Homer rocks!
Friday, July 17 — Happy Friday, everyone! Today is a good day, because I saw “The Odyssey” this week. It’s also a good week because big law is (for once) doing its thing, baby! Just weeks after federal regulators okayed the deal, 12 state attorneys general have banded together to block the potential roughly $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Writers Guild of America has also filed a separate lawsuit to block the merger, alleging the deal violates antitrust laws and would do specific harm to writers. Even though U.S. federal regulators cleared the deal, we’re still waiting on word from the E.U. (July 22) and the U.K. (Aug. 7). This thing is far from over.
The attorneys general lawsuit stands on antitrust law grounds. But politics are coming into play here. According to The Wrap (subscription needed), shareholders have reportedly sued CEO David Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, alleging the duo promised President Trump that they would overhaul CNN to better align with the president’s views in exchange for public support for the merger. This is the kind of thing we should be really worried about, folks.
For more on why film workers in Georgia are concerned about the possibility of a merger, read my piece from June. Without further ado … Action!
🍎 In August, the Trilith Institute will welcome the inaugural cohort for its Semester at Trilith, an immersive program that gives college students the opportunity to spend a semester living and learning at Trilith. The institute also just announced its Fall Professional Education Lineup, which you can find here.
💸 The Georgia Council for the Arts announced that it will give $1.3 million in grant funding to recipients in 37 counties this fiscal year, including Actor’s Express and Out on Film.
📖 The Decatur Book Festival has announced 16 authors who will be presenting at the 2026 event.
🦁 Lionsgate might put itself up for sale, and has reportedly hired an investment bank to help assess potential buyers.
💔 We lost the great actor Sam Neill this week, widely known for his iconic turn in “Jurassic Park” and for plenty of other wonderful films. He was 78 years old.
This week, I went on a visit to the Margaret Mitchell House and considered the legacy of “Gone With the Wind” 90 years later. I also interviewed two local students about their recent accomplishments, including a national musical theater award and a coveted internship. You’ll also find my review of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” down below, as well as what’s at the movie theaters this week, a new edition of Spotlight, and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
The Margaret Mitchell House reckons with ‘Gone With the Wind’ 90 years later
🍑 In June of 2020, HBO pulled the 1939 classic film “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming service. The decision came after John Ridley, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter behind “12 Years a Slave,” wrote an op-ed for the LA Times calling out the film’s racism and sanitization of the institution of slavery. Later that month, HBO re-released the film on streaming, now with an accompanying video from African American cinema scholar Jacqueline Stewart and a disclaimer about the film’s racism.
Despite its ever-present popularity, there is no doubt that both the novel and the film “Gone With the Wind” are racist. While conversations about the work’s depictions of Black people and the institution of slavery have been ongoing since the novel’s release, Ridley’s essay – which was published just after George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020 – sparked a larger conversation about how to reckon with influential works of art that make us uncomfortable or angry.
The Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta is a part of that conversation. The museum revamped its exhibit in 2024 and functions as an examination of Mitchell, her life, and her creation of “Gone With the Wind.” This includes close looks at both the book and the film’s portrayals of slavery and the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.
📕 Read more about my visit to the Margaret Mitchell House here.
When the Matches End, the Dining Begins
SPONSORED BY LIVABLE BUCKHEAD
⚽ After cheering on your favorite teams across Atlanta, treat yourself to the city’s best tables during Buckhead Restaurant Week, July 27-Aug. 1.
More than 50 participating restaurants are serving exclusive prix-fixe menus and inventive pairings crafted to turn post-game energy into an unforgettable evening. Whether you crave bold flavors or a relaxed celebration with friends, Buckhead delivers.
➞ Explore the lineup and discover your next favorite meal. The final whistle is just the beginning of a delicious night.
Local student accomplishments
This week, we’re celebrating the accomplishments of two local students, Jake James (pictured) and Nikki Byrne.
🎭 On June 22, Jake James won the Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor. To qualify for the Jimmys, he won the Shuler Hensley Award – Georgia’s national high school musical theater award – for his performance as Jacob in “Water for Elephants.” Check it out here.
🎥 Nikki Byrne wanted to perform when she was younger. But with a little help from a teacher, she found her place in the director’s chair. Now, Nikki is interning this summer at Hallmark Media in L.A. I talked with her about her experience and what she hopes to do after the summer.
‘The Odyssey’: We have a responsibility to each other in Nolan’s soulful take on the epic
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🐴 Christopher Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey” feels like the sentimental counterpart to his previous film “Oppenheimer” – similarly anti-war, and interested in humanity’s ability to excuse abject evil in the name of cleverness or progress.
The film follows Odysseus (Matt Damon) in the 10 years following the Trojan War as he tries to make his way home to Ithaca, continuously thwarted by his own ego and forces beyond his control. Nolan’s version of Homer’s epic takes up the mantle of exploring the idea of responsibility. When Odysseus came up with the idea for the Trojan Horse – when the Greeks faked peace in the form of a gift in order to slaughter the Trojans – a door opened that he spends the rest of the film trying to slam closed. Nolan’s interpretation brings up questions of trauma, of the ways in which we give ourselves permission to be cruel to each other, of where our responsibilities lie and to whom.
These are all concepts that you can glean from the original text, but Nolan pushes them to the forefront, digging through the plethora of ideas contained by this centuries-old story of a clever, complicated man (Nolan sure does love those, doesn’t he?) trying to get back home – and does it in spectacular, blockbuster fashion.
🏹 Click here to read my review.
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:
🏹 “The Odyssey”
😥 “Barrio Triste” (pictured)
🛩️ “10 Good Men”
Special Events:
🏃 “The Games in Black and White” @ The Tara (Saturday)
Spotlight: Kieron Moore in ‘Blue Film’
💙 I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I feel about Elliot Tuttle’s “Blue Film,” the controversial film that released earlier this year about a Los Angeles camboy who finds out that one of his clients is a former middle school teacher (Reed Birney) who claims to be in love with him. It’s certainly a successful act of provocation, but one that only really served to hollow me out inside – maybe that’s the point, but it’s not necessarily something I’d like to revisit!
But, for all my conflicting thoughts about the film, I loved one aspect without reservation, and that’s Kieron Moore’s performance as Aaron Eagle – the dominant camboy in question who talks a big game, but is masking something more vulnerable with all that bravado.
I think one of the toughest things an actor can do is show purposeful inauthenticity. But Moore captures it beautifully. Aaron’s domineering, aggro performance is about halfway convincing – he looks the part, and seems to genuinely derive some amount of pleasure from putting on the act. But there is something just a little false about the whole thing. Moore doesn’t overplay that falseness, but instead lets it seep into his physicality as Aaron becomes more comfortable with Birney’s character.
I mentioned this in my review of “Blue Film,” but one of the most striking images in the film doesn’t have anything to do with sex, or with Tuttle’s more overt attempts at provocation. Instead, it’s a shot of Moore sitting with his chin tucked down and his knees pulled up to his chest. The way he sits throughout various scenes – knees up, splayed on the ground, that keen awareness of his body falling away – does so much to hammer home for the audience just how young Aaron is. Even if what Aaron is saying in these moments (in the first one mentioned, he’s asking if the client wants to have sex with him) is in line with his camboy persona, his body is not. It’s a remarkable, deeply sad bit of physical acting, and it’s the thing that stays with me the most.
Lights, Camera, Action!
🎙️ If you read my newsletter last week, you know that I loved Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite.” Over on “The Big Picture,” they had a funny and insightful conversation about the film, and then host Sean Fennessey had a great interview with Wilde about making the film. Check it out here.
🦕 Sam Neill, one of the greats, passed away this week. The actor has appeared in everything from cult classics like “Possession,” to blockbusters like “Jurassic Park,” to Oscar plays like “The Piano.” But if you want to dive deeper into his filmography, check out this list of his essential performances from Vulture.
🌨️ I teared up a bit reading this beautiful essay from Sarah Chihaya about dealing with a neurodegenerative disease diagnosis and how that changed her view on Beth’s (Claire Danes) death scene in the 1994 film version of “Little Women.”
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
