Quietly) Using AI

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/06/06

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 with a

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64:17

A Life in Music

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/05/30

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 you

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28:40

Clothing 'The Last of Us'

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/05/23

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 scribbled

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39:12

One Family's Journey Through Hollywood

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/05/16

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

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46:45

How David Mamet Made His First Film in 12 Years

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/05/09

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 from

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41:26

The Hidden Art of 'Secret Mall Apartment'

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/05/02

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 with

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61:02

Hollywood Should Rely Less on Overseas Box Office

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/04/25

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 (and

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71:37

The Economics of Indie Distribution

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/04/18

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? All

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43:31

Hollywood Imagery's Impact on Politics

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/04/11

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 shifts,

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31:12

Bringing Memories of 'Warfare' to Life

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/04/04

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 strongly

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34:57

Dystopian Mediocrity

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/28

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 episode

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36:07

The Low Culture That Brought Us to Trump

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/21

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

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19:24

The 2000 Election That Changed America (with Jonathan...

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/18

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.

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38:25

How to Build Your Own Movie Library

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/15

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 movies

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38:30

The 2025 Stunt Awards!

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/08

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!

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43:15

How to Help Veterans Returning Home

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/03/01

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 tickets

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43:57

SNL At 50

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/02/23

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 to

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69:22

How to Make a Microbudget Movie

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/02/15

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,

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38:19

Documenting Horror

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood ·

2025/02/08

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by writer/director Philip Gelatt and novelist Paul Tremblay (author of Horror Movieand 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 a

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97 results

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