The 48th annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference has revealed key programming highlights, including the full lineup of selected works from more than 7,500 submissions. The 11-day festival and creative conference will take place April 25 – May 5, 2024 at the Plaza and Tara Theatres in Atlanta and virtually. Atlanta Film Festival is the annual centerpiece of educational and enriching film programming provided year-round by its parent organization, the Atlanta Film Society.
While 118 countries are represented in the festival selections, nearly a quarter of the films have ties to Georgia filmmakers. The 142 total announced creative works from submissions will feature diverse filmmakers who continue to uplift voices and stories from around the world. Eleven Marquee screenings will combine Hollywood star power with the best of independent film.
Opening Night: The Idea of You
Opening Night and Closing Night take place at the Plaza Theatre, with Michael Showalter’s buzzy The Idea of You kicking off the festival April 26. Anne Hathaway stars as a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old lead singer of a boy band, played by Nicholas Galitzine. Closing Night is director Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing May 4. The film follows Coleman Domingo as a man imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, as he finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art. Other highlights of the Marquee programming include Brief History of a Family, about a middle-class family whose fate becomes intertwined with their only son’s enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China and I Saw the TV Glow, about a teenager who’s just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show, a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own.
Closing Night: Sing Sing
Five specialty tracks will return to the 2024 festival including: New Mavericks, celebrating excellence in film from female and gender non-conforming directors and leads; ¡CineMás!, focusing on Latin American culture; Noire, uplifting Black filmmakers; Pink Peach, featuring films with LGBTQ stories and characters; and Georgia Films, highlighting productions with ties to the state of Georgia.
Within the festival, the 14th annual Creative Conference offers educational programming for upcoming filmmakers, festival goers, newcomers and the community to learn from industry experts with 40 in-person and virtual panels.
The full schedule of films and events is available at www.AtlantaFilmFestival.com and through the ATLFF 2024 app. Festival passes and badges are on sale now on the site for purchase here.
Pop music stardom is an uneasy fit for the idiosyncratic women of one of the State of Georgia’s most popular exports, but this steely duo’s combination of vulnerability and authenticity expresses a profound harmony powerful enough to heal an aching world. Director Alexandria Bombach’s joy-balm of a career chronicle Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All (A) derives its title from a verse of the duo’s hit song, “Closer to Fine,” recently featured on the dream car radio airwaves of the Barbiemovie as characters trek between fantasy and the real world. This documentary similarly exists in a realm of crafty contradictions and sly serendipity as amplified acoustic troubadours Amy Ray and Emily Saliers reveal their starkly divergent pathways to achieve both their iconic sound and inner peace against a backdrop of changing times and minds. These two couldn’t be more different! Amy constantly tames tempestuousness, all grit and ache simmering on the surface while unleashing her inner rocker, as Emily belts lovely ballads and a bright blend of poetic melancholy while privately battling her own doubts and demons. The sound they make together is singular and sublime, and the respect they have for one another is apparent in every revealing frame. Both women are raw in their confessions, wry in their self-effacing observations and clearly having a wonderful time curating a career unlike any before or after them. The film showcases two lifelong friends coming of age without a roadmap, united in music-making as a mutual coping mechanism and antidote to growing up gay in the south, to being unconventional women in the entertainment business and to not always being particularly prepared for the role model activists they’ve become. While showcasing the origins of their welcoming brand of lyrical and sonic composition forged in the otherworldly necessity of their friendship, the movie also traces the womens’ journey to an even more pronounced consciousness about environmental and justice issues they hold so dear, outside opinions be damned. Archival footage captured on every conceivable form of media, testimonials from true believers who would follow the band anywhere and a keen directorial eye on the lovely details which define a relationship for the ages are among the poignant ways the film showcases its subjects so lovingly. For both devoted fans and newbies discovering these pioneering women in action, bearing witness to their stories both in conversation and song will be nothing short of inspiring. The film is a highly recommended glimpse at two people who by their very existence, and their talent on top of that, are changing the world and saving lives. Go, go, go!
The inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @Chuckyfoto
The March 10, 2024 Academy Awards ceremony brought big wins for major Hollywood prestige pictures Oppenheimer and Poor Things plus a pop cultural celebration of comedy juggernaut Barbie with Oscar-nominated songs including an epic production number starring Ryan Gosling as “Ken.” More than 100 guests gathered for an inaugural Oscars Viewing Party in Georgia’s Town at Trilith at Enzo Steakhouse & Bar Restaurant to enjoy the restaurant’s signature foods ranging from steaks to oysters, beverages including Oscars-themed cocktails, prizes and predictions and the well-reviewed ABC broadcast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Enzo party guests predicted the winners in each of 23 competitive categories, and a team of intrepid ballot counters were ready with prizes and movie memorabilia for the best prognosticators, awarded at every commercial break.
Trilith is a place where makers live, create and inspire the world. Its idyllic, walkable community sits next to state-of-the-art filmmaking studios – combining world-class living and amenities with world-class stages and facilities. The town’s central thoroughfare, Trilith Parkway, is lined with bespoke shops, original attractions and one-of-a-kind restaurants including Enzo.
Enzo’s unique approach to cuisine marries Italian culinary traditions with contemporary sensibility, creating a cultural dialog between Northern Italy and the New American South. The restaurant is open seven days a week.
The “Me & Enzo” Club celebrates the power of food and its ability to bring together a community of innovators and storytellers. Every month, the Enzo restaurant offers an event in which members can come together in a relaxed setting to enjoy fantastic food and beverages. Events include a holiday bash, music, art exhibitions, theme parties, an annual event, and priority access to the chef table and private dining room.
The Oscars Viewing Party was the brainchild of Enzo Chef Andrea Montobbio, who pulled in the Silver Screen Capture team to help emcee and curate competition prizes and themed cocktails such as the Oppenheimer Old-Fashioned, Barbie and Vodka-Kenough, the Gin Holdovers and Killers of the Flower Moonshine.
The charity Two Sparrows Village is a beneficiary of a portion of proceeds from the event.
Photographer Chucky Kahng chronicled the night in photos, many of which are in this gallery. Check out red carpet looks, competitive activities and of course the scrumptious Enzo food and beverages!
The inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Enzo Oscars Viewing Party in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @ChuckyfotoThe inaugural Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith was a success! Photo credit: Chucky Kahng @Chuckyfoto
Like Sweeney Todd and his glistening knives or Tom Brady and his spiraling football, famed ventriloquist Shari Lewis was wielding something mighty at the end of her arm. Lisa D’Apolito’s feel-good documentary Shari and Lamb Chop (B+) chronicles the multi-hyphenate singer, dancer, comedienne, educator and puppeteer through a veritable variety show of every major era of television as she showcases astounding work ethic and a charm offensive. The daughter of a vaudeville magician, a young Shari aspires to sing and dance and becomes famous for a sassy sock puppet that no late night talk show or game show host will ever let her forget to bring along. Through intimate found footage including some remarkable on-set sequences from multiple iterations of Shari’s various children’s shows, D’Apolito finds an array of heightened emotions in her subject. Surprising tidbits include both puppet and ventriloquist doing a full show in Japanese as well as Lewis co-writing a Star Trek episode. The film is vibrant and colorful with a wistful nostalgia for an old-fashioned brand of good-natured humor. Through Shari’s myriad talents on display and interviews by the likes of illusionist David Copperfield, SNL’s Sarah Sherman and surviving Lewis family members, it’s a lovely tribute. With so much at arm’s length, this film will make you want to hug someone you love.
Note: This was the closing night film of the 2024 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival with streaming films continuing through March 7. A full line-up of streaming films can be found here: https://ajff.org
A new movie built for a special venue is engineered to blow your mind and, despite its gargantuan magnitude, possesses small spellbinding ways to change the way audiences view our world. There hasn’t been an immersive movie before quite like Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth (A-), developed as an installation for The Sphere in Las Vegas and building on a grand tradition that makes CinemaScope, Cinerama, IMAX and even Disney’s Soarin’ look like tiny canvasses. The sheer technological audacity of 18K resolution images by new Big Sky cameras, a flood of 500,000 gigabytes of data on a 160,000 foot domed video screen 35 stories high featuring 270 degrees of viewing experience, climate control, 4D haptic capabilities for the venue’s seating, and scents to create an immersive environment makes for a cinematic wonder to behold. Aronofsky’s blend of a sci-fi framing device and majestic imagery of nature and civilizations chronicles the story of life on Earth with both dreamlike plaintiveness and pulse-pounding urgency. On a distant planet, astronauts Byron (Brandon Santana) and Fang (Zaya Ribeiro) land in a state of stasis to be reminded of the earth where they one lived. What follows is a nearly hourlong narrated journey of spectacular footage across seven continents to witness glorious plains and prairies, wondrous oceans and canyons, breathtaking cathedrals and cityscapes and humans and animals in daily rituals paying homage to earth’s glory or harming it. The director wields both a telescope and a microscope to showcase parades of elephants, the panorama of hikers atop the highest mountaintops or revelers celebrating high holy days as well as the smallest creatures in their own habitats. The music is triumphant. 4D effects conjure thunder, wind and rocket propulsion directly to the seats of audience members, as faint scents of nature briefly waft through the auditorium. It’s a picturesque love letter to Mother Earth on a screen four football fields large, with so much epic visual splendor at times, you’ll want to crane your neck to see even more. The “save the planet” message is clear and not nearly as preachy as it could have been given the filmmaker’s proclivity for characters obsessed with creation myths. The film is a must-see; and, in its poetic and transfixing beauty, has the capacity to bring people together in newfound respect for our precious resources and glorious planet home.
In months since the release of a Barbie movie celebrated for giving voice to the plight of women but derided by detractors for being pedantic, it’s clear we are witnessing history repeating. Camille Hardman and Gary Lane’s compelling documentary Still Working 9 to 5 (B+) explores the past decades of the women’s rights movement with the 1980 film comedy 9 to 5 as a pop cultural anchor. The co-directors congregate the film’s funny trio Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton for fond reminiscences as the popular movie made them unofficial spokeswomen of an equal rights movement picking up steam. Interlaced in the documentary are participants in pop culture with workplace pioneers such as Lilly Ledbetter, each sharing their personal anecdotes across the continuum. The movie also does an elegant job linking the early exposure of topics such as fair pay and sexual harassment with later movements such as #MeToo. Fans of the classic workplace satire will find themselves enjoying the behind the scenes footage and back stories while learning important lessons of modern American history too. Hardman and Lane deliver a touching and timely look at vital issues affecting us all. They tell their story with nifty nostalgia and utmost urgency.
The central couple of Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things (aka La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) (B-) finds their best way of communicating to one another is through gourmet cooking, and this French film is a series of gastronomic love letters between Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche. Call it Culinary Paradiso. The film is notable for its gorgeously lensed sequences of creation in the kitchen, as the lovers make sumptuous entrees, soups and desserts for one another. You may leave craving quail or Baked Alaska. The central characters are a bit elusive, but it’s nonetheless a joy to see them cooking. Ensemble characters seen at dinner parties or sampling dishes before they are served are undercooked in the screenplay, with much of the film a two-hander. Ironically the film doesn’t always set the table stakes for the payoff it purports to conjure up; it’s sometimes an empty soufflé. Go for the gorgeous stovetop stylings and stay for a few nice insights about feeding a relationship.
A case of a miraculously story told too conventionally, One Life (C), directed by John Hawes, splits its time between 1939 and 1987 with Johnny Flynn and Anthony Hopkins both portraying British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who helped save hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis on the eve of World War II. Hopkins is strong as always, channeling melancholy, but Flynn makes little impression playing what’s supposed to be a meticulous mastermind in the underwritten backstory. The most riveting parts of the plot about how Winton saved the children are only partially dramatized, leaving much of the history safely shared in overly talky sequences. The final act swells with emotion, but the overall film is simply not specific or gripping enough. The triumph of history doesn’t translate to a triumph of a movie.
Note: This screening was part of the 2024 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The festival’s theatrical movies run through February 26 with streaming films also available through March 7. Full line-up of offerings can be found here: https://ajff.org
One of the great comic actors of film is immortalized with a warm tribute in Ron Frank’s documentary Remembering Gene Wilder (B), chock-full of clips, interviews, behind the scenes footage and the title subject’s own narration from the audiobook of his 2005 memoir. Mel Brooks is always an enjoyable interview, and he doesn’t disappoint here with his sentimental observations. The best parts of the film involve recollections of work on Brooks films The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein plus Willy Wonka and his series of pairings with Richard Pryor. The late stages of Wilder’s life are marred by tragedy, which is covered gracefully. The film is a solid if uninspired largely chronological telling of Wilder’s life without too many surprises. Unlike many of the actor’s most memorable manic performances, the film could have been just a little wilder.
Note: This screening was part of the 2024 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The festival’s theatrical movies run through February 26 with streaming films also available through March 7. Full line-up of offerings can be found here: https://ajff.org
A funny new film focuses on that pivotal time as a young person making a way in the world when you rediscover or finally find your voice. Shaina Silver-Baird, whose comic sensibility evokes a wry, mischievous love child of Aubrey Plaza and Kate McKinnon, is the co-creator/co-writer, executive producer and star of director Daniel AM Rosenberg’s comic musical Less Than Kosher (B+). She plays Viv, a washed-up thirtysomething ex-pop star and self-proclaimed “bad Jew” who reluctantly lands an unlikely job as the music leader at her family’s synagogue. Familial sassiness, a “meet not so cute” with the rabbi’s son, a memorable mushroom drug trip and a TikTok trending montage of “Judeo-Pop” remixes are among the funny episodes punctuated with devilish Tarantino yellow font chapter headings. The film is a joyous roundabout story of modern young Jewish life approaching its characters with no judgment as they maneuver the trappings of adulting. Viv’s sequences as cantor quickly become out-of-body spiritual experiences, one of which feels ripped out of a Disney Broadway showstopper. Silver-Baird proves she’s a gregarious comedienne as well as a lovely songstress, and she is matched in goofy temperament and tone opposite funnymen David Eisner and David Reale as rabbi and son, respectively. Rosenberg holds it all together with fun physical comedy and lots of original zingers. He leaves you wanting more as it’s not entirely clear what comes next for the comic characters, but it’s a berserk and buoyant work with lots of laughs and heart.
Note: This screening was part of the young professionals night at the 2024 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The festival’s theatrical movies run through February 26 with streaming films also available through March 7. Full line-up of films can be found here: https://ajff.org
