Out on Film’s second weekend
Oct. 3 — Happy Friday, readers! And happy second weekend to Out on Film! This week’s newsletter is jam-packed with stories revolving around the Out on Film LGBTQ+ film festival, so I won’t keep you too long in the intro. Let’s get right to it!
Without further ado … Action!
🤖 Tilly Norwood, an AI creation made to function as an actor (I’m not going to call her an actor, because she’s not), is apparently looking for an agent. Dutch producer Eline Van der Velden, who created Tilly, is calling her the next Scarlett Johansson – funny, as I’m sure there are many young human actresses who could fit that bill.
💸 Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million paid subscribers during the period that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was taken off the air due to the host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s death. Kimmel’s show has since been reinstated.
🏆 SCAD Savannah Film Festival has released its list of honorees for 2025, including Will Arnett, Rose Byrne, Miles Canton, Oscar Isaac, and Tessa Thompson.
🫖 Soul Cinema Sundays will screen Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” at The Plaza after the Little Five Points Halloween Parade on Oct. 19.
📽️ The 2nd annual AVC Fest, hosted by Audio_Video_Club, kicked off yesterday, and continues at Eyedrum until Oct. 5
🎞️ The Georgia Latino International Film Festival continues through this weekend, ending Oct. 5. Check out the schedule here.
🍿 The Atlanta Film Critics Circle (of which I’m a member) started releasing its 25 best movies of the century this past week, starting with Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” at #25. Follow along here.
🎃 On Oct. 10, SCADFILM is hosting an all-day celebration of horror, featuring a screening of the new film “Black Phone 2” and a conversation with horror icon Patrick Wilson.
🏈 The Rome International Film Festival has announced that this year’s opening film will be Glen Owen’s “Signing Tony Raymond.”
This week’s newsletter includes interviews with three filmmakers who are featured at this year’s Out on Film festival – Brandon Deyette, Carmen Emmi, and Andreas Zerr. We’ve also got short previews of a couple of films playing at the festival this weekend, and reviews of the new dog-focused horror movie “Good Boy” and Benny Safdie’s sports biopic “The Smashing Machine.” Plus, what’s playing at the movies this weekend, a new edition of Spotlight, and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
Brandon Deyette talks story behind short film ‘Kitty’ screening at Out on Film
🌃 Brandon Deyette is staying busy. Right now, the filmmaker has two films on the festival circuit.
The first is a documentary called “Latter-Day Glory: The Aftermath of Growing Up Queer in the LDS Church.” The second is a short film called “Kitty,” which is playing at this year’s Out on Film festival on Oct. 5. “Kitty” follows the relationship between AJ (Luke Bucaro), a gay teen who has been kicked out of his home, and Baby Girl (Rafi S. Perez), an 18-year-old Black trans sex worker who takes him under her wing. At the beginning of the film, Baby Girl convinces her pimp to take AJ in as a replacement for a sex worker named Pedro, who has contracted HIV.
“Kitty” is a very personal film for Deyette, who started work on the story as a feature back in 2016. Ahead of the Oct. 5 screening, I spoke with him about the story behind the film.
🏳️⚧️ Read our conversation here.
Global Open House Showcase comes to Atlanta
SPONSORED BY ATLANTA FINE HOMES
🏠 On October 4-5, Sotheby’s International Realty® will host an Open House Showcase – a weekend designed to open doors to extraordinary homes at every price point around the world.
Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty is proud to participate once again, featuring stunning homes across Metro Atlanta, including new construction in Decatur and a luxury townhome in downtown Alpharetta.
The spring showcase spotlighted nearly 5,000 open houses worldwide, with 175 in Metro Atlanta alone, reaching 28 million social impressions. Don’t miss your chance to explore what’s possible.
👉🏼 Check out our upcoming open houses here.
Carmen Emmi, Tom Blyth, and Russell Tovey talk ‘Plainclothes’
🚨 When Carmen Emmi read a 2016 article in the Los Angeles Times about a Long Beach sting operation that targeted gay men a few years earlier, it made him feel nervous.
The article brought up anxieties he experienced growing up that he didn’t realize at the time were related to his queerness. But dipping into those waters again allowed Emmi to write and direct his debut feature, “Plainclothes,” which made a huge splash at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is opening this weekend in Atlanta after a sold-out screening at Out On Film.
For Georgia Voice, Jim Farmer spoke to Emmi and actors Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey about making the film.
📹 You can check out that conversation here.
Filmmaker Andreas Zerr dives into the phenomenon of ‘Rocky Horror’
👄 You know you’re iconic when not one, but two documentaries are coming out about you at around the same time. It’s safe to say, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is deserving of that iconography.
A film called “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror,” played at the Plaza Theatre this week. But “Sane Inside Insanity – The Phenomenon of Rocky Horror,” is playing at the Out on Film Festival on Oct. 4.
“The Rocky Horror Show,” a musical created by Richard O’Brien, started playing the West End in 1973. The 1975 film adaptation, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” was originally a flop. But as the years went by, the film became a midnight movie cult classic, starting the journey toward full-fledged global phenomenon. Directed by Andreas Zerr, “Sane Inside Insanity” dives into the story of “Rocky Horror,” starting with its beginnings as a humble stage show.
🎸 I spoke with Andreas ahead of the screening. Check out that conversation here.
‘The Smashing Machine’ is a sports biopic that rings hollow
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🤼♂️ “The Smashing Machine” starts where another movie’s middle might be – with Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), one of the first big stars in the early years of mixed martial arts and UFC, at the top of the world. He’s in a committed relationship with girlfriend Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). He’s already addicted to painkillers. And he’s about to lose the first fight of his career.
Directed, written, and edited by Benny Safdie (his first film made without his brother, Josh Safdie), “The Smashing Machine” is based on the 2002 documentary of the same name and feels remarkably similar in its construction. Safdie’s film is observational, almost natural, in feel. While it’s an admirable goal to make a sports movie that feels so rooted in realism, the attempt is far more interesting than the product.
What comes out of this experiment is something completely devoid of tension or emotion that leaves you wondering why you should even care in the first place.
🥊 Read my full review here.
‘Good Boy’ offers horror chills from a dog’s perspective
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🐕 In horror movies, dogs always seem to know something spooky is afoot, but they almost never make it out alive – think “The Conjuring,” or the 2005 “The Amityville Horror” remake. These dogs know that malevolent forces are at work, but they rarely have the ability to do something about it.
“Good Boy,” the feature directorial debut from Ben Leonberg, not only imagines a world where the dog doesn’t die, but also one where he tries his best to save his human.
“Good Boy” is a smart pitch for a low budget film – minimal locations, not too many actors, and Leonberg used his own dog, Indy, as the lead. Given the general populace’s love of dogs (as evidenced by an entire website dedicated to how much we don’t want to see them die), it’s also a premise that’s quite hard to mess up. Leonberg capitalizes on all of those factors, creating a movie that, while spare, effectively builds tension and emotion and makes a star out of its leading canine.
👻 Read my full review here.
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 Smashing Machine”
🏠 “Anemone” (pictured)
🐶 “Good Boy”
🌕 “Coyotes”
👮 “Plainclothes”
Special Events:
🎤 “Perfect Blue” 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
🐺 Silver Screen Spookshow: “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” @ The Plaza (Saturday)
👻 “Casper” 30th Anniversary @ The Tara (Friday-Thursday)
🧠 “Scanners” @ The Tara (Friday-Tuesday)
🔫 “Bullet in the Head” 4K Remaster @ The Tara (Friday-Wednesday)
🎉 Atlanta’s biggest free block party is back! Join us this Sun., Oct. 5, for Westside Stride – a family-friendly afternoon with live music, local eats, a vendor market, pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and more along Howell Mill Rd.
SPONSOR MESSAGE
Out on Film: ‘Queens of the Dead’ and ‘It’s Dorothy’
Heading into Out on Film this weekend, there’s still plenty of great movies to see. Here are two I enjoyed:
👠 “It’s Dorothy!” – Judy Garland is a queer icon, but her most famous character, Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz,” is just as important to the culture, posits this documentary from Jeffrey McHale. “It’s Dorothy!” features interviews with those who have stepped into the ruby slippers on screen and onstage, as well as cultural analysis of why Dorothy has become so important to those who consider themselves outsiders. Its structure can be a little bit meandering, but “It’s Dorothy!” has enough love and tenderness for its subjects to keep you interested.
🧟 “Queens of the Dead” – As we firmly enter spooky season, it’s time to whip out some of the old horror classics. But it’s also time to enjoy some fresh takes on those classic tales, which is where “Queens of the Dead” steps in. Directed by Tina Romero – yes, her father is the zombie king himself, George Romero – “Queens of the Dead” sets the zombie apocalypse within the world of drag queens and clubbing. It’s funny with a surprising amount of heart and a stellar cast to boot.
Spotlight: Eva Victor, ‘Sorry, Baby’
Welcome to a new weekly Scene segment: Spotlight! As awards season heats up, I’ll be taking a moment each week to highlight the actors, directors, writers, etc. who I think are deserving of recognition. Will they be recognized by the Academy? Who knows! But they would be if I were in charge, and that’s all that matters here.
🐈 There’s a scene in “Sorry, Baby” – written, directed by, and starring Eva Victor, that for me exemplifies Victor’s strengths in all three of those categories.
Agnes (Victor) is having a panic attack while driving, and pulls over to a sandwich shop parking lot. There’s a bang on her window – it’s Pete (John Carroll Lynch), the owner of said sandwich shop. He helps her through her panic attack and then offers her a sandwich. The scene comes towards the end of “Sorry, Baby,” three years after the sexual assault that changes Agnes’ life forever.
Casting Lynch is a stroke of genius. When he first raps on Agnes’ car window, the loudness of his knock and his voice are both terrifying. When you see his face, it doesn’t do much to dissuade that fear – this is a man who once played a possible suspect for the Zodiac Killer, after all. But, as soon as Lynch opens his mouth, the gruff tenderness with which he treats Agnes melts all that fear away. He’s not overly cloying or dramatic. He just sees a stranger in need and offers what he can.
The conversation that follows is one of my favorite bits of writing in Victor’s wonderful screenplay, showing off their ability to find moments of vulnerability without unnecessary schmaltz. Pete is blunt, not what you’d call soft-hearted – when Agnes introduces herself, he audibly groans at how much he hates her name. But it’s the lack of sentiment that Lynch puts into the character – and that Victor injects into the scene – that makes it feel all the more heartbreakingly human.
I mentioned this in my review, but it bears repeating – the last moment of dialogue in the scene occurs when Pete asks Agnes if she feels safe in her home. She answers with: “Yes, I have a cat.” Pete’s response to this could have been a laugh, or some sort of knowing, cloying look as he considers the real measure of Agnes’ safety. But Victor delivers the line with the utmost sincerity, and Lynch responds in kind. Approaching Victor’s words as both actors do – not with a wink, or with overt emotionality, but with stalwart honesty – wrings out the true feeling in the scene effortlessly.
Lights, Camera, Action!
🦈 Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” introduced us to one of the fiercest villains in film history – a great white shark. But in later years, both Spielberg and Peter Benchley, author of the 1974 novel that inspired the film, have expressed guilt over how their creation has impacted the public perception of sharks. This piece on Popular Science dives into that perception and what it gets wrong.
👪 Jim Jarmusch’s new film, “Father Mother Sister Brother,” won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and will play at the New York Film Festival tonight (I’m excited to be there, and get a chance to see it). I really enjoyed this interview between Bilge Ebiri and Jarmusch about the film, particularly Jarmusch’s comments toward the end about the political nature of art. He leaves us with this great piece of advice: “to protect empathy at all costs, and to live groovy lives.” Well said.
🪙 “The Blank Check” podcast continues their series on the films of the Coen Brothers with perhaps their singular best achievement, the Best Picture-winning “No Country For Old Men.” Get ready to flip a coin, and check out the episode here.
🖋️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.