A trick mistaken for a technique

The Long Take Problem (2026) — on contemporary long-take fetishism

Every festival darling this year holds a shot for four minutes and calls it courage. Three of them earn it. The rest are stalling.

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Repertory index

58 issues since 2024

Black and white photograph of the illuminated Capitol cinema marquee at night listing the repertory programme

1.85:1Cinema Scope

Issue 5727 July5 min

The print was wrong and the room didn't care

Nitrate Nights, Retrospective (1947) — on the Capitol's summer revival series

A scratched, spliced, badly-timed 35mm print outdrew the 4K restoration two screens over. The room knew something the format didn't.

Close-up pile of yellow and black Kodak 35mm film canisters

4:3Cinema Scope

Issue 5620 July9 min

The archive is a landlord now

Who Owns a Negative (2026) — on studio vault access and restoration ethics

A print exists. The rights holder does not answer email. This is the actual state of film preservation in 2026, and it is worse than the fires.

Sunlit stone colonnade hallway of a theater lined with columns and framed playbill posters

1.85:1Cinema Scope

Issue 5513 July6 min

It survives on nostalgia and one franchise

The Multiplex That Wouldn't Close (2026) — on the economics of the last twelve-screen house

Nine of twelve screens ran the same film in July. The lobby posters are five years out of date. Nobody has told the projectionist to stop.

Rows of empty red velvet cinema seats seen from the front of the auditorium

2.39:1Cinema Scope

Issue 546 July4 min

The dialogue is mixed for a phone, not a room

Loud Quiet Loud (2026) — on sound mixing in wide theatrical release

You cannot hear the actors talk and then you cannot hear anything else. Someone approved this. Someone should be asked why.

Overhead pile of stacked 35mm Kodak film canisters in yellow and black packaging

4:3Cinema Scope

Issue 5329 June8 min

Pairing kills weak films and saves good ones

The Case for the B-Side (2026) — on programming a second feature nobody asked for

A bad film shown after a great one gets forgiven. A great film shown alone gets overpraised. Double bills used to know this.

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08:14

Issue 58 · The Long Take Problem

Issue 58 · 7 min read

Every festival darling this year holds a shot for four minutes and calls it courage. I counted eleven films at the last circuit with a take past 180 seconds. Three of them earned it.

“A long take is a promise to the audience that something is actually happening. Most of these films can’t keep it.”

The take has to earn its length through blocking, not patience.
Two directors used the technique to hide a weak cut, not replace one.
One film — the one worth your evening — is named at the bottom.

Full argument, and the one title I’d actually send you to a cinema for, below.

Cut clean —
Mara Voss, editor

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