"My Blind Brother" Review (***½)

Jenny Slate, Adam Scott and Nick Kroll in "My Blind Brother."

Adam Scott, Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate star in this brutally honest comedy about disability. "My Blind Brother" dives head first into the subject and puts a fresh spin on the ‘slacker comedy.'

Adam Scott plays Robbie. He’s a star athlete and a local icon whose blindness only pushes him to do better. His brother Bill, on the other hand, is not quite as motivated. We get everything we need to know from our two leads in the opening scene, where we see Robbie—rocking sun glasses and a tracksuit—running along side his sweat-drenched little brother, Bill. The two are strapped together as Bill guides Robbie to the finish line. The surrounding crowd goes wild as they celebrate Robbie and completely ignore Bill as he collapses in an effort to catch his breath.

The Local Lense on the Red Carpet Premiere of "Race"

Hosts Beth Keener and Greer Howard hit the red carpet for the Atlanta premiere of Stephen Hopkins' "Race," starring Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, Carice van Houten.

Beth Keener & Greer Howard hit the red carpet at Atlantic Station in Atlanta for the premiere of "Race."  The movie tells the incredible story of US Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens. Thrust onto the world stage during the 1936 Olympics in Germany, he faces off against Hilter's Nazi regime. "Race" is an inspirational film about courage, determination and friendship.

Beth & Greer interview star Stephan James, who trained for the film at Georgia Tech while he was in town filming "Selma" in 2014. Actress Kim Fields hosted the evening, which was also attended by Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges.

Check out the video below. "Race" opens nationwide on February 19th.

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" Opens Up the 2015 Savannah Film Festival (***)

We chat about how Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep got involved and how she fell in love with Georgia after just a few hours in Savannah.

Each year, the Savannah Film Festival marks the unofficial anniversary of Reel Georgia. While it was launched a few months earlier in 2011, it wasn't until I booked it down to Savannah for two days in October that this website really started to post frequent, original content about Georgia films, Georgia festivals and the global industry from a Georgia perspective.

This year, my dedicated co-editor Lucy Doughty and eloquent contributor Jessica Hinckle join me here and together, there isn't a moment we will miss. Eighteen years in, SAVFF is at a peak artistically and commercially. Stars attending this year include Olivia Wilde, Alexander Skarsgard, Saoirse Ronan, Alfie Allen, Meg Ryan and Elizabeth Olsen. Tons of filmmaking talent is also attending—something the festival has obviously been spotlighting more in recent years, as the SCAD filmmaking programs continue to grow in popularity.

Among this year's attending filmmakers are director Sarah Gavron and producer Alison Owen of opening night film "Suffragette." I sat down with Gavron at the Trustees Theater ahead of the premiere, asking first and foremost what she thought of Georgia.

"I love it," she said. This is not just her first time in Savannah, it's her first time in the state at all. "I wandered around for two hours. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was; it was very visual."

A Conversation With Lanre Olabisi, Director of ATLFF World Premiere “Somewhere in the Middle” (****)

Cassandra Freeman and Charle Miller star in "Somewhere In The Middle"

I had the good fortune of working with Lanre Olabisi, writer/director/creator of “Somewhere in the Middle,” at this year’s Atlanta Film Festival Writer’s Retreat. With him was his new wife, Tiffany Smile, whom he married on Saturday. Yes, this past Saturday… be sure to ask to see their wedding video. It’s beautiful.

Lanre won the ATLFF Screenplay Competition in 2009 and has returned this year as a mentor for this year’s winners. He’s thoughtful and kind and just as excited to show you his film as you should be to see it. In between workshopping scripts, we had a chance to sit down and talk about his newest feature.

ATLFF Review & Interview: "Janey Makes A Play" (****)

To know Janey is to love Janey. A dancing, chuckling, playwriting 90-year-old great-grandmother, Janey Callahan-Chin is the essence of youth. Her unwavering positivity and bulletproof work ethic have shaped an indispensable role in the small town community of Rio Vista, California: she's been writing, directing, and producing local stage plays for thirteen years. "Janey Makes A Play" documents Janey's non-profit troop No Small Thing Productions as they prepare for their eighteenth play—an original story about a mortgage banker, his daughter, and the quest to save their town from The Great Depression. Director Jared Callahan (AD on "I Am Not A Hipster" and the short that inspired "Short Term 12") delivers his feature-length debut with graceful command and charming purpose. This Atlanta Film Festival World Premiere is a tender, joyous must-see.

A Conversation with James Ponsoldt, director of "The Spectacular Now"

James Ponsoldt walks the red carpet at the
Atlanta Film Festival for his film,
"The Spectacular Now"

In the past two years, James Ponsoldt has not only seen two of his films show at Sundance, but both have competed for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The Athens native now lives in Los Angeles, but when it came time for his latest feature, Georgia beckoned him back.

Proclaiming himself as a writer first and foremost, "The Spectacular Now" marks the first of Ponsoldt's six films (three shorts and three features) where he doesn't have a writing credit. Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, the screenwriters behind hipster mega-hit "(500) Days of Summer," adapted Tim Tharpe's award-winning novel. Upon reading the script, Ponsoldt approached the two with both enthusiasm and his own plans in mind.

"'I want to set it in Athens, Georgia and I want to film it on anamorphic 35mm.' And they said, 'alright.'" Tharpe's novel takes place in Oklahoma, a setting that the first version of the screenplay kept. Luckily, the story's ties to the Sooner state are loose enough. But what else made Ponsoldt want to film in his hometown?