Film Criticism, Eco-Villains, and the MCU: Seven Questions for Sonny Bunch
Sonny Bunch is perhaps one of my favorite film critics alive. I don’t always agree with him (in fact, I hardly ever do), but I’m always delighted to read his opinions. He has been a vociferous defender of Zack Snyder’s tenure over the DCEU, he has humorously justified the Empire’s destruction of Alderaan, and he was a voice of nuance amidst the Cuties controversy. I have also enjoyed his observations that environmentalists make great movie villains, that Joker has perfectly tapped into our modern-day anxieties, and his celebration of the raw fury in Dave Chappelle’s 8:46. Bunch is a member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association and has written for National Review, The Washington Free Beacon, The Washington Post, Washington Examiner, and The Bulwark. I am beyond grateful that he has taken the time out of his busy schedule for this interview with me via Twitter DM.
- You manage to have a very distinct voice in film criticism. I still remember your Halloween (2018) review, where you opened with the mice crawling along the theater floor. How do you manage to stand out?
Step One: find a mouse-infested theater. That always helps. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how to answer this question; the trick is just finding a way to write about a movie that connects with people. Like, in that specific example: everyone has a bad theater experience, and while it’s not the filmmaker’s fault the theater was overrun with mice, it’s absolutely the sort of thing that impacts how you see and experience a movie. So, you know, try to find a way to bring the reader into your world a little. Social media has helped with all this because it creates a sense of familiarity and connection — and use that as a way to trick people into learning something about the movies they’re watching. Because at the end of the day the critic’s job is not just to serve as a sort of consumer report; it’s to help the reader better understand what they’ve watched and how it works as a piece of art.
2. What were some films or film critics that had a big impression on you or cultivated your way of thinking?
A book I always recommend to people interested in finding their own voice is American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now, edited by Philip Lopate. Lopate pulls together from a wide variety of people working in a number of different styles and shows how diverse criticism, as an idea and an ideal can be. As for individuals: I’d recommend picking up collections by Stephen Hunter, John Simon, and Anthony Lane.
3. You wrote a very funny, but provocative, piece that environmentalists, such as Thanos, make great movie villains because they want to make our real lives worse (e.g. telling us not to have kids, suggesting that we eat bugs). I’ve noticed that a lot of pro-environmentalist films (e.g. Pocahontas, Avatar) come off as overly preachy and saccharine. Do you think that there can be such a thing as a good environmentalist film? Have you, for instance, seen Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind?
I’ve seen Mononoke, but not Nausicaa. I don’t think it’s impossible to make a good environmentalist movie, no. (See: ON DEADLY GROUND.) The trick with that movie villains piece is that these big budget blockbusters need a.) a villain who can threaten the world and b.) a villain people can sympathize with. The funny thing is, since most screenwriters are progressive, they end up making the people they sympathize with (environmentalists) almost comically evil.
4. The great Martin Scorsese made some rather sensible comments that MCU movies weren’t “cinema” and essentially visual theme park rides. Now, I like the MCU for what it is, Avengers Endgame was a great theatrical experience, but these films aren’t high art. I actually find that the superhero films which come closest to great art are the non-MCU films, like Richard Donner’s Superman, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. What are your thoughts on this? I expect you’ll bring up Zack Snyder.
I think Scorsese was absolutely right in one particular regard: the problem isn’t the MCU, per se, it’s the way the MCU and franchise filmmaking writ large threaten to consume filmmaking as an art form in its entirety, to dominate every screen and suck up all available talent. You see this a lot in the MCU, where acclaimed indie filmmakers like Ryan Coogler and Chloe Zhao are sucked into Marvel’s maw, never to escape from the gravity well of franchise fare again. That said, at their best, superhero movies are pretty good and frequently ABOUT something. THE DARK KNIGHT is the best movie about post-9/11 America ever made, in its own weird way, a film about surveillance and interrogation techniques and extraordinary rendition. Zack Snyder’s DC films all explore a similar theme: What would happen if gods — literal gods, capable of destroying the world — showed up on Earth? How would society react to it? How could the gods themselves react to being surrounded by mortals? I wrote a bit about that here:
Anyway, I largely agree with Martin Scorsese; I’m just not sure how to counteract what he sees. The marketplace wants what it wants, and what it seems to want is big comic book movies.
5. You’ve written that physical media is the best means of fighting corporate censorship. Now, I own literal boxes of DVDs, but there are limits to this approach. We still can’t legally watch the theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy, and a lot of the exclusive content on streaming services (e.g. The Mandalorian, Okja) have yet to see a physical release. I fear we are moving towards a world where we have to eternally rent new movies and TV shows. What are your thoughts on this?
Yeah, the world that the studios and distributors want is one where you’re either required to sign up for a streaming service they run or that you have to pay to rent a movie every time you want to watch it. They can get more money this way than they can by selling discs. Leaving aside the financial aspect of it, though, the thing I worry about is studios and distributors endlessly tinkering with products — whether they’re pulling episodes of TV shows that are deemed offensive or offering up new cuts or whatever. This is one reason why it’s always good to own things you love: Disney can’t come in your house and replace that original theatrical cut of Star Wars you have on VHS.
6. I want your thoughts one of my National Film Registry nominations. I have nominated the American version of the original Gojira (1954) which was re-titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956). I argued for its inclusion on the basis that 1) It was an American-Japanese co-production, since new scenes were filmed in the U.S. specifically for this version 2) It is a rare and early display of Asian-American talents 3) This was the only version of Godzilla that international audiences saw until 2005 4) It set the stage for future American shows that mixed Japanese footage with new actors and scenes (e.g. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers). Do you think this argument is persuasive?
It’s an interesting argument! I’m sure there are all sorts of rules and regulations about what constitutes an “American production” for the purposes of the registry, so I couldn’t say for sure whether it would qualify. And I imagine there are some Japanese cinephiles who would be annoyed by its inclusion. But it’s definitely an interesting artifact of a time when studios were trying to make cinematic products work across cultures.
7. I’ve worked in a movie theater and one of my best memories is watching Casablanca in the theater with my father. I care about the experience. Theaters have already been on the rocks with the explosion in streaming services and Disney’s stinginess with the Fox library. Now the pandemic has hit. You have persuasively argued against the closure of theaters due to the fact that no infections have been traced to them, but unfortunately, your view isn’t the dominant one shared by most state governments. Do you see movie theaters surviving the pandemic at this point and did Reddit save AMC?
I don’t know if Reddit “saved” AMC with their meme-trading, but they definitely gave AMC a bit more cushion. As to the bigger question: I think theaters will survive, but I do think the theatrical experience is going to have to evolve somewhat. Theaters are going to have to be more along the lines of the Angelikas or the Arclights or the Alamos: EXPERIENCES, with great presentation and good food/drink options. That said, everywhere the virus has come under control and there’s new content out has seen their theaters come back pretty well (that’s mostly China and Japan at this point, but still). So maybe there’s still hope!
