This past weekend, George Miller’s long-awaited follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) unfortunately became the impetus for headlines about a failing film industry. After the rom com stunt spectacular The Fall Guy underperformed at the box office and then whimpered onto home video much earlier than expected, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has emerged as another big disappointment , opening during a holiday weekend to a measly $32 million domestically. As a result, trade journalists have already begun t...
May 30, 2024•2 hr 16 min
Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow was one of the buzziest titles to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and P.T. and I were very disappointed that it was only available to screen in person. Fortunately, it’s now out and theaters and we were finally able to see what all the fuss was about. The film follows two teenagers, Maddy and Owen, as they strike up a friendship over a supernatural teenage drama called “The Pink Opaque.” That fictional series strongly evokes shows like Buffy ...
May 23, 2024•2 hr
Thirty years after the original Mad Max films — Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (1981), and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) — George Miller wowed critics and Academy voters with Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The dystopian post-apocalyptic action spectacle won six Oscars, and has earned a spot on countless best of lists for 2015, the decade, and even the century. It stands to reason, then, that many eagerly await the next installment in the franchise: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga . The prequel...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 56 min
May the 4th be with you! Just in time for Star Wars Day this year, The Phantom Menace , the 1999 prequel film written and directed by George Lucas, returned to theaters in honor of its 25th anniversary. In those 25 years, the film has been on a tumultuous journey. After its initial release, it withstood harsh reviews from critics and backlash from fans. The more toxic among them harassed actors like Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best . Fast forward to today and the film seems to be beloved by many. In fa...
May 07, 2024•2 hr 31 min
After a strike-induced 8-month delay, Luca Guadagnino’s psychosexual sports drama, Challengers has finally bounced into theaters. The film follows a tennis coach and her star player husband who find themselves competing against a former friend and lover. A powerhouse trio comprises the cast: household name Zendaya, Mike Faist, who stood out as Riff in West Side Story , and Josh O’Connor, is best known for playing Prince Charles on Netflix’s The Crown . Guadagnino, for those who might not know, d...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 50 min
We’ll basically take any excuse to talk about Dune on this show, but for this episode we had two fairly good reasons. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two recently became available to rent or buy at home, and it likely won’t be long before the science fiction epic hits streaming services — I would guess on Max this summer. Now that the film has become more widely accessible, we thought that it would be a great time to revisit it and dig a little deeper. Meanwhile, we have a cadre of Star Wars podca...
Apr 26, 2024•2 hr 7 min
At the Long Take Review, we have one eye always on the Oscar race. Usually, that means we are looking forward to the upcoming Academy Awards, talking through the race as it happens. But given our collective history of caring about these silly awards, we thought it would be fun to occasionally step back and train our eye on an earlier year in Oscar history. Regular listeners know we frequently talk about what we would change in the current race if we had the power of an Oscar Fairy; we decided to...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 52 min
Monkey Man , directed by and starring Dev Patel, opened this past weekend. That, apparently, was a small miracle. The cast crew had to maintain a covid “bubble” during the pandemic, Dev Patel broke his hand during filming on location in Indonesia, Netflix dumped the film, their co-financier Bron Studios went bankrupt, and then, after all seemed lost, Academy Award winner Jordan Peele and Universal Studios swooped in to revive it. Now, the film seems to have risen above all that, receiving rave r...
Apr 10, 2024•2 hr 1 min
With the Oscars for 2023 releases in the rearview mirror, we look to the movie slate for the rest 2024. And we’re left with a lot of questions. With the studios’ slow resolution of the actor and writer strikes halting production for months, for example, will the release schedule feel thinner than years past? And considering Marvel has scaled back in the wake of recent flops and the loss of an actor who was supposed to play their primary villain for the foreseeable future, will the handful of sum...
Apr 03, 2024•2 hr 19 min
Last month, P.T. and I traveled to Albuquerque for an academic conference hosted by the Southwest Popular and American Culture Association . Like Oppenheimer, we thought that if we could find a way to combine podcasting with New Mexico, our lives would be perfect. We presented on a panel titled “Pedagogy and Popular Culture Roundtable: Between Two Scholastic Worlds: Teaching, Blogging, and Podcasting” with our dear colleague and host of The Nostalgia Test Podcast , Dan Dissinger. It’s a lot of s...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr 21 min
When Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, many critics were blown away by it, but unsure whether or not it would be “too weird” for the Academy. Months later, the fantastical dark comedy would win four Oscars: Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume, and, of course, one of the biggest surprises of the night, Emma Stone for Best Actress. The nouveau-Frankenstein tale was the only Best Picture nominee that we never got around to re...
Mar 21, 2024•2 hr 11 min
That’s a wrap, folks! We have arrived at the end of awards season, with one of the better Oscar telecasts in recent memory. Oppenheimer’s predicted success largely came to fruition, but there were also some key surprises in categories Oppenheimer did not take. In this episode of The Long Take Review, Greg, P.T., and I share our experience watching the 96th Academy Awards, evaluate this year’s Oscars as a televised show, and dissect all the winners, diagnosing the surprises and celebrating what m...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 42 min
Hollywood’s biggest night is only days away, this Sunday, March 10. The ceremony will air live on ABC at 4PT/7ET. Voting has closed. All the precursors have been awarded. It’s time to place your bets and shoot your shot! Need some help with your office Oscar pool? Want to be more informed at the party you’ve been invited to? We at The Long Take Review are here to help. Across two episodes, we will share our final predictions in each category, while comparing those predictions to which nominees w...
Mar 08, 2024•2 hr 35 min
Happy Oscars week, everyone! Hollywood’s biggest night is this Sunday, March 10. The ceremony will air live on ABC at 4PT/7ET. Voting closed last week, and all the guilds and other awards groups have given out their prizes. So we have all the clues we’re going to get to predict who takes home a gold statuette this weekend. Need some help with your office Oscar pool? Want to be more informed at the party you’ve been invited to? We at The Long Take Review are here to help. Across two episodes, we ...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 58 min
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is finally here! And only one weekend into its opening, the prestige blockbuster has already delivered at the box office , bringing in $81.5 million domestic and $178.5 million global at the time of this post. Meanwhile, speculation percolates as to whether or when Villeneuve plans to make a third Dune film, presumably based on Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah . Warner Bros. has not yet confirmed that there will be a third film. How long will fans hang in the balanc...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 57 min
After multiple delays due to historic Hollywood labor disputes , Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two finally arrives in theaters this weekend. His 2021 hit Dune: Part One made $433 million worldwide , and cleaned up at the Oscars with six Academy Awards . The film was not immune to discourse, however. Many critics claimed they couldn’t pass judgment upon the film until they saw how the story completed in Part Two. Others were upset that they only got half a movie. Regardless, early reviews of Part...
Feb 29, 2024•2 hr 3 min
Out of all the Best Picture nominees this year, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro has probably generated the most “discourse,” amongst film critics and Internet users alike. The film in general has been polarizing, but narratives like “it’s just Oscar bait” or “Bradley Cooper is so desperate to win an Oscar” have also formed. The Academy nominated the film for seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Original Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling, Cinematography, and Sound, but it has won very ...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 59 min
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is one of the ten Best Picture nominees at the Oscars, as well as one of the films nominated for Best International Feature. Even the Producer’s Guild of America, which typically favors more mainstream blockbusters rather than arthouse films — nevermind international ones — included the disturbing Holocaust film in its nominations. The film adopts an immersive fly-on-the-wall view of the family of Auschwitz’s manager or commandant, who live just on the othe...
Feb 22, 2024•2 hr 4 min
Andrew Haigh’s romantic fantasy, All of Us Strangers, got shut out of the Oscars, with zero nominations. And that’s a shame. A strong ensemble cast — Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy, and Jamie Bell — delivers subtle yet heartbreaking performances. The screenplay adapts its source material with a series of bold choices. And it shows us things we think we know in completely unexpected and fresh ways. The unusual story of All of Us Strangers follows Adam, a screenwriter who lives alone in Lon...
Feb 18, 2024•1 hr 50 min
The Chiefs may be on their way to Disneyland, but we’re going to the movies. The Super Bowl is, of course, famous for its high-powered ads, and this year was no exception, with several new movie trailers airing during the live broadcast. Can Deadpool save the MCU? Are we entering the era of unsolicited 90s reboots? And should Jen binge all of the Planet of the Apes movies? In this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T. and I share our thoughts on all the newest and most noteworthy trailers. While...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 26 min
It may seem premature to speculate about next awards season when we haven’t even made it to the Oscars, but that’s never stopped us before! The Sundance Film Festival wrapped last week at Park City, Utah and online. It’s the first big film festival of the new year and, in recent years, has premiered several Oscar-winning films, such as Navalny (2022), Coda (2021), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), and Minari (2020). Oscar buzz aside, there’s usually a few exciting acquisitions, and sometimes e...
Feb 06, 2024•2 hr 2 min
While Internet fires continue to rage after Barbie visionaries Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie did not get nominated for Best Director and Best Actress respectively, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut, American Fiction , quietly over-performed with five Oscar nominations. Supporting Actor was a little unexpected, and Score was a total surprise, indicating broader strength and support for the film. The relatively small dramedy, adapted from Percival Everett’s novel, Erasure , follows a professor a...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 50 min
Oscar nominations are finally here! On Tuesday January 23rd, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the Oscars — announced their nominations in all 23 categories during a live broadcast on ABC. A full house of bleary-eyed Angelenos cheered when hosts Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz named welcome surprises like America Ferrera. Current frontrunner Oppenheimer was the big winner of the day with 13 nominations. And two notable snubs for Barbie have sparked considerable discourse and, in some ...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 43 min
Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday morning , and in anticipation of that fast-approaching mile marker in awards season, most Oscars podcasts have been releasing episodes with their full set of predictions. We went in the opposite direction, and awarded our personal favorites for the year, before we become unduly influenced by the Academy’s lineup. In this episode of The Long Take Review, we host our own awards ceremony, The Long Take Review Awards…or LTRs…or “Letters,” as we’re hopin...
Jan 20, 2024•1 hr 46 min
The Golden Globes have long had the reputation of being Hollywood’s biggest party, but the recent exposure of corruption and scandal plaguing their voting body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, shut that party down. Celebrities boycotted them. NBC dropped them. It looked as if the Golden Globes would be no more. Last June, however, the HFPA disbanded , Dick Clark Productions bought the show, and CBS agreed to broadcast the ceremony. Rising from the ashes, the 81st Golden Globe Awards air...
Jan 10, 2024•1 hr 44 min
While everyone else bakes their gingerbread, spins their dreidels, and cozies up next to their fires, we’re debating which films and artists have gained and — in some cases — lost momentum in the Oscar race. Critics’ groups have begun handing out awards, and, most notably, the newly reconstituted Golden Globe Awards have announced their nominations. A lot is still in flux, but some clear frontrunners have emerged. Will Barbie and Oppenheimer continue to control the 2023 movie narrative? Which ne...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 46 min
Legendary director Hayao Miyzaki was set to retire after The Wind Rises in 2013. He later decided that he had at least one more film in him: The Boy and the Heron , which is playing in theaters now. At a later date, it will presumably stream on Max, where most other Studio Ghibli films reside. Is this Miyazaki’s last film, for real this time? There are already rumors from studio executives that he may already have an idea for yet another film. How might that uncertainty influence how we view The...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 58 min
We love going to the movies, but that doesn’t stop us from cozying up at home with Netflix too. In this episode of The Long Take Review, we discuss three films currently available on Netflix: Todd Haynes’ May December, David Fincher’s The Killer, and Nyad , the first narrative feature directed by Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. To many critics’ surprise, May December has been warmly received by wider audiences and, less surprisingly, creating a stir on the In...
Dec 11, 2023•2 hr 13 min
Ridley Scott, the director who brought us game-changing blockbusters like Alien , Bladerunner , and Gladiator , takes on one of history’s most notorious figures in his new film, Napoleon . The 2-hour and 38-minute historical epic follows not only his military career but his relationship with his wife and empress, Josephine. The film stars Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix ( Joker , The Master ) as Napoleon and Academy Award nominee Vanessa Kirby ( Mission: Impossible — Fallout , The Crown ) a...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 46 min
A little more than a year after the release of Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic and glitzy biopic, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla provides an alternative view by adapting Priscilla Presley’s memoir, Elvis and Me . In stark contrast to Elvis , Priscilla is a quiet, sobering look at the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla Presley, who was 14 when they met. Coppola’s film stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis, and is playing in theaters now. Since its distributor, A24, doesn’t h...
Nov 29, 2023•1 hr 43 min
