On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss the state of the AMPTP/SAG-AFTRA talks and why this strike might drag out longer than anyone expected. Then they review the much-anticipated Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which is definitely a 165-or-so-minute movie that recreates most of a Taylor Swift concert! But is it any more than that? And does it need to be? Make sure to swing by Bulwark+ on Friday for our bonus episode on great movie books tied to The Hollywood Reporter’s list of 100 greatest movie books. And if you enjoyed this episode—or are a Swiftie outraged by our lack of faith in your pop overlord—make sure to share it with a friend!
Taylor Swift may one day make a great Futurama MomCorp CEO.
Enjoyed the discussion on Taylor’s concert video. Peters take on the editing of her voice over the music and how it washed out the experience of the show and made it more of a 2 plus hour music video. I used to enjoy going the the midnight movies and seeing The Song Remains the Same, Genesis: In Concert, The Last Waltz and others. I’ll ask my daughter what she thought of the movie when she sees it this weekend.
Hope Alyssa feels better for the Friday show unless she was practicing her Brenda Vaccaro voice.
Great episode, best podcast in my feed, etc. A few things:
1. It’s The Last Waltz, not The Last Dance
2. If you want the insider, backstage view of Taylor a la “Truth or Dare,” she already did that, it’s the documentary Miss Americana on Netflix from 2019. Pretty good!
3. Conversely, the best concert film of all time, Stop Making Sense, follows a similar model of being a faithful document of a momentary performance and not a contextual portrait of the musicians in question.
4. All this makes me wish the bonus episode was about concert films. Maybe after y’all review the Beyoncé one?
5. The people want more music criticism from Alyssa.
It's funny, I've had the producer of THE LAST WALTZ (which I own on DVD and also on 4K!) on my other pod twice now, I hope he doesn't hear that gaffe.
We are absolutely NOT doing the Beyonce concert. I AM PUTTING MY FOOT DOWN.
Thanks for listening!
Sure thing. Here's a bonus ep since you responded:
6. As a fellow Dallas-ite, I vote that you make Alyssa and Peter come down for a live event at the Drafthouse on Lamar so you can get your friendship bracelet.
I would love to do that if we could figure out how to make the economics work of flying them out, putting them up, etc.
Sonny, Peter and I can just crash at your house and Peter can make cocktails.