Monday, February 29, 2016

the 2015 jdb awards

Happy post-Oscars day! Here are my personal award winners for 2015.

Also, a look back at 2014 when BOYHOOD won Picture & Director.




PICTURE


CAROL



nominees:


THE BIG SHORT
BROOKLYN 
IT FOLLOWS
MISTRESS AMERICA
SON OF SAUL
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
TANGERINE
TIMBUKTU
WILD TALES





DIRECTOR


Todd Haynes, CAROL



nominees:


Adam McKay, THE BIG SHORT
David Robert Mitchell, IT FOLLOWS 
Abderrahmane Sissako, TIMBUKTU 
Damián Szifron, WILD TALES




ACTOR


Jason Bateman, THE GIFT



nominees:

Abraham Attah, BEASTS OF NO NATION 
Leonardo DiCaprio, THE REVENANT
Géza Röhrig, SON OF SAUL 
Jacob Tremblay, ROOM




ACTRESS


Cate Blanchett, CAROL



nominees:

Nina Hoss, PHOENIX
Rinko Kikuchi, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER
Bel Powley, THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL
Lily Tomlin, GRANDMA






SUPPORTING ACTOR


Michael Keaton, SPOTLIGHT 



nominees:

Christian Bale, THE BIG SHORT
Benicio Del Toro, SICARIO
Idris Elba, BEASTS OF NO NATION 
Jason Segel, THE END OF THE TOUR 





SUPPORTING ACTRESS


Mya Taylor, TANGERINE



nominees:

Greta Gerwig, MISTRESS AMERICA
Jennifer Jason Leigh, THE HATEFUL EIGHT
Érica Rivas, WILD TALES
Kristen Stewart, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA





ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY


Damián Szifron, WILD TALES




nominees:

Olivier Assayas, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch, TANGERINE 
Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, MISTRESS AMERICA
Joel Edgerton, THE GIFT





ADAPTED SCREENPLAY


Adam McKay & Charles Randolph, THE BIG SHORT



nominees:

Emma Donoghue, ROOM
Donald Margulies, THE END OF THE TOUR
Nick Hornby, BROOKLYN 
Phyllis Nagy, CAROL 





ENSEMBLE


TANGERINE



nominees:

THE BIG SHORT 
SPOTLIGHT
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
WILD TALES




FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM


WILD TALES


nominees:

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
PHOENIX
SON OF SAUL
TIMBUKTU




DOCUMENTARY


AMY 



nominees:

FINDERS KEEPERS
IRIS




CINEMATOGRAPHY


Edward Lachman, CAROL



nominees:

Mike Gioulakis, IT FOLLOWS
Nic Knowland, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
Emmanuel Lubezki, THE REVENANT
Sean Porter, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER





FILM EDITING


Hank Corwin, THE BIG SHORT



nominees:

Pablo Barbieri & Damián Szifron, WILD TALES
Affonso Gonçalves, CAROL
Julio Perez IV, IT FOLLOWS
Margaret Sixel, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 




FILM SCORE


Rich Vreeland, IT FOLLOWS





nominees:

Carter Burwell, CAROL
Cat's Eyes, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
Ennio Morricone, THE HATEFUL EIGHT
Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, MISTRESS AMERICA




SONG

"The Duke of Burgundy," Cat's Eyes from THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY






nominee:

"Cold One," Jenny Lewis & Jonathan Rice from RICKI & THE FLASH



PRODUCTION DESIGN


CAROL 



nominees:

BRIDGE OF SPIES
BROOKLYN 
PHOENIX
SAINT LAURENT




COSTUME DESIGN


Sandy Powell, CAROL





nominees:


Paco Delgado, THE DANISH GIRL
Odile Dicks-Mireaux, BROOKLYN 
Janet Patterson, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
Anaïs Romand, SAINT LAURENT





MAKEUP & HAIR


GOODNIGHT MOMMY 




nominees:

CAROL
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
PHOENIX



SOUND


SON OF SAUL




nominees:

IT FOLLOWS 
THE REVENANT 
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
WILD TALES





SOUND EDITING


LOVE & MERCY





nominees:

THE BIG SHORT
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
SON OF SAUL
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS 




VISUAL EFFECTS

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD



nominees:

EX-MACHINA
JUPITER ASCENDING
JURASSIC WORLD
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Saturday, February 27, 2016

top 10 films of 2015

Better late than never. Here are my Top 10 films of 2015. The jdbawards should be posted soon!

A look back at 2014. 



10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens




Giddy, corny and nimble, J.J. Abrams' Star Wars sequel was a nostalgic trip with some familiar faces and fresh leads.




9. Son of Saul



Plunges into the life of a member of the Sonderkommando in close-ups and his ambiguous quest to save a boy. The atrocities are blurred, out-of-focus or suggested aurally in the haunting sound mixing--which leaves an emotional bruising effect. Particularly astounding is that this is Hungarian director László Nemes's first film.



8. Tangerine



Shot on iPhones, we follow the lives of Sin-De-Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodrigue) and Alexandra (an excellent and affecting Mya Taylor) on a whirlwind of a Christmas Eve in L.A. The bold hilarity is rooted in pain.


7. Brooklyn



While it's definitely a feel-good, old-fashioned, gold-tinted coming-of-age tale. John Crowley's elegantly directed gem, based upon Colm Toibin's novel, taps into a profound ache of separation.


6. Timbuktu



A bitterly witty and devastating fable of a cattle herder and his family within a small city under occupation.  



5. Wild Tales



Damián Szifron's spirited and sharp Argentinean anthology film delves into issues of class and violence in the modern world with a keen eye, personal extremities and dark comedy.






Another Manhattan Valentine from Noah Baumbach, who teamed up with star Greta Gerwig on the sublime Frances Ha. Mistress America is not as arresting artistically but it's a warmer film, almost John Hughes-ish (with a Dean & Britta synth score) following the travails of a Columbia grad and a misfit dreamer.


3. The Big Short



Not a big fan of Adam McKay's slapstick bro comedies, I was surprised and disarmed by his absurdist tale of absurd institutions in an absurd world. Risky, tacky, sardonic and biting with dashes into genre-breaking, The Big Short is an entertaining, on-the-nose and weirdly lithe indignation of American greed.



2. It Follows



The best horror film of the year and one of the year's most entrancing films overall, It Follows creates its own atmosphere in the Detroit suburbs with its lush photography (by Mike Gioulakis) and its terrorized, emphatic victims. Disasterpiece's score kills.



1. Carol




This one hit me immediately with Carter Burwell's haunting Glass-lite score, Edward Lachmann's photography and all of Todd Haynes' breathtaking details; visually, it's a masterwork. But within all the period sets and Sandy Powell's beguiling dress-ups, lie extraordinary, intimate performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara playing a seemingly mismatched pair falling for one another in 50s New York.



And the best of the rest:

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Far from the Madding Crowd, Amy, Phoenix, The Gift, Spy, Room, Spotlight, Diary of a Teenage Girl, The End of the Tour, Saint Laurent, Beasts of No Nation, The Revenant, Sicario, The Duke of Burgundy, Love & Mercy, Clouds of Sils Maria, Grandma, Goodnight Mommy, The Hateful Eight, Ricki & the Flash, Something, Anything, Maps to the Stars, Inside Out, Finders Keepers, White God, Bridge of Spies,Trainwreck, I'll See You in My Dreams, Girlhood, All Things Must Pass, Bluebird, While We're Young, Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex-Machina, Unfriended, Testament of Youth, Iris, '71, We Are Still Here, Eastern Boys, The Wolfpack, Approaching the Elephant, Going Clear, The Final Girls, Dope

Thursday, February 25, 2016

feelin' french: profite




This dreamy French remix by Kazy Lambist of Moi Je's "Profite" is magnifique.




Also loved the remixer's single, "Doing Yoga."

Wednesday, February 24, 2016