rebuilding

My review of Max Walker-Silverman's Rebuilding is now up at Film-Forward.

Josh O'Connor is continuing his streak of excellent taciturn turns.

via Bleecker Street 

jay kelly

There's an appropriately wistful atmosphere to Noah Baumbach's rambling, occasionally grand Jay Kelly. To care about an uber-rich movie star (George Clooney) and his overworked, but privileged manager (Adam Sandler)... in this economy? Perhaps it's precisely because the film is so out of sync with the current mood that it becomes oddly appealing. At the New York Film Festival, it played like a brief salve out of a slate of more distressing, intricate and formally complicated pictures. 

Clooney agnostics may struggle to connect with Jay Kelly, a self-absorbed performer, whose Sharpied-over gray hairs and ice-crackling-in-a-glass-of-bourbon charm, doesn't stray much from the actor's public persona. Before Clooney became the slick, classy, Oscar-winning movie star in the tradition of Cary Grant (name-checked, along with a slew of other icons), he was the heartthrob doc on ER, a juggernaut from the bygone era when millions watched the same TV episode at the same time. We learn little about Kelly's career, beyond its obvious financial success (perhaps, artistically dubious). The opening sequence, an impressively mounted peek at the busy, multifaceted efforts of a film crew upon a faux-Brooklyn soundstage, ends with Kelly giving a halting, dramatic monologue before his picture wrap. Variations of that sequence echo throughout the film. 

In the present day storyline, Kelly is a solitary figure with no romantic partner, though he's constantly surrounded by people who rush and buzz around him. His closest relationship is with longtime manager, Ron (Sandler), though the two talk at each other more than with one another. It's like a marriage grown stale, their conversations running on separate melodic lines. His publicist, Liz (Laura Dern, in manic worrywart mode reminiscent of, but more redundant than her role in Is This Thing On?), is high strung and incessantly frazzled by every Kelly schedule change and slipup.

There's a relative emotional aloofness among his family as well. Kelly's youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) is beginning to forge a new path in her early twenties, off to travel the world. A scene between them at their backyard pool immediately recalls a key father-daughter moment from Alexander Payne's Clooney-starrer The Descendants (perhaps a coincidence, though Baumbach's film often seems to wear its cinematic references lovingly on its sleeve). Kelly is much less close to his eldest, Jessica (Riley Keough), a grade-school teacher who still carries the traumas of his long absences during her childhood. When he mentions traveling to Tuscany to receive a lifetime achievement award, no one seems eager to join him.

The death of a cherished director, Peter (Jim Broadbent), who gave Kelly his first big break, combined with a run-in with an old acting colleague, Timothy (Billy Crudup), cracks open a layer of long repressed introspection for Kelly. Flashbacks, with Charlie Rowe as the younger Kelly, unfold as if guided along by Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Past, with Kelly sometimes speaking aloud, even though no one can hear him. These moments underline his lingering loneliness.

The film drifts through multiple cinematic moods as it traverses from L.A. to Paris to Tuscany. It's a risky move that produces tonal unevenness, with some sections far more engaging than others. The beginning resembles a sunbaked L.A. satire of failed actors, cult directors, and smarmy, sunglassed therapists (Josh Hamilton plays Jessica's). An unexpected  train ride to Paris, packed with the most whimsical assortment of characters imaginable, has the tone of a fizzy, madcap French comedy, complete with religious, Christ-complex iconography. The Tuscany stretch, featuring a perfectly-cast Stacy Keach as Kelly's father, nears the spinning atmosphere of Fellini (Jay Kelly sometimes reminds one of its more rigorous influences like Robert Altman's The Player, Fellini's 8 1/2 and Bob Fosse's showbiz fever nightmare All That Jazz).

With the exception of its killer, ironic final sequence, the comedy in Jay Kelly often feels strained. An unfunny gag about cheesecake runs throughout. And despite Sandler's genuinely affecting turn, his broadly-played scenes with his daughter and a distracting, miscast Greta Gerwig as his wife, designer sunglasses perched upon her head, feel unnecessary and undercooked (would his character be more mysterious if these scenes had been cut?).

The crafts, however, sometimes save the film from slipping into the abyss. Nicholas Britell's beautiful score is a highlight, smoothing out the film's jagged shifts and erraticism. Lush and old fashioned, it features a string motif that recalls Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade." Linus Sandgren's cinematography is equally rich and exquisite.

In post-2020 especially, there is ongoing discourse about the death of movies and the movie star. Jay Kelly, financed by Netflix and arriving in a particularly sluggish Hollywood year, especially for that elusive, midbudget adult drama, stirs a languid longing. Can a film be both corny and so ravishing and elegant at once? Those overstuffed 1960s Hollywood musicals and Jay Kelly fit that bill. ***

-Jeffery Berg

nuremberg

 

My review of James Vanderbilt's Nuremberg is now up at Film-Forward.

I thought the cast overall was good, particularly Russell Crowe (his best performance in quite some time), Michael Shannon, and Richard E. Grant.

The epic-scope approach is quite overcooked and overlong, with simplistic subplots, but the main story between Douglas Kelley and Hermann Göring is fascinating. 

via Sony Pictures Classics

christy

To my surprise, I was won over by Christy. A scrappy sports bio with a strong survivor as its subject.

My Film-Forward is up here!

via Black Bear Pictures

die my love

 

My review of the much-anticipated (and divisive!) Lynne Ramsay film, Die My Love, is now up at Film-Forward.

via Mubi

sirāt

When people say they want to be "blown away by a movie," they should probably check out Sirāt.

New teaser trailer below!

via NEON

sentimental value

Neon has released a new trailer for Sentimental Value.

This is my favorite film of the year so far.

via Neon

re-animator

My first collection of poems, Re-Animator, forthcoming from Indolent Books in 2026, is now available to preorder!

See here for a link from Indolent Books to purchase.

"In this incisive, deliciously specific collection, Jeffery Berg inspirits the relics and ghosts of an American childhood and youth that is at once arrestingly familiar, fantastical, and fraught. Whether he’s evoking Jason from Friday the 13th or invoking the lyrics of “We Are the World,” he traces the masks and acts that disguise and reveal, while unraveling and reweaving the veils of identity, gender, and place. “I rewrite, I myth-make / the discos, cracked records, / Astaire, and bodies that didn’t make it / this long,” Berg writes. “I rework them into air, / into glass, shimmering, pricked / into a slivery frock / above pits of this earth.” Re-Animator takes us back and leads us forward, as we revisit our past and so reclaim our present, with generosity and wisdom."

—David Groff

poetry reading tonight

Reading poems tonight with Michael Montlack & David Groff, with music by Window Dancer in Ridgewood (my old stomping grounds).

belén

Sometimes a straightforward, no frills style is effective for a political film. Dolores Fonzi's Belén communicates momentous events through an unembellished lens. Taking place in the Tucumán region of Argentina, where it was also shot, the film is based upon a nonfiction book, Somos Belén by Ana Correa, which details the real-life case of a woman wrongfully charged for infanticide. The case sparked a national movement, and ultimately aided in the country's legalization of abortion.  

The film opens with a harrowing hospital sequence of Julieta (a searing performance by Camila Plaate), unaware of her pregnancy, suffering a miscarriage. She is treated bizarrely, including a disturbing moment where she is suddenly shown a dead fetus by medical staff. Without an investigation, Julieta is promptly arrested and subjected to a rushed, poorly handled trial, that reeks of patriarchy, classism, and Christofascism. She is accused of murdering her child in the hospital bathroom. Her appointed lawyer (Julieta Cardinali) is cold and subtly insidious, displaying disdain for her client, blaming the false accusations on post-partum stress. Julieta is imprisoned, her story seemingly one of many swept under the rug. 

Fonzi, who impressively directs, co-writes, and stars, plays Soledad Deza, a dedicated attorney who assembles a group of women determined ot fight for Julieta's freedom. Soledad understands that they need more than just a case, but a sweeping political movement behind them. At first, in hopes of drumming up public support, a glib morning talk show of an old friend patronizes Soledad, pitting her against a surprie virulent anti-abortion guest. But slowly, momentum builds, garnering national attention (this is the era of "Gangnam Style" dance videos, which figures in the film as a contrasting. frivolous example of a vrial moment). To protect Julieta’s identity, Soledad and her team refer to her as "Belén," a name rich in symbolism, meaning "Bethlehem," the birthplace of Christ.

The film traces the ups and downs of Soledad's mission. There are scenes of rocks through windows, children being threatened, and quests for files. These are familiar crime drama tropes, but in this specific story, they are urgent and tense. Meanwhile, glimpses into Julieta / Belén's life reveal her suffocating sentence, where she is judged harshly by some of the other women in jail. 

I love the way Fonzi strikingly populates the film with women, who are well-meaning, and not, well-off and poor, in the forefront and in the background (a stoic-looking prison guard becomes unexpectedly benevolent). Down-to-earth, yet, winning and confident, Fonzi guides this ship with steely determination, both in performance and behind the camera.

The film's final act centers upon the verdict and its aftermath. These final scenes are played with poignant restraint, especially by Plaate. Under heavy bangs, cascading black curls and sad, downturned eyes, Julieta / Belén is finally able to let her emotions surface.

Belén is Argentina's entry for International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. 

pillion

Pillion plays like a fizzy romcom, except with deep dramatic undertones.

"While quietly composed, Alexander Skarsgård is doing tricky, believable work—sometimes a seemingly empty pain behind Ray’s eyes and an occasional inner wrestling feels tangible."

My New York Film Festival review of Pillion is now up at Film-Forward.

via A24

the mastermind

I enjoyed the early 70s, muddled, blurry feel of Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind. 

Another fine character study from her. 

My New York Film Festival Film-Forward review here.

via Mubi

the secret agent

Neon has dropped the official poster and trailer for The Secret Agent. 

One of my favorites of the year so far!

via Neon

missing diane

 

We love and miss Diane Keaton.

roofman

I enjoyed Derek Cianfrance's (a more comedic departure for him) Roofman!

Kirsten Dunst is particularly exceptional in it.

Check out my review here at Film-Forward.

via Paramount.

urchin

 

My review of Harris Dickinson's impressive directorial debut, Urchin, is now up at Film-Forward.