It’s hostile takeover time
Dec. 12 — Happy Friday! We cannot start this week without talking about the biggest news in Hollywood – the bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Last week, Warner Bros. announced that it would sell its movie studio and streaming business to Netflix for a whopping $72 billion. On Monday, Paramount Skydance, the other major player in the bid for Warner Bros., launched a hostile takeover bid for the entire company, including its cable networks, like CNN.
It really feels like there is no good ending in this situation. There’s the general peril of consolidation in general – less jobs, less competition, etc. – and then there’s the choice we’re left with: a tech company with open disdain for the theatrical experience taking over a historic movie studio, or a Trump-approved company (although, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos is doing a bit of cozying up himself) taking over the movie studio and the news apparatus.
The second option is obviously much worse (Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has reportedly told President Trump that he would make “sweeping changes” at CNN if he came out on top), but nothing feels GOOD. I generally don’t like to doomsday too much in this newsletter, and obviously, nothing is a done deal here – but the more I think about our options, the more everything feels bad. I’ve been reading and listening about this deal a lot this week. If you want to go more in-depth, I highly recommend this piece in The New Yorker from Richard Brody and this episode of “The Big Picture” podcast.
Without further ado … Action!
📱 Disney has entered into a billion-dollar licensing agreement with OpenAI, allowing users of Sora, the AI company’s short-form video generator, to use Disney characters in their content.
☀️ The Sundance Film Festival has announced its lineup for next year’s festival, which will be its last time in Park City before moving to Boulder, CO in 2027.
🏆 Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” led the Golden Globe nominations with nine nods, while “The White Lotus” swept in the television categories. Check out the full list of nominations here.
🎟️ Ticket packages for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival are now on sale now through Jan. 4.
📼 The movie social media app Letterboxd just launched the Letterboxd Video Store, where users can rent films. The first group of films is called “Unreleased Gems,” and includes movies you can’t watch anywhere else.
🧚 The Tara Theatre hosted a special screening of Andrew Durham’s award-winning film “Fairyland” on Saturday, featuring a post-show talkback with some of Atlanta’s longtime LGBTQ+ activists. Check out Collin Kelley’s rundown of the evening here.
💔 Japanese actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, known for his roles in the film “Mortal Kombat” and the television series “The Man in the High Castle,” has passed away at the age of 75.
This week’s newsletter includes a closer look into the new Atlanta-based podcast “Atlanta Is…,” which will release its last episode next week. We’ve also got a review of the new Chloé Zhao film “Hamnet,” and a new edition of Spotlight. Plus, what’s coming to the movies this week and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
‘Atlanta Is…’ podcast dives into what makes the city unique
🎧 Peters Street. Morris Brown. Club 559. For any local who knows their stuff, all of these names are synonymous with Atlanta. And the new podcast “Atlanta Is…” is diving deeper into the institutions, art, and culture that make Atlanta unique.
The podcast, produced by Will Packer Productions and Complex, features eight episodes that spotlight the stories behind Atlanta’s music scene, politics, film, religion, and more. To help decide what those stories should be, the production team brought in a trio of experts.
Jewel Wicker, Maurice Garland, and Christina Lee serve as hosts of the podcast, tasked with figuring out just how those eight episodes should be divided up. With seven of the eight episodes already out (the final one drops Dec. 17), the trio has covered everything from the influence of Atlanta’s Black churches on the rest of the world to the city’s status as a Mecca for Black businesses.
🎙️ Learn more about the podcast here.
Celebrate the Season with Wonder at Fernbank Museum
SPONSORED BY FERNBANK MEMBERSHIP
🎁 Looking for the perfect gift?
Something that sparks joy, incites hugs, induces smiles, and warms the heart? Share a year of exploration with a Fernbank Membership—unlimited daytime general admission to exhibits, films, and nature adventures.
🌲 Members enjoy 75 acres of outdoor fun in WildWoods and Fernbank Forest, plus three floors of hands-on science exhibits indoors. Seasonal activities, canopy walks, and nature play areas await.
And don’t forget: Fernbank is unveiling new museum experiences over the next two years, starting with “Our Place in the Cosmos” in late 2025.
✨ Look for our Holiday 2025 sale running Dec. 18-25, 2025.
‘Hamnet’ and the act of creation as communion
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎭 From the moment Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and Will (Paul Mescal) – more commonly known as William Shakespeare – first meet, a particular dynamic arises. Her emotions come easy, raw, and unfiltered, while he finds it necessary to process his through art.
“Hamnet,” Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name, dramatizes that dynamic in connection with the death of the couple’s 11-year-old son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), which in turn inspires perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous play, “Hamlet.” (The film begins by telling us that those two names would have been interchangeable at the time.)
While a bit clunky in its narrative setup, “Hamnet” slowly nestles into your heart, evolving into a beautifully considered meditation on art and legacy, but not necessarily in the way you expect a movie that’s, at least in part, about William Shakespeare to be. Although “Hamnet” is unmistakably about grief, it feels trite to pin its considerations down to just the process of dealing with unimaginable loss. Instead, “Hamnet” is also about the pain and joy of creation, both in parenthood and art. It’s about two people in a constant dance with each other and the world, reckoning with their pasts in an attempt to build something stronger together.
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:
🏛️ “Ella McCay” (pictured)
🐇 “Dust Bunny”
🥷 “Lone Samurai”
🧒 “F*ck My Son!”
🌵 “Cactus Pears”
🎅 “Silent Night, Deadly Night”
🪕 “You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine”
🇮🇹 “La Grazia”
🐧 “Dick Van Dyke 100th Celebration”
Special Events:
🏜️ “Safe” in 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Monday)
🎃 “The Nightmare Before Christmas” @ The Plaza (Saturday-Wednesday)
🚰 “Gremlins” Double Feature @ The Plaza (Saturday)
💛 Soul Cinema Sunday: “The Wiz” @ The Plaza (Sunday)
🇧🇷 “Brazil” Director’s Cut in 4K @ The Plaza (Sunday-Wednesday)
🎁 “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” @ The Tara (Friday-Thursday)
🎄 Cineprov: “Die Hard” @ The Tara (Saturday)
🦁 “The Lion in Winter” @ The Tara (Saturday-Tuesday)
🪓 “The Shining” @ Multiple Theaters (Friday-Wednesday)
🐑 “Sense and Sensibility” 30th Anniversary @ Multiple Theaters (Sunday-Wednesday)
Spotlight: Benicio del Toro in ‘One Battle After Another’
🍻 My favorite section of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is the part that involves Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro), and his “Latino Harriet Tubman situation.”
When the authorities crack down on the sanctuary city where our main characters live, Sensei works to smuggle immigrants out of the city via a hidden passageway (hence the Harriet Tubman reference). The sequence is the film’s most electric, the camera following Sensei and the hapless Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) through an ever-expanding network of hallways and rooms, each hiding another person under Sensei’s care.
The reason this sequence, to be frank, rocks so damn hard is that it’s quietly getting at one of the main themes of the film — the importance of community within the context of a revolution. DiCaprio’s Bob isolates himself from the rest of the world. He did this when he was with the far-left group, The French 75, and he does so now that that part of his life is over. In contrast, Sensei knows everybody in town. As the sequence unfolds, it’s clear he has made a point to make himself an integral part of this community, gaining trust from even its most vulnerable members – and even from Bob and his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti), who don’t trust anyone.
That’s in the text, but so much of the reason the audience believes in Sensei is due to del Toro’s performance. He’s always had an edge of cool about him, and here he uses it to great effect. He glides through rooms, calm and collected, but with purpose, a foil to Bob’s stumbling, zig-zagging gait. Sensei is funny, but content for those in authority to mistake him for silly – his little dance upon being caught by the cops (pictured above) betrays just enough goofiness so that he’s not taken seriously, and so that he can continue to scoot by unnoticed. But somehow, del Toro is able to imbue a guy who necessarily has to fly under the radar with so much raw power. It’s that Clint Eastwood kind of power – the kind where he doesn’t have to raise his voice to command attention, or deliver an order. The people who know him – and he makes sure his community knows him – would never mistake his good nature for guilelessness. He always has a plan.
Lights, Camera, Action!
✍️ Speaking of “One Battle After Another,” I really love this piece about the movie from critic Angelica Jade Bastién. Since the film’s release, there’s been a lot of chatter about its handling of Black female characters, and I think Bastién does a great job at exploring those issues with nuance – celebrating the complicated characters at the center of the story and giving kudos to the amazing actresses who play them, all while considering where Anderson’s script might have fallen short.
🎙️ When the Golden Globes nominations came out, who else could I turn to but my old trusty prognosticators at the “Little Gold Men” podcast? Take a listen to this recent episode where they talk about the biggest snubs and surprises.
🏊♀️ Kristen Stewart made headlines this week for breaking down her issues with how some actors (namely, men) approach The Method, and the art of acting in itself. That was only a small bit of an interview she recently did with David Marchese of the New York Times, talking about her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water.” You can read the whole thing – light Marlon Brando shade included – here.
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.