Look there! A festival!
Feb. 13 — It feels like we just finished up with Sundance, but there’s already another film festival on the horizon. At least this one is a little closer to home!
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival kicks off on Feb. 18 with a screening of Ken Scott’s “Once Upon My Mother” at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. Check out my list of which films to watch out for at the festival here.
Without further ado … Action!
📺 In incredibly sad news, James Van Der Beek died after a battle with cancer earlier this week. He was only 48 years old. “Dawson’s Creek” is one of the defining texts of my life, so this one hit particularly hard. I’ve already got a rewatch planned in his honor.
✍️ The Atlanta Film Society announced the quarterfinalists for the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay competition.
🎭 Leaders at the City Springs Theatre Company are worried that a potential change to the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center’s Presenting Partner program may impact its ability to produce shows.
🩰 The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is back in Atlanta this weekend, with shows at the Fox Theatre through Feb. 15.
🎤 I interviewed local musician Andy Browne, formerly of the punk band The Nightporters, ahead of his Feb. 14 show. You can read that interview here.
📽️ The 2026 Black History Film Festival kicks off in Atlanta with an opening reception on Feb. 27. You can register to attend here. The festival itself is on Feb. 28 from noon to 6 p.m.
✊ Out On Film is hosting a screening of the film “The Inquisitor,” a documentary about Civil Rights icon Barbara Jordan, on Feb. 26.
💸 Paramount has filed its ninth (yes, ninth) proposal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to sweeten the deal to pull WBD away from its $83 billion deal with Netflix.
🇩🇪 The 76th Berlin International Film Festival started yesterday – seriously, I can’t believe we’re back in festival season already.
This week’s newsletter includes a closer look at a local screening series, a peek inside the fifth season of one of my favorite shows, “For All Mankind,” and a review of the new “Wuthering Heights” adaptation from Emerald Fennell. Plus, what’s playing at theaters this week, a new edition of “Spotlight,” and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
Showrunners and actors talk season five of ‘For All Mankind’ at SCAD TVFest
🚀 When “For All Mankind” began in 2019, the show had a very simple premise: what would have happened in 1969 if the Soviets landed on the moon first and the Space Race never ended?
Now, almost seven years later, we’re heading into season five, and the show has expanded its reach from international tensions to interplanetary tensions. Season five picks up 10 years after the events of season four, which saw the crew on the international Mars base Happy Valley hijack an asteroid to keep it in Mars’ orbit rather than sending it to Earth.
Co-creator (along with Ronald D. Moore) and showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, along with show veteran Coral Peña and season five newbie Sean Kaufman, stopped by SCAD TVFest this past weekend to talk about the new season, which premieres on Apple TV+ on March 27.
🌕 Learn more about the upcoming season here. You can also find Jim Farmer’s coverage from SCAD TVFest when you click here.
Party like it’s 1985 at our 40th Artistic Affair!
SPONSORED BY SPRUILL CENTER FOR THE ARTS
✨ Dust off your cassettes and tease your hair, we’re having a FUNdraiser – so be there or be square!
Join us on March 28 as Spruill Center for the Arts kicks off the 40th year of Artistic Affair! Get ready for full-on 1980s fun, complete with an open bar, arcade games, costume contests, a live auction, and more.
🎟️ Tickets are on sale now – get yours today for an early bird discount (good for purchase through Feb. 15).
Opalite Pictures to host Film Salon on Feb. 15
🎬 A new screening and conversation series is set to launch at the Plaza Theatre on Feb. 15.
Opalite Pictures, a production company founded by Megan Dahl and Adam Pinney, is hosting what they’re calling a Film Salon at the Plaza on Feb. 15 from 7-9 p.m. The event is meant to celebrate Atlanta’s indie film community through screenings of local projects and casual discussions about the work.
The idea to host a screening event like this is something that Dahl and Pinney have been thinking on for years. When they reached out to their filmmaker friends with the idea, everyone jumped on board.
🗣️ Learn more about what to expect at the event here.
‘Wuthering Heights’ captures what it feels like to fall in love with romance
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
💔 In an early scene in “Wuthering Heights,” Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) listens as his ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver), explains, in thorough detail, the plot of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” over tea in the garden. Isabella, who has just read the play for the first time, is completely entranced by the fate of the doomed lovers. Edgar, the unwitting victim of her obsession, is less so.
This is one of the most telling moments in Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” a loose adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 gothic novel about the passionate love affair between Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi). In the press leading up to the release of “Wuthering Heights,” Fennell has spoken at length about her own obsession with this particular novel, and how in adapting Brontë’s work, she wanted to make the type of movie that played in her head while reading the book for the first time as a teenager. In this respect, Fennell feels not unlike Isabella – a young woman captivated by her first brush with all-consuming, madness-inducing passion.
There are certainly aspects of Fennell’s decision to make the movie she envisioned as a teenager that don’t quite work. But, if you’ve read “Wuthering Heights” (especially if you read it as a teenager) you know that it has the power to warp young minds in the way that not many stories do. Fennell’s film is not so much an adaptation of the novel as it is a visual representation of what it feels like to read “Wuthering Heights” – or, in Isabella’s case, “Romeo and Juliet” – and feel scandalized, shocked, and entranced for the first time. And in searching for that high, she wholeheartedly achieves something great.
🍿 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:
🚨 “Crime 101”
🥚 “Wuthering Heights”
🏀 “GOAT” (pictured)
🥓 “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”
🎸 “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”
🪑 “By Design”
🏳️🌈 “Jimpa”
Special Events:
🗡️ “Ganja & Hess” @ The Plaza (Saturday-Thursday)
🦆 “Pretty in Pink” @ The Tara (Saturday-Monday)
🔥 WABE Cinema Social: “Mississippi Masala” @ The Tara (Saturday)
📬 “Cineprov Riffs The Lake House” @ The Tara (Saturday)
👻 “Ghost” @ Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Saturday-Sunday)
🐦⬛ “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” @ Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Sunday)
Spotlight: Sinners Score
🎸 There are so many things I love about the movie “Sinners.” Miles Caton’s performance. The musical sequence that takes place in the juke joint. How sexy everyone is. How Jack O’Connell says the name “Sammie!!!”
But one of my very favorite things about “Sinners” is composer Ludwig Göransson’s score. The way that Göransson mixes genres over a baseline of blues music is not only invigorating and wonderful to listen to, but also captures so much of the thematic beauty of the film.
I was watching an interview with Göransson recently where he talked about his father’s love of the blues, and how that came into direct contrast with young Ludwig’s love for heavy metal (he heard “Enter Sandman” by Metallica as a child and never looked back). He said that at that time, he didn’t really understand how all popular music (yes, even heavy metal) stems from the blues and African American musicians in particular.
Listening to the “Sinners” score, you can feel Göransson accentuating that point. Every time a lone blues guitar gives way to a spooky, powerful electric, or when you hear hair metal-esque, almost operatic vocal arrangements over Southern intonations, you can feel Göransson and the movie driving home the fact that this all stems from the same place.
It’s part of what makes that musical montage at the center of the film – on which Göransson collaborated with songwriter Raphael Saadiq – so endlessly compelling. The threads of musical and Black history come together in one surreal moment, the score blending rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, West African beats, and so much more, to create something totally singular – something that feels entirely seamless despite the surface-level differences between each genre.
Lights, Camera, Action!
🎥 As loyal readers know, I’m a huge fan of the filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. Earlier this month, she and her longtime cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt made an appearance on the “Team Deakins” podcast, talking with Roger and James Deakins about their careers and paths to finding each other. I found Kelly deeply hilarious, and I hope you do too.
📖 While we’re on the topic of “Wuthering Heights,” I laughed a lot while reading this Vulture discussion about whether or not you should read the book before you see the movie. The takeaway? You probably shouldn’t (but definitely check it out at some point! It’s a great book!).
🚕 This year marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Scorsese’s film “Taxi Driver,” a film that is perhaps, to this day, his most famous work. A recent episode of “Fresh Air” gives an oral history of sorts, revisiting archival interviews with the likes of Scorsese, Cybill Shepherd, and Paul Schrader to celebrate the film.
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
