the morning after

A good year.

the 2016 jdb awards

Here are my personal film awards for the movies of 2016!

A look back at the previous year where Carol won 6.

Picture

MOONLIGHT

"You know, it used to be that watching a film was a very special occasion, the same way flying was. Before, if you took a flight from New York to L.A., most of the windows would be open. Now we get on planes and we just close them because we're so used to what it feels like. I think the same thing has happened with cinema. We've gotten so used to certain story forms. I think our movie is formally and structurally unorthodox. And I think it's why people's reactions have been so genuine, because the movie that we gave them is not more of the same. I guess it's more of us in a certain way. But people don't know who the fuck we are, so that's a unique thing." -Director Barry Jenkins

Nominees

AQUARIUS

CHRISTINE

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

HELL OR HIGH WATER

LA LA LAND

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

TONI ERDMANN

20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Director

Ciro Guerra, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT 

"I started with a script that was very concerned with scientific fact, being true to history, and it was, with all things, very clear. Everyday was marked, every location was set, and all the stories were just tremendously clear. But as I started sharing it with the indigenous peoples and discussing it with them, I realized this was doing something of a disservice, that this was not the way the script needed to work. So, it became more and more infused with Amazonian storytelling, with their myths, and then I realized it was no longer important to be accurate. I came to understand that imagination and dreams were as important to them as any fact." -Ciro Guerra

Nominees

Maren Ade, TONI ERDMANN

Damien Chazelle, LA LA LAND

Barry Jenkins, MOONLIGHT

Kenneth Lonergan, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Actor

Casey Affleck, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

"The idea of being the person at the center of it was daunting in some way, because it’s a really challenging part, having to convey an awful lot of the interior life of a person with almost no opportunity to speak to that. It really just has to be palpable in the way that he behaves, and the tone he takes with people, and the very, very few moments when he cracks. That was tough.

I also know Kenny’s writing is so good that there’s a lot to discover in the movie. It’s not something you can clearly see at first glance. You have to read it again and again, and hopefully by the time you’re on set, shooting it, you have a sense of what’s happening that is deeper than just the words that are being spoken." -Casey Affleck

Nominees

Colin Farrell, THE LOBSTER

Ryan Gosling, LA LA LAND

Peter Simonischek, TONI ERDMANN

Denzel Washington, FENCES

Actress

Rebecca Hall, CHRISTINE

"For me, it just felt so significant to humanize this person, because on a really sort of straightforward level, I think it’s easy to humanize characters in art that are heroic or kind, or even the ones who have terrible things happen to them, but are good victims. I think it’s crucial to try and humanize the ones that we’d all rather look away from, or that frighten us, or the ones you don’t understand." -Rebecca Hall

Nominees

Annette Bening, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Krisha Fairchild, KRISHA

Sandra Hüller, TONI ERDMANN

Isabelle Huppert, ELLE

Supporting Actor

Trevante Rhodes, MOONLIGHT

"Being a black person in America right now is shit, being a homosexual in America right now is shit, and being a black homosexual is the bottom for certain people. That’s why I’m so excited for people to see Moonlight. I don’t feel like there’s a solution for our problems, but this movie might change people. That’s why you do it — because you feel like you’re doing something that matters. This is someone’s story." -Trevante Rhodes

Nominees

Tom Bennett, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Jeff Bridges, HELL OR HIGH WATER 

Lucas Hedges, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Nilbio Torres, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT 

Supporting Actress

Paulina García, LITTLE MEN

"I wanted her to be a woman who tried her very best in moments of turmoil, she’s living in a very extreme situation, pressured to make life-changing decisions she is asked to make as soon as possible." -Paulina García 

Nominees

Robyn Fairchild, KRISHA

Naomie Harris, MOONLIGHT

Rachel Weisz, THE LOBSTER

Michelle Williams, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Original Screenplay

Maren Ade, TONI ERDMANN

"I always want that when there are two characters, there are two sides. I don’t like identification when you don’t feel free anymore. But you feel free because you can decide which one of the characters you identify with, and it’s even freer because these characters have not decided on things themselves—this is really important for me. On the other side, I come as close as possible to their conflict. It’s not like I say I want identification—some films do this, that’s not my main intention—it’s more that I want to try to create the situation where I can look behind the characters, or that there is always something more going on than the things they say. People ask me how I create this awkward feeling and so on, and I think that more than the film itself being awkward, this sense of awkwardness more comes out of the fact that you maybe find yourself in the characters. For me a film has to be something where you walk around a little bit, so identification without freedom doesn’t work for me." -Ade

Nominees

Efthymis Filippou & Yorgos Lanthimos, THE LOBSTER

Kenneth Lonergan, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Mike Mills, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Taylor Sheridan, HELL OR HIGH WATER

Adapted Screenplay

Whit Stillman, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

"The good thing about adapting good material is that you don’t have that horrible phase of either the blank page or the blank page filled with total nonsense that you need to throw out. So you start actually with good stuff, and then the problems come later. The problem is in how to use the good stuff so it works." -Stillman

Nominees

David Birke, ELLE

Ciro Guerra & Jacques Toulemonde Vidal, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

Barry Jenkins, MOONLIGHT

Rebecca Miller, MAGGIE'S PLAN

Ensemble

MOONLIGHT

Nominees

FENCES

HIDDEN FIGURES

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Foreign Film

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

Nominees

AQUARIUS

ELLE

THE HANDMAIDEN

TONI ERDMANN

Documentary

CAMERAPERSON

"I'm a documentarian of the old school, pre-the-internet, pre-smartphones when everyone has become a cameraperson. And we can't control what happens to the images that we shoot. So it really set me thinking about all of these ethical dilemmas that have always existed for me. But they have a different meaning now than they ever have before." -Director Kirsten Johnson

Nominees

13TH

THE WITNESS

Cinematography

David Gallego, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

"This is the first movie that we’ve done together, though he was an assistant cameraman on my previous film. He’s also my wife’s brother so we’re close and have been friends for a long time. He’s learned his craft the long way, from the camera loader to the focus puller to the camera assistant to the lighting assistant. He knows how to perform every function on the camera crew. He’s done it all and knows it inside out on a technical, detailed level. He has also developed such an eye, which is not about doing things pretty, but about storytelling and how every image should tell a story. He has a sensibility for that.

Also, with regard to this movie, I have to say that I have never seen anyone work so hard. He was just unbeatable. We would all be destroyed by the middle of the day’s shoot, but he would be there whenever I’d ask him to do something difficult. He was like the enemy in Terminator 2. He was relentless. That had a large part to do with the movie coming into being. He became a leader and pulled us all through in a way because he believed in it so much. For all the crew it became a personal experience. This movie demanded of everyone whatever they did in any other movie times ten." -Director Ciro Guerra on cinematographer David Gallego

Nominees

Chung-hoon Chung, THE HANDMAIDEN

Edward Lachman, WIENER-DOG

James Laxton, MOONLIGHT

Emmanuel Lubezki, KNIGHT OF CUPS

Film Editing

Joi McMillion & Nat Sanders, MOONLIGHT

"When we first did it, we were just going scene by scene and then when we watched it all together, we found there’s a rhythm and flow in one section that needed to be applied to the second act or vice versa." -McMillon

Nominees

Nells Bangerter, CAMERAPERSON

Tom Cross, LA LA LAND

Leslie Jones, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Jake Roberts, HELL OR HIGH WATER

Art Direction / Production Design

THE HANDMAIDEN

Nominees

CAFE SOCIETY

CHRISTINE

JACKIE

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Score

Justin Hurwitz, LA LA LAND 

"The way that Legrand married the jazz to the orchestration and had big band elements but also had the lush strings and winds and counterpoints was really a huge inspiration to me. My challenge on this movie was how do I be inspired by some of my favorite movies and musicals but do my own thing? I took certain approaches like the jazz for the orchestration, but ultimately tried to compose and orchestrate in a way that would sound like this movie and not like those older movies." -Hurwitz

Nominees

Nicholas Britell, MOONLIGHT

Hauschka & Dustin O'Halloran, LION

Abel Korzeniowski, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Cliff Martinez, THE NEON DEMON

Song

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)," LA LA LAND

"This song is optimistic, but also there’s pain in it. And Mia’s life isn’t resolved at the end of this. There’s something nice about not tying it up with a bow and making it too tidy at the end. This song is really special for me and I’m just so proud of it. I think it’s exactly what we envisioned this scene and this song would be. When Damien and I first started developing this, we had this musical we wanted to make. Nobody was letting us make it. We were so passionate about it and there didn’t seem to be a path to realize that dream of making La La Land. So we were feeling a lot of the same things that the characters in this movie are feeling: having these dreams, but not having permission to make your art yet. I still feel like a dreamer. I don’t feel accomplished yet, really. I don’t feel like I’ve arrived. I’d like to think that will always be the case because if I stop feeling like a dreamer, then I don’t think my music is going to be very good." -Hurwitz

Nominees

"Another Day of Sun," LA LA LAND

"City of Stars," LA LA LAND

"Runnin'," HIDDEN FIGURES

"Someone in the Crowd," LA LA LAND

Costume Design

Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

"So this is a little novella the she wrote, one of the first things that she wrote so it’s set earlier than most of her big novels like Pride & Prejudice and all of those. So we decided to set the film a little big earlier also, like late 1780s or 1790s, so the fashion between 1790 or even the mid 1790 really changed quite dramatically, a lot of it was influenced by the French revolution, historical events that were happening at the time. So that was the main that we spoke about at the beginning, is this going to work if we set this a bit earlier especially for Jane Austen when people already expect certain types of dresses. I really kind of pushed for setting it in the late 1780s. It’s a comedy as well, these big dresses, these really lend themselves to.. there’s such a drama about those costumes, I just felt  that it would really add to the performance, the door would open and she went swoosh into the room (laugh) and this huge dress o my gosh, these dresses are built for something like this, for drama and comedy and fun." -Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh

Nominees

Madeline Fontaine, JACKIE

Sang-gyeong Jo, THE HANDMAIDEN

Emma Potter, CHRISTINE

Mary Zophres, HAIL, CAESAR!

Make-Up & Hair

THE HANDMAIDEN

Nominees

DEADPOOL
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
THE NEON DEMON
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Sound

LA LA LAND

Nominees

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

KRISHA

MOONLIGHT

THE WITCH

Sound Editing

KRISHA

Nominees

CHRISTINE

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

LA LA LAND

MOONLIGHT

Visual Effects

THE JUNGLE BOOK

Nominees

ARRIVAL
KUBO & THE TWO STRINGS

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

top 10 films of 2016

A rough year in many respects but not, in my opinion, for film.

A look back at '15.

10.

20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Expecting a light coming-of-age yarn, I was surprised how deep this picture went. The characters, especially its women, and the '79 Santa Barbara setting are so lovingly realized by the cast and Writer / Director Mike Mills. 

9.

CHRISTINE

Unnerving slice of life of Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall, in a searing performance), a fluff piece, small-city Florida news anchor, who committed suicide on live TV. 

8.

HELL OR HIGH WATER

Broadly entertaining, nimble neo-Western noir of two brothers robbing from and avenging banks in Texas while two aging police chiefs are on their trail. Lots of fun bit parts (especially the tellers and the waitresses) and Jeff Bridges in full ham mode.

7.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Deliciously tart Austen adaptation shows off the genius of her writing and also fits like a glove for Writer / Director Whit Stillman's deft observing of social status shenanigans. Kate Beckinsale's wry and biting comic performance was a surprise for me as was Tom Bennett's bright, hilarious supporting turn as the film's doddering fool.

6.

AQUARIUS

I was completely absorbed in the subtle complexities of this story of a Brazilian woman (an amazing Sonia Braga) fiercely determined to stay in her apartment (and to preserve all its material and family history) despite threats from condominium developers. The ending is unforgettable.

5.

TONI ERDMANN

Maren Ade's funny drama of an uptight corporate shark (Sandra Hüller) and her silly, dilly-dallying, but deeply concerned father (Peter Simonischek) takes its time, and maneuvers itself in unexpected ways.

4.

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

I was gutted by Kenneth Lonergan's tragedy and Casey Affleck's perfect portrayal of bottled-up grief, but also oddly elevated that I had witnessed such a finely-crafted and performed film.

3.

LA LA LAND

Damien Chazelle's dreamy, just so slightly-exaggerated L.A. musical. An enjoyable, scrappy little bauble for most of its running time until its brilliantly-executed and bittersweet finale elevates it to a whole new level.

2.

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

I left the theater feeling completely changed  and haunted by Columbian writer / director Ciro Guerra's beautifully shot, eerie and intoxicating film on the ravages of colonialism. 

1.

MOONLIGHT

Moonlight is a quiet, quaint picture that ends up packing a powerful punch. The ensemble cast is sublime. Writer / Director Barry Jenkins' triptych structure is as daring as it is elegant. 

The best of the rest:

The Handmaiden, Elle, Fences, Wiener-Dog, Krisha, Little Men, Lion, Morris from America, Goat, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Everybody Wants Some!!, Maggie's Plan, Hidden Figures, The Witch, The Lobster, Finding Dory, Jackie, Divines, Other People, Cameraperson, Neruda, The Fits, Nocturnal Animals, Cafe Society, 13th, The Witness, Weiner, Knight of Cups, The Nice Guys, Hail, Caesar!, The Shallows, Cemetery of Splendor, Don't Breathe, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Hello, My Name is Doris, The Family Fang, Hush, Yosemite, Take Me to the River

-Jeffery Berg

the eyes of my mother

Wind through the trees. A farmhouse on a hill. Gray mist hanging over a barn. The black & white imagery is both stark and rich in Nicolas Pesce's debut film, The Eyes of My Mother, a horror folktale about a young woman who maims and chains victims in her barn after witnessing the murder of her mother. Her mother and father passed on a fascination with death, torture and the innards of human anatomy.

The Eyes of My Mother looms through years with little clues of what era it's in besides a glimpse of a Guess logo on blue jeans and an acid wash jacket. It's a pretty movie, almost cloyingly so. I guess the attempt is to marry gruesome imagery (and sound effects--like smacking on a mouse) with elegantly framed shots. The sound design is compelling as is the cinematography (by Zach Kuperstein) and Pesce's distinct cutting of the film. It's elliptical and quiet schlock gussied up with arty, Criterion flair, with scratchy turntable tunes and unnecessarily broken up into chapters (having seen this directly after Moonlight, which used a similar effect much more compellingly, made it seem even more trite). But there's both an airlessness to it and an air of pointlessness to it and the constant body horror, both alluded to and graphically shown, pushed my buttons too much. Some may counter, at least the film causes a reaction, especially in these times of disaffecting pics, though queasy carnage is an easy way to shock. Coupled with flat performances and a willful lack of camp or humor (which similarly- themed films like Psycho and 74's Texas Chainsaw bled so gracefully; or even the wondrous Motel Hell, which the vocal cordless screams conjured), the movie is a prettily filmed drag. There seems to be a few pretty indie horror movies of late with scant scripts that don't risk much aesthetically. At times I wish I could leave or sink into the Vincent Price movie on in the film's living room. This is not to say Pesce is a promising talent, especially as a director and editor--many moments are skillfully rendered and its chilly loneliness is palpable. But why can't schlock sometimes just be schlock instead of McDonald's served on fine china? **1/2

-Jeffery Berg

moonlight

In Barry Jenkins' artful and quietly masterful Moonlight, incidents shift like smoothly-rolling waves. There is a scene early where a man (Mahershala Ali) is teaching a young boy, Chiron (Alex Hibbert), to swim. He lifts his head above the surface of the water like a newborn and then shows him how to crawl. Water is a symbol of rebirth in the three stages we glimpse of Chrion's life--whether it's the dusk and night-time quiet of the ocean in the film's evocative Florida setting or an icy draw in a bathroom sink. Throughout, images are kept close, waist-up, as if we are swimming through them right above the surface of the sea. These moments are melded together beautifully by editors Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon. The cinematography by James Laxton grows more and more expressive, intimate and visually distinct throughout, as if we are experiencing the heightening of a young man's perceptions of his world as he ages.

In simplistic terms, Moonlight is about survival, about staying afloat, and adapting to environments through spirit and body. We watch Chrion grow from a wounded, quiet child into a wounded, quiet young man into a wounded, quiet adult in various states of physicality. A sexuality thwarted, a life undone. There are issues of queerness, blackness, of mass incarceration which are pivotal to the story-lines and the fates of these characters; but they are organic to the story and the situations not forced--they smolder like a flame slowly devouring paper.

Jenkins' adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney's play "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue," eschews the use of frequent flash-backing and deftly separates the film into three, fleeting chapters. The performances of Chrion are richly layered by a trio of actors (Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes), all excellent and potent. We see subtle reflections of one another in each turn, the way their eyelids move or the where they tend to land their stares. The rest of the cast, Ali as an early mentor, singer Janelle Monáe as his girlfriend, and Naomie Harris as Chrion's drug-addicted mother (a supremely difficult part and the only one we see in all three stages), are remarkably strong. Like the performances, the film feels urgent and bracing but tender and sensitive.

A diner scene backed by Barbara Lewis's "Hello Stranger" is one of the most crisp and fervent uses of a song since Claire Denis's use of the Commodore's "Nightshift" in 35 Shots of Rum. Watching the Rhodes and André Holland (also great) in the moment is an electric heartache. It could be off-putting to praise a production company and marketing campaign, but I admire the way A24 has refused to have this movie get lost in a plethora of streaming choices and showier pictures. They are creating unmissable movie-going, a way to witness great art in shared experience. I was compelled calmly throughout Moonlight, but hours afterwards, as if coming off a long ocean swim, I felt the ache of what I had witnessed, the rush of water in my ears. ****


-Jeffery Berg