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Quick Takes on Wake Up Dead Man, Is This Thing On?, and The Testament of Ann Lee
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: 9:58Is This Thing On?: 21:36The Testament of Ann Lee: 35:42 Get full access to The Long Take at thelongtake.substack.com/subscribe
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A House of Dynamite Review
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: IndieWireYou 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
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After the Hunt Review
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: VarietyYou 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
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No Other Choice Review
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: IndieWireYou 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
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Casablanca with Ross Hollebon on the LTR Guest List
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 [email protected] Credit: Turner Classic MoviesYou 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
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