The Subtle Pleasures of 'Past Lives'

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) ask why WB keeps stepping on rakes by doing things like demanding GQ rewrite pieces about David Zaslav and messing with critics by scheduling Barbie screenings on the same day as Oppenheimer screenings. (Late-brekaing update here: the studio seems to be adding screening dates for Barbie in at least some cities with Oppenheimer conflicts.) Then they review Past Lives, which is getting a lot of buzz as one of the best movies of the year. Is it? We’ll return to that topic on this week’s bonus episode, in which we judge the best movies of the first half of 2023. And if you enjoyed this episode, as always, we ask that you share it with a friend. A brief aside: An episode like this one is particularly important to share if you want to see more reviews of indie films and fewer reviews of Indy (or Marvel or DC or whatever) films. We can see the downloads; we know what movies people are interested in listening to reviews of. We sometimes get complaints from folks who want more talk about movies for adults … but we also know what people actually listen to reviews of. (Spoiler: not movies for adults.) I always ask folks to share it with a friend and I’d love to see this one shared with many friends because, God knows, I only have so many more $300 million multiverse movies in me.