The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

Is Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, really one of the best American movies of the year?

We discuss Zhao’s documentary-like approach, its Terrence Malick inspirations, and the film’s narrative (or rather the lack of one).

Nomadland is available on Hulu.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Judas and the Black Messiah—produced by Ryan Coogler, and directed by Shaka King—isn’t just a powerful film, it’s powerfully made too.

We discuss the performances of Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, the trumpet-driven score composed by Mark Isham and Craig Harris, its framing of revolutionary politics, and its multi-stage appeal.

We also touch upon the lack of similar films in Bollywood—which takes us into Martin Scorsese’s newest (justified) rant on how cinema is being devalued in the name of content.

Judas and the Black Messiah is streaming on HBO Max in the US, and out March 5 in India.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Tom Hanks might not be too vocal about his politics, as he lets his work do the talking. In his new film News of the World, director Paul Greengrass takes on the fake news media, despotic rulers, and MAGA culture.

We also discuss how Greengrass embraces classic Western tropes, the movie’s outstanding gunfight sequence, and the performance of 12-year-old co-lead Helena Zengel.

News of the World is available on Netflix globally, and on video-on-demand in the US.

Later, we talk about Marvel Studios’ second Disney+ series—The Falcon and the Winter Soldier—which debuted its trailer during Super Bowl.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

The Dig—a Netflix film led by Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes—is a small film with big ideas.

We discuss Mulligan’s fantastic run, the film’s socio-political subtext, and the trio of creative voices behind its success: director Simon Stone, cinematographer Mike Eley, and composer Stefan Gregory.

Later, we dissect the Golden Globes nominations, and the mysterious ways of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Tandav—the Amazon original, led by Saif Ali Khan—is offensive, but not for the reasons you might have heard about. 

We discuss the Indian series’ idiotic controversies, its reductive politics, the hilarity of its storytelling (or the lack thereof), and how it wastes its ensemble cast.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Does Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger—led by Adarsh Gourav, with Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in supporting roles—live up to the award-winning book it’s based on?

We discuss the film’s exploration of caste and class in India, Rao’s terrible American accent, and how it fits into Bahrani’s filmography.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Is it a loving homage to classic sitcoms or an unabashed Marvel spectacle? We attempt to unpack the first three episodes of WandaVision, the first MCU series on Disney+.

In between, we also speculate about future chapters, discuss Easter eggs, and wonder if it is all an introduction to the multiverse—one that seems to be more committee-driven every day.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

With The Mandalorian season 2, a lifelong film franchise now shows more promise on television. How did this happen?

We discuss Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s instrumental place in spawning the Star Wars cinematic universe, and compare it favourably to two of the best shows in recent memory: Game of Thrones, and Breaking Bad.

We also talk about our expectations from the other Star Wars series in the works, and where The Mandalorian might go in season 3.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

How does Wonder Woman 1984—the sequel led by Gal Gadot—waste the goodwill established by the first movie?

We discuss the DC film’s bloated runtime, lacklustre villains—played by Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal—its unwillingness to justify its ‘80s setting and the return of Chris Pine, and complete absence of thematic depth.

Later, we wonder how director Patty Jenkins plans to deliver all of Wonder Woman 3, Star Wars’ Rogue Squadron, and Cleopatra, in light of Warner Bros. “fast-tracking” the next Wonder Woman chapter.

We end by talking about the problems with the DC Extended Universe at large.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

In an end-of-the-year special, co-hosts Rohan Naahar and Akhil Arora talk about their favourite films in 2020, counting down from 10 to 1.

The movies come from directors such as Céline Sciamma, Geetu Mohandas, Greta Gerwig, Max Barbakow, Eliza Hittman, and Aaron Sorkin.

Stick around to hear us lament about the domination of American pop culture, and why we’ll never discuss La La Land on The Long Take.

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Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].