The 901: Film festivals of today, music festivals of tomorrow and lots of pennies

Good morning, Memphis, where the river is low, the weather is nice, and the pumpkins are eager to be carved. And where basketball and movies are in the air...

A much-derided article on the website Gawker this week questioned the value of The New Yorker's film critic, Richard Brody, citing his positive reviews of "Amsterdam" and "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" as evidence that the writer might have "bonked his head."

Per the article, Brody "has a good track record of being right about 50 percent of the time, but it does seem that the scales have tipped in recent weeks."

"50 percent"? Applying a success rate appropriate for free-throw attempts to movie reviews seems odd. As an erstwhile or perhaps professionally moribund film critic myself, I wonder what my own "track record" might be? 40 percent, when considering the "Paranormal Activity" franchise (I was unusually forgiving)? 60 percent, re James Cameron (I gave a negative review to "Titanic," which I now feel probably was "wrong")?

And, say, what does this have to do with Memphis? Well, Richard Brody was a guest of the 2019 Indie Memphis Film Festival, where he hosted a public question-and-answer session with director Jim Jarmusch after a revival screening of Jarmusch's "Mystery Train" (1989), which remains my favorite made-in-Memphis movie. And the 25th edition of the Indie Memphis Film Festival begins Wednesday — six days of screenings, parties, panel discussions and more, at nine venues.

In recognition, The Commercial Appeal yesterday posted a list of "25 Highlights for This Year's 25th Fest." The story will appear Sunday in the newspaper's print edition. The list is hardly definitive, but we hope it will provide at least a starting point for anyone planning to attend what has become one of the city's most ambitious and annual art events.

Memphis in May: in May, yes, but in Memphis, where?

Indie Memphis is well established, yes, but outside of sports, the titan among area arts-and-culture events — in terms of footprints on the ground and environmental footprint in general — remains the Memphis in May International Festival. As Bob Mehr reported this week, plans "are still in limbo" and "time is running short" as organizers try to determine whether the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Beale Street Music Festival will return to their traditional riverfront home at Tom Lee Park or spend another year at the Fairgrounds.

At a public meeting during which Memphis in May CEO James Holt discussed the current lack of a contract between MIM and the Memphis River Parks Partnership (which controls Tom Lee Park), "Holt added that the entire festival was in jeopardy," Mehr wrote. A major sticking point is the expense of the damage deposit the partnership is requiring for the newly redesigned park.

Memphis in May officials are no fans of the Fairgrounds compromise (after all, can you legitimately host a Beale Street Music Festival six miles from Beale Street?). In the organization's annual report, "Holt placed 2022’s low attendance and financial losses squarely on the move to the Fairgrounds," according to Mehr. What's next? Read Mehr's story for more context and insight into what has become, essentially, a literal turf battle.

'Black Wall Street'

The Commercial Appeal's Omer Yusuf this week offered an in-depth look at Memphis' neighbor to the north, Brownsville, Tennessee, where cultural activists and commercial investors hope to uplift the historic Jefferson Street district known in its heyday as "Black Wall Street."

The goal is not just to add new business but the preserve the history of Jefferson Street, according to residents of this majority-Black town, which has about 10,000 citizens.

"Jefferson Street was once filled with community grocery stores, a juke joint, doughnut shop and flower shop, among other businesses and (Odell) Sanders’ laundromat," Yusuf wrote. What's next? As with Memphis in May, the answer is: stay tuned.

Expensive Penny

It takes a lot of pennies to keep Penny Hardaway at the University of Memphis. As Jason Munz reported, Hardaway, coach of the men's basketball team, "has agreed to a contract extension through the 2027-28 season worth $16.5 million over the life of the deal."

That's the equivalent of 1,650,000,000 or one billion, six-hundred-and-fifty million pennies. Which would buy a lot of King Cotton meat products.

Wrote Munz: "Hardaway is 84-43 through his four seasons at Memphis. He guided the program to the National Invitation Tournament championship in 2021 and led the Tigers to a win over Boise State at the NCAA Tournament in March before bowing out against top overall seed Gonzaga."

Said Hardaway: “As I have said many times, this is a dream position for me, and I do not take it for granted."

I think if I ever told anyone I was dreaming of a position that would net me one billion pennies, they would respond with an Aerosmith song title: "Dream On."

John Beifuss is a pop culture and features reporter for The  Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at john.beifuss@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The 901: Indie Memphis Film Festival returns, Memphis in May's future