A post-festival check-in
Oct. 17 — Happy Friday! We’ve got a full slate for today’s newsletter, so let’s get right to it. But first, following this year’s Out on Film festival, I spoke with Festival Director Jim Farmer about their record-breaking year. Learn more about that, as well as which films took home the awards, here.
Without further ado … Action!
💔 Craig Miller, founder of the film production company Craig Miller Productions, passed away earlier this week. Read Georgia Entertainment CEO Randy Davidson’s remarks about Miller here.
🎼 Create Dunwoody is hosting its inaugural “Illuminated Concert: Epic Film Scores” event, which will feature a string quartet playing iconic film scores at Dunwoody United Methodist Church.
💕 The icon Diane Keaton, famous for her roles in movies such as “Annie Hall,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” and – my favorite guilty pleasure – “Book Club,” passed away at the age of 79. In remembrance, here’s a montage showing off her wonderful talent for yelping.
🎙️ Netflix is getting into the podcast game. The streamer just inked a deal with Spotify, bringing the platform’s video podcasts to Netflix.
⛔ According to a Bloomberg report, Warner Bros. has rejected Paramount Skydance’s bid to take over the company.
This week’s newsletter includes an interview with the founders of On Set ATL, an interview with a homegrown talent making zombie movies out in Los Angeles, and a review of two new films I quite enjoyed: “The Mastermind” and “Urchin.” Plus, a new edition of Spotlight, what’s at the movie theater this weekend, and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
On Set ATL founders on community and filmmaking excellence
🏆 When Martina Lindo and Jhaneal Hector first met, they found they had a lot in common. They were both Jamaican-born, American-raised, and both working in the film industry in Atlanta. They quickly became friends and started talking about starting some type of venture together. But you know how it is – you talk and talk about making moves, but you never do. Then, suddenly, an opportunity arose.
Screen Room ATL, created by Khalimah Gaston, used to be one of the big screening collectives for Black creatives in Atlanta. When Gaston moved to Los Angeles, there was suddenly a gap in the market.
So, in 2022, Hector and Lindo started On Set ATL, a film organization that hosts local screenings and serves as a gathering space for Atlanta’s filmmaking community. Their next screening event will be on Nov. 21 at Ambient Plus Studio.
📽️ I recently spoke with Hector and Lindo about their journey with On Set ATL. You can read that conversation here.
Flavor and fun starts in Chamblee!
SPONSORED BY DISCOVER DEKALB
✨ In Chamblee, flavor and fun collide. Join us tomorrow, Oct. 18, for A Taste of Chamblee, where global dishes, local favorites, and sweet treats fill the streets.
Then, catch every thrilling moment with the 3rd Spot Watch Party Series, where fans gather under the sky to cheer for SEC matchups and celebrate community spirit. Taste, cheer, and connect with neighbors who love good food and great games.
➞ In Chamblee, every bite and every play brings people together. Come hungry, come loud, and be part of the action.
Erin Áine talks the undead and indie filmmaking with ‘ZombieCON Vol. 1’
🧟 Buckhead native Erin Áine has been acting since she was just a little kid.
She signed with her first agent when she was 11 years old and continued to book gigs all the way through her college years at Vanderbilt University. Now, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Kyle Valle, and, while she continues to act, has taken on a far larger role in the film industry.
“ZombieCON Vol. 1” is a zombie movie set in the world of cosplay, directed by Valle and written by Valle, Áine, and Manny Luke. The film stars Luke, Áine, Punkie Johnson, and Christian Casillas as a group of cosplayers who have to take on an apocalypse when a sudden plague turns every *sshole in the world into a zombie.
📀 This week, the film celebrated its DVD release. Ahead of that milestone, I spoke with Áine about making the movie. Check out that conversation here.
With ‘Urchin,’ Harris Dickinson offers assured and complex debut about addiction
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
⌚ About halfway through “Urchin,” Mike (Frank Dillane) comes face to face with a man he once assaulted and robbed. It’s a purposeful meeting, and is part of Mike’s recovery and rehabilitation (he’s an addict, but about seven months sober at this point). The meeting is meant to give both Mike and Simon (Okezie Morro) a chance to hash it out. Simon starts, detailing his feelings in a blunt, yet remarkably sensitive manner that doesn’t do anything to make Mike feel any better. In fact, Simon’s civility seems to just make Mike feel worse.
As Simon talks, the camera lingers on Mike, who gets increasingly uncomfortable until he finally starts to cry. Then, before he can say anything, the film abruptly cuts to the next scene, leaving us in that lurch right before we reach catharsis, refusing to revel in Mike’s despair.
Written and directed by Harris Dickinson (his feature film debut), “Urchin” features many scenes like this one – moments that skirt the norm of what we expect from a movie about addiction. As a filmmaker, Dickinson certainly wears his references on his sleeve, but he also avoids a lot of the pitfalls that first-time filmmakers can so easily fall into.
🎤 Read my full review here.
Kelly Reichardt’s ‘The Mastermind’ paints a portrait of American discontent
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎷 The opening credits of Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind” feature a driving, percussive score from jazz musician Rob Mazurek. It’s busy, it’s loud, and it’s set to the backdrop of… suburban Massachusetts.
More specifically, it plays over fall in suburban Massachusetts in the 1970s – think vibrant colors, brick buildings, and a soft, ethereal beauty. However, the visual doesn’t quite match up with the explosiveness of Mazurek’s score – after all, the Danforth Art Museum doesn’t necessarily scream avant-garde jazz. That disconnect, however, is the same one that lives inside the film’s protagonist: big, messy, and stuck in the suburbs.
“The Mastermind” is one of Reichardt’s funnier films to date, and possibly her most commercial – it stars Josh O’Connor as a husband and father of two who moonlights as an art thief. But, while “The Mastermind” has its humor and a certain kinetic energy to it that Reichardt pictures usually don’t, it’s still got her signature all over it. “The Mastermind” is exploring the same things Reichardt has always been interested in – the psyche of a uniquely American person at any given moment in time, a discontent with life, and being unsure of what it is they want. O’Connor proves to be a worthy muse, perfectly embodying what it looks like when apathy is no longer enough.
🐖 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:
🏫 “After the Hunt” (pictured)
📞 “Black Phone 2”
👼 “Good Fortune”
🖼️ “The Mastermind”
⌚ “Urchin”
🗳️ “Re-Election”
🃏 “Ballad of a Small Player”
🍎 “The Last Class”
🦚 “Peacock”
Special Events:
👻 “A Chinese Ghost Story II” 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
💉 “Re-Animator” 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
🍬 “Candyman” @ The Plaza Theatre (Friday-Wednesday)
⚔️ “Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight” @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
🧟 “28 Days Later” @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
🎤 “Perfect Blue” 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
📺 All Night Marathon: Vinegar Syndrome Spooktacular @ The Plaza (Saturday)
🧛 “Lifeforce” International Cut 4K @ The Plaza (Sunday-Tuesday)
📽️ Soul Cinema Sundays: “Get Out” @ The Plaza (Sunday)
🍻 “Smokey and the Bandit” in 35mm @ The Tara (Friday)
👶 “The Brood” @ The Tara (Friday-Tuesday)
Spotlight: Alex Garland and Danny Boyle, ’28 Years Later’
☠️ Sometimes, a perfect partnership is obvious. But sometimes, two people have a synergy that seems to come out of nowhere. They’re not obviously meant for each other – their creative energies are diametrically opposed, even – but, for whatever reason, when they get together it all works.
That latter category is where I would put Alex Garland and Danny Boyle. Boyle has a real lightness to his work that I find endlessly lovely. He can ride the wave of darkness, evident in movies like “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting,” but even then, there’s a joyfulness to both of those films that I think characterizes most of Boyle’s work. Whether he’s dealing with spoiled yuppies, or heroin addicts, or even Steve Jobs – he treats those characters and their worlds with a buoyancy that’s as infectious as it is chaotic.
Garland, on the other hand, seems to have a much harsher view of the world and the people who live in it, one that comes to the surface in movies like “Civil War.” He is interested in the grotesque and the strange, and while he’ll often find beauty in that strangeness – such as in films like “Annihilation” – the beautiful thing isn’t always to be trusted.
These are two very different artists. But, when they meet in movies like “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine,” something amazing happens. That melding of light and dark creates a world that feels both authentic in its horrors and in its hope, which pierces through so strongly in their most recent collaboration, “28 Years Later.” The world they build together is rich, and vibrant, and mysterious, and terrifying in equal measure. They come to conclusions about family, about grief, about isolation, that are somehow equally as lovely as they are harsh. I hope they continue making things together for many years to come.
Lights, Camera, Action!
🎧 For his final episode of “WTF With Marc Maron,” the podcaster went big. Former President Barack Obama sat down with Maron, where they talked about Maron’s next act and the state of the world. You can take a listen to that episode here, and I would also highly recommend this Vulture piece from Nicholas Quah that delivers a little closure on the end of “WTF.”
📖 Lukas Gage has led many lives, from getting married on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” to starring in projects like “The White Lotus” and “Companion.” But, with a new memoir, he’s diving into his younger years and sharing his journey from “attention-seeking child to attention-seeking adult,” writes Jason P. Frank for Vulture. I’ve always enjoyed Gage’s presence, and I found this interview informative and funny. Check it out here.
✋ If you’ve ever wanted advice from a critic, now’s your chance! No, not from me, but from the folks over at The New Yorker’s “Critics at Large” podcast. Hosts Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss everything from poetry to “30 Rock,” answering your questions along the way. Take a listen here.
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
