Middle American Movies On Top
🎞️ Jason Statham's latest flick captures the moment · Storms continue · Taylor takes on DAs · What do the tariffs do · Film Rundown · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday in my write-up on the Covenant investigation was how other media outlets covered the release. The Nashville Banner, for example, opened its reporting with a giant disclaimer about its policy of " referring to transgender people by their chosen names and with their preferred pronouns." Woof.
Onward.
Eighty minutes into his latest #1 movie A Working Man, Jason Statham has gone beyond scorched Earth on the members large and small of a Russian mob cabal that made the mistake of kidnapping his boss’s daughter for its human trafficking side hustle. But a translucent leather-clad loner with a steampunk machine gun bursts into the frame with his unrelenting stream of bullets and wildman screaming. Mildly nonplussed, Statham nods his head as he says, “Let’s kill this guy.”
It’s a showy, nonsensical moment in a film that, more often than not, resembles a remake of Taken. But it’s also a rousingly badass beat that only the Stath could pull off, one sorely missing from Hollywood’s overly safe and coldly CGI’d landscape.
When it debuted in theaters last weekend to the tune of more than $15 million at the domestic box office, A Working Man stunned Hollywood number crunchers by dethroning Disney’s Snow White as the number one movie in America just a week after that beleaguered blockbuster’s release. As The Hollywood Reporter put it, this “blue-collar” drama saw “Middle America” taking charge of pop culture.
One may wonder why five months after the Trump/Vance ticket secured a decisive victory that Middle American upsets still seem like an aberration among creative professionals. Such is especially true since Statham rang in the first big weekend of 2024 with another #1 movie, The Beekeeper, which found him battling a telemarketing scam ring led by a clear stand-in for Hunter Biden. Despite their supposed expertise in tracking the national pulse, the country’s most lauded media figures have nothing on a 57-year-old British action star whose formulaic action movies more adeptly parse out America today than any feature in New York or Vanity Fair could.
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⛈️ Stay Alert, Stay Alive Mayor O’Connell hosted Nashville Fire Department Director Chief William Swann and Metro Water Services Director Scott Potter during today’s media roundtable. Both addressed the severe weather heading our way.
“As always, we want to stress: Stay alert, stay alive,” said Director-Chief Swann. He emphasized the importance of remaining weather-aware and making proper preparations. “The worst time to make a plan is in the event of an emergency.”
“Our main threats will be strong line winds, possible hail and, of course, heavy rain,” Swann continued. The Office of Emergency Management anticipates that the first round of winds will hit between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday, but is more concerned about the second round of storms that will be moving through the area between 5 p.m. and midnight. “Of course, the rainfall will continue all the way through Sunday,” said Swann.
“We have another 30 hours or so of potential severe weather approaching Nashville, and we are closely monitoring rivers, creeks and streams,” said Mayor O’Connell. “As we talked about a little bit yesterday, the smaller the stream, the bigger the risk right now.”
“We don't think we're going to have any kind of a main stem issue with flooding, but if it rains really hard, those drainage areas in neighborhoods that have misbehaved in the past are going to misbehave again,” said Metro Water Director Potter. “But I want to stress that the level of concern is relatively high, especially in neighborhoods, when it comes to those small streams and drainage conveyances.”
Metro crews are out clearing storm drains across the city in anticipation of the heavy rainfall, but Director Potter also encouraged Nashvillians to pitch in. “Problem is, when it rains, they get clogged,” he said. “So as a citizen or business owner, you can provide a great service to your fellow citizens by going out there and cleaning that storm drain off.”
⚖️ Taylor Takes Aim At Three TN DAs Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) is switching tactics to expose activist DAs in Tennessee. Last Friday, Taylor filed a resolution urging the Supreme Court to create a panel to evaluate the alleged misconduct of District Attorneys Steven Mulroy (Memphis), Glenn Funk (Nashville), and Chris Stanford (McMinnville). The goal of setting up a panel is to “determine if any actions need to be taken to hold those officials accountable and preserve the integrity of the judicial branch.”
Initially, Senator Taylor filed a different joint resolution to establish a select committee comprised of five House members and five senate members to investigate claims against Mulroy. The legislation has since stagnated. “Looks like Taylor couldn’t get the votes in the Legislature for his removal resolution,” Mulroy told WREG Memphis. “As for outside body investigations, we should note that the BPR has dismissed ethics charges by Taylor; the Comptroller just gave our office a clean bill of health in a financial audit, and issued a report on Shelby’s criminal system that didn’t criticize our office; and the U of M just issued a report which vindicates my views on bail. Maybe some entity should investigate Taylor.”
You can read our previous reporting on Senator Taylor’s case against Mulroy here.
DEVELOPMENT
- Melrose Golf Club opens this spring (NBJ)
✹ WHY THE TARIFFS?
An in-depth look at how the Trump administration is using tariffs to restructure the global trade network (Watch)
✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: April 4-10
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming title, check out of 2025 Film Guide.
A Minecraft Movie (Dir. Jared Hess) Jack Black and Jason Mamoa star in a live-action adaptation of the juggernaut video game from the director of Napoleon Dynamite. Seems like it would have been a great idea in 2011. Now playing in theaters.
Hell of a Summer (Dirs. Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk) One of the Stranger Things kids co-writes/directs/stars in this tongue-in-cheek slasher tale set at a summer camp run by a twentysomething with a mad case of arrested development. Now playing in theaters.
The Friend (Dirs. Scott McGehee and David Siegel) When a writer in crisis (Naomi Watts) adopts the dog of her mentor (Bill Murray) after his sudden death, her bond with the animal pushes her to get onto the second act of her life in a worthy, if more indie, successor to Marley & Me. Now playing in theaters.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🪕 The Amanda Cook Band @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info
🎸 The Spine Stealers @ Dee's Lounge, 5p, $5, Info
🎻 Lyle Lovett with the Nashville Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $32+, Info
🎸 The Cactus Blossoms @ The Blue Room, 7p, $26, Info
🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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