The Long Take Review

Summer’s coming to an end, and for those of us invested in the health of the box office, it was a great one. In fact, the U.S. box office broke an all-time record with 4.76 billion! This made our annual look back at summer movie season all the more celebratory as we shout out our favorites in a dozen superlative categories. We give credit to multiple films in each, and not just juggernauts like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day; smaller movies you may have missed get their flowers too. Whose our class clown or cutest couple? And how many films from this past spring will P.T. try to smuggle in either intentionally or unintentionally? (He does both.) This is a spoiler-free episode! We did our best to avoid spoilers throughout the. entire episode. Occasionally we issue an ad hoc spoiler warning, but even then we were intentionally vague. Image Credit: Vanity Fair, New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

On September 22nd, director George Lucas and business leader Melody Hobson will unveil their brainchild, The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, to the general public in Los Angeles. On September 5th, P.T., Greg (yes, Greg who lives across the country!), and I were lucky enough to visit the museum early, as a part of the Member Preview. And then, as if that weren’t enough, we ended the day with Maestro of the Movies: A Tribute to John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. In this episode of The Long Take Review, we not only recount our joyful in-person reunion; we reflect on the layout and philosophy of the museum, our favorite pieces, the Star Wars of it all, and what Lucas and Hobson might be trying to say about art, narrative, pop culture, and privilege. Listen in to hear about early film history, critical theory, art and cultural capital, as well as the story behind the previously unaired Star Wars Detours animated series. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 30:20 minute mark. If you don’t want to hear about specific pieces in the museum or other details that may color your experience visiting for the first time, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art website You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Whether or not they are personally into the films of Jane Schoenbrun, critics largely agree that the director of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), and now Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026), is a singular auteur, making films that no one else would or could make. Their first two films were critical darlings of the Sundance Film Festival, and their latest work, a surreal meta-satirical slasher film, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm. To parse the film’s complex story swirling around questions of genre, gender, sexual awakening, pop culture, and queer identity, we had to bring in our resident horror expert, Professor Sarah Hastings. She fills us in on the history of slasher films that inspired Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, nerds out with Jen about feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, and helps us better understand what might be real or not real in the film. Greg and P.T. also say smart things in between making awkward yet witty jokes about sex, death, summer camp, and, of course, dipping sauce. Take a dip with us in a conversation that is as lofty and fun as the film itself. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 30:34 minute mark. If you don’t want to be a part of that jump scare, you can listen until then. Image Credit: NPR You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

For many Oscar pundits and fans, the 91st Academy Awards, held on February 24, 2019, and honoring the films of 2018, became the most notorious when Green Book, a heartwarming odd couple comedy about a black pianist and his white driver, won Best Picture instead of presumed favorite, Alfonso Cuaron’s poignantly personal historical drama about a Mexico City family and their housekeeper, Roma. And so, of course, for our sixth Oscar Fairy Flashback episode, we wanted to confront this controversial year (and believe me when I say we deeply considered shying away from it and turning the clock back in a different direction). As with all Oscar Fairy Flashbacks, we share what we want to change about the winners and nominees, were we to be in the good graces of the all-powerful Oscar Fairy. We each have ten points plus whatever we had remaining from the last OFF episode to spend. How any Oscars will we take away from Green Book and its fellow Oscar villain, Bohemian Rhapsody? Image Credit: Screen Rant Here’s some more detailed context to show that this Oscar year has a mixed record to say the least. Four films won multiple awards: -Bohemian Rhapsody: 4 wins (Actor [Rami Malek], Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing) -Green Book: 3 wins (Picture, Supporting Actor [Mahershala Ali], Original Screenplay) -Roma: 3 wins (Director, Cinematography, Foreign Language Film) -Black Panther: 3 wins (Score, Production Design, Costume Design) -That is certainly a list of movies. Other films that won awards: The Favourite (Actress [Olivia Colman]), If Beale Street Could Talk (Supporting Actress [Regina King]), BlacKkKlansmen (Adapted Screenplay, finally getting Spike Lee a competitive Oscar), Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (Animated Feature), A Star Is Born (Song, netting Lady Gaga her first Oscar), Vice (Makeup & Hairstyling), and First Man (Visual Effects) -Other nominated movies include The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Cold War, First Reformed, Isle of Dogs, Mary Poppins Returns, Avengers: Infinity War, A Quiet Place, At Eternity’s Gate, The Wife, and Solo: A Star Wars Story -There were also some notorious snubs, including Paddington 2, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Crazy Rich Asians, Hereditary, and Widows Buckle up, because we have a lot of work to do! You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Why is Spider-Man: Brand New Day spinning webs around the summer box office? How is it breaking all kinds of records? We keep returning to this question throughout this week’s episode, coming up with various theories about what might be behind the massive success of the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man film. What does this mean for superhero movies? For the future of the MCU? For Tom Holland’s career? We speculate very broadly from every angle of this franchise, folding in discussion of the X-Men, casting announcements at D23, other iterations of Spidey, and more. Come to hear who our favorite supporting characters were and stay for the deep discussion of the political implications of this film as it reaches a hand out to mutantkind. At one point in this episode, Greg asks why there hasn’t been a solo Hulk movie. Jen explains that Universal still holds the rights to standalone Hulk movies, but not to movies in which Hulk appears alongside other Marvel characters. That’s only partially true. Apparently, Universal holds the distribution rights to standalone Hulk movies while Disney/Marvel hold the production rights to the character across the board. Universal has a right of first refusal for distribution of Hulk-focused films only. So we haven’t gotten one in so long because Disney/Marvel doesn’t want to pay Universal a cut of whatever Hulk-centric film that they might make. The nuance of production rights vs. distribution rights should have been a part of our on-air conversation. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:50 minute mark. If you don’t want your secret identity revealed yet, you can listen until then. Image Credit: Deadline You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

It’s been a month since Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey arrived in theaters and nearly three weeks since we put out our first episode reviewing it. We’re happy to report that it’s still going strong. It handily passed the $1 billion mark in global box office by the first week of August, in spite of Spider-Man: Brand New Day breaking all kinds of records (don’t worry, we’re reviewing that for next week!). And it seems to have weathered a cycle of discourse after the translator whose work inspired Nolan’s adaptation, Dr. Emily Wilson, wrote a scathing, nay brutalizing review. Will it be smooth sailing from here to the Oscars? P.T. returns from his own mini-odyssey to provide the Oscars Watch that Greg and I abstained from in our earlier episode. We also dig into Zeus’ Law, the sea people, Circe vs. Calypso, and a quick (at the very end) updated ranking of our top 3-5 Nolan films. [Please note that we recorded this episode before Emily Wilson’s review came out, so we do not discuss the review as we had no knowledge of it at the time.] We go into SPOILER MODE at the 21:00 minute mark. If you just want to get home without them, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: New York Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

You know, you have ONE troubled production that culminates in Harry Styles allegedly spitting on Chris Pine and that’s all critics want to remember you for. That may very well be a major frustration for Director Olivia Wilde as she tries to promote her newest film, a sex comedy drama called The Invite. Because over and over again I have seen headlines and reviews from critics framing their praise of the A24 film in relation to Wilde’s previous controversy-embroiled flop, Don’t Worry Darling. Never has a compliment been so back-handed. The praise is deserved just the same, as this comedy for adults has been deemed a box office success in spite of competing against The Odyssey. On this episode of The Long Take Review, we were lucky enough to have Antonio back on the show to pick apart The Invite’s screenplay, discuss each of the performances/characters that constitute the foursome at the center of the story, and speculate as to whether or not this film has any “little indie that could go all the way to the Oscars” energy. Join us for some jamón and flan! We go into SPOILER MODE at the 23:53 minute mark. If you wish to take a raincheck on spoilers, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Spider-Man weekend to all who celebrate! Our review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day may take a little while because I’m on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but, to tide listeners over, we wanted to record an episode in which we discuss Tom Holland’s portrayal of your friendly neighborhood Avenger up until Brand New Day. And who better to join us than our very own Marvel correspondent, Colby Mead of The ColbyCast? We begin by sharing our relationship with Spider-Man as a character/franchise and pinpointing what unique qualities Tom Holland brings to the role. Then we rank all six films in which Tom Holland has appeared as Spider-Man* in order to set up a larger discussion about how much the MCU has defined his version of the character and to what extent we can historicize each Spider-Man as a product of Hollywood and American culture at the time. *This number doesn’t include Venom: Let Their Be Carnage, which P.T. notes should technically be on the list. Guess how many times we mention this Sony Spider-Man Universe film before you listen. Note that we’re doing all spoilers for any Spider-Man or MCU-related content in this episode from the start. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Image Credit: original image from Meming Wiki, modified in Canva All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Lightning does strike twice sometimes. Thank Zeus, Christopher Nolan has done it again with his epic sword and sandals adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. After the enormous critical, awards, and box office success of his last film, Oppenheimer (2023), it’s hard to believe that Nolan could have immediately followed with an even bigger hit. But, with a $124 million domestic opening weekend and a worldwide total of $640 million to date, it appears that he has. With a new movie this big and all three of our regular co-hosts going on vacation at different times, we decided that not one but two episodes dedicated to The Odyssey were in order. In this first one, Greg and I focus on how Nolan has adapted and modernized Homer’s epic poem, with a deep dive on Odysseus as a character, the modern themes Nolan uses the ancient story to emphasize, our favorite scenes, the stacked cast, and everything else the film prompted us to consider. Greg specialized in the epic as a literary genre and is extremely familiar with Homer’s text, so he was an amazing resource throughout this episode. For more of his thoughts, check out his Substack for this great article he wrote for those who didn’t have time to read The Odyssey before seeing Nolan’s film. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 25:46 minute mark. If you wish to sail around spoilers, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

If you’ve listened to our show for any sustained amount of time, you’ve probably heard me play a tiny snippet of the Indiana Jones theme anytime Greg brings up our favorite archaeologist adventurer. It comes as no surprise, then, that we will take any excuse we can to talk about one of the five franchise installments. And this year marks the 45th anniversary of the first, Raiders of the Lost Ark. We go down memory lane for a bit, share our personal favorites (characters, scenes, etc.), and then discuss loftier notions such as nostalgia, genre, and Indy’s legacy in cinematic history. Unlike the Nazis, we’re digging in the right place. (Oh, and listen to find out the story behind the amazing artwork below.) Image Credit: the illustrious Steph Marcus, circa 1999 You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Pixar films, and especially those in the Toy Story franchise, have always excelled at pitching to both kids and adults. Toy Story 5 takes that feature to the next level by tackling issues on every parent’s mind: screen time, devices, and Internet safety. As both parents of grade school kids and teachers of college students, Greg and I really ran with this topic and the film’s treatment of in it in our discussion. We share our prior relationship to the franchise, compare this fifth installment to the previous ones, and share what moved us and what made us laugh. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 25:13 minute mark. If spoilers are not a part of your daily weather forecast, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: NPR You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The truth is really out there! This week on the show we talk about Steven Spielberg’s latest cinematic statement on extraterrestrial life, Disclosure Day. In theaters now, the science fiction thriller is full of intense chase sequences, inexplicable phenomena, and an astonishing performance from Emily Blunt; all of that prompted us to over-analyze, over-interpret, under-critique (if we’re being honest), and parse the polarized response to the film. Before we get into our discussion of Disclosure Day, we check on our 2026 Movie Hype Draft rosters to see who has taken the lead or fallen behind in the wake of release announcements and the Cannes Film Festival. Also, check out Greg’s written review of Disclosure Day on his own Substack. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 45:43 minute mark. If spoilers are not a part of your daily weather forecast, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: Deadline You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Here at The Long Take Review, we are incredibly excited to see master filmmaker Steven Spielberg return to the sci-fi thriller genre for the first time since War of the Worlds in 2005. But, as fans of his know, his filmography of over 60 years spans many other genres as well. So what better way to celebrate the architect of the modern summer blockbuster than to have a draft of all of his films to date? We invited Anthony King of Force Ghost Conversations to join us in a rumble across six categories: Oscar Nominee, Science Fiction, Historical Film, Collaborator, Produced By, and Wild Card. For more Spielberg-centric content from both The Long Take Review and Force Ghost Conversations, follow the links below: Masters of the Air (Force Ghost Conversations Saving Private Ryan (Force Ghost Conversations) Schindler’s List (Force Ghost Conversations) Jaws 50th Anniversary (Force Ghost Conversations) Jaws 50th Anniversary (The Long Take Review) This is a spoiler free episode. We do discuss some of the qualities of each film we draft, but our discussion contains no major spoilers. Image Credit: Reddit r/popculturechat (taken from the Disclosure Day press tour) You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The box office is booming, but, weirdly, it’s not because there’s a new Star Wars film in theaters for the first time in seven years. Two low budget horror films that have ties to YouTube, Backrooms (which cost $10 million) and Obsession (which cost < $1 million), have raised eyebrows and questions about the future of theatrical moviemaking. This unexpected windfall caught our attention as well, so we called in our own in-house horror expert, Professor Sarah Hastings, to give us a rundown of the year in horror films so far and help us with a deep dive into Obsession. We talk about who the villains and victims of the film might be, share the moments that scared us the most, and collectively build a thesis for what the film says about relationships, dating, consent, Gen Z, and even A.I. We hope you stay with us and never leave. *grin* We go into SPOILER MODE at the 52:21 minute mark. If spoilers don’t set your heart ablaze, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The Internet can’t seem to decide if The Mandalorian and Grogu is actually doing well at the box office so far. Many news article frame the opening weekend as a failure, saying it is a “disappointment” that hits a “series low.” Meanwhile, other articles have crowned the action adventure film as the winner of the long weekend. According to box office analyst Scott Mendelson, the early performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu resembles Solo: A Star Wars Story, but, importantly, has a much smaller budget hurdle because it didn’t have all of the production turmoil that Solo did. Solo had to recoup a $275 million budget while Mando and Grogu needs to surpass $165 million to break even. This is all to say that while this film likely won’t compete with bigger hits from this year like Project Hail Mary, it’s still going to do “fine.” But will any of its moderate success be deserved? That’s the big question we debate on this episode of The Long Take Review. And to help us assess what many critics call a glorified television episode, Star Wars author and podcaster Dan Zehr joins us to discuss the questions of audience, story, character development, and Star Wars mythology that surround baby Yoda’s first movie. Dan also shares some insights he has gained from his experience attending the Hollywood premiere and interviewing the creators behind the film. You can find Dan and all his amazing work at coffeewithkenobi.com. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 33:52 minute mark. If spoilers are not party of your bounty hunter assignment, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Star Wars is about to return to cinemas with Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is just days away from its opening weekend. To celebrate Star Wars on the big screen, and, frankly, to calm our nerves as we restlessly await the new film, we recorded an extra long take in which we rank all twelve films from the franchise that were released in theaters. (In case your math is not mathing, we included the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars.) For an added challenge, we forced (no pun intended) ourselves to come to a consensus to build one ranked list together. Where will we agree? Where will we put up a fight? And how will our micro-generational differences manifest in our individual placement proposals? Listen to find out as we start at the bottom and work our way to the top. We’d also love to hear your rankings! So please feel free to drop those in the comments. Image Credit: Star Wars News Net You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Strike a pose and prepare your finest fit montage because we’re reviewing The Devil Wears Prada 2! Having looked back at the original film last week, Greg, P.T., and I size up one of the most anticipated sequels of the summer movie season. What surprised us about this reunion 20 years later? What delighted us? And how might this film be the perfect encapsulation of life, media, and technology in 2026? Follow us down the runway to find out. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:30 minute mark. If spoilers are not your style, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: LA Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Gird your loins! The first movie of the summer movie season, The Devil Wears Prada 2, is in theaters now. To prepare for our review, we wanted to turn back the clock twenty years and revisit (or, for some of us, watch for the first time) the original film starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt. What feels dated? What holds up? Is this the Meryl Streep show or an ensemble film? Does Miranda Priestly’s behavior make us smile or call HR? Join us for a fashionably long conversation. (We’re sorry, do you have some prior commitment? Some hideous skirt convention you have to go to?) Since The Devil Wears Prada is a vintage design, we get into spoilers pretty quickly. You can catch the film on Disney+ or Hulu and then come back in style with us after you’ve seen it. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

When Oscar nerds think back to the 71st Academy Awards, they remember Shakespeare in Love, which won seven Oscars, Saving Private Ryan, which won five, and maybe Life is Beautiful, which won 3. (I still remember actor/director Roberto Benigni climbing on the seats to get to the stage when his film won in what is now the International Feature category.) Too often, though, people forget that the same year Spielberg’s film about WWII Normandy hit big at the box office, another epic war drama with a large, star-studded ensemble came out that year: Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Luckily, friend of the show and host of the Force Ghost Conversations podcast, Anthony King, joins us on this LTR Guest List episode to rescue Malick’s work from history. He shares his wealth of knowledge about WWII and behind the scenes stories of the film’s production as we dissect what can only described as a transcendental experience. How does Malick portray war differently than other filmmakers? Which young up and coming actor from the 90s did we enjoy best? And what’s going on with all the cutting to shots of nature or Miranda Otto? Army crawl with us as we traverse the many hills of this film. SPOILER WARNING: Unlike our regular reviews, LTR Guest List episodes will be in Spoiler Mode from the beginning so that our guests can feel as unencumbered as possible. So if you have not yet seen The Thin Red Line and do not want it spoiled, return to us after you’ve seen it. The Thin Red Line is currently available to rent or buy on platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Prime, etc. The LTR Guest List is a special series in which we ask our friends to pick a movie – any movie – to discuss with us on air. If you’re a friend of the show and you have a movie you’d like to pitch, you can email us at thelongtakereview@gmail.com. Image Credit: RogerEbert.com You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

For once, a trailer didn’t spoil the movie! The marketing materials for Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, playing in theaters now, have kept one big reveal fundamental to the plot of the film a secret. And considering it made $14 million its opening weekend and is currently at over $46 million worldwide, it seems as though that decision has paid off. Was it purely the intrigue and mystery of the plot that drove people to theaters? Or were its megawatt stars, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, enough to draw them out of their homes? In this episode of The Long Take Review, Greg, P.T., and I try to dance around spoilers big and small while still helping those who have not yet seen it decide whether or not they would like it. Then we let loose and dive deep into an examination of what the film has to say about marriage, relationships, moral judgment, and memory. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 21:11 minute mark. If spoilers give you pre-wedding day jitters, pause your listening then. Image Credit: New York Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Now that Oscar season has ended, we finally have a chance to catch our breath and talk about new movies in 2026! Greg and P.T. give their SPOILER-FREE takes on eight movies that they’ve enjoyed. So if you’re in the market for recommendations, but you don’t want to go into a spoilery deep dive with them, this episode is for you. They also managed to mention nearly every other movie that has been released, giving us a comprehensive sense of the broader theatrical and streaming landscape. Countdown their ranked picks to see what they think has been the best movie of the year so far! (Not including Project Hail Mary, which we reviewed a couple weeks ago when it came out.) Image Credit: The New York Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

We might still be riding the high of Project Hail Mary’s massive success at the box office, but it really seems like 2026 might be a movie year defined by abundance. With multiple big, epic blockbusters from legendary directors and several actors putting out not one, but in some cases two or three movies in one year (Anne Hathaway has six!), it seems as though we will have nothing but choices. But what would we choose if we could only see five movies? That’s the premise of this episode of The Long Take Review: our annual Movie Hype Draft! Greg, P.T., and I take turns picking movies that we reasonably think will come out between now and the end of the year. What will we snatch up in the first round? What will we groan about when someone else gets something from our wish list? And what weird wild card picks will each of us make? Listen to find out, and then share what your roster would look like in the comments! [This episode is SPOILER FREE because we haven’t seen any of these movies yet, but if you keep scrolling after the thumbnail image in this post, you will see our complete rosters, which would spoil the episode. If you would prefer to learn each of our picks by listening first (and we highly recommend that!), wait until you’ve finished before you scroll down, review our draft picks, and then vote for your favorite line-up.] Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly, IMDB, LA Times, Reddit, and the Hollywood Reporter Jen’s Picks The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan) Behemoth! (Tony Gilroy) The Mandalorian and Grogu (Jon Favreau) All of a Sudden (Ryuske Hamaguchi) Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (Greta Gerwig) P.T.’s Picks Dune: Part Three (Denis Villaneuve) Godzilla Minus Zero (Takashi Yamazaki) Wild Horse Nine (Martin McDonagh) Werwulf (Robert Eggers) Coyote vs. Acme (Dave Green) Greg’s Picks Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg) The Adventures of Cliff Booth (David Fincher) Digger (Alejandro G. Iñárritu) Fjord (Cristian Mungiu) The Only Living Pickpocket In New York (Noah Segan) You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

With the Oscars just fading out of the rear view mirror, it’s a shock and a thrill to already have another hit in theaters. Within six days of its release, Project Hail Mary surpassed $100 million domestically, according to Deadline. That’s a box office performance second to only one other film that’s not a sequel and not part of a franchise: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which won best picture in 2024. Will this space odyssey (pun only sort of not intended) directed by the team publicly fired by Lucasfilm become the earliest entry into next year’s Oscar race? Would we place it in the pantheon of other space epics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Apollo 13? We debate these very questions on this episode of The Long Take Review, but only after we’ve thoroughly celebrated what we loved about the film, gushed about our queen Sandra Hüller, and tried to unpack what this blockbuster might tell us about our own humanity. Put on your best science pun t-shirt, pull down those glasses, and join us for a fun conversation of galactic proportions. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 32:39 minute mark. If you’re not ready for launch, you may listen safely until then. We have determined that one particular reveal in the movie is not a spoiler because it has been shown in all of the trailers and promotional materials for the film. If you have managed to avoid all those references and wish to go into your viewing experience completely blind, then none of this episode is safe. Image Credit: Collider You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor! Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to ever win an Oscar for Cinematography! Cassandra Kulukundis defied all prognostication and won the first ever Best Casting Oscar! Kumail Nanjiani shepherded a packed Dolby Theater through a rare tie in Live Action Short! (And did so with amusing aplomb.) Even everybody’s favorite baby Yoda, Grogu, made an appearance! Suffice it to say this year’s Oscars was full of excitement, celebrating several films but especially two from Warner Bros: Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. On this episode of The Long Take Review, we share our reactions to the show, including Conan’s hosting duties. Then we reveal how we did with our predictions, which naturally leads us to dissect the winners and losers of the night. (Sorry, Timmy.) Thank you to all of our listeners for following us through another great awards season! Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Get hyped for the Oscars tomorrow! In celebration of our favorite day of the year, we invited our friends and fellow Oscar nerds to share their thoughts on this year’s nominees, picking one desired winner in one category of their choice. It was also Greg’s birthday when we recorded this episode, so keep an ear open for birthday wishes sprinkled throughout and a special segment involving a very special cake. We’d like to thank all of our guests: you all brought your A game and managed to get us even more hyped for the big day. * Anthony King from the Force Ghost Conversations podcast (Letterboxd: ForceGhostPod) 4:38 * Sarah Hastings (Letterboxd: sarahehastings) 22:23 * Leah Pate (IG: thepatepups) 44:31 * Rosario Rodriguez (Encinas Homes) 1:04:09 * Greg’s Birthday Cake 1:30:40 * Greg McLaughlin of The Rebel Base Card Podcast (Substack: Greg McLaughlin) * Hasib Hossain (Letterboxd: BeebWatchesFilm; Substack: Hasib) And if you’d like to play along with us during the ceremony, we have a special LTR-branded ballot ready for you to print! Image Credit: New York Times (Conan O’Brien “helps” set up the red carpet) You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The Oscars are just a week away now, and while we haven’t had any real clues about who will win since we posted Part One of our predictions, there have been some strange news stories about backlash indicting Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet as anti-ballet and opera, and Best Actress nominee Jessie Buckley as anti-cat. What few people spewing hot takes on the Internet realize, though, is that this backlash emerged just after Oscar voting closed on March 5th and therefore cannot have any impact on whether or not Chalamet and Buckley take home a statuette next weekend. The interviews themselves, puzzlingly, have been available for some time now: Chalamet’s interview was in February and Buckley’s in November. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to debate about who might win, however. The last two televised precursors, BAFTA and SAG (rebranded as “The Actor Awards” this year) have thrown several wrenches into what has up until now been a somewhat steady steamroll for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Wunmi Mosaku beat presumed frontrunner Teyana Taylor in Supporting Actress at BAFTA, Sean Penn surprised with wins at both BAFTA and SAG, and former Best Actor frontrunner and previously established ballet hater Timothée Chalamet struck out at both, most notably to fellow Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan at the Actor Awards. Did Sinners surge in popularity during this last leg of the race? And if so, how is that going to manifest on Oscar Sunday? On this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Greg, Antonio, and I discuss who will win and who should win in all the “above the line” categories: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Casting, Director, and Best Picture. Image Credit: Rolling Stone You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

We’re in the end game now: the Oscars will air live on ABC and Hulu at 4PM pacific/7PM eastern on Sunday March 15th. As I type this, voting for the Oscars is about to close tomorrow March 5th, and we now have all the information we’re going to get in terms of precursors. So, of course, we at The Long Take Review spent many hours this week recording our final predictions for who we think WILL win as well as who we think SHOULD win in each category. In this episode, Greg, P.T., and I discuss all of the “below the line” or technical/craft categories, as well as International Feature, Documentary Feature, Animated Feature, and….yes, even all the shorts categories. Greg has literally seen every nominee and provides expert insight on even the most obscure nominees, and P.T. brings every single historical stat or precursor stat you could ever need. Let us help you with the categories that can make or break your Oscar pool! Image Credit: ABC You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Stellan Skarsgård could win his very first Oscar this year. But after losing to Sean Penn at the BAFTAs last weekend, that seems less likely now. Skarsgård is long overdue for this level of recognition, as he has graced our screens for decades with mainstream blockbusters from huge franchises like Marvel (he plays Dr. Erik Selvig in five MCU films, most notably Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012)) and Star Wars (Luthen Rael in Andor! *chef’s kiss*) and prestigious films like Good Will Hunting (1997), Denis Villaneuve’s Dune films (2021 and 2024), and Melancholia (2011), just to name a few. This year, he stars in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which earned received Oscar nominations this year, including Best Supporting Actor for Skarsgård himself. Since the BAFTAs were so fresh on our minds, Greg and I chat about teh winners and losers of the night and what they might mean for the Oscars, which are now a mere 2 1/2 weeks away! Our conversation begins and ends with speculation about Stellan’s chances, but in between we dissect the intricate and layered themes of the film: the relationship between life and art, the stage vs. the screen, generational trauma, psychology, and much more. Pull up your best IKEA chair and join us for the conversation. (And shout out your favorite Stellan Skarsgård performance in the comments!) Note that we do discuss the recent incident at the BAFTA awards, but very briefly and not in very much depth. For a better understanding of what happened and the harm done to both the black community and the differently abled community, I would recommend Clayton Davis’ coverage on Variety.com: he reflected on the incident as a person of color and as a parent of a child with disabilities, and later did an exclusive interview with John Davidson. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 36:28 minute mark. If you don’t want to be a part of this complicated spoilery family, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: LA Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Greg will be delighted to know that his brainchild, LTR Quick Takes, has actually caught on! It’s a thing now because we did it twice! For the second edition of these quicker, spoiler-free reviews, P.T. and Antonio discuss the new films they saw through the Sundance Film Festival’s virtual portal. After discussing each of the films (listed below), they conclude the episode with their speculation about which of the films could get Oscar traction during next year’s awards season. Nuisance Bear (P.T.): 16:45 The Musical (Antonio & P.T.): 20:37 Rock Springs (P.T.): 26:41 Carousel (Antonio): 38:32 Extra Geography (P.T.): 44:32 Josephine (Antonio & P.T.): 50:18 Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The BAFTA nominations came out last week, and mostly told us that even if we had them before the Oscar nominations (as we usually do), we still would have been wrong about most of the categories that had surprises (i.e. Delroy Lindo! Elle Fanning! Avatar: Fire and Ash in costume?!). Since then, it’s been a pretty quiet week in the Oscar race. Most critics and podcasters have pivoted to covering the Sundance Film Festival, reviewing films that might be a part of next year’s awards season. (Our Sundance episode should be out next week!) For once it seems like everyone’s looking ahead to 2026 instead of fretting over 2025. The LTR Awards for 2025 movies, however, are still in full swing! Last week, we established this year’s nominees, In this week’s episode, we deliberate and decide on our winners in each of our 10 categories: Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Featured Performer, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Actress, Actor, Ensemble, Director, and Best Picture. What kind of wheeling and dealing did we each have to do to get what we wanted represented? What films left out of the Oscar conversation get some love from us here? And which winners likely to repeat at the Oscars just couldn’t be denied in the LTR Awards? Place your bets, mark your ballots, and listen to the episode! Please note that we recorded this episode several days before Oscar nominations were announced. Image Credit: LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, SIFF You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

It’s another busy week in awards season land! Both the BAFTA (British Oscars) nominations and WGA (Writer’s Guild) nominations came out today. While there is probably a lot to parse there in terms of who’s ahead in the Oscars race, we at the Long Take Review wanted to take some time out of our busy coverage to hand out our own awards, the LTRs or “Letters.” And in true LTR fashion, we set out to make the episode shorter by breaking up our nominations and our winners into two different episodes. We still, however, recorded for over two hours in the first episode, despite having less to go through. Nonetheless, we hope you join us as we honor our favorites from 2025. With a mix of “chalk” (a.k.a. expected) picks and more obscure personal favorites, we each shared our individual nominees for acting, directing, writing, and best picture. Any nominees that overlapped automatically made it onto the consensus list, with the option for one of us to argue for moving a non-consensus nominee forward. In part two, to be released later this week, we debate and announce the winners in each category. I’ll publish the full text of our lists in a separate Substack post and link it here when it’s ready. Also, please note that we recorded this episode before Oscar nominations were announced, so our conversation about those is still in the speculation phase. You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Some awards seasons are chaotic and uncertain going into the Golden Globes; last year at this time pundits were shrugging their shoulders, only to learn a few days later that it was Anora in the lead all along. This is not one of those years. Last weekend’s Globes ceremony cemented the dominance of this year’s top Oscar contender, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The star-studded comedy action thriller won four prizes: Director, Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor), and Screenplay. As of now, there’s very little to stop OBAA from repeating most if not all of these wins at the Oscars. Despite the clean narrative these decisive OBAA wins provide for headlines, it was not the only film to establish itself as a steamroller at the Globes. Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ surprise smash hit, KPop Demon Hunters, had arguably as big a night in its categories: Best Motion Picture (Animated) and Best Original Song. While there is little to challenge it in Animated Feature at the Oscars (barring some blind industry loyalty to Disney or Pixar), some pundits had wondered if Sinners’ “I Lied to You” could make Original Song a real race. Once one of the songwriters behind “Golden” (and singing voice of Rumi!), Ejae, gave an emotional speech that perfectly tapped into the themes of her film, the deal was done. A huge shoutout to the Mike, Mike, and Oscar podcast, by the way, for being the only ones to defend Ejae’s use of the term “idol” in her speech. Many podcasters have misunderstood that term and judged Ejae for channeling her inner Marty Supreme-esque hubris when, in fact, “idol” is just the term used to describe a K-pop artist put through a rigorous, formalized star system in the industry. On this episode of The Long Take Review, we somewhat ungratefully complain about how this season feels a little bit like a foregone conclusion. After we critique the telecast (go, Nikki Glaser!) itself, however, we do manage to find not only positivity but pockets of uncertainty and chaos in specific races. What is going on with Sinners? Which of the international features are the strongest right now? Which winners had the best speeches? Which films are in and out of the Best Picture 10? Join us and shine like you’re born to be. Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Many film critics say “Never bet against Big Jim” because each time James Cameron releases an Avatar film, everyone doubts its success in anticipation and then sheepishly reports that the film has made over a billion dollars. This year is no different, with Avatar: Fire and Ash having just crossed the billion dollar mark a few days ago. A close second to that Hollywood aphorism is never bet against Little Timmy in December. For the third time in a row now, Timothée Chalamet has starred in a hit film released in December: Wonka (2023), A Complete Unknown (2024), and now Josh Safdie’s period dramedy about table tennis, Marty Supreme. I don’t wish to speak ill of Wonka (a very fun movie that capitalizes on Timmy’s theater kid energy), but A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme have — in addition to hitting at the box office — shaken up the Oscar race right before nomination voting. Just this week, Chalamet won Best Actor at the Critic’s Choice Awards, and Marty Supreme scored both a SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) ensemble nomination and a DGA (Director’s Guild of America) nomination for Josh Safdie. (Note that those last two were announced after we recorded this episode.) As Marty Supreme quickly rises in the precursor rankings, can it compete with top contenders like One Battle After Another and Sinners? Is Chalamet the Best Actor frontrunner now? We conclude this episode by debating these questions, but only after spending some time thoroughly dissecting Marty Mauser’s character arc, as well as the story’s themes and Safdie’s bold cinematic vision. A special thanks and shoutout to our guest co-host for this episode, Hasib Hossain. He brought his valuable perspective as a New Yorker, a Safdie bros. fan, and an insightful film nerd. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 23:05 minute mark. If you don’t want to be on the cover of this Wheaties box yet, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: LA Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Everyone loves a good cry at the movies, right? [silence] Right?? Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, based on a beloved novel that dramatizes Shakespeare’s family life, quickly earned notoriety for being a tear-jerker after it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Critics, however, were split in their response to needing tissues: while some viewed it as a triumph, others resented it, accusing the film of being emotionally manipulative. That critical reception and the precipitating awards prospects could mean a lot to rebound Zhao’s erratic career. She won Best Director and Best Picture for Nomadland (2020), a small quiet drama, but then Marvel Studios recruited her to direct a major IP blockbuster, Eternals (2021). Her attempt at a Romantic lyrical poem for superheroes, however, may go down as one of the least popular and/or most failed installments in the franchise’s history. (Some of us think that’s a little unfair, but that’s a discussion for another day.) Could Hamnet mark a return to form for her? Will the Oscars welcome her back with open arms after a Celestial-sized franchise flop? On this episode of The Long Take Review, we try to answer this question after we break down Hamnet’s themes and scenes. Join us! You’ll find us with the groundlings. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:00 minute mark. If you don’t want to poison your ears, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: LA Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Everyone’s favorite Southern drawl detective, Benoit Blanc, is back! That means we are here for a full investigation into the crime, the suspects, and the awards potential of Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man. Join all four regular hosts as we unpack this new whodunnit, discussing its spiritual themes, zippy jokes, and breezy style. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:10 minute mark. If you want to keep those knives IN, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: LA Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

This time last year, part one of Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the famed Broadway musical, Wicked, had taken the world by storm. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande became legendary for their “holding space” press tour, licensed merchandise permeated every aspect of daily life, and, of course, the film received 10 Oscar nominations, ultimately winning both Costume Design and Production Design. Today, we are once again off to the see the wizard with Wicked: For Good, the second half, adapted from act two of the stage show. The reception, however, has been much more muted, both in terms of box office and critical reception. Can the film withstand these gale force winds and still amble down the yellow brick road to Oscar nominations? On this episode of The Long Take Review, we debate this very question, and share our varied reactions to the conclusion of the untold tale of the witches of Oz. Which one of us has an angry meltdown about The Wizard of Oz during the episode? Which one of us bends over backwards to defend aspects of the film? Which one of us still doesn’t like musicals? Regular listeners can probably guess, but should join us just the same. Even if you didn’t care for the film, our conversation will change you for good. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 25:10 minute mark. If you don’t want to become disillusioned with the wizard, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

As effortlessly as Glinda tossing her hair (toss toss), the Golden Globes seem to have shaken off years of controversy and scandal, reemerging as a mainstay in awards season. Host Nikki Glaser garnered much praise last year, including from us at The Long Take Review. (Who can resist a good pope pun?) And this year, pundits, journalists, and podcasters seem extra aglow to read into the nominations to gauge which actors, creators, and films might be stronger contenders in the Oscar race. We didn’t even do a nominations reaction episode last year, and yet here we are now with one. That in of itself says a lot. To what extent, though, have the Globes as a voting body changed since they’ve risen from the ashes? Some critics lamented the apparent legitimacy of the nominations, favoring more prestige films, international films, and indie films than in the past. We still maintain, however, that there are few places where the Globes kept on Globes-ing, with picks that seem to prioritize star power over artistic merit. Listen in to hear us debate this, along with what personally delighted or confused us on nomination morning. This is a SPOILER FREE episode! We discuss the premise of specific movies but do not go into details about the plot. Image Credit: Deadline You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

What flavor of Yorgos are you? The director’s black comedy has taken many forms, from the absurdist futurism of The Lobster to the spicy costume drama of The Favourite or the Gothic coming of age story of Poor Things. In this episode of The Long Take Review, we try to place the acclaimed filmmaker’s latest work, Bugonia, on that continuum. After striking out with the anthology film Kinds of Kindness last awards season, can Lanthimos get back in the Oscar conversation and finally win a gold statue? What is Bugonia trying to say about rhetoric and power? What does the word bugonia mean in Greek? Listen to get answers to these questions and more. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 16:57 minute mark. If you don’t want to confirm or deny your conspiracy theory, you may listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Guillermo del Toro has waited his whole life to adapt Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. In many interviews to promote the 2 1/2 hour film, now on Netflix, the writer and director has said that he read Shelley’s novel at 11 years old and has been thinking about it ever since. It remains to be seen, however, if critics and audiences think the Gothic tale starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi was worth the wait, as the tide of public reception continually ebbs and flows throughout fall film festival season. Could the current surge in the film’s popularity, both on Netflix and at regional film festivals, foreshadow Oscar nominations? As we discussed in our Oscar Fairy Flashback episode for the 90th Academy Awards, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is one of the weirdest Best Picture winners, as its protagonist falls in love with a fish man trapped in a government lab. Could telling the story of Western Literature’s most iconic misunderstood monster repeat that success? On this episode of The Long Take Review, we tackle this question and many more. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 26:58 minute mark. If you don’t want to flip that switch with no turning back, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: New York Times You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to a new subseries on The Long Take Review feed: LTR Quick Takes! In this inaugural episode, Co-host Greg flies solo to offer some SPOILER-FREE thoughts on the films he saw during the IFF Boston Fall Focus series. Join Greg for his Short Take, Recommendation Algorithm, and Oscars Watch on three highly anticipated films from this festival. First, Greg treads carefully reacting to Rian Johnson’s Wake up Dead Man, the third installment of the Knives Out franchise, featuring Daniel Craig as gentleman detective Benoit Blanc. Next, Greg stands up to share his thoughts on Is This Thing On?, the new comedy drama from perennially Oscar-hungry Bradley Cooper, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern. Finally, Greg closes out the episode by bearing witness to The Testament of Ann Lee, a new historical drama from Mona Fastvold and starring Amanda Seyfried. Is a solo pod a good idea? Does Greg have a meltdown and start crying half way through? Only one way to find out... Wake Up Dead Man: 9:58 Is This Thing On?: 21:36 The Testament of Ann Lee: 35:42 Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Oscar nerds most remember Kathryn Bigelow as the winner of an infamous Best Picture showdown between her film, The Hurt Locker, and her ex-husband James Cameron’s film, Avatar in 2010. And while a rematch could theoretically emerge between Bigelow and Cameron this year, Bigelow’s newest film, A House of Dynamite, has gotten much more notoriety for the political implications of her nuclear attack thriller, often from real-life politicians and government officials. Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts called the film a “wake-up call” for U.S. officials. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has criticized Bigelow for inaccuracies. Bigelow herself responded simply and directly: “I just state the truth.” The provocation of valuable debate aside, how does A House of Dynamite hold up as a movie? We at The Long Take Review had our own healthy debate about this question, discussing to what extent the unconventional structure of the film worked, what the film might be trying to say about nuclear proliferation, and which members of the deep bench ensemble stood out or were woefully underused. Can you guess which one of us was the most disappointed and which one of us ardently defended the film and its aims? A House of Dynamite is now available to stream on Netflix. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 13:40 minute mark. (That may be a record!) If you don’t want the missile codes, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Director Luca Guadagnino has had some success with the Academy, getting a Best Picture nomination for Call Me By Your Name (2017), but he has yet to have his big Oscar moment. That’s why many pundits predicted that his next film starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri, a seemingly more mainstream thriller about a college campus sexual assault case, could go all the way and mark his coronation by the Academy. Then people actually saw After the Hunt at the Venice Film Festival, and the response was polarizing to say the least. So what did we make of it at The Long Take Review? Hear our somewhat (but not completely) varied reactions as we try to unpack what is potentially the year’s most politically provocative yet narratively confusing film. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 19:36 minute mark. If you don’t want to go up for tenure, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: Variety You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

We’re in the end game of fall film festival season now! AFI, the last big festival of the year, is just wrapping up and, meanwhile, smaller regional film festivals get to show many of the films we’ve just been hearing about for months. P.T., Antonio, and I were lucky enough to attend the Korean Spotlight screening of Park Chan-wook’s dark satirical comedy, No Other Choice, at the Newport Beach Film Festival this week. We liked the film so much we couldn’t wait until its wide release in December to talk about it. In this episode of The Long Take Review, we unpack the anti-capitalist social commentary, try to decode the innovative camerawork, and generally share what we thought was clever and funny about the film. Can Park score a nomination in the Best International Feature category at the Oscars this year? Can it even push past that into other categories? Stick around until the end to hear our thoughts. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 31:06 minute mark. If you don’t want to apply for this position, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, was filmed and premiered in 1942, then saw wide release in early 1943. This makes it easily the oldest movie we have covered on this show by more than three decades! The World War II set and filmed movie tells the story of a jaded American expat (Humphrey Bogart) wrestling with whether to help his former lover (Ingrid Bergman) and her Resistance-leader husband flee from the Nazis and get out of the titular North African city. With one of the most quoted screenplays of all time, it is a stone-cold classic and is consistently ranked as one of the best films ever made, including being in the top three of both versions of the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list of the best American movies. We couldn’t have been happier when our friend, fellow podcaster, and Associate Director of Marketing, CCOM at Butler University, Ross Hollebon suggested that we discuss Casablanca with him on our next LTR Guest List episode. We share our favorite performances and, of course, iconic quotes, as well as unpack the themes and politics behind this timeless story. SPOILER WARNING: Unlike our regular reviews, LTR Guest List episodes will be in Spoiler Mode from the beginning so that our guests can feel as unencumbered as possible. So if you have not yet seen Casablanca and do not want it spoiled, return to us after you’ve seen it. Casablanca is currently available to stream on HBO Max. The LTR Guest List is a special series in which we ask our friends to pick a movie – any movie – to discuss with us on air. If you’re a friend of the show and you have a movie you’d like to pitch, you can email us at thelongtakereview@gmail.com. Image Credit: Turner Classic Movies You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe

The Venice Film Festival went wild for Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, based on the life and struggles of MMA/UFC Fighter Mark Kerr. When the film opened in theaters last weekend, however, the box office was a huge disappointment. What is the decision of The Long Take Review crew? Host Jen Sopchockchai is joined by Greg Cass and Antonio Elefano to discuss the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson showcase. We go into SPOILER MODE at the 19:25 minute mark. If you don’t want to go another round, you can listen safely until then. Image Credit: IndieWire You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. All music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe