Happy Thanksgiving!
Nov. 28 — Happy Friday! Hope you’re having the most wonderful of post-Thanksgiving food hangovers, with plenty of delicious leftovers on the horizon. I always find that the best way to enjoy the day after Thanksgiving is by plopping myself on the couch, regaling myself with some seasonal favorite films of mine, and not moving an inch for the rest of the day.
By and large, my favorite Thanksgiving movies don’t have much to do with Thanksgiving the holiday in practice, but I think you’ll find they capture the moment spiritually. Here are some suggestions for you:
🔪 “Knives Out” – Rian Johnson’s first “Knives Out” installment is still my favorite of the bunch. While it doesn’t necessarily take place during Thanksgiving, it certainly has that certain humor that only comes from getting your entire family together, whether they like it or not. Plus, it’s got Chris Evans in that sweater. What else do you need?
💍 “The Lord of the Rings” – Whether you’re a theatrical cut purist or a lover of the extended editions, you can take up the entire day with “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. I know a few people who have made a Thanksgiving rewatch of this series part of their yearly tradition. If you’re a big nerd like me, adding it to yours could be just the thing you need.
🍳 “Julie & Julia” – A classic way to get your Nora Ephron autumnal fix would be my beloved “When Harry Met Sally,” but having rewatched “Julie & Julia” recently, I think it’s a little more well-suited to the Thanksgiving of it all. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched a movie that made me hungrier.
Without further ado … Action!
☀️ The Sundance Institute has chosen Dunaway Gardens in Newnan as the new home for its Episodic Lab program.
💌 The next Film Love event will be a presentation of three historic art films, featuring Anthony McCall’s “Line Describing a Cone.” The screening takes place at the Plaza Theatre on Dec. 11.
🎼 Five new opera films are now available to stream on the Atlanta Opera’s website.
💸 Paramount, Netflix, and Comcast have all submitted bids to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. is reportedly aiming to announce a sale by mid-to-late December.
🇩🇪 German actor Udo Kier, who has appeared in films such as “My Own Private Idaho” and can be seen in this year’s “The Secret Agent,” passed away at the age of 81 earlier this week.
It’s a short newsletter this holiday week. We’ve got Jim Farmer’s interview with Ira Sachs about his new film “Peter Hujar’s Day” along with my review of the film, and another about the new fantastical romcom “Eternity.” Plus, what you can see at the movies this week.
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week!
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
Filmmaker Ira Sachs talks ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’
⏺️ While out director Ira Sachs was working on the film “Passages” with actor Ben Whishaw, he discovered Linda Rosenkrantz’s book “Peter Hujar’s Day.” He thought it would make an interesting next project for him and Whishaw to collaborate on.
“I knew that we shared an interest in queer history, specifically queer artists like Peter,” Sachs said. “By the time I finished the book, I said ‘Let’s make a movie of this.’”
The film is based on a taped conversation between Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) and trailblazing queer photographer Hujar (Whishaw), in which the artist talks about a day in his life in New York in the 1970s. The film opens in Atlanta today, and ahead of the screening, Sachs spoke with Jim Farmer for the Georgia Voice about the project.
📷 Check out that conversation here.
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‘Eternity’ is perfectly entertaining, but struggles with the inevitable
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🥨 How do you compete with a memory? The truth is, you can’t. And Larry (Barry Primus) is about to learn that the hard way.
After dying by way of choking on pretzels, Larry (played by Primus in his old age, then Miles Teller for the rest of the film), finds himself in the afterlife. This is not heaven, though – in “Eternity,” when you die, you must choose one place where you’d like to spend the rest of time. But, whatever your version of paradise is – the beach, the mountains, an endless art museum – once you choose, you have to stay. There’s no changing your mind.
Larry knows that his wife, Joan (Betty Buckley), is also about to pass on, so he decides to wait for her (Elizabeth Olsen, in the afterlife) before making a decision. There’s just one problem: Joan’s first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), who died during the Korean War and has been waiting for Joan to show up ever since. But, despite the apparent choice at Joan’s disposal, the core issue with “Eternity” (directed by David Freyne and written by Freyne and Pat Cunnane) is that there’s really only one outcome that makes sense. And when the movie tries to pretend that there’s not, it only proves to be frustrating.
⛰️ Read my full review here.
Artists are human too in ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🚬 If you could imagine a day in the life of an artist, what would it look like? Maybe you’d think about where they find inspiration, or what type of creative endeavors fill up their days. Maybe you’d think that they find fulfillment more easily than other people. But “Peter Hujar’s Day,” the new film from Ira Sachs, posits that artists’ days are not so different from our own. They worry about money, they worry about their choices, and they experience insecurity and anxiety. And most importantly, they b*tch about it to their closest friends.
Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw in the film) was a queer American photographer who, while now well-known, didn’t receive widespread acclaim until after his death in 1987 (he passed away from complications due to AIDS). Sachs’ film is based on an interview that Peter’s friend, the writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), did with him in December 1974 for a book she was working on about a day in the lives of different artists that she knew.
Based on that description alone, you might think that “Peter Hujar’s Day” would make for a slight film, but Sachs has a knack for elevating his work with intimate visuals and stellar design, and this film is no exception. Sachs takes a simple story about the minutiae of being a living, breathing, working artist and gives it a cinematic edge. The added touch of the warmth of the friendship between Peter and Linda is just icing on the cake.
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:
✝️ “Eternity”
🎭 “Hamnet”
🦊 “Zootopia 2” (pictured)
Special Events:
💧 First Voices Fest: “She Cried That Day” @ The Plaza (Friday)
👰 “Bride of Frankenstein” in 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
🦾 “The Iron Giant” @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
🧙♀️ “The Love Witch” @ The Plaza (Friday-Tuesday)
🦷 “Dogtooth” in 4K @ The Plaza (Saturday-Wednesday)
🏀 “Will” @ The Plaza (Sunday)
🐴 “The Godfather” in 35 mm @ The Tara (Friday-Tuesday)
🚗 “The Spectacular Now” w/ Director Q&A @ The Tara (Saturday)
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
