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PODCAST

Book and Film Globe Podcast

Book and Film Globe

Everyone’s favorite literature and pop culture site is now a podcast. Entertaining, enlightening chat about books, film, streaming TV, and more with Neal Pollack, editor of Book and Film Globe and its top writers. Pollack is the author of ten semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction, including Jewball, Never Mind the Pollacks, Downward-Facing Death, and the memoirs Alternadad and Pothead: My Life as a Marijuana Addict in the Age of Legal Weed.

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All Episodes

40:59

BFG Podcast #200: 'The Phoenician Scheme,'...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/06/12

This is the final episode of the BFG Podcast. We're as sad to see it go as you are, but editor and host Neal Pollack has a new job at the U.S. edition of The Spectator, the world's oldest magazine, and will no longer be seeing and talking about movies for a living. We had an extraordinary four years on the podcast, bringing you news and commentary nearly every week on a shoestring budget, but it's time to end our amazing little show.Neal welcomes his one and only guest this week, film critic Stephen

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40:37

BFG Podcast #199: 'Mission: Impossible: The Final...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/05/28

After a two-week hiatus, the BFG Podcast is back, and the culture belongs to us as usual. Host Neal Pollack has returned from his anniversary trip to the Continent, and Stephen Garrett was in Europe as well, covering the Cannes Film Festival like he has done every year since before he can remember. This year, Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme D'Or for his film 'It Was Just An Accident,' the sixth straight year a film distributed by Neon has taken the prize. Neal and Stephen

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36:33

BFG Podcast #198: 'Thunderbolts,' 'The Four Seasons,'...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/05/07

Hollywood in crisis! When is Hollywood not in crisis? This week on the podcast, the tariffs have come home to roost in Tinseltown. Neal Pollack hosts Richard Rushfield of The Ankler to discuss what in the hell is going on. Why couldn't Jon Voight stop Trump from issuing tariff threats? Is Trump serious? Maybe it's good to have a President who's actually engaging in issues that threaten the movie industry. Maybe he wants to help? No one has any idea what's happening, which makes it all suspenseful

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40:35

BFG Podcast #197: 'Andor' Season 2, 'The Accountant...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/04/30

In the past on this podcast, host Neal Pollack and guest Scott Gold have occasionally steered listeners awry, we'll admit it. After watching the first couple episodes of genre shows like The Acolyte or Daredevil: Born Again, they've encouraged people to watch the shows, and then had to sit back and cringe for weeks as the shows not only failed to stick the landing, but flopped entirely. With pretty good confidence, we can say that's not going to be the case with Season 2 of 'Andor,' which will

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39:29

BFG Podcast #196: 'Sinners' and 'Black Mirror' Season 7

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/04/23

No half-measures on the podcast this week as we cover some of the year's best content. On the movie side, we talk about 'Sinners,' Ryan Coogler's mind-blowing 1930s historical Delta blues movie–with vampires. Stephen Garrett hadn't even heard of this movie until about two weeks ago, and it was a five-star shocker for him. Neal Pollack, equally skeptical, equally and totally blown away. Coogler delivers a show-stopping musical number at the movie's midpoint, at which point a ton of vampire mayhem

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36:50

BFG Podcast #195: The State of American Moviegoing...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/04/17

On this week's BFG Podcast, we welcome in our friend Richard Rushfield, who takes time away from his deli-going schedule from time to time to stop by to talk to host Neal Pollack about issues and trends in Hollywood. Richard is recently back from Cinemcon, the annual Las Vegas convention for theater owners, who always have one question: "Does your movie star Dwayne Johnson, or does it star Ryan Reynolds?" Headier artistic questions don't concern them.For the first time in many years, Richard says,

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40:42

BFG Podcast #194: 'A Minecraft Movie,' Museum Budget...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/04/09

BFG film critic Lani Gonzalez saw 'A Minecraft Movie' at 4 PM on a Friday with her kids, and it wasn't one of the more raucous Minecraft screenings. But it definitely doesn't surprise her that the movie made a tremendous amount of money. Minecraft is the most popular game in the world right now. "The youth of America and the world are bringing energy to the theater," she tells Neal Pollack on this week's podcast. "It gives me hope," Neal says. That said, Lani tells Neal, it was not the best possible

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41:37

BFG Podcast #193: 'The Studio,' 'Death of A Unicorn,'...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/04/02

TV, movies, and politics get the full BFG Podcast treatment this week. First up, Omar Gallaga stops by the podcast dome to talk with Neal Pollack about 'The Studio,' Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's terrific Apple+ satire about Hollywood and the movie business. Neal calls it "the best constructed TV comedy since Veep.' Omar compares this "ongoing panic attack" to The Larry Sanders Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's a fine lineage, and it features the best Martin Scorsese cameo you'll ever see. Omar

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40:02

BFG Podcast #192: The State of Food TV and the...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/03/26

Reality TV, or at least TV that vaguely resembles reality, takes over the podcast this week. First, Neal Pollack welcomes in Rick Ellis, from the Too Much TV sub stack, to discuss Neal's thesis that TV food competitions have reached their "decadent endgame." Rick doesn't quite agree. His thesis is that Jeffrey Zaslav and the other Warner Brothers Discovery executives who run the Food Network have just realized they can make more profit by producing fewer episodes.They both criticize, somewhat

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34:02

BFG Podcast #191: 'Black Bag' and a Roundup of the...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/03/19

Has Steven Soderbergh retired? Because his retirement looks an awful lot like making two movies a year. BFG Chief film critic Stephen Garrett, who knows more about film on Tuesday than you'll know in a lifetime, has interviewed Soderbergh several times and says that "retirement" is really more of a euphemism for DIY filmmaking. With 'Black Bag', an admittedly $50 million studio picture, he brings the DIY mentality to a star-studded spy drama that's loaded with wit and sexiness and everything else

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36:58

BFG Podcast #190: 'Mickey 17' and 'Daredevil: Born...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/03/12

We lead off this week's podcast with a detailed discussion of what works and what doesn't work in Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi satire 'Mickey 17.' On the one hand, it's a Bong Joon-ho movie, his first feature since winning the Oscar for 'Parasite.' This film, says Stephen Garrett, is well on the spectrum with his other over-the-top sci-fi satires, 'Snowpiercer' and 'Okja.' It's a big swing. Neal Pollack really disliked Mark Ruffalo's villain performance, and really didn't care for the excessive voiceover

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39:34

BFG Podcast #189: The 90-Day Theatrical Window,...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/03/05

This is how good the Book and Film Globe podcast is: five days before Sean Baker stood in front of the world and used his glorious Oscar moment to urge people to see movies in the theaters, host Neal Pollack and guest Jacob Harper discussed Sean Baker's campaign to get people to see movies in theaters. It was also a great relief to hear Neal say that Anora was the "favorite" to win Best Picture, because obviously it did. But the quest to return people to the theaters–and to have them behave

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41:06

BFG Podcast #188: 'The White Lotus' Season 3, 'The...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/02/26

This week on the BFG podcast, Stephen Garrett is stateside to offer his totally objective opinion on this year's Oscar nominees. He and Neal Pollack get into it right away because Stephen insists that 'Emilia Perez' is an actual Oscar contender. Neal insists that there has never been a more canceled movie in Oscar movie. Everyone hates Emilia Perez. Neal is convinced that Timothée Chalamet is going to win best actor, though Stephen asks him to throw on the brakes. They both think that Demi Moore is

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34:06

BFG Podcast #187: 'Captain America: Brave New World'...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/02/19

At the Book And Film Globe podcast, we rarely take a particular political stance–with the exception of campaigning to keep movie theaters open during COVID and decrying all kinds of censorship. We'll be encouraging you to read books, watch movies, and enjoy streaming TV as the nuclear winter hits. Culture marches on.Therefore, it's with complete neutrality that we report that Donald Trump has taking charge of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, along with taking charge of America, The Gulf

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41:58

BFG Podcast #186: 'I'm Still Here,' 'Companion,' and...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/02/19

It's a typically great show this week as host Neal Pollack welcomes the heavily compromised but still insightful Stephen Garrett, who worked on the trailer for the Brazilian Oscar nominee I'm Still Here. But Stephen would have to have a heart of stone to not like this beautiful and thoughtful movie, and he doesn't. Neal is full of praise for the film's passionate defense of human rights, and its beautiful elegy for a time and place that's no more. And they are both enthralled, as is everyone else,

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41:58

BFG Podcast #186: 'I'm Still Here,' 'Companion,' and...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/02/12

It's a typically great show this week as host Neal Pollack welcomes the heavily compromised but still insightful Stephen Garrett, who worked on the trailer for the Brazilian Oscar nominee I'm Still Here. But Stephen would have to have a heart of stone to not like this beautiful and thoughtful movie, and he doesn't. Neal is full of praise for the film's passionate defense of human rights, and its beautiful elegy for a time and place that's no more. And they are both enthralled, as is everyone else,

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40:51

BFG Podcast #185: Hollywood AI Controversies

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/02/06

The entertainment world doesn't stop moving just because of political upheaval. It marches on! On this week's podcast, host Neal Pollack talks with contributor Stephen Macaulay about the ever-changing world of AI and how it's affecting Hollywood productions. Topics covered include The Brutalist AI language-enhancement "controversy" and a new ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office that will influence how Hollywood uses AI going forward. Nuance is good when it comes to issues like this, and few

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34:17

BFG Podcast #184: 'Star Wars: Skeleton Crew;' The...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/01/30

This week's podcast goes back in time in more ways than one. Gillian Gaar meets Neal Pollack in the pod-dome to discuss her terrific piece about the movies of 1975. Among the topics discussed: How 'The Godfather, Part II' is still incredibly watchable today, how the stars of Robert Altman's 'Nashville' wrote and performed their own songs, how 'Jaws' birthed the blockbuster movie but still featured long scenes of guys talking on a boat, and how Norman Jewison's 'Rollerball' managed to make a fake

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33:01

BFG Podcast #183: 'Wolf Man' and an Appreciation of...

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/01/22

This week, the BFG Podcast pays tribute to David Lynch, of whom there is nothing bad to say. Stephen Garrett's wife and daughter may not be into Lynch, but Stephen and Neal Pollack (and Neal's wife Regina) loved him, and so does most of the rest of the world. Stephen buries the lead and talks about the time he interviewed Lynch at a film festival, and the story is as idiosyncratic as the rest of Lynch's work. We cover as many bases as we can, from 'Mullholland Drive' to 'Dune' to 'Wild at Heart,'

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34:19

BFG Podcast #182: 'The Brutalist' and TV Crossovers

Book and Film Globe Podcast ·

2025/01/15

From the highbrow to the lowbrow, it's a veritable brow rollercoaster on this week's podcast. First, we go high. Neal Pollack welcomes in Stephen Garrett to discuss Brady Corbet's 'The Brutalist,' the most fun you'll have at a three-and-a-half hour movie about architecture and Holocaust trauma this year. Neither Neal nor Stephen have a cross word about this thoroughgoing work of art, starring, according to Nikki Glazer, "two-time Holocaust survivor" Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, giving a signature

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