Everybody wants some!
Sep. 26 — Some Warner Bros., that is. In a recent newsletter, I mentioned that post the Paramount Skydance merger, the company was also prepping a bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Apparently, they aren’t the only ones. According to a report in Puck from Dylan Byers (subscription needed), Netflix is also considering a bid, and NBCUniversal is “running the numbers” – whatever that means.
Paramount Skydance still seems the most likely candidate for a buyout, which would have significant ramifications not just for entertainment but also for news media. The company owns CBS and, if CEO David Ellison decides to take on Warner Bros. Discovery, would own CNN as well. Ellison reportedly plans to install Bari Weiss – founder of The Free Press, who has positioned herself against the “woke” left – as head of CBS News. The network also recently announced it would bring on former Donald Trump appointee Kenneth Weinstein to investigate complaints against the company. CBS News employees told The Independent they see these decisions as moves by Ellison to appease the far right and Trump.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this possible acquisition here at Scene, so keep tuning in. Without further ado … Action!
This week’s newsletter features an interview with the director of the animated film “Kpop Demon Hunters,” along with a chat with a filmmaker showing her first short film at the Atlanta Women’s Film Festival. I’ll also give my thoughts on two films playing at Out on Film as well as the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, “One Battle After Another.” Plus, what’s playing at the movies this week, a new edition of Spotlight, and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
I’ll leave you with this: if you ever feel someone is giving you bad advice, it might be a good idea to listen to your gut. Leonardo DiCaprio’s ex-agent apparently told him he would be better off changing his name – one of the most movie star-sounding names in the world, I might add! – to “Lenny Williams.” I think not!
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
Director Chris Appelhans talks ‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ ahead of SCAD AnimationFest
The movie, which follows a K-pop girl group who lead double lives as demon hunters, is the most popular Netflix movie of all time. The soundtrack, which includes pop bangers like “Soda Pop” and “Golden,” has topped the Billboard charts this year. Now, SCAD AnimationFest is getting in on the action.
The festival, which runs from Sept. 25-27, will honor co-directors Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang with the festival’s Impact Award for their work on the film. Appelhans is expected to attend the festival to receive the award and will sit for a Q&A following a screening of the film on Sept. 27.
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Eliza Gibson talks transitioning to filmmaking with ‘Symptoms’
Now, she’s taking on the world of filmmaking. “Symptoms,” her first short film, will play at this year’s Atlanta Women’s Film Festival on Sept. 27. The film follows Eleanor (Pinky Jones), a woman in her late 40s dealing with a very bad day at work while also experiencing symptoms of perimenopause.
“It’s very much inspired by my personal experience of living through perimenopause,” Gibson told me. “Which is having a bit of a moment in some parts of the country, I think. Women are starting to talk about it more, which is great.”
‘One Battle After Another’ and hope for the future
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is explosive and incisive – both blunt object and rapier, clear-eyed in its view of America and all its insidious entrails. But, for as much as “One Battle After Another” feels timely, it’s also a movie deeply concerned with America’s cyclical nature: there are always young people looking to change the world, and there’s always an old guard to be reckoned with.
Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” the film features Anderson’s signature humor mixed with an impending sense of doom. But, perhaps the most surprising (and maybe subversive) thing about this paranoid thriller is how it’s imbued with a sense of hope – hope in our loved ones, hope in ourselves, and hope for what’s to come.
Out on Film: ‘The Librarians’ and ‘Plainclothes’
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
This week marks the start of Out on Film, Atlanta’s annual LGBTQ+ film festival! Over the next two weeks, I’ll be offering short reviews of some of the major movies playing the fest.
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:
Special Events:
Spotlight: A$AP Rocky in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’
Welcome to a new weekly Scene segment: Spotlight! As awards season heats up, I’ll be taking a moment each week to highlight the actors, directors, writers, etc. who I think are deserving of recognition. Will they be recognized by the Academy? Who knows! But they would be if I were in charge, and that’s all that matters here.
The best scene in “Highest 2 Lowest” takes place toward the film’s end between record executive David King (Denzel Washington) and aspiring rapper Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky). Spike Lee’s latest film is flawed in many ways, but this moment is Lee at his best – letting Washington absolutely cook as he speaks with a Shakespearean gravity tinged with the rhythm of hip-hop, and letting A$AP Rocky prove that he has the chops to hang with the best.
To make a scene like the this one work – especially with an actor of the caliber of Denzel Washington – confidence is key, and A$AP Rocky has it in spades. He plays Yung Felon with a confidence that stems from the character’s ever-brimming rage and full-throttle belief in his own talents. If A$AP Rocky walked onto that set with anything less than the full conviction that he could rise to Washington’s level, the moment would fall flat. But as Yung Felon stares down the man he envies more than anyone else in the world, the man who he believes has the power to change his life for the better, you can feel his belief in his own mythology taking hold.
A$AP Rocky takes that belief and charges forward, pushing Washington in a way not many can and helping create one of the best push-and-pull scenes of the year.
Lights, Camera, Action!
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