Barry Jenkins is one of the finest working filmmakers of his generation. His films gorgeously express the lives of Black characters trying to create their own paths and their voices, especially in a world that refuses to acknowledge them. Unfortunately, I have only seen one, his haunting and excellent 2018 Best Picture Oscar-winner Moonlight, which made history as the first LGBTQ film to do so.
As much as I love that searing film, this pick of the week is about his 2008 directorial debut, Medicine for Melancholy, which is a film I really want to check out. Judging by the premise, it sounds like a small but resonant movie about minorities trying to survive in a rapidly refining city and world.
The story centers on San Franciscans Micah, a dedicated activist of social issues, and Joanne, a well-to-do professional, waking up together after drinking and a one-night stand. Things start off awkward, but the two start to develop romantic feelings for each other. But the more they talk and discuss, the more they realize how divided, politically and analytically, they really are, which obviously puts there budding relationship in jeopardy while the city they live in is displacing right in front of their eyes.
I always respect and treasure films like this because they are more centered around people and the real issues they deal with every single day. The characters are realistically flawed, the dialogue is sweeter and grounded, and the themes are those that we all face, whether we want to or not. And Medicine seems like a great film that showcases that.
The new Criterion Blu-ray has a new high-definition restoration that looks like it complements the film’s desaturated stock. It also looks to have a few informative supplements, such as a new solo commentary by Jenkins; a 2008 commentary with Jenkins, producers Justin Barber and Cherie Saulter, and editor Nat Sanders; a new making-of program, featuring Sanders and actor Wyatt Cenac (Micah); camera test footage; blooper reel; and a trailer. There’s also a new essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson.
For film collectors who love Jenkins and his work, as well as those who want an escape from the repetitive slate of superhero flicks, then this release sounds like a winner.
Other releases:
The Servant (Criterion): Joseph Losey’s sinister drama starring the great Dirk Bogarde as a manservant for James Fox’s dainty aristocrat. Soon after, the manservant’s insidious control and subtle manipulation seems to disrupt the role and relationship between master and servant.
The Manchurian Candidate (Kino 4K UHD): John Frankenheimer’s chilling 1962 Cold War masterpiece has Frank Sinatra trying to stop brainwashed Army buddy Laurence Harvey from committing an assassination against a presidential candidate.
Tales From the Gimli Hospital Redux (Kino): Guy Maddin’s surreal 1988 feature debut about two young children who are told by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the Lonely, his friend Gunnar, and the angelic Snjofridur in a Gimli of old, during a smallpox epidemic.
A Zed and Two Noughts and The Falls by Peter Greenaway (Kino): a new two-disc set containing two disturbing masterworks from the renowned British director: A Zed and Two Noughts (1985), a black comedy on sexual obsession and death, and The Falls (1980), a pseudo-documentary about a mysterious, apocalyptic phenomenon related to birds, flying, and bizarre invented languages.
