stupid love

Lady Gaga drops her "Stupid Love" video / single.

the man

Taylor Swift's Wolf of Wall Street-inspired clip for "The Man"--my favorite tune from her Lover album. 

fantasy island

If the vintage TV series Fantasy Island, like many Aaron Spelling projects, offered comfort and projections of aspiration in the late 70s and early 80s, Blumhouse's Fantasy Island--a twisty, sludgy thriller landing in the wake of a new decade--offers an unending sense of unease and swoops of corny comedy. Directed by Jeff Wadlow, with little visual complexity, the movie is, in a way, an off-brand Diet drink version of Fyre Festival docs and the winking, winding, genre-play horror films of the past few years from the Blumhouse brand.

The plot requires leaps and bounds of suspensions of disbelief, which I can usually roll with, especially in a movie like this, but Fantasy Island is patently so creaky, it quickly loses tension and interest. We meet a group of contest winners--Melanie (Lucy Hale), Patrick (Austin Stowell), Gwen (Maggie Q), and two cringey, dude-bro friends Brax (Jimmy O. Yang) and J.D. (Ryan Hansen)--who are ushered into Fantasy Island by the mysterious Julia (Parisa Fitz-Henley) and the island-owner Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña). On Fantasy Island, Mr. Roarke is here to make your ultimate fantasy come true! From here on out, the plot swings into alternate realities and timelines ensue.

The appealing cast--giving their all, despite the muddled script (by Wadlow, Chris Roach, Jillian Jacobs), the lush locales (shot in Fiji) and the continuous, rigorous tossing and turnings make Fantasy Island a sort of entertaining curiosity in the current cinema landscape. Yet, at a 109 minutes run-time, the jig runs thin fairly quickly. Patrick's story-line--his wish of being a soldier--is particularly lugubrious. At times, I was taken back to the strand of characters in island-set peril in Irwin Allen and James Goldstone's When Time Ran Out... Watching Fantasy Island, I yearned for 1980 simplicity or even Aaron Spelling-soft-core corn. Complicated genre pictures are welcome, especially if one has the skills of Jordan Peele, but the rip-offs that have paled in comparison are a chore, especially when swabbed with bad sentimentality. Wadlow impressively hobbled this together on a mere seven million dollar budget, so there will probably be more on the horizon. If you do choose partaking in this feeble adventure, I do not suggest making a drinking game out of taking a sip anytime someone says the word "fantasy." *

-Jeffery Berg

the 2019 jdb awards

Here are my personal film awards for 2019!

A look back at 2018 when the awards were spread out among a variety of films! Eighth Grade took Best Picture and Sandi Tan won for Director and Documentary for Shirkers.



picture

PARASITE

nominees

FOR SAMA
THE IRISHMAN
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
LITTLE WOMEN
MARRIAGE STORY
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
PAIN AND GLORY
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
3 FACES



director

Bong Joon-ho, PARASITE

nominees

Pedro Almodóvar, PAIN AND GLORY
Noah Baumbach, MARRIAGE STORY
Céline Sciamma, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Martin Scorcese, THE IRISHMAN



actor

Adam Driver, MARRIAGE STORY

nominees

Antonio Banderas, PAIN AND GLORY
Woo-sik Choi, PARASITE
Leonardo DiCaprio, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Jimmie Fails, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO



actress

Alfre Woodard, CLEMENCY

nominees

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, IN FABRIC
Lupita Nyong’o, US
Mary Kay Place, DIANE
Octavia Spencer, MA




supporting actor

Jonathan Majors, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO

nominees

Tom Hanks, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Aldis Hodge, CLEMENCY
Song Kang-ho, PARASITE
Joe Pesci, THE IRISHMAN



supporting actress

Zhao Shuzhen, THE FAREWELL

nominees

Laura Dern, MARRIAGE STORY
Jennifer Lopez, HUSTLERS
Carmiña Martínez, BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Tilda Swinton, THE SOUVENIR




ensemble

PARASITE

nominees

BIRDS OF PASSAGE
DIANE
THE FAREWELL
MARRIAGE STORY



original screenplay

Bong Joon-ho & Jin Won Han, PARASITE

nominees

Pedro Almodóvar, PAIN AND GLORY
Noah Baumbach, MARRIAGE STORY
Joe Talbot & Robbie Richert, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
Quentin Tarantino, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD



adapted screenplay

Greta Gerwig, LITTLE WOMEN

nominees

Hu Bo, AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL
Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Christian Petzold, TRANSIT
Steven Zaillian, THE IRISHMAN



foreign film


PARASITE

nominees

BIRDS OF PASSAGE
PAIN AND GLORY
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
3 FACES



documentary

FOR SAMA

nominees

AMERICAN FACTORY
APOLLO 11
HONEYLAND
WRESTLE



cinematography

Yao Hung-i, Dong Jinsong, & David Chizallet, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

nominees

Fejmi Daut, HONEYLAND
David Gallego, BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Claire Mathon, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Jörg Widmer, A HIDDEN LIFE



film editing

Jean-Luc Godard, THE IMAGE BOOK

nominees

Davíð Alexander Corno, A WOMAN AT WAR
Atanas Georgiev, HONEYLAND
Todd Douglas Miller, APOLLO 11
Thelma Schoonmaker, THE IRISHMAN



original score

Cavern of Anti-Matter, IN FABRIC

nominees

Disasterpiece, UNDER THE SILVER LAKE
Matthew Herbert, GLORIA BELL
M83, KNIFE+HEART
Emile Mosseri, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO




original song

“Guarding the Gates,” QUEEN & SLIM

nominees

“Collide,” QUEEN & SLIM
"Control," HER SMELL
"A Glass of Soju," PARASITE
“La Jeune Fille en feu,” PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE



art direction / production design

PARASITE

nominees

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
PAIN AND GLORY



costume design

Arianne Phillips, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

nominees

Julian Day, ROCKETMAN
Jacqueline Durran, LITTLE WOMEN
Andrea Flesch, MIDSOMMAR
Mitchell Travers, HUSTLERS



make-up & hair

BOMBSHELL

nominees

JUDY
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
ROCKETMAN
US



sound design

CLIMAX

nominees

A HIDDEN LIFE
1917
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
ROCKETMAN



visual effects

1917

nominees

AD ASTRA
CRAWL
DIAMANTINO
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER


-Jeffery Berg

jeffery berg's top 10 films of 2019

2019 brought an array of films from around the world with different styles and stories. Many portrayed an unsettled state, especially in terms of economic division. Here is my Top 10 of the year.

10.

FOR SAMA



Brutal, searing diary-as-film from Waad Al-Kateab. An urgent love letter to the filmmaker's daughter in the midst of constant life-threatening conflict.


9.

LITTLE WOMEN

Rich and dense adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel. Not the pedestrian retread it could have been. Greta Gerwig's keen direction and script gives it immediacy and sense of the personal.


8.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Quentin Tarantino's immersive re-imagining of Hollywood on the eve of Sharon Tate's murder. Eclectic, richly-evoked details (that L.A. radio soundtrack!) boost the experience.



7.

THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO

An elegiac story of a man trying to reclaim an old home in increasingly gentrified San Francisco. Beautifully-told, with touches of whimsy embedded in a tale of pervasive sadness and frustration. A bold directorial debut from Joe Talbot.



6.

3 FACES

Another powerful snapshot of Iranian life from Jafar Panahi. This one travels to the countryside where Jafar takes an actress to connect with a family of a daughter who may or may not have killed herself.



5.

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE

A flashback story of a painter commisioned to do a portrait of an aristocratic woman. Since the subject is unwilling, the painter studies her in detail on their daily walks to capture her essence. I was taken aback how well-executed the compositions in this film are and by its inherent, seemingly unforced tension that brims from the screen.



4.

THE IRISHMAN

Martin Scorsese's much-ballyhooed Netflix epic is a much more modest-than-expected story of key mob hit man. Exquisitely edited by Thema Schoonmaker and Joe Pesci is particularly sly and compelling. "Is that all there is?" the film asks. This is a cremation, in effect, of the twentieth century but with sudden resonance within aspects of America's current presidency.



3.

MARRIAGE STORY

Noah Baumbach's tender rendering of a bi-costal divorce and the legal drama that consumes it. I feel like these kind of smart family dramas, ones made with such careful attention, aren't made too much in America anymore, so I found it particularly moving and refreshing.



2.

PAIN AND GLORY

Director Pedro Almodóvar and his male muse Antonio Banderas return with a rhapsodic, semi-autobiographical dream of a movie. Gorgeously executed and wryly funny. A story of the past and present colliding, and of filmmaking itself.




1.

PARASITE

Maybe it’s a bit anticlimactic to have this as another number one on another best of the year list. But I didn’t see a movie that was kicking on all cylinders as astoundingly as this one. The ensemble is great, the script is energetic and crackling, amazing set designs (that unforgettable house!), and striking social commentary of class division and the cannibalization of others that hits its points home (literally, like a stone), but also comes leaves you feeling muddled and uneasy. Watching again, knowing its twists and turns, I found it an even more stirring ride.



other notable films from 2019 (in order of preference):

A Hidden Life, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Midsommar, Birds of Passage, Hustlers, The Wild Pear Tree, Atlantics, Rosie, Joy, The Farewell, American Factory, Booksmart, Us, Diane, Honeyland, Daughter of Mine, The Souvenir, Apollo 11, Gloria Bell, Rocketman, Harriet, I Lost My Body, Wrestle, 1917, Ma, The Third Wife, The Image Book, An Elephant Sitting Still, Knives Out, Judy, Ready or Not, In Fabric, Transit, Sorry Angel, Holiday, Diamantino, A Woman at War, Uncut Gems, Queen & Slim, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Climax, Just Mercy, Black Mother, Clemency, Downton Abbey, Never Look Away, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Under the Silver Lake, Velvet Buzzsaw, Jobe’z World, Her Smell, One Child Nation, Sauvage, Jojo Rabbit, The Lighthouse, The Report, Ash is the Purest White, A Land Imagined, Family, The Gospel of Eureka, Ms. Purple, Pet Sematary, State Like Sleep, I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, The Dead Don’t Die, Rust Creek, Fyre, Annabelle Comes Home, Furie, Crawl, Knock Down the House, High Flying Bird, Western Stars, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Dear Ex, Roll Red Roll

-Jeffery Berg

the turning

There have been so many incarnations and riffs off of Henry James' 1898 The Turn of a Screw--from 1961's Jack Clayton film The Innocents to Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 film The Others--that it seems unnecessary for yet another one. However Floria Sigismondi's gorgeous-looking The Turning is a moody update situated on a fog-drenched estate in the cellphone-less early 1990s. I call The Turning another entry in the recent string of Gen X-disillusionment pictures: from the taunted classmate desperately re-creating teendom in Ma, to adults in Us and It: Chapter 2 revisiting their demons. Even non-horror pictures like Marriage Story, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and Hustlers are survivalist tales from different American perspectives that dabble in the thematics of social structures.

Mackenzie Davis, who was so appealing as the titular nanny in Tully--another piece of Gen X despair--returns here as governess Kate with a prominent blond bang and chin-length chop, roomy sweater and boot wardrobe and a hip little yellow sports car. She approaches her new employment in a gated, rambling mansion with awe. Leaving behind her best friend roommate (Kim Adis) and a mentally-disturbed mother (Joely Richardson), Kate seems determined "to make a difference" in the lives of parent-less children and perhaps has found a new idyllic existence. But things seem off with the introduction of the icy Mrs. Grose (Shakespearean actor Barbara Marten going all-in with a steely turn). And while little Flora (The Florida Project's Brooklynn Prince, doing here what she did best there: offbeat spontaneity) seems precious, the creaky mansion has its quirks--a twisting hedge maze, an eerie mannequin in the bedroom, and a shadowy, off-limits wing of the upper floor. When moody bad boy Miles (Finn Wolfhard) shows, Kate is rattled, and the evil ghost of former groundskeeper Quint (Niall Greig Fulton) starts making his presence known.

While nothing too surprising happens plot-wise in The Turning, and its conclusion is an almost disastrous muddled mess (my audience left in groans), I found myself intoxicated with the look and feel of the film, especially for a studio horror pic. Sigismondi is known for her film The Runaways and her incredible oeuvre of music videos for artists such as Bjork, Marilyn Manson and David Bowie. Her work here is often beautifully composed. Cinematographer David Ungaro captures the landscapes and gloomy interiors elegantly. Also bonus is a surprising, rich, grunge-era inspired soundtrack of newer and older artists (Courtney Love sings a catchy theme tune, "Mother"). I was also compelled by Davis, engaging throughout, who tows the tricky line between the film's sense of reality and, perhaps, insanity. This atmospheric flick is set under the spell of the news of Kurt Cobain's (perhaps the ultimate ghost of Gen-X) death which introduces the "present day." Even if the results of the film are a bit messy, I admired Sigismondi's risks, the vibe of the picture and its feel of a bygone time, lingered. ***

-Jeffery Berg