Zach Berg
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midwestberg.bsky.social
Zach Berg
@midwestberg.bsky.social
Movie fanatic, sporadic novelist, sneakerhead, NBA lifer, former newspaper journalist in Iowa City and Peoria. Don’t diss Peoria or the Midwest around me.
Not something I thought I'd ever do, but I sold my Xbox for this very reason. I know one dork not buying Microsoft video games ever again is not going to stop the genocide in Gaza, but I hope more games/consumers will do it also.
If Microsoft siccing the FBI on their own employees for daring to protest isn’t enough to make you stop covering Xbox and Xbox-published games, we don’t know what to say anymore
August 26, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Nothing prepared me for how good Working Girl was. God bless @jowrotethis.bsky.social , @billsimmons.bsky.social @theringer.com.web.brid.gy for convincing me to watch. A rom-com made before the genre’s modern cliches were set, 3 incredible performances (Griffith, Ford, Weaver) & horrific hair.
June 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
This is all @blankcheck.bsky.social ‘s fault. And yes, I’m the heathen who thinks ET is just OK.
February 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I love the NYTimes. But for the love of god, can these stories about rich couples struggling to find their dream house with almost a million dollars stop being so high on the page? This is massively unrelatable to 95% of the country. Trump is burning the government, but we must care for rich kids?
February 13, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Zach Berg
hell yes for my favorite local restaurant (thanked in the acknowledgments of my most recent book) www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entert...
Cedar Rapids chef Andy Schumacher of Cobble Hill named James Beard Foundation semifinalist
The 2025 James Beard Foundation semifinalists are out. See which Iowa chefs and restaurants got recognized.
www.desmoinesregister.com
January 22, 2025 at 7:21 PM
So who do we have to roast for putting “Twin Peaks: The Return” was disappointing in the Hollywood Reporter’s obit for David Lynch?

The Eraserhead Boys will not stand for this!
January 16, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Im 100% safe in this situation.
January 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Just watched “Local Hero” (1983). I’ve found a new movie to obsess over. One of the most popular Scottish movies ever, it’s about an oilman going to Scotland to buy a town to replace it with a refinery. What happens next is funny, charming, human. Think Twin Peaks without the surreal stuff.
December 18, 2024 at 6:47 PM
Watched “Only Yesterday” last night. Blown away. The sequences with older Taeko are elaborately painted like Studio Ghibli’s best. When memories slip back to 5th grade, it takes on a water color-fringe that fades to whiteness on the edges, richly capturing how vivid but limited memories can be.
December 12, 2024 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Zach Berg
For @aftermath.site, here is my ranking of objects to hit fascists with in Indiana Jones: aftermath.site/indiana-jone...
December 12, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Cannot overstate how this movie, and this cut, were vital to making me love movies for the rest of my life. No film will give me the grandiose cinematic awe mixed with artistic boldness.
Anne Coates was responsible for one of the most famous cuts in cinema history – which came about because they didn’t have the technology on site to create the intended dissolve. But when director David Lean and Coates saw the cut, they thought: “Is there any reason we CAN’T just leave as is?”
December 12, 2024 at 3:44 PM
Would these fast food/chain restaurants narc:

McDonald’s: Obviously yes.
Taco Bell: Not if Baja Blast is there.
Burger King: Yes, but would call wrong number.
Steak n’ Shake: No.
Waffle House: Never in 100 years.
Culver’s: Yes.
Pizza Ranch: Would pray to God first, but yes.
Wendy’s: No.
December 11, 2024 at 9:30 PM
Tale as old as time; song as old as rhyme: video games are why he killed a dude.
December 10, 2024 at 3:11 PM
Watched "Meet Me in St. Louis" for the first time last night. I knew the iconic songs, I knew Judy Garland was great. I did not know that children gathered together on Halloween night in 1903 St. Louis and threw furniture in a burning pile of destruction in the middle of the street. Wild.
December 6, 2024 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Zach Berg
I love a restful echo chamber sometimes. I like to lay my head where the Nazis aren’t screaming.
November 22, 2024 at 9:41 PM
That feeling when you watch “The Grapes of Wrath” for the first time right after the 2024 election and you just get punched in the gut by it. Never has 85-year-old movie felt so vital.
November 19, 2024 at 5:29 PM