nothing really matters

 

Yay. Madonna has released the remixes for "Nothing Really Matters" on all platforms. 

a thousand and one

Loved this film, especially Teyana Taylor's performance. I thought it was going to be fully entrenched in its initial 1994 NYC setting, but then it expands its temporal scope while honing in on the intricacies of a mother / son relationship.

My review is up now at Film-Forward.

enys men

The comic A Chorus Line song "Dance Ten, Looks Three" kept running through my head while watching Mark Jenkin's Enys Men (the title translated in Cornish as "Stone Island"). The film ultimately feels like a "Looks Ten, Dance Three" kind of a movie. Set on sea swept, rocky cliff on the Cornish coast, Enys Men follows a woman, dubbed in the credits as "the volunteer" (played by Jenkin's partner Mary Woodvine). There is the hypnotic displaying of her daily rituals, (perhaps) in April of 1973, as she dons a strawberry-red raincoat and work boots (brown, with hints of red in the laces), recording the temperature, studying the appearance of flowers (faux-looking, with paper petals and wiry stems), the sound of water as a rock is dropped to the bottom of a well. Every day seems to be marked in pencil as having "no changes." But throughout, there's a busy soundtrack of ticking clocks, the flickering fireplace fire, the oil-glugging strawberry-red scuffed metal generator, the sea, the wind, the scratchy messages from a radio, and the staticky sea hymns (and at one point, light disco funk) from an ivory Dansette. Sometimes the sound feels just a bit off, as when a gull falls into the sea with the sound of shattering glass. It is these sounds and images that create such a compelling mood. Shot with Bolexes on Kodak 16mm film, it simply is one of the most riveting-looking movies released in recent years. The red of that raincoat is absolutely mesmerizing on par with The Red Shoes, and almost vivid enough to carry the substance of the whole film. Sundown-dappled waves appear like smoldering black lava. The movie suggests hauntings [ghostly, unwelcome (?) figures emerge and disappear, sometimes with wide eyes and eerie grins] and there is the sense of the disintegration of time both in narrative and form (in Neon's pre-recorded post-interview after the credits, Jenkin's seemed to infer that the short length of what the cameras would allow to film added to the clipped collage-like feel). The movie recalls Robert Altman's Images and other 1970s pictures where there is a simmering sense of terror within contained isolation. 

Enys Men doesn't really seem to be meant to have some sort of satisfying narrative thread, but there is eventually a dull monotony and lack of continuous surprise (unlike the ever-shifting brilliance in the works of Maya Deren), that make the experience somewhat deadening. Neon's shameless marketing (the trailer is brilliant) of it as a folk horror picture in the vein of Robert Eggers is a bit of a cash-grab stunt. I look forward to reassessing the film later, perhaps as it moves away from its Cannes-buzz and initial release, as I was so drawn to Jenkin's keen cinematic skills (that he did the shivery, metallic score as well, is very impressive). As of now, the movie feels a bit empty--as if striving for a sense of a horror movie (both a haunted suicide and lichen-riven body horror is suggested) or something seemingly significant, but never delivering anything as comparable nor unsettling narratively as the parade of gorgeous images. So the dance may be the under-baked lyricism or the narrative within, and the looks is all of those pictures that abound [those reds! those blues! (a navy teapot / Woodvine's piercing, cereulean eyes]. **1/2

-Jeffery Berg

jaws movies podcast

Really fun discussion between Meep and Erik (of the Hysteria Continues podcast) on the Jaws films. Previously recorded in 2018 as a Bonus Patreon Episode, now available on the Retro Movie Love Podcast!

candle flame

Looking forward to the new record from Jungle out August 11th!

New single "Candle Flame," featuring The Architect, is quite fun. 

wineshop bop

 A new poem of mine to share.

-Jeffery Berg

inside

My review of Inside with Willem Dafoe is now on Film-Forward.

Mixed on this one but intriguing nevertheless.

the 2022 jdb awards!

Happy Oscar weekend! Here goes my personal awards for 2022 film season.

Picture

BENEDICTION 

"Benediction is an expansive movie of loss, isolation, and horror; it’s an energizing and inspiring movie about the vanity of existence itself. The physical design of the film—its décor, its costumes, its settings—coalesces with the actors’ diction and gestures, as well as with the historical characters in Sassoon’s circle who populate the action, and with the memory of love and the exaltation of art. The film brings the past to life with a vividness and an immediacy that seem wrenched from [Terence] Davies’s very soul." - Richard Brody

nominees

AFTERSUN

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

CLOSE

EO

THE FABELMANS

LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS

LOST ILLUSIONS

TÁR

VORTEX

Director

Terence Davies, BENEDICTION 

"None of us can find redemption in other people or in other things. You have to find it yourself. At the end of his [Sassoon's] life, I think he was actually quite unfulfilled. That touched me enormously. All my films are about outsiders because I’m an outsider. I listened to everything because I’m the youngest of 10. I wasn’t aware of it at first, but as I got older I realized I’m not a participant in life. I observe it. And when you’re an outsider, you’re usually ignored." -Davies

nominees

Todd Field, TÁR

Jerzy Skolimowski, EO

Steven Spielberg, THE FABELMANS

Charlotte Wells, AFTERSUN

Actor

Paul Mescal, AFTERSUN

"I think he’s sitting in these feelings, and deeply confused and upset by why he’s not able to enjoy himself, or because everything else on paper is good. He’s with the person that he loves most in the world and he should be happier than he is, and that’s devastating." -Mescal

nominees

Colin Farrell, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Eden Dambrine, CLOSE 

Caleb Landry Jones, NITRAM

Jack Lowden, BENEDICTION

Actress

Cate Blanchett, TÁR 

"When I read it, I was so daunted by the ask of it — not just what was necessary to play the character, but also the depth of questioning in the screenplay and my relationship to it, which kept shifting depending on which scene we were shooting or which relationship we were focused on that day. When the cast started to come together, Nina Hoss elevated it yet again. Then Hildur Guðnadóttir got involved to do the music, and I thought it doesn’t get much better than this. My job was not just to rise to the occasion of the screenplay but the quality of the people I was working alongside." -Blanchett

nominees

Henriette Confurius, THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER

Frankie Corio, AFTERSUN

Mia Goth, PEARL / X

Michelle Yeoh, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Supporting Actor

Barry Keoghan, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN 

"I'm always looking for, what's the kind of... what is it that we're trying to do that we can get across, that is the most... makes the audience relates so much. Is it being raw? Is it being real? Is it being vulnerable? What is it? I'm trying to figure that out. Is it the behaving part? I'm always trying to figure that out. That's the beauty of it as well, is I'm always trying to learn from the craft and what it is that we do. How can we take it another level up? So I'm always watching. I'm always watching." -Keoghan

nominees

Johnny Flynn, THE OUTFIT

Brendan Gleeson, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Brian Tyree Henry, CAUSEWAY

Ke Huy Quan, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Supporting Actress

Judy Davis, NITRAM

"No one who sees Nitram will forget the way Davis’s defensive face and posture finally dissolve into a rare kind of tender bewilderment and love that has been so beaten down so many times but still somehow exists. In real life, the woman she is playing in Nitram has retreated into denial, because there comes a point for any human being when pressure becomes so intense that it can no longer be endured. In the last shot of Mum, she sits stiffly outside her home, cigarette in hand, her face unreadable in profile but likely doing minute calculations underneath." -Dan Callahan

nominees

Nina Hoss, TÁR

Dakota Johnson, CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH

Janelle Monáe, GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY

Brittany Snow, X

Ensemble

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE 

"I think that we all really slipped into this family dynamic quite seamlessly, and chemistry is very real, and I think it’s just this sort of unspeakable magic that you can’t quite know why." -Stephanie Hsu

nominees

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

BENEDICTION

THE FABELMANS

GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY

Original Screenplay

Todd Field, TÁR 

nominees

Terence Davies, BENEDICTION

Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg, THE FABELMANS

Martin McDonagh, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER

Adapted Screenplay

Xavier Giannoli & Jacques Fieschi, LOST ILLUSIONS 

nominees

Mathieu Amalric, HOLD ME TIGHT

Claire Denis, Léa Mysius, & Andrew Litvack, STARS AT NOON

Robert Eggers & Sjón, THE NORTHMAN

Rian Johnson, GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY

International Film

EO 

nominees

CLOSE

LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS

LOST ILLUSIONS

VORTEX

 

Documentary

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED 

nominees

ALL THAT BREATHES

DESCENDANT

A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

SR.

Cinematography

Ben Bernhard, Riju Das, & Saumyananda Sahi, ALL THAT BREATHES 

nominees

Simone D'Arcangelo, THE TALE OF KING CRAB

Michał Dymek, EO

Ksusha Greenfield, A WOUNDED FAWN

Frédéric Noirhomme, PLAYGROUND

Film Editing

François Gédigier, HOLD ME TIGHT 

nominees

Agnieszka Glińska, EO

Blair McClendon, AFTERSUN

Brett Morgen, MOONAGE DAYDREAM

Paul Rogers, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Score

Howard Shore, CRIMES OF THE FUTURE 

nominees

Michael Giacchino, THE BATMAN

Paweł Mykietyn, EO

Tindersticks, STARS AT NOON

Dan Wool, MAD GOD

Song

“Stars At Noon,” STARS AT NOON 

nominees

“Hold My Hand,” TOP GUN: MAVERICK

“Keep Rising,” THE WOMAN KING

“Lift Me Up,” BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

“New Body Rhumba,” WHITE NOISE

Art Direction / Production Design

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO 

nominees

ELVIS

THE HOUSE

LOST ILLUSIONS

MAD GOD

Costume Design

Catherine Martin, ELVIS

nominees

Jenny Beavan, MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS

Ruth E. Carter, BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

Pierre-Jean Laroque, LOST ILLUSIONS

Gersha Phillips, THE WOMAN KING

Make-Up & Hair

X 

nominees

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE

NEPTUNE FROST

THE WOMAN KING

YOU WON’T BE ALONE

Sound Design

TÁR 

nominees

AFTERSUN

THE DREAM AND THE RADIO

EO

MOONAGE DAYDREAM

Visual Effects

MAD GOD 

nominees

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO

THE HOUSE

NOPE

A look back at last year's winners & nominees. The Worst Person in the World won Picture, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and International Film. 

punch

 My review of the New Zealand-set queer drama Punch up at Film-Forward.

jeffery berg's top 10 films of 2022

2022 was a year of maximalist movies about spectacle (Elvis, Avatar: The Way of Water and Babylon) and extravagant movies about the continuing widening divide in class and social stratification (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Barbarian, Triangle of Sadness, The Menu and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery). 

The year offered films of memory pieces, childhood traumas, composers, artists and writers, projectile vomiting, whales and donkeys. In the year when Roe vs. Wade decsion was overturned by the Supreme Court, many films about abortion happened to come out: Call Jane and Tbe Janes, Happening, and Lingui, The Sacred Bonds. Environmental concerns surfaced in The Dam, EO, All That Breathes, The House, The Territory and Wildcat. 

Even if they weren't financial successes, numerous movies about movies emerged (Babylon, The Fabelmans, Pearl, X, Last Film Show, Empire of Light). Most were set in the past, and wistful reminders of technological changes: the demise of the projectionist and the shifting away for many from the theatrical experience.  

Here goes my Top 10 films of 2022 with notables as well!

10.

LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS

Vividly filmed and performed Chad-set drama focusing upon a mother and her daughter's pregnancy and the patriarchal society that thwarts them at every turn.

9.

VORTEX

An incredible use of split screen of an ailing elderly couple (played very well by Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun) in a drab, over-stuffed flat in France, directed with a sense of dread, horror and empathy by Gaspar Noé.

8.

CLOSE

Two 13-year old friends gradually drift apart in this heartbreaking drama. The explorations into masculinity are deftly handled by filmmaker Lukas Dhont.

7.

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

Breathtaking documentary of Nan Goldin's  life and also her fight against the opioid crisis, zeroing in on the Sackler family. The archival footage and imagery of Goldin's astonishing work and films of Goldin's contemporaries are so beautifully presented.

6.

LOST ILLUSIONS

Balzac's vision is still biting all these year's later in this lush, brisk, well-acted and assembled adaptation. 

5.

EO

An incredible film of animal pathos, with Director Jerzy Skolimowski moving in close to the experience of a roaming donkey in the fickle and hostile world of humankind.  

4.

AFTERSUN

Like Barry Jenkins's Moonlight, Aftersun strikes with a cumulative power. A memory piece, sometimes light-to-the-touch, and sometimes agonizing. Director Charlotte Wells's work shines admirably in her first feature-length.

3.

THE FABELMANS

I was so pleasantly surprised by Spielberg's cinematic semi-memoir--it was much funnier and adroit than I expected, and the cast is wonderful. Outside of the "awards race," it's a lovely coming-of-age film that doesn't shy away from the perspectives of being an artist, privilege and gnawing self-doubt.

2.

TÁR

The most memorable film-going experience of the year at New York Film Festival, and then the movie grew in estimation after re-watches. A vigorous, full-bodied character study from Todd Field's acid tongue script and brilliant direction. 

1.

BENEDICTION

A gripping reimagining of the poet Siegfried Sassoon's life in the aftermath of World War I and into his later years. I went back to some of Terence Davies' previous work immediately after watching this stirring film (biting, funny, moving); he is one of our more unsung auterus with an incredibly rich and daring filmography. 

Other 2022 films of note in rough order of preference:

Pearl / X, Emily the Criminal, The Woman King, A Night of Knowing Nothing, Top Gun: Maverick, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Northman, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Descendant, The Girl and the Spider, Barbarian, The Banshees of Inisherin, Saint Omer, Nope, All That Breathes, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Causeway, Stars At Noon, Nitram, Playground, The Cathedral, Empire of Light, Hit the Road, To Leslie, Sr., Argentina, 1985, In Front of Your Face, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Wildcat, Navalny, Devotion, Hold Me Tight, The Box, Bitterbrush, The Territory, A Love Song, Bones and All, Till, The Dam, Fire of Love, Petite Maman, The Outfit, Gagarine, The Eternal Daughter, Last Film Show, The Janes, Moonage Daydream, Clara Sola, Our Father, After Yang, Great Freedom, Neptune Frost, Triangle of Sadness, Kimi, Women Talking, Smile, The Batman, Happening, Watcher, Fresh, Sharp Stick, The Innocents, The Dream and the Radio, Armageddon Time, She Said, Private Desert, Scream, Bros, A Wounded Fawn, The Quiet Girl, Avatar: The Way of Water, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nanny, The House, Hatching, Corsage. Decision to Leave,  Deep Water, The Son, The Fallout, Mad God, Speak No Evil, We Met in Virtual Reality, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, Italian Studies, Palm Trees & Power Lines, Living, Here Before, One Fine Morning, Master, The Tale of King Crab, Last Flight Home, Saloum

-Jeffery Berg

A look back at 2021 when The Worst Person in the World was my #1.

ray of light

 

Happy to see the release of Madonna's "Ray of Light" maxi-single digitally on all platforms. Just in time for the album's 25th anniversary!

la civil

 My review of taut, absorbing La Civil is now up at Film-Forward.