A day of rest
Dec. 26 — Merry Day-After-Christmas, everyone! For the next two weeks, Scene will be a tad shorter than usual, giving you all ample time to enjoy your holiday and watch as many movies, read as many books, and eat as much food as you want. During my break, I’ve been catching up on “Heated Rivalry” (a show that everyone has been very, very normal about), reading a bunch of books as I desperately try to reach my goal for the end of the year (it was 50, and I don’t think I’m going to make it), and listening to this positively incredible interview that James Cameron did with Matt Belloni on The Town (I also saw “Avatar: Fire and Ash” — I’m a Varang stan now).
Hope you’ve also been having a wonderful time! We’ll catch up with the news when we get back, so lets straight down to business today. This week’s newsletter includes a roundup of some of my favorite interviews I’ve done this year, as well as movie reviews of “Marty Supreme” and “Song Sung Blue.” Plus, what’s playing at the movies this week.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
Top 5 interviews of the year
This week, I’m honoring five of my favorite conversations from this year. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
🎒 Ann Morrison talks stepping into the main role in ‘Kimberly Akimbo’
🇰🇷 Director Chris Appelhans talks ‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ ahead of SCAD AnimationFest
🎼 Adam Guettel talks music, Catholicism, and ‘Millions’ at Alliance Theatre
⚾ Filmmaker David Fortune talks bringing ‘Color Book’ home to Atlanta (pictured)
🎥 Shoshannah Stern on her documentary ‘Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore’
Ready, Set, AGLOW!
SPONSORED BY FERNBANK MUSEUM
🌟 When the sun sets, the woods come alive at WildWoods: AGLOW.
This after-hours experience combines art, nature and music at Fernbank Museum, featuring scenic trails aglow with light outdoors and nighttime access to museum exhibits inside.
🌙 Select nights through Feb. 28, 2026.
‘Marty Supreme’ and Timothée Chalamet are in pursuit of greatness
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🏓 In the middle of his speech last year for the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role, Timothée Chalamet said that he was in the “pursuit of greatness”
“I know people don’t usually talk like that,” he said. “But I want to be one of the greats.” He invoked names like Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Viola Davis, but also Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan — there’s an athletic bent to this pursuit, as well as an artistic one.
“Marty Supreme,” Josh Safdie’s new film about a table tennis player who will stop at nothing in his own pursuit of greatness, sits at the same intersection of artistry and athleticism as Chalamet’s public persona, positioning his character, Marty Mauser (loosely based on real life table tennis player Marty Reisman) as the embodiment of American ambition, with all the good and bad that entails. Marty exists in a lineage of complicated, talented, terrible men, who will do whatever it takes — lie, cheat, hurt, steal — to get to the mountaintop. The film considers that streak of ambition and its collision with American capitalism, all wrapped up in an immensely entertaining thrill ride.
🐕 Read my full review here.
‘Song Sung Blue’ is a charming, if oddly paced, crowdpleaser
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎤 “Song Sung Blue” begins with a close up on Mike Sardina’s (Hugh Jackman) face. “I am, I said,” he begins, invoking the Neil Diamond song of the same name. “I am, I cried! An entertainer.” Jackman, certainly, is just that. Throughout this sequence, the only thing the audience has to go on is Jackman’s face, giving life to Mike’s love for music and, more importantly, love for Diamond.
Mike (AKA, Lightning), much like Jackman himself, was born to entertain. He and his wife, Claire (Kate Hudson), performed together as a Neil Diamond tribute band — excuse me, a Neil Diamond tribute experience — called Lightning & Thunder in Wisconsin in the late 1980s and 90s. Written and directed by Craig Brewer, the film is based on a 2008 documentary of the same name.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “What could possibly be so interesting about a Neil Diamond tribute band?” I say, hold onto your butts! Mike and Claire Sardina have lived a life full of twists and turns, the kind filled with events that make you stop and go, “That sounds like a movie!” And yet, the best parts of “Song Sung Blue” have nothing to do with those twists, but instead with the crowd pleasing charm and the musical spectacular of the two performers at the film’s center.
👖 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:
🐍 “Anaconda” (pictured)
🏓 “Marty Supreme”
💙 “Song Sung Blue”
Special Events:
🔥 “Heat” @ The Plaza (Friday-Wednesday)
🎭 “Eyes Wide Shut” @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
👹 A Night of David Bruckner Short Films @ The Plaza (Saturday)
💊 “Altered States” @ The Plaza (Sunday-Thursday)
🐴 “The Hateful Eight” in 70mm @ The Tara (Saturday-Tuesday)
🗝️ “The Apartment” @ The Tara (Sunday-Tuesday)
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.