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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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