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Forget Me Not
Anselm
by George Wolf
Give a few minutes to Wim Wenders’s Anselm, and you may be inspired to make up some new words to describe the experience.
Like awesommersive. Or historiography.
The film wows you from the outset, as Wenders (Pina, Wings of Desire, Paris Texas) follows German artist Anselm Kiefer around his studio. The use of 3-D (and 6k resolution!) isn’t there to hurl objects from the screen to your eyeholes, but instead to surround you with artistic vision that is often as massive in scale as it is in meaning.
While Wenders does present some layers of biography, it’s clear that the overarching purpose here is to document Kiefer’s work and the mission that continues to drive his “protest against forgetting.” For decades, Kiefer has stood as a provocateur intent on exposing the “open wound of German history,” and Wenders has crafted a mesmerizing ode that delivers an appropriately mixed media aesthetic.
Archival footage permits the older and younger Anselm to become one. We hear his declarations of seeing through the world through a different lens, and then witness the creative process that convinces us it is undoubtedly so.
And even if you don’t know Kiefer from Sutherland, Anselm is a big screen experience that is not to be missed. As much about the art as it is about the artist, Anselm is an unforgettable journey into what makes both so necessary and vital.
Nom Nom Nom 2024
by Hope Madden and George Wolf
2023 was a great year for great movies, great screenplays, great performances, and great craftsmanship. Many of this year’s categories are stacked with deserving nominees., and overall, it was not a bad job by the Academy.
But we do have a few nits to pick.
Best picture
- “American Fiction”
- “Anatomy of a Fall”
- “Barbie”
- “The Holdovers”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Maestro”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Past Lives”
- “Poor Things”
- “The Zone of Interest”
Solid, but we would put “Godzilla Minus One” and “The Color Purple” in for “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest.”
Best actor
- Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”
- Colman Domingo, “Rustin”
- Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”
- Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
- Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”
All great choices.
Best actress
- Annette Bening, “Nyad”
- Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall”
- Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”
- Emma Stone, “Poor Things”
These are strong, but we would have loved to see Fantasia’s performance in “The Color Purple ” in Bening’s spot.
Best supporting actor
- Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction”
- Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”
- Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”
- Mark Ruffalo, “Poor Things”
All good here.
Best supporting actress
- Emily Blunt, “Oppenheimer”
- Danielle Brooks, “The Color Purple”
- America Ferrera, “Barbie”
- Jodie Foster, “Nyad”
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Very strong list.
Best director
- Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
- Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”
- Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
- Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”
No Bradley Cooper? No Greta Gerwig.? We take umbrage, and would put them in over Glazer and Triet.
International feature film
- “Io Capitano,” Italy
- “Perfect Days,” Japan
- “Society of the Snow,” Spain
- “The Teachers’ Lounge,” Germany
- “The Zone of Interest,” United Kingdom
Very nice.
Animated feature film
- “The Boy and the Heron”
- “Elemental”
- “Nimona”
- “Robot Dreams”
- “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Not a great year for animation, but these are worthy.
Adapted screenplay
- “American Fiction”
- “Barbie”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
- “The Zone of Interest”
We’d put “Barbie” in Original Screenplay and add “The Color Purple,” but okay.
Original screenplay
- “Anatomy of a Fall”
- “The Holdovers”
- “Maestro”
- “May December”
- “Past Lives”
Good choices.
Visual effects
- “The Creator”
- “Godzilla Minus One”
- “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
- “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
- “Napoleon”
Nice to see the relatively low budget “The Creator” included here.
Original score
- “American Fiction”
- “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
All strong, but where’s “Godzilla Minus One”? Criminal.
Original song
- “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”
- “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
- “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
- “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”
- “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”
We would have loved to see Road to Freedom from “Rustin” included in this category.
Documentary feature film
- “20 Days in Mariupol”
- “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
- “The Eternal Memory”
- “Four Daughters”
- “To Kill a Tiger”
“Anselm” should be here, and maybe “Still: A Michael J. Fox Story.”
Cinematography
- “El Conde”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Maestro”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
So great to see “El Conde” on this stellar list. It was beautiful, and hopefully this nomination will cause people to seek it out. But, to be honest, we’d have given its spot to “Barbie.“
Costume design
- “Barbie”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Napoleon”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
Animated short film
- “Letter to a Pig”
- “Ninety-Five Senses”
- “Our Uniform”
- “Pachyderme”
- “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”
Live action short film
- “The After”
- “Invincible”
- “Knight of Fortune”
- “Red, White and Blue”
- “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”
Documentary short film
- “The ABCs of Book Banning”
- “The Barber of Little Rock”
- “Island in Between”
- “The Last Repair Shop”
- “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”
Film editing
- “Anatomy of a Fall”
- “The Holdovers”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
We’d probably go with “Barbie” over “The Holdovers” here.
Sound
- “The Creator”
- “Maestro”
- “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “The Zone of Interest”
Production design
- “Barbie”
- “Killers of the Flower Moon”
- “Napoleon”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
Makeup and hairstyling
- “Golda”
- “Maestro”
- “Oppenheimer”
- “Poor Things”
- “Society of the Snow”
The 96th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air on ABC on Sunday, March 10, live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Screening Room: I.S.S., Origin, All of Us Strangers, Founders Day, Cult Killer, Sunrise, Freud’s Last Session, Project Dorothy
Hiding in Plain Sight
Origin
by George Wolf
Origin is so loaded with theories, facts and history, you may wonder why writer/director Ava DuVernay didn’t just make the film a documentary. After all, 2016’s 13th showed DuVernay can certainly command the genre.
I’m guessing she gives us the answer with a telling line of dialog: “Real people, real things.”
The main character, Isabel Wilkerson, is a real, extraordinary person, and author of the source book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” And the film works as well as it does because of how well DuVernay unveils both the results of Wilkerson’s work and the personal journey that made it possible.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s tremendous turn as Wilkerson doesn’t hurt, either.
We first meet Wilkerson shortly after the news of Trayvon Martin’s murder first breaks. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist is looking to take some time off to care for her elderly mother, but her colleagues (Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga) are hoping she can address the issue in print.
Even Wilkerson’s husband Brett (a wonderful Jon Bernthal) thinks she’s happier working, but Isabel is hesitant.
“I don’t write questions, I write answers,” she explains. And Isabel finds many lingering questions in the Martin murder, the Charlottesville tragedy, and the increasing drumbeat of fascism in America. Her mind is restless, because while racism is a symptom, using it as “a primary language to understand everything isn’t sufficient.”
But as Isabel suffers heartache and loss in her personal life, she researches history in Germany, India, and America’s Deep South to find the connective tissue she sought – caste systems perpetuated through unending violence until they’re accepted as the natural order.
DuVernay utilizes Wilkerson’s classroom presentations, conversations with her cousin Marion (Niecy Nash, terrific) and fact-finding interviews as sufficiently organic vehicles for flashback. The history lessons are rife with discovery and heartbreak, and compelling enough to keep a firm grip on your attention.
There are flashbacks to Isabel’s personal history as well, including a look at her relationship with Brett that is tender, funny and poignant, buoyed by the sweet chemistry between Ellis-Taylor and Bernthal.
And though the third act can get especially lecture heavy, the material works as a narrative whole because DuVernay finds her own layer of tissue that connects us to both the real people and the real things.
The cycle of trauma -be it personal or systemic – can only be broken by confronting it. Origin confronts it with questions and answers, humanity and inhumanity, in ways compelling enough to change the very way we look at the world around us.
Fright Club: Unexpected Guests in Horror
It’s one of the oldest tropes in horror: an unexpected knock at the door. Maybe the visitors are in danger: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Human Centipede, The Old Dark House and countless others. Or, maybe it’s the folks inside who should be afraid: Knock, Knock; Brimstone and Treacle. For our 10th anniversary special, we count down the best “unexpected guest” horror.
5. The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
The Eyes of My Mother will remind you of many other films, and yet there truly is no film quite like this one.
First time feature writer/director Nicolas Pesce, with a hell of an assist from cinematographer Zach Kuperstein, casts an eerie spell of lonesome bucolic horror.
Shot in ideal-for-the-project black and white, an Act 1 event could come from any number of horror films. A mother looks out her window to see her young daughter, playing alone in the front lawn, talking with a stranger. There is something clearly wrong with the stranger, and things take a bad turn. But for Pesce, this simple, well-worn set-up offers endless unexplored possibilities. Because this bad man doesn’t realize that the isolated farm family he’s come to harm is very comfortable with dissection.
4. The Strangers (2008)
“Is Tamara home?”
Writer/director Bryan Bertino creates an awful lot of terror beginning with that line.
A couple heads to an isolated summer home after a wedding. It was meant to be the first stop on their life together, or so we gather, but not all worked out as James (Scott Speedman) had planned. As he and what he’d hoped would be his fiancé, Kristen (Liv Tyler), sit awkwardly and dance around the issue, their very late night is interrupted by a knock and that immediately suspicious question.
Bertino beautifully crafts his first act to ratchet up suspense, with lovely wide shots that allow so much to happen quietly in a frame. This is a home invasion film with an almost unbearable slow burn.
3. Funny Games (1997, 2007)
A family pulls into their vacation lake home, and are quickly bothered by two young men in white gloves. Things, to put it mildly, deteriorate.
Writer/director Michael Haneke begins this nerve wracking exercise by treading tensions created through etiquette, toying with subtle social mores and yet building dread so deftly, so authentically, that you begin to clench your teeth long before the first act of true violence.
But it is the villains who sell the premise. Whether German actors Arno Frisch and Frank Giering or Americans Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt for his 2007 English language remake, the bored sadism that wafts from these kids is seriously unsettling, as, in turn, is the film.
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.
Two young, ordinary, healthy kids left Denton that fateful evening on a night out. It was a night out they were going to remember for a very long time.
Brad Majors (asshole) and Janet Weiss (slut) get themselves in a bit of a pickle on a rainy night and need to seek a telephone at that castle they past a few miles back. I think you know the rest.
1. The Black Cat (1934)
Rocky Horror owes a tremendous debt to Edgar G. Ulmer’s bizarre horror show. The film – clearly precode – boasts torture, tales of cannibalism, and more than the hint of necromancy.
Plus Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff?! What is not to love?
Loosely based on Poe’s The Black Cat – so loose in fact that it bears not a single moment’s resemblance to the short – the film introduces Lugosi’s Dr. Vitus Werdegast. He’s come to seek vengeance on Karloff’s mysterious Hjalmar Poelzig, if only Werdegast can overcome his all-consuming terror of cats!
Honey Don’t
The Beekeeper
by George Wolf
About two-thirds of the way through The Beekeeper, director David Ayer and star Jason Statham hit us with the film’s highlight. It’s an elevator sequence that takes an unexpectedly gory turn, then adds a clever surprise for the finishing touch.
If only the rest of the film could be this interesting.
Statham is playing his usual one man killing machine, this time named Adam Clay. He’s living a quiet and reclusive life as a beekeeper in rural Massachsetts, until a cybercrime firm scams Clay’s only friend (Phylicia Rashad) so badly she kills herself.
Clay takes very explosive, very lethal revenge.
But the phishing firm’s CEO Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson in hipster douchebag mode) has friends is high places, including a former CIA director (Jeremy Irons, classing up the joint). Danforth wants Clay taken out, but he soon learns that will not be so easy.
See, Clay is more than a beekeeper, he’s a former beekeeper, an elite group of enforcers who are outside the chain of command and charged only with “protecting the hive when the system is out of balance.”
Bad news for anyone standing between Clay and the scale-tipping Danforth.
Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Expend4bles, the Point Break and Total Recall reboots) rolls out a script that feels like a discarded idea from Denzel’s first Equalizer film. Each step closer to “the head of the snake” gets more ridiculous, all presented with a bone dry seriousness from Ayer (Fury, Suicide Squad) and Statham that screams for a little self awareness.
Instead, The Beekeeper keeps pushing toward its own misguided goal of sermonizing about corruption while celebrating vigilante vengeance. Where it lands – elevator ride aside – is strictly in plug-and-play Statham territory, another ironic reminder of why his comedic turn in Spy was such a joyous bullseye.
Screening Room: Night Swim, Society of the Snow, Memory, Good Grief, The Bricklayer
Survive and Advance
Society of the Snow
by George Wolf
2012’s The Impossible proved director J.A. Bayona could recreate a real life disaster with heart-racing precision, and then mine the intimate aftermath to find a touching depth.
Since then, he’s had his big screen mind on monsters, with results both miraculous (A Monster Calls) and mixed (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Now, Netflix’s Society of the Snow finds Bayona back in the true adventure business.
And his business in Society of the Snow is heartbreakingly, thrillingly, unbelievably good.
It’s the latest account of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, a legendary ordeal that has been detailed in several books and films over the last five decades plus. Bayona read Pablo Vierci’s “La Sociedad de la Nieve” while researching The Impossible, bought the rights soon after, and now teams with co-writers Bernat Vilaplana and Jaime Marques for a harrowing and fittingly reverent treatment.
Following Vierci’s lead, Bayona makes sure we get to know many of the members of the ill-fated Uruguayan rugby team, who were on their way to a long weekend in Chili when their plane – carrying 40 passengers and 5 crew members – went down among the snowy peaks.
After an introduction that endears the young men to us via enthusiastic friendship and youthful naïveté, Bayona pulls us into the crash experience with a spectacular, terrifying set piece almost guaranteed to whiten your knuckles and quicken your pulse.
It’s a stunner, as it should be, because it anchors the film in a survival mode that will be tested beyond what most people could ever imagine.
The ensemble cast, filled mainly with newcomers, is deeply affecting. The survivors will be pushed to their physical, moral and spiritual breaking points, and these young actors make sure not one exhausting second of it feels false.
Bayona and cinematographer Pedro Lugue present the Andes as a beautiful monster in its own right, capable of majesty and menace in equal measure. The smaller you feel, the better, so experience this one on the biggest screen you can find.
Forget what you know. Even if you’re aware of what these people went through, Society of the Snow will reframe the tale with a deeper level of humanity and courage. And should this legend be new to you, resist the urge to research until after you’ve seen Bayona’s take.
It’s one unforgettable journey.
2023 COFCA Nominations
Nominees for the 22nd annual Columbus Film Critics Association awards
(Columbus, December 31, 2023) The Columbus Film Critics Association is pleased to announce the nominees for its 22nd annual awards. Winners will be announced on the evening of January 4th, 2024.
Founded in 2002, the Columbus Film Critics Association is comprised of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio and its surrounding areas. Its membership consists of 28 print, radio, television, and online critics. COFCA’s official website at www.cofca.org contains links to member reviews and past award winners.
The 2023 Columbus Film Critics Association awards nominees are:
Best Film
–American Fiction
–Barbie
–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
–The Holdovers
–The Iron Claw
–Killers of the Flower Moon
–May December
–Oppenheimer
–Past Lives
–Poor Things
–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
–The Zone of Interest
Best Director
-Greta Gerwig, Barbie
-Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
-Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Celine Song, Past Lives
Best Lead Performance
-Bradley Cooper, Maestro
-Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Colman Domingo, Rustin
-Zac Efron, The Iron Claw
-Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Greta Lee, Past Lives
-Carey Mulligan, Maestro
-Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
-Margot Robbie, Barbie
-Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
-Emma Stone, Poor Things
-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Supporting Performance
-Penélope Cruz, Ferrari
-Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
-Jodie Foster, Nyad
-Ryan Gosling, Barbie
-Glenn Howerton, Blackberry
-Charles Melton, May December
-Julianne Moore, May December
-Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
-Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Best Ensemble
–Asteroid City
–Barbie
–The Color Purple
–Killers of the Flower Moon
–Oppenheimer
–Poor Things
Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
-Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka), Inside, and Poor Things
-Matt Damon, Air and Oppenheimer
-Colman Domingo, The Color Purple, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, Rustin, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
-Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute) and The Zone of Interest
-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction, Asteroid City, and Rustin
Breakthrough Film Artist
-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon – (for acting)
-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction – (for directing and screenwriting)
-Charles Melton, May December – (for acting)
-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers – (for acting)
-Celine Song, Past Lives – (for directing and screenwriting)
Best Cinematography
-Matthew Libatique, Maestro
-Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie
-Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Robbie Ryan, Poor Things
-Hoyte Van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
Best Film Editing
-Michael Andrews, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
-Kirk Baxter, The Killer
-Nick Houy, Barbie
-Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer
-Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Poor Things
-Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Adapted Screenplay
-Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
-Tony McNamara, Poor Things
-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
-Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Original Screenplay
-Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Asteroid City
-Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December
-Sean Durkin, The Iron Claw
-Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
-David Hemingson, The Holdovers
-Celine Song, Past Lives
-Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)
Best Score
-Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things
-Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer
-Laura Karpman, American Fiction
-Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Naoki Satô, Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
Best Documentary
–20 Days in Mariupol
–32 Sounds
–American Symphony
–Anselm (Anselm – Das Rauschen der Zeit)
–Kokomo City
–Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Foreign Language Film
–Afire (Roter Himmel)
–Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)
–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)
–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
–Perfect Days
–The Zone of Interest
Best Animated Film
–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)
–Elemental
–Nimona
–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
–Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy
–American Fiction
–Asteroid City
–Barbie
–Bottoms
–The Holdovers
–No Hard Feelings
–You Hurt My Feelings
Best Overlooked Film
–Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
–Blackberry
–Rye Lane
–Showing Up
–Theater Camp
–You Hurt My Feelings
COFCA offers its congratulations to the nominees.
Previous Best Film winners:
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Lost in Translation
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: A History of Violence
2006: Children of Men
2007: No Country for Old Men
2008: WALL·E
2009: Up in the Air
2010: Inception
2011: Drive
2012: Moonrise Kingdom
2013: Gravity
2014: Selma
2015: Spotlight
2016: La La Land
2017: Lady Bird
2018: If Beale Street Could Talk
2019: Parasite (Gisaengchung)
2020: Promising Young Woman
2021: The Power of the Dog
2022: The Banshees of Inisherin
For more information about the Columbus Film Critics Association, please visit www.cofca.org or e-mail info@cofca.org.
The complete list of members and their affiliations:
Richard Ades (Columbus Free Press); Dwayne Bailey (Bailey’s Buzz); Adam Barney (The Film Coterie); Sam Brady (I Am Sam Reviews); Logan Burd (Cinema or Cine-meh?); Kevin Carr (www.FatGuysattheMovies.com, Westwood One); Michael Cavender (cinedump.com, pophorror.com); Bill Clark (www.fromthebalcony.com); Olie Coen (Archer Avenue, DVD Talk); John DeSando (90.5 WCBE); Johnny DiLoretto (90.5 WCBE, PencilStorm.com); Chris Feil (FilmMixTape.com, TheFilmExperience.net); Mark Jackson (MovieManJackson.com, ThatMomentIn.com); Brad Keefe (freelance); Kristin Dreyer Kramer (NightsAndWeekends.com, 90.5 WCBE); Adam Kuhn (Corndog Chats); Roger Legg (The Film Coterie, Faith and Film); Hope Madden (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Paul Markoff (Filmbound); Denny O’Leary (Columbus Free Press); Lori Pearson (Kids-in-Mind.com, critics.com); Mark Pfeiffer (Filmbound, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema); Melissa Starker (Freelance); Brandon Thomas (MaddWolf.com); Rachel Willis (MaddWolf.com); George Wolf (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Jason Zingale (Bullz-Eye.com); Nathan Zoebl (NathanZoebl.com, Psycho Drive-In).
