Nashvillian Alicia Witt talks about her latest movie

Alicia Witt appeared on our Zoom call in a T-shirt peppered with cartoon koala bears. For anyone who has seen her staggering performance as Ruth Harker, the agoraphobic hoarder mother of an FBI agent (Maika Monroe) in this summer’s serial killer thriller Longlegs, the disconnect seems like a practical joke. An actor who could reach such depths of trauma and despair to play this tragic of a character had to exude at least some of the same energy. But in her wide-ranging four-decade career that’s seen her collaborate with everyone from David Lynch to The Hallmark Channel, Witt has proven herself one of the few performers who can transform into anyone—a natural gift that has now earned her the widespread critical acclaim she has always deserved.

Yet, this dedication to her craft also explains why she’s one of the few moviegoers who has no interest in seeing Longlegs, a film that, despite scattershot box-office trends and Hollywood’s overreliance on franchises, just crossed the $100 million mark and topped off its long local theatrical run with a sold-out screening at The Belcourt Tuesday that featured a Q&A with Witt. 

“Ruth is so dear to me, and was also a deeply cathartic experience, in a way I couldn't begin to try to describe. So it's for those reasons that I'm not watching it, not because the movie itself scares me,” Witt said. “He [Longlegs director Oz Perkins] is just a world-class filmmaker, and I asked him, when we were doing press in LA, if he might consider making me an edit without Ruth in it. And he said he thought he could do that at some point. So I'm hopeful I'll get to see the movie without my own work in it.”

While most industry insiders attribute Longlegs’s success to the ingenious social media marketing campaign that its, distributor, Neon, began last January, the film is also the most prominent example of horror’s recent thematic shift toward religion that began earlier this year with Immaculate, The First Omen, and MaXXXine. For Witt, Longlegs’s refusal to rationalize Nicolas Cage’s Satan-worshiping serial killer as just another psycho is key to understanding the connection that the film has forged with audiences on the way to bona fide blockbuster status. 

“We all had a shared sense that by illuminating the darkness, you are letting the light in. And I feel that this movie is channeling a sort of light by acknowledging the dark side among us,” Witt said. “You don't nullify it. You don't make it not be there. In fact, it's the opposite when you acknowledge it and you stare it right in the face. If you've been through a deep personal tragedy, or you've been through an incredibly hard time, nothing can hurt you at that point. You’ve seen the worst, and you then kind of dwell in a place of great levity and light.”

🌮 Illegal Food Vendors On August 6th, eight Latino restaurateurs gathered in Antioch to share their struggles with illegal food vendors in the area. The lack of response from the Metro government led the group of business owners to organize a meeting with a representative from the mayor’s office. Metro’s Director of New and Indigenous Americans, Jacky Gomez, canceled her appointment moments before the event was set to begin, leaving those in attendance to discuss their desperation amongst themselves. “It sounds like there was miscommunication with Jacky and the organizer,” Alex Apple,  the mayor’s deputy comms Director told us when we reached out after the meeting. “Jacky had been out of the office sick for a period.”

“We're here to discuss our future business because it's been going down badly for the last three years because of the illegal food selling pretty much all over the city,” said one restaurateur who wishes to remain anonymous. “Our main concern is the future of our businesses, you know, the future our families…At this point, my business went down 30 percent, maybe more.””

In fact, all in attendance expressed their desire to remain anonymous for the time being, for fear of retribution. While the mayor’s office has suggested that the problem “is likely one that can be worked on by the Codes and Health Department,” several owners claimed  they’ve already reported the issue to Metro and came to the meeting armed with pictures of people allegedly selling food and beverages out of car trunks and pickup trucks illegally. 

Following the meeting, we reached out to the four districted council members who represent the area, all five at-large members, and the four members who sponsored a change to the food truck permitting process that passed earlier this month. Every representative who replied to our inquiry said it was their first time hearing of the issue. For his part, Councilmember Bob Nash took immediate action after learning about the restaurateurs’ complaints; He promptly informed the South and Midtown police precincts of the purportedly unpermitted food operations, including reports of illegal alcohol distribution out of several residential houses operating as makeshift restaurants. Nash suggested that it may be possible for law enforcement to set up a tip line and schedule targeted officer presence on weekends. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🗺️ Gerry Salamanderer On Wednesday, a three-judge panel dismissed the case alleging that racial gerrymandering took place in Tennessee after new district lines were drawn up following the 2020 census. According to AP, the court ruled that the state’s Republican majority was likely motivated by “naked partisanship,” which falls outside of federal jurisdiction and is subject to the guidelines set by the state’s own constitution. 

The Volunteer State has a history of court battles over redistricting, but in 2020, Tennesseans didn’t need census data to know that the population had changed immensely over the previous decade. Just in population growth alone, the state grew by 8.9 percent. For perspective, the national rate of growth was 7.4 percent. 

Though the House Select Redistricting Committee worked to accommodate the burgeoning spawn of central Tennessee (Williamson County with a 35.23 percent population increase since 2010, Rutherford County with a 30.04 percent increase, and Trousdale with a 47.59 percent increase), they also had to contend with declining populations in several West and Northeast counties. And of course, state officials were concerned with the mostly political implications of redistricting certain areas. 

Though not as drastic a change as other counties, Davidson did grow by 14.23 percent from 2010 to 2020 and whispers of gerrymandering circulated long before the ink dried on the final redistricted maps in 2022. At the time, former Congressman Jim Cooper—who would have faced unprecedented competition for his District 5 seat had he remained on the ballot—feared that the Republican-led redistricting committee’s changes would be “too colorful.” And so it came to pass: When it was clear that the new boundaries would hurt his chances at reelection, Cooper opened up the arena by dropping out of the race. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

DEVELOPMENT

• Local developer plans greenhouse, retail development in Wedgewood-Houston (NBJ)
• East Nashville's Martha My Dear aims to serve quality with approachability (NBJ)
• Hero Doughnuts on Charlotte Avenue closes after a year (NBJ)
• Paused project eyed for Pie Town remains viable (Post)
• Southwest adds three nonstop routes via BNA to Indianapolis, Cabo San Lucas and Punta Cana (Post)

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 and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

✨ Helado Negro @ The Blue Room, 7p, $32.36, Info

🪕 Route 3 @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info

🎸 Orville Peck’s Sixth Annual Rodeo @ The Basement East, 7:30p, $61.71, Info

🎸 The Azures @ The Underdog, 9p, $10, Info
+ psychedelic rock

🪕 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

✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: August 23-29

The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming releases, check out our 2024 Film Guide.

The Crow (Dir. Rupert Sanders; Starring Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs) The 90s Goth classic about an undead rockstar seeking vengeance against the gang who killed him and his girlfriend gets a remake that reviews say sends the summer out with a whimper. Now playing in theaters.

Between The Temples (Dir. Nathan Silver; Jason Schwartzman; Carol Kane) A socially awkward cantor at a Brooklyn synagogue learns to live in the moment when his former music teacher asks him to oversee her late-life bat mitzvah in this much-lauded indie crowd pleaser that’s being compared to70s classics like Harold and Maude. Now playing in theaters.

Fitzcarraldo/Burden of Dreams  Werner Herzog’s infamous tale about a rubber baron transporting a steamship over a hill in the Amazon returns to the Belcourt along with Les Blank’s classic documentary on the film’s tumultuous production. Now playing at The Belcourt.

Blink Twice (Dir. Zoë Kravitz; starring Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment). When a Muskish billionaire invites a cocktail waitress to his private island, hedonistic nights give way to a vicious secret. Now playing in theaters.

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