Film

This just in: evidently Atlanta is a great place to like movies. A recent study by Movoto deems Atlanta the third best place in the country for movie lovers. We’ll accept the award, even though we suspect it’s a consolation prize because this is too depressing a place to be a sports fan. Think about it. What better way to forget your crushed playoff dreams than to hide in the dark for three hours?

Fans of TCM Underground, the Atlanta-based classic film network's weekly late-night Friday foray into cult film, can thank/blame iconic director Stanley Kubrick for jolting Millie DeChirico into her current job. For the past six years, the Georgia State film major graduate has hand-selected each film broadcast on TCM Underground. Her life-long interest in cult classics can be traced to an accidental early exposure to one of Kubrick's most disturbing films.

Well, here’s one way to get preteens interested in history. Lure them with visions of Katniss and Peeta. The Atlanta History Center’s Capitol Tour Experience showcases the historic Swan House, one of several Atlanta locations in Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second movie in the futuristic (ironic, right?) fantasy series.

There's a moment in director Kieran Turner's riveting new documentary "Jobriath A.D." when, if you can look past the spaceman suit, the crazy elf ears and the fact that "Midnight Special" guest host Gladys Knight butchers his name as she introduces him on the late-night NBC concert series, you can see a rock star blazing to life. Unfortunately for Jobriath, the talented kid born Bruce Wayne Campbell in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania that life would be short lived. The immaculately researched doc screens Thursday at 6:15 p.m. at Landmark Midtown Art Cinemas.

With a sly wink to one of television’s biggest blunders, late night TV host Conan O’Brien will return this summer to host The Tonight Show on Atlanta’s own Turner Classic Movies. Beginning July 1, the current TBS Conan host will expand his Turner Broadcasting resume with an additional gig at TCM, introducing and providing insight for Carson on TCM, a month-long look at classic Johnny Carson interviews from his long-running stint as Tonight Show host. The interviews, many of which aired just once on NBC, will span from Carson’s 1973 chat with Tony Curtis to the late-night host’s final interview with Elizabeth Taylor in 1992.

The claws have come out between the Plaza Theatre and the Fox Theatre over who gets to show the 1939 classic The Women this summer—and the fingernail polish is decidedly Jungle Red.

During his 70-minute "A John Waters Christmas" show at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points Thursday evening, the 66-year-old Baltimore director of "Pink Flamingos" and "Hairspray" offered fans a guide to surviving the holidays. Literally. Case in point: Invitees to Waters' annual Christmas party next week in Baltimore should not ring the host in advance to inquire about who's catering the party and then disclose an allergy to wheat. "Please don't tell me about your food allergies," Waters told the crowd. "If you do, I may use them to kill you."

There’s a reason the 1968 Steve McQueen car chase classic Bullitt is flickering on the screen in the Need for Speed scenes shot at the Swan Drive-In in Blue Ridge last summer. The high-octane thrill ride in theaters today from first-time director and former stuntman Scott Waugh and starring Breaking Bad two-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul and rapper/actor Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi is a breath-snatching homage to McQueen’s 60s and 70s racing flicks.

When Turner Classic Movies presents 24 hours of Cary Grant's film starting at 6 a.m. Sunday as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" festival, his only child Jennifer Grant will be tuned in with the rest of the world. "Thanks to this day dedicated to my dad's work on TCM, I get to catch up," Jennifer Grant tells Intel. "It's a part of his life I'm still under-exposed to. By the time I came into the world, Dad had really left that part of his life behind and had moved on."

When Atlanta filmmakers Jon and Brantly Watts finally screened "AKA Blondie, their 52-minute documentary for Atlanta's most famous stripper this spring, Jon will cop to being a little nervous. The doc, the first in-depth examination of 55-year-old Clermont Lounge legend Anita Mae Strange's life and times, screens this week at 9:30 p.m. at The Plaza Theatre.