The Long Take Review

Right now, it seems as though Wicked’s potential is unlimited. It’s on the verge of hitting $500 million in worldwide box office, with no signs of slowing down over the holidays. It’s garnered a slew of award nominations, including four Golden Globes, as well as wins, including Best Film by the National Board of Review. The question on every pundit’s mind now is: does Jon M. Chu’s fantasy musical spectacular have what it takes to win at the Oscars?

On this episode of The Long Take Review, we too debate this very question. We share what we thought about the film in the context of our prior relationship with the source material, try to trace its literary and musical lineage, discuss the revisionist prequel of it all, and, of course, comment on the who, what, when, where, and why of the film’s massive popularity. Who’s a Glinda? Who’s an Elphaba? And how many of us will sing during the episode? Listen to find out!

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 30:21 minute mark. If you are still undecided as to whether or not you want to fly with Wicked, you can listen safely until then.

Image Credit: New York Times

Show Notes:

Jen referenced this iconic dance sequence by Fred Astaire in Dancing Through Life set inspired by Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding (1951). She then later found this IndieWire piece that confirmed that Dancing Through Life is in fact inspired by that number.

One of many videos showing the reaction when Michelle Yeoh brought the Oscar she had just won back to the set of Wicked.

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.

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Most will recognize Jesse Eisenberg as an actor, if not for his iconic portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010), then for his turn as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s DC films. Fewer will know him as a director, and yet his second film, A Real Pain, is currently in the Oscars conversation. The film follows two cousins, Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Jesse Eisenberg), who sign up for a Holocaust tour of Poland, in an attempt to honor the memory of their immigrant grandmother. Their personalities clash as they confront both the pain of their past and the collective pain of their tour group.

In this episode of The Long Take Review, Greg, P.T., Antonio, and I try to explain why this film works as both a character study and a vehicle for bigger ideas. Greg then launches our discussion into the stratosphere by applying Nietzsche’s notion of The Rational Man to Eisenberg’s philosophical meditation on pain. We close out, as usual, with a debate about how far A Real Pain can go at the Oscars.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 18:01 minute mark. If you are still undecided as to whether or not you want to book a tour with A Real Pain, 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.

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Based on popular discourse, critics often dub one movie a year the “Oscar villain.” That’s usually a film that is a major contender in the race that also has a lot of haters or people who deem it unworthy of all the potential accolades. Jacques Audiard’s crime thriller musical, Emilia Pérez, could very well be this year’s Oscar villain; one only need look to the strong reactions that have flooded the Internet since the film became wildly available for subscribers to watch at home on Netflix. Many critics and viewers have identified potential problems with the representation of certain groups (to specify might be a spoiler). At the same time, the film stars four strong female actors who have been charming the press on the campaign trail; it doesn’t hurt that two of them, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, are beloved pop culture powerhouses.

This episode of The Long Take Review can serve as a microcosm of this polarized discourse, as some of us loved it and some of us (very respectfully) hated it. We debate whether or not the songs facilitate the storytelling, whether or not the film’s themes and plot make sense in the end, and try to determine a floor and ceiling for the film’s nominations and wins.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:47 minute mark. If you are still undecided about whether or not you want to fire up Netflix for Emilia Pérez, 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.

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Steve McQueen’s filmography has had an eclectic filmography: Hunger (2008) is about the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Shame (2011) is about sex addiction, Widows (2018) is a heist thriller, and Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave (2013) adapts the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northrup, a free-born Black man kidnapped and sold into slavery. McQueen’s newest film, Blitz, focuses on a mother and son separated during the bombing of London during WWII, and while this is a return to the historical drama genre for McQueen, Blitz has not been unilaterally embraced by critics as 12 Years a Slave was. Despite the more muted reception, could McQueen still enter the Oscar race? On this episode of The Long Take Review, we try to answer this question through our own mixed and varied reactions to the film. Come for the debate about the film’s quality and stay for Greg’s hot takes on mushy peas.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 22:58 minute mark. If you are still undecided about whether or not you want to give Blitz a go, 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.

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How far would you be willing to go to look younger and more beautiful? That is the question that Carolie Fargeat’s The Substance horrifically asks and answers. In what some are calling a career best performance, Demi Moore plays an iconiclfilm and television actress who discovers an alluring new drug called The Substance just as the men in control of her career want to show her the door. It seems many viewers are interested to see what happens next, as the film marks MUBI’s most successful release to date, and has already collected several awards nominations and, in some cases, wins such as Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

On this episode of The Long Take Review, we discuss how this high concept film might appeal to a larger audience outside of horror fans, how the genre of body horror might be the perfect way to engage with the film’s themes, and whether or not a film like this can break through the Oscars’ historical bias against horror.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 21:28 minute mark. If you are still on the fence about whether or not you can stomach The Substance, 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.

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The Palm d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is a big deal. And it has become an even bigger Oscar bellwether in recent years, as the Academy has expanded, diversified, and, as a result, become more international. The winners have certainly been international, as American films have won only 13 times during the award’s 80+ year history. In fact, an American film has not won since 2011 when Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life took the prize (and, later, three Oscar nominations). That all changed this year when Sean Baker’s romantic dramedy (maybe rom-com-dram?), Anora, earned the distinction and immediately zoomed to the front of the Oscar race.

Anora or Annie is an erotic dancer living in Brighton Beach who becomes involved with Vanya, the playboy son of an obscenely wealthy Russian oligarch. Once his parents find out about their relationship, however, they threaten to fracture Anora’s fairytale romance. The film is playin in theaters now, and will eventually become available to stream on Hulu.

On this episode of The Long Take Review, Greg, P.T., Antonio, and I debate how far this film can really go at the Oscars, what this film has to say about sex work, money, class, and power, and share our reactions to the film’s unexpected ending. Also, if you were ever wondering what some of us sound like with a thick New York accent…

As a bonus, you’ll also find in this episode a shorter conversation I had with Greg about his experience seeing RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist before the rest of us. That conversation is spoiler free and takes place towards the beginning of the episode, before our Anora review. If you’d like more details to help you hop around the episode, see the time stamps below.

* Greg gives his spoiler-free reactions to Nickel Boys and The Brutalist. 3:58

* The Short Take and The Recommendation Algorithm for Anora (spoiler free) 37:16

* SPOILER MODE for Anora 50:12

* Oscar Watch for Anora 1:21:16

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

With an especially close Presidential Election only three days away, it’s nearly impossible to watch Edward Berger’s papal thriller Concalve without drawing a parallel to the American political process. The pope has died, and a conclave has assembled to elect another. But with so many scandals and secrets, can they find a suitable candidate? Which candidates will cling to their ideals? How many must inevitably compromise theirs? And will ambition or a pursuit of the truth win the day?

Oscar pundits all wonder the extent to which the winner this Tuesday will have a direct impact on the sumptuous and shocking film’s awards prospects. Berger’s adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars, but it arguably did not have as much (if any) potential for controversy or backlash. On this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Antonio, Greg, and I debate what kind of political discourse that this film may generate as well as how that discourse may, at least in part, determine how many Oscar nominations it can get. We also delight in the film’s thriller elements, and celebrate the numerous strong performances.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 27:46 minute mark. If you are on the fence about whether or not you want to go see Conclave, 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

Yes, this is the movie with the carousel horse.

After enjoying/enduring viral Internet fame long before its release, John Crowley’s We Live in Time is now in theaters and we can finally see the derpy carousel horse in context. Meme lovers may be disappointed, though, as the non-linear love story is unambiguously sincere in its meditation on life, death, and love. Luckily, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are here with an onscreen chemistry that overshadows any meme humor. Garfield plays Tobias, a cereal company employee who just ended a long-term relationship and Pugh plays Almut, a competitive chef who just opened her own restaurant. This is an A24 film and therefore will likely be available to stream on Max over the holidays or by early January.

During this episode of The Long Take Review, we debate whether or not the film’s non-linear structure works, share which parts of the film were the most emotionally impactful for each of us, and casually philosophize about time. Two of us loved the movie and two of us were less keen on it. Can you guess who was on which side?

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 21:38 minute mark. Listen up until then to decide whether or not you want to go see We Live in Time!

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

We did a thing! P.T., Antonio, and I were fortunate enough to attend three screenings as a part of the Newport Beach Film Festival: Steve McQueen’s Blitz, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, and Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Meanwhile, Antonio and P.T. got to see an early screening of Edward Berger’s Conclave, hosted by USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in collaboration with Outside the Box [Office] and Focus Features. Great times were had by all; seeing so many films before they come out in theaters made us feel like real film critics for once.

In this episode of The Long Take Review, we reflect on our experience at these screenings and then give our spoiler-free thoughts, ranking the four films against each other. We round out the episode by checking in on awards season in general, speculating about which films are the most likely to be in the Best Picture 10 and which actors could have a shot at a nomination. Who needs to campaign hard to get voters’ attention? Who’s a shoe-in? Who’s a complete unknown (besides James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic)? Listen to find out!

This ENTIRE episode is spoiler free, so have at it regardless of whether or not you’ve seen the films mentioned above.

Notes:

We make a lot of references to the promotional materials used during The Newport Beach Film Festival, so checking out these trailers/ads first might help you appreciate our discussion even more. Thank you again to the Newport Beach Film Festival for showing us such a great time! (An especially big thank you to all the volunteers who helped run the screenings.)

Newport Beach Film Festival trailer

An ad for visiting Newport Beach (which everyone should do!) that played before each screening.

This star-studded highlight reel for the Newport Beach Film Festival will give you a sense of the party scene that the three of us largely missed.

Image Credit: Variety, Indiewire, and 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

Next year, 2025, will mark the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live (SNL), and NBC is planning a big live special in February to celebrate. In the meantime, though, Director Jason Reitman, whose own father, Ivan, had a close connection to the sketch comedy series, has made Saturday Night, out in theaters now. The film careens in “real” time towards the moment the first episode of SNL aired in 1975, and stars Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) as Lorne Michaels, along with a vast ensemble of exciting young actors playing the original SNL cast and well-loved veterans like J.K. Simmons and Willem Dafoe in supporting roles.

After premiering at the Telluride Film Festival to mixed-positive reviews, Saturday Night has been doing okay but not exceptionally well at the box office. Will that hurt its Oscar chances? Will the film meet the same fate as many seasons of SNL, with everyone too busy debating whether or not it’s good that they forget to appreciate the thing itself?

In this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Greg, Antonio, and I dissect our own reactions and value judgments of the “put on a show” psuedo-biopic comedy. We shoutout our favorite performances, share our own personal histories with SNL, and contemplate the film’s use of time and space. After our usual Oscars Watch, we do our own SNL cast member draft! After you listen to the episode, vote in the poll below for who you think won.

We (hastily) go into SPOILER MODE at the 23:19 minute mark. If you’re still not yet sure whether you want to check out the film, pause there! Our SNL Cast Draft, which should also be spoiler free, starts at 1:09:06.

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