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

clemency

By happenstance, two well-done films about the death penalty, in particular about black male lives lost to this system, have been released over the past week. Just Mercy is a stirring Hollywood studio social drama based upon Bryan Stevenson's advocacy on the behalf of the incarcerated. Clemency, a sobering tale directed with precision and little flair by Chinonye Chukwu, moves in closer to the cogs within the system, centering upon a Warden named Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard). The name Bernadine is of French origin, meaning "strong as a bear." We are introduced to her simply and evocatively on the night of an execution. Dressed in a dark navy suit, she is poised, unemotional, and yet seeming to bear the weight of years of wearying witnessing. In the tick of the clock and a beeping heart monitor, the execution turns out to be botched; this is a lethal injection that does not go in the "smooth way" Bernadine is perhaps accustomed to. Suddenly her bearish strength is seemingly shaken. The death sets the stage for the spare title card and Bernadine's character study. Upon the lead-up to the execution of another man, an accused cop killer Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), we see moments of Bernadine's resolve and when she occasionally breaks. Her marriage to her benevolent husband (Wendell Pierce) is stilted, she sleeps poorly, she gives into drinking. She, as another character says, is living in "fragments."

Considering its subject matter, I feel trepidation in calling Clemency a "dull picture." Yet capturing "dullness" is Chukwu's strength in this particular study. With the aid of cinematographer Eric Branco, the film is either darkly lit or somberly gray: a white-gray patch of sky covered by a chain-linked fence. The movie is often deathly quiet with some intrusions--the snatches of the sound of protesters outside Bernadine's office, the muted music of a bar, the shadowy metal sounds of the prison, or the warbling electronic score that comes and goes by Kathryn Bostic (one cue, with a breathy, desperate vocal hovering above droning synths, is especially akin to Bernadine's predicament).

We never quite reach an emotional catharsis with Bernadine as maybe we as an audience hope for. Unlike Just Mercy, this film purposely thwarts any sense of hope or uplift. What's done is done and can never be undone. But Woodard brings a subtlety and unique beauty to her turn that's quietly extraordinary. The tenor of her voice, every glance, even a quick little backhanded wave, is flooded with pathos. There is ultimately no actressy, teary, river-rush release, but instead a constant, stringent holding-back. When she breaks into a smile within a drunken state, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of joy, but also sadness, knowing the alcohol would drown Bernadine's stress and pain only temporarily. In a showier role, so to speak, Aldis Hodge brings forth an array of depth and emotion to his character. Both are quite powerful as a duet--characters both entrenched in a sad system from very different angles. ***


-Jeffery Berg