Books, Arts & Culture

‘The Odyssey’ Was Never Going to Bomb, Despite Grifter Angst
Plus: ‘Motor City’ madness!
 • Sonny Bunch
Which Directors Have the Most Hollywood Juice?
Nate Jones on the 100 most powerful directors in Hollywood.
 • Sonny Bunch
49:39
Against Heteropessimism
Accounting for the nature of straight women’s desire is hard. What to do about it?
 • Clare Coffey
‘Motor City’ Review
A silent film for the modern age.
 • Sonny Bunch
Why the Paramount-WB Merger Will Be Terrible for Theaters
Plus: It’s ‘Odyssey’ Week! Get your Nolan on.
 • Sonny Bunch
Can Subsidies Bring Film Production Back to the USA?
Chris Fenton on his new film ‘Bad Counselors’ and the effort to make movies in America.
 • Sonny Bunch
59:42
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There Is Only Culture War
How a forty-year-old satire of fascism became a meme for Trump, a flashpoint over women in sci-fi, and—for some fans—an actual political ideal.
 • Christian Ruth
The Slop Doctrine
Why the right has overwhelmingly embraced terrible AI-generated imagery.
 • alice e. marwick
Are We Reading the Odyssey Wrong?
Two new books try to tame Homer’s hero. Neither succeeds.
 • Alyssa Rosenberg
Sam Neill, 1947–2026
An unlikely superstar.
 • Sonny Bunch
Bulwark Book Club for August: Mark Twain’s “Pudd’nhead Wilson”
Send in your questions to Mona Charen and Bill Kristol for the August book club.
 • The Bulwark
How the Screen Has Changed Us
David Thomson on his bracing new book, 'A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies'
 • Sonny Bunch
44:58