Dog days and Dragon Con
Aug. 29 — Happy Friday, and happy early Labor Day! But alas, while a long weekend might be in our future, today we are mourning a loss – and celebrating one of the greatest celebrity feuds of 2025. Frisbee, late-night host Seth Meyers’ dog – and also the mortal enemy of Andy Samberg – has passed away.
If you haven’t been listening to any podcasts featuring “Saturday Night Live” alumni in the past couple of months, you might be late to this party. But Andy Samberg hated Seth Meyers’ little Italian greyhound perhaps more than anyone has ever hated anything. His reasoning? “Oh, just the general appearance and vibe and essence.”
There is no one-sided beef more sacred than that of a man and that man’s friend’s dog. But it appears Frisbee hated Samberg just as much. In one last bit of spite, she died the day after his birthday, ensuring that their names would be linked for the foreseeable future and raising suspicions about what, exactly, Samberg wished for when he blew out those candles. RIP to a true legend.
Without further ado … Action!
🐉 Dragon Con is happening from now until Sept. 1, and passes can still be purchased online. More on the convention below.
⏰ For all you filmmakers out there, remember that the regular deadline to apply to next year’s Atlanta Film Festival is Sept. 12.
👁️ The nonprofit Audio_Video_Club is hosting its second annual AVC Fest from Oct. 2-5 at Eyedrum.
📱 The Reelies, an awards show dedicated to content creators and marketing professionals, will take place at The Plaza Theatre on Sept. 14.
🏆 The SCAD Savannah Film Festival plans to honor Jennifer Lopez with its Virtuoso Award this year. The festival will take place Oct. 25 – Nov. 1.
🏔️ The Telluride Film Festival, which takes place this weekend, just released the lineup for its 52nd festival, including Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” and the Bruce Springsteen biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
💸 Anthropic has settled a lawsuit from authors who accused the company of illegally using their books to teach its AI system.
🧛 Twi-Hards, rejoice: “The Twilight Saga” will be back in theaters over the Halloween holiday.
🍭 And finally, in some of worst news I’ve heard all week (and that’s saying something), the AI-enhanced version of “The Wizard of Oz” playing at the Sphere in Las Vegas has replaced two of the munchkins’ faces with the faces of Sphere Entertainment Co. CEO James Dolan and Warner Bros. Discover head David Zaslav. I will be having nightmares about this for weeks.
This week’s newsletter includes a behind-the-scenes look at Dragon Con, a review of the new movie “Caught Stealing,” and the final episode of my podcast, Crash Zoom. Plus, what’s playing at theaters over Labor Day weekend and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
💡 For many students and young adults, entering the workforce can be a challenge without the proper skills, resources, and community support. Learn why Georgia Power joined 14 other partners to launch the You’re Employed and Skilled (YES) Workforce Academy. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Behind the scenes with a track director at Dragon Con 2025
🕹️ Dragon Con is one of the biggest pop culture and gaming conventions in the country. But here in Atlanta, it can feel a bit old hat. If it’s Labor Day weekend, it’s Dragon Con – that’s the way it’s been for 40 years.
Because we Atlantans are so used to Dragon Con and its presence, it can be easy to forget how much work goes into putting on a convention of this size. So, ahead of this year’s event, which runs through Sept. 1, I spoke with Renee Cooper, director of the Animation Track at Dragon Con, about how the sausage gets made.
Cooper started volunteering with Dragon Con roughly eight years ago, but before that had been attending the convention since 2009. She’s got plenty of experience under her belt, and was the perfect person to show me around.
Play, eat, repeat
SPONSORED BY DISCOVER DEKALB
🎉 Just minutes from Atlanta, Chamblee is where events and experiences come alive. From games and live concerts to art festivals and culinary celebrations, the city offers something for every interest.
Downtown Chamblee is also a place to gather with friends, enjoy shareable dishes, and uncover new adventures around every corner. Loved by locals and embraced by visitors, it captures the true spirit of community, creativity, and fun.
✨ Plan your visit today and see why Chamblee continues to inspire unforgettable memories.
‘I Was Born This Way,’ ‘Four Mothers’ included in 2025 Out on Film lineup
🍿 The lineup for this year’s Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ film festival, includes a documentary about disco artist Carl Bean, an animated film about a lesbian space princess, and more.
The festival runs Sept. 25-Oct. 5, with films centering around the theme of “Queer Propaganda.” This year’s lineup features 35 feature films, five streaming-only films, and 105 short films. Tickets are available online now.
The opening night film of this year’s festival is “I Was Born This Way,” a documentary from Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard about the disco artist Carl Bean and his 1977 song of the same name. “Four Mothers,” an Irish film directed by Darren Thornton about a struggling novelist in Dublin taking care of three older women, will be the closing film.
🏳️🌈 Learn more about the lineup here.
Austin Butler finds his pitch in ‘Caught Stealing’
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
⚾ “Caught Stealing” is a funny name for Darren Aronofsky’s new film, not just because of how much baseball factors into the plot, but because in reality, every character kind of gets away with everything. Unless they end up dead.
“Caught Stealing” is about Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a former high school baseball player whose professional potential was ruined by a drunk driving accident. Now, he bartends on the Lower East Side, drinks too much, and lives vicariously through his beloved San Francisco Giants. No one loves the Giants (or hates the Mets) more than Hank. During a sex scene, he takes off his Giants cap in order to take his shirt off, then immediately puts the hat back on. A true fan.
After being asked by his punk rock neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), to watch his cat while he goes to see his dying father in England, Hank is attacked by two Russian gangsters interested in Russ’ whereabouts. Hank quickly becomes embroiled in a web of crime with no earthly idea what’s going on. It’s a wacky premise, and one that is mostly well-served by Aronofsky’s direction. Except when it gets a little too … well, Aronofsky, and suddenly becomes a little too nasty for the tone it’s trying to strike.
At the Movies!
If you’re looking for a movie to see in theaters this week, here’s what you’ve got to look forward to!
Movies releasing this weekend:
🥀 “The Roses” (pictured)
⚾ “Caught Stealing”
🦸 “The Toxic Avenger”
💄 “Almost Popular”
Special Events:
🇲🇽 “El Topo” in 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
🪖 “Commando” with Bill Duke Q&A @ The Plaza (Saturday)
📽️ “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” in 35mm @ The Plaza (Saturday-Thursday)
✊ Soul Cinema Sundays: “Judas and the Black Messiah” @ The Plaza (Sunday)
🦈 “Jaws” 50th Anniversary @ The Tara (Friday-Thursday)
🚗 “Jaws” Drive-In @ The Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Sunday)
🎬 Experience the power of story at Art Farm’s first Film Showcase Weekend. Join us for a special screening of “Parrot Kindergarten“ and a live conversation with the director and the film’s subject on Sat., Sept. 13. Get tickets here! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Crash Zoom: Out last episode!
✍️ Welcome to Crash Zoom, a podcast where we take a deep dive into film and entertainment industry news!
Join my cohost Aaron Strand and me as we explore how things happening at the highest level trickle down and affect the independent artist. This episode marks our last, and we can’t thank you enough for sticking with us over the past months.
For our last episode, we’ll be discussing the spec script boom, and why Aaron finds Austin Butler uninteresting (I, for the record, do not subscribe to this belief).
🎧 Listen to the last episode here!
Lights, Camera, Action!
🎙️ I feel like I keep recommending Blank Check episodes about the Coen Brothers, but I can’t help it! This series has been wonderful so far, and this most recent episode is probably the best yet. The one and only Seth Rogen joined Griffin and David to talk “The Big Lebowski,” dish about Los Angeles in the late 90s, and drink White Russians. Listen up here.
🇮🇹 The Venice Film Festival started earlier this week, and if you (like me) cannot attend in sunny Italia, why not live vicariously through the internet? For Vulture, Bilge Ebiri has his run-down of the 11 most exciting movies at Venice this year, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia” and Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt.” If you’re interested in something a little more visceral, The Ringer’s Amanda Dobbins is on the ground and posting the important things on Instagram (for example, George and Amal Clooney’s arrival).
🎥 You probably didn’t see “Megalopolis,” the new Francis Ford Coppola movie that hit theaters last year. Almost nobody did – you’re not alone. But I can guarantee you the film, which was a passion project of Coppola’s that he wanted to make for decades, is worth a documentary. “Megadoc,” directed by Mike Figgis, is about the making of the film and attempts to demystify the legendary director’s process. Check out Bilge Ebiri’s review here.
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
