Happy festing!
Friday, April 24 — Happy Friday, and happy second day of the Atlanta Film Festival! I had a spectacular time at the premiere screening of “Idiots” last night and can’t wait for so many more films to come! If you want to keep up with my festival exploits, please give me a follow on Instagram or Letterboxd.
Some housekeeping! The next two iterations of the newsletter will be extremely Atlanta Film Festival-focused. I’ll still be coming through with movie reviews and some of our other standard items, but we’ll be skipping out on Spotlight this week and next so I can make sure I’m giving you all as many pieces as I can on all things Georgia film and beyond. But, as the news waits for no one, there are still a few things we have to touch on before we get going.
Without further ado!
🗳️ Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to approve the controversial merger with Paramount Skydance at a Thursday meeting.
🍎 The Atlanta Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its annual Creative Conference.
🎞️ The Film Love series returns to the Plaza Theatre on May 14 with “Big Screen 2: Return to Reason,” a compilation of artists’ films in 35mm curated by Andy Ditzler and scholar of handmade cinema Gregory Zinman.
✍️ SCAD is hosting an all-day event called “SCADFILM In Focus: Writing” on April 30 from 9:30 a.m.-9 p.m., with panels, script-reading opportunities, podcast recordings, and more.
🥷 “SCHOOLED,” a new Netflix STEM series, is hosting casting calls at the Atlanta Code Ninjas locations on Avenue Place and in Smyrna/Vinings. The casting calls will take place through April 30 on Tuesday-Thursday from 4-6 p.m., Saturday from 2-3 p.m., and Sunday at Avenue Place only from 2-3 p.m.
Today, in addition to numerous interviews with filmmakers who have films playing at the festival, we’ve also got reviews of two new films, David Lowery’s “Mother Mary” and the John Davidson biopic “I Swear.” Plus, what’s playing at theaters this weekend and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
🎉 The all-volunteer Inman Park Festival returns for its 54th year! Enjoy free live music, art, parade, kids’ activities, and food in historic Inman Park. This weekend, April 25–26. Tour of Homes runs Friday–Sunday. Tour tickets on sale now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
An Atlanta Film Festival Roundup!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to so many amazing filmmakers about what they’re bringing to ATLFF. Check out these features and interviews below.
🎵 Director Kiah Clingman and writer/star Israel Vaughan spoke with me about their short film “Capriccio,” which centers on an adorable, musical meet-cute at a bookstore. The film premieres tomorrow.
⚾ Adam Pinney spoke with me about his new film “Mudville,” (pictured) which he turned into a family affair, shooting at his own home and using his wife and children as actors. “Mudville” plays the festival on April 30.
🐶 Lucy Sandler and Mechi Lakatos spoke with me about their hilarious feature “Danny Is My Boyfriend,” which is a fully improvised film about two girls who find out they have one too many things in common. “Danny Is My Boyfriend” will screen tomorrow.
🐸 “Frogtown” is one of the more fascinating local films playing this year’s festival, and I loved speaking with filmmaker Costa Karalis about the process of blending truth and fiction. “Frogtown” also plays tomorrow.
Look out for more interviews from me throughout the week!
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Atlanta natives Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney hit big with ‘Over Your Dead Body’ and ‘Pizza Movie’
🔪 Atlanta natives Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, better known as the internet sketch comedy duo “BriTANicK,” are having a huge month.
On April 3, their feature directorial debut, the stoner comedy “Pizza Movie,” hit Hulu and Disney+. This weekend, a film they penned called “Over Your Dead Body” hits theaters.
Directed by Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone, “Over Your Dead Body” is a remake of the 2021 Norwegian film “The Trip,” starring Samara Weaving and Jason Segel as a couple who goes on a serene cabin vacation while both secretly plotting to kill the other. The film played at the Atlanta Film Festival on April 23 and goes into wide release today.
🍕 Check out my conversation with Nick and Brian about their recent successes here.
‘Mother Mary’ explores our relationship to pop stardom in ghostly, dramatic fashion
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎤 The simplest explanation one could give for the set up of David Lowery’s “Mother Mary” is as follows: a pop star (Anne Hathaway), recovering from a personal crisis, returns to her former stylist and friend (Michaela Coel) to beg for help one last time.
What unfolds, however, is a psychological exploration of codependency between pop star and audience (and between two former friends) that mostly takes place within conversations between two actors at the top of their game – that is, until about halfway through, when Lowery decides to go straight haunting mode.
But this is not a ghost story. It is a fascinating cinematic study of the emotional tenets of pop stardom. Beyond the capitalism of it all, beyond the careful construction of persona, what does it mean to stand at a Beyoncé, or Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift (whose “Reputation” tour was a great inspiration for “Mother Mary”) concert, screaming your guts out, putting all of the emotional weight of your feelings on one singular person? “Mother Mary” is interested in that relationship, but also in painting a portrait of two broken people attempting to exorcise their personal demons. It’s a visual feast, haunting and exhilarating, held down by two performances that sing with a sense of heightened drama. And, if you’re going to make a movie about a pop star, drama is key.
👼 Check out my full review here.
‘I Swear’ and bridging the gap of understanding
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🏴 Before the 2026 British Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs), I’m not sure if most people in the U.S. (beyond those whose job it is to keep track of these sorts of things) had heard of the movie “I Swear,” based on the life of activist John Davidson – a Scottish man with severe Tourette syndrome. But then, something terrible happened.
While Michael B. Jordan and his “Sinners” co-star Delroy Lindo were presenting the first award of that night, Davidson (who was seated near a microphone), had an uncontrollable tic-related outburst and shouted a racial slur. Top to bottom, the BAFTAs and the BBC handled the situation abominably (the BBC aired the moment in its broadcast, despite a lengthy delay that gave them time to edit other things out), with very little regard for Jordan and Lindo and their safety, or for Davidson and his still misunderstood condition. As “Sinners” actress Jayme Lawson put it: “That man’s disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses.”
So then, it seems like “I Swear” – which opens in Atlanta this weekend – is a movie that should exist, if for no other reason than to give people a rundown of what Tourette syndrome actually is and how it manifests. But, while the film is a bit standard as far as biopics go, filmmaker Kirk Jones handles the topic with a warm and inviting hand, and Aramayo’s performance is as wonderfully nuanced as the subject matter requires.
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:
🇬🇧 “I Swear”
❤️🩹 “Mother Mary”
🎙️ “Michael” (pictured)
🔪 “Over Your Dead Body”
🦅 “Eagles of the Republic”
Special Events:
🍿 The 50th Atlanta Film Festival @ The Plaza and Tara Theatres
🎮 Plazadrome: “eXistenZ” @ The Plaza (Saturday)
🔎 “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” @ Springs Cinema & Taphouse (Saturday-Sunday)
💚 “The Green Knight” @ Landmark Midtown Art Cinema (Sunday)
🎉 The all-volunteer Inman Park Festival returns for its 54th year! Enjoy free live music, art, parade, kids’ activities, and food in historic Inman Park. This weekend, April 25–26. Tour of Homes runs Friday–Sunday. Tour tickets on sale now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Lights, Camera, Action!
📖 I’m still waiting on my copy of Lena Dunham’s memoir “Famesick,” but in the meantime, I’ll take this lovely piece from Fran Hoepfner for Vulture about what makes the memoir work.
💒 From movies like “The Drama” to television shows like “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen,” it seems like marriage (and the foibles thereof) is on everyone’s mind these days. On a recent episode of The New Yorker’s “Critics at Large” podcast, the hosts discuss the ways in which the cultural narrative surrounding one of our oldest institutions is shifting.
🎧 If you’ve read this newsletter, you know that Team Deakins is a podcast that I love, and one of the things I love most is that it often sheds light on parts of the film industry the masses don’t usually think about. On a recent episode, Roger and James talk with gaffer Steve Ramsey about his career. Tune in to find out what a gaffer actually does!
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
