RIP Robert Duvall

 ...when in Rome...just landed and in the taxi I hear the news, celelbrisimo attore Robert Duvall, etc..surely I get it. Gone. I mean he was 95, lived a great and long life and his films are immortal.

But why everytime I go somewhere this kind of news get heavier and harder?

Last year was just tough and brutal: Gene Hackman in Barcelona (also in February), Brian Wilson when we were at night in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, Michael Madsen when I was to see Iron Maiden in Belfort, Remo Girone in Tramonti, Rob Reiner in Porto...Just when Ozzy left I was in Brasov...

Duvall was one of the Greatest, like Hackman. As as kid I knew him fisrt by fame, my father showed me, he was in the Guinnes book of Records as the most versatile actor of the '70's. Opposed to Hackman he was the quintesential Character Actor. Capital A. 

He was in over 100 films and television series.

He got an Academy Award (for the forgotten Tender Mercies-1983), a BAFTA Award, four Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

His film debut was as Boo Radley in the book adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 

Then Consigliere Tom Hagen in The Godfather and more for Coppola, lt. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.

Loved his parts in Lucas' debut THX 1138, Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, the gangster in The Outfit, based on the Donald E. Westlake  book, the German colonel in The Eagle has Landed, TV producer in Network, Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, then later on Tony Scott's Days of Thunder, written by Robert Towne, Joel Schumacher's Falling Down, Kevin Costner's Open Range. Also Sling Blade, Get Low, the Old man in The Road.

Last bit in 2022 Netflix flick The Pale Blue Eye.

He directed five films films, most notably The Apostle in 1997 and in 2002 in Argentina, Assassination Tango. I gotta catch-up with that last one, never saw it.

The Secret Agent wins at Spirit Awards !

O Agente Secreto wins at best International Film at Spirit-the Independent Film Awards !!! Good luck at the Oscars !

See it in a Cinema !!! In Romania from 27.02.2026 ! 

Featuring the last role of the great late Udo Kier !!!

Full winners list here  / Train Dreams scored big !

Crime 101 (2026)

Crime 101 is a little LA neo-noir gem directed by the Brit Bart Layton (American Animals).  Heist, angst, existentialism, it's based on a novella by Don Winslow (Savages).  The title refers to the 101 Freeway in Southern California, entering Los Angeles, and the faved heist location of the blue-eyed Thief Davis  (Chris Hemsworth, reminiscent of another Michael Mann pic, Blackhat). 

The ensemble casting is cool:  Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro,  Jennifer Jason Leigh (more like a cameo cos she has only one scene, surely cut for time), and Nick Nolte in a part sim lliar with Jon Voight's in Heat.

Produced by Working Title Films, Crime 101 was bought by Amazon MGM, outbidding Netflix,. which is great cos they also distributed in Theaters (through Sony).

Mostly a Heat homage, plus elements from Mann's Thief, Walter Hill's The Driver, even a scene fromTrue Romance ;)

A nice conversation on Steve McQueen and the iconic Mustang from Bullit add on. 

See in in the cinema, it's great widescreen and sound and score-  Blanck Mass. 

7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 !

Islands (2025)

 Islands is an odd piece, film noir under the sun, actually much at dusk. Shot all in location in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain, it premiered at Berlinale 2025 as a Special Presentation.

The director is German,  Jan-Ole Gerster (also co-writer), the actors are Brits, Sam Riley, Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing.  Shades of Ripley  (Highsmith's) and Hitchcock. Well acted, existential slowburn anti noir ;). Atmospheric score and sound design. 

see it in a cinema, if you still catch it !

 3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

Spider-Noir (2026)

"With No Power Comes No Resposibility"

The Nicolas Cage is back with something cool in black and white (and color) but I'd rather see it Noir as in the title. Premieres May 24th on Amazon Prime as in in collaboration with Sony, who's only Marvel character they got rights too...

From the looks it's more of a Sin City / Frank Miller, The Spirit / Will Eisner. 

Breendan Gleeson is the villain.

Hopefully this will rock, as gamebased Fallout TV series did, or DC / HBO recently two interesting spinoffs, The Penguin and The Peacemaker and Marvel/ Disney did mega meta Wonder Man.

Cliff Booth is back !!!

Cliff Booth aka Brad Pitt, the stuntman from Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood is back in the new Netflix film  The Adventures of Cliff Booth, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher !!!

Timothy Olyphant is also back as western TV actor James Stacy (Lancer).

Here's the teaser trailer. Coming soon this year !!!

Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer (2026)

This just in, as y-day it was the 45th anniversary of the release of the KILLERS album (2.02.1981) !!!

The life and career of pioneering heavy metal frontman Paul Di'Anno, the powerhouse voice heard on Iron Maiden's early albums, will be celebrated in the forthcoming documentary, Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, to be released by Cleopatra Entertainment this summer.

Hmm, the doc does not apperar on imdb at all... :(

I met Wes Orshoski (and his co-director Greg Olliver in Cannes 15 years ago !!! when they premiered LEMMY in the market, wanted to bring him to Brasov to Doc and Roll to present his film, which we did (show the film that is..)

In a strikingly raw and intimate film, director Wes Orshoski captures the late singer riding an emotional rollercoaster toward the end of his life. Featuring appearances by James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss) Maiden's Steve Harris and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill and Sepultura, the film chronicles how two Iron Maiden fans encounter Di'Anno at the lowest point of his life and then set out to restore his health and relaunch his career.

Wheelchair-bound since the mid-2010s, Di’Anno’s health nosedived during the Covid-19 pandemic, when those two fans launched a crowdfunding campaign which ultimately led to him relocating to Croatia, where - through the help of those fans and doctors - he made a dramatic turnaround while running out of money, reuniting with his former Maiden bandmates, and falling in love. Eventually he makes a heroic and drama-filled return to the stage. All of this is captured in Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, which Orshoski began shooting in 2017.  

“For years there wasn’t much to capture,” says Orshoski, whose credits include Lemmy, a study of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister and The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead. “Paul was waiting for surgeries that doctors in the U.K. would not green-light. He was in an incredibly dark place. But once he got to Croatia, fans and doctors gave him the hope he was desperately searching for. It was beautiful to witness. I wanted to make a film that was unlike any rock doc you've ever seen. And in the end, I think we got there.” 

One of icons of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, London-born Di’Anno helped launch Iron Maiden around the world, appearing on two of the most foundational metal albums ever released: Iron Maiden’s 1980 self-titled debut and the celebrated follow-up, Killers, released in 1981. In one of the most epic sagas in metal history, Di’Anno left Maiden in 1981 and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson, leaving metal fans around the world to debate which line-up and which singer was/is better. It’s a debate that continues to this day, almost 50 years later. 

Orshoski finished work on the film (which was shot in England, Croatia, Brazil and the United States) shortly before Di’Anno’s death at 66 in October 2024. Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer has been screening at European film festivals and will be released worldwide on both streaming services and on Home Entertainment DVD and BLU RAY formats.

My obit on Di'Anno here: or:

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2024/10/rip-paul-dianno.html

***

Trailer here:

oh, how we should reboot Doc and Roll ! Esp. now when Iron Maiden playes again Bucharest and Sunete is prepping another Special Edition mag, this time Up the Irons !!! ;)

Concert Eric Sardinas @ Transilvania Blues Nights – Back to Romania 7.02.26

Recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai spectaculoși chitariști de blues-rock contemporan, Eric Sardinas revine în fața publicului din România pentru un concert-eveniment la București, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights, marcând prima sa apariție în România după 2012, când a concertat ultima dată în București. Revenirea sa este așteptată de peste un deceniu de fanii blues-rock-ului autentic.

Artistul american este celebru pentru stilul său electrizant și tehnica explozivă de slide guitar, prin care îmbină blues-ul tradițional cu energia rock-ului. Influențat profund de maeștri precum Elmore James, Johnny Winter și Son House, Sardinas duce mai departe tradiția blues-ului electric într-o formă contemporană.

Cu o carieră de peste două decenii pe marile scene ale lumii, Eric Sardinas s-a impus ca un performer de referință, cunoscut pentru intensitatea concertelor sale live și pentru modul visceral în care folosește chitara, adesea apelând la tehnici neconvenționale și o expresivitate rar întâlnită. De-a lungul timpului, a colaborat și a împărțit scena cu artiști legendari precum Steve Vai, Charlie Musselwhite, Marco Mendoza, David Coverdale și John Sykes, consolidându-și reputația internațională.

Eric Sardinas este considerat un artist care aduce blues-ul în prezent fără compromisuri, păstrând respectul pentru tradiție, dar împingând constant limitele expresiei muzicale. Fiecare concert este o experiență intensă și memorabilă.

Un concert-eveniment la București dedicat iubitorilor de blues-rock, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.

B. There & Let There B. Blues!

7 februarie 2026 | ora 20:00 (open doors 18:00)

THE PUB – Universității, București (Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta 9)

Bilete: ambilet.ro

Presale: 150 lei până la 02.02.26 inclusiv | apoi 180 lei până în ziua concertului online & at the door în limita disponibilității

Eveniment Facebook: Concert Eric Sardinas @ Transilvania Blues Nights – Back to Romania

Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights

Golden Globes 2026 Awards (#83)

 all nominations here. 

watching them live on Voyo for the 1st time, interesting to see the breaks without commercials, really, some candid scenes. Even saw Sean Penn smoking at the table !!! And monsieur Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, talking cordially to Guillermo Del Toro ! And later on to Sean Penn. 

Venue: the Beverly Hilton Hotel

presenter: Nikki Glaser -her second year-decent jokes &, including Epstein list and a Spinal tap nod at the end of show.

article here

best of on M. Short and S. Martin "proof that in this industry you are never too old to need (making) Money"

 before this were given

Cecil B de Mille Award to Helen Mirren -

Carol Burnett Award-Sarah  Jessica Parker

Awards:

Supporting actress (out of 6):Teyana Taylor / One Battle After Another

uber surprised, emotional, crying

supporting actor: Stellan Skarsgård / Sentimental Value, best speech-

"cinema should be seen in the cinemas" SS, not Spielberg but Stellan Skarsgard

best actor comedy / musical- Timothée Chalamet -5 noms

Song: K-Pop-Demon Hunters

score: Ludwig Gorranson -Sinners

screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson -One Battle After Another

New category: 

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement: Sinners (surprising, I would also give it to Weapons)

Directing: PTA -One Battle After Another

Animation: K-Pop Demon Hunters

Best Motion Picture - Non-English Language-O Agente secreto/ The Secret Agent (Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Best Performance by a Female Actor- Musical or Comedy-Rose Byrne -really, this category ? / If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Best actress now retitled "Female Actor " drama: Jesse Buckley -Hamnet 

Best actor "male actor"/ drama (out of 6): Wagner Moura -The Secret Agent 

Best Picture: musical/comedy: One Battle After Another 

Best Picture: drama: Hamnet

TV

Noah Willey -The Pitt

Jean Smart-Hacks

Owen Cooper-Makes History at 16 as Youngest Golden Globe Winner for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series-in Adolescence

Seth Rogen -The Studio /comedy / surrealy this happens mostly like in episode 8 of the show where exec Matt Remick (Rogen) is pushing for one at the Golden Globes 

best actor miniseries: Stephen Graham -Adolescence

Michelle Willams-Dying for Sex -not there

supporting: Erin Doherty -Adolescence 

best actress / drama: Rhea Seehorn-Pluribus (predicatably, and she was very emotional)

Best Drama: The Pitt (HBO)

Best comedy/musical: The Studio (Apple tv) -on my Top 5 series of 2025

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television: Adolescence (netflix, 4 wins out of Five !!!)

*

Stand-up comedy: Ricky Gervais -Mortality (Gervais not present!) 

*

Podcasts -seriously ?

 - Good Hang with Amy Poehler

the Big winners:

#OneBattleAfterAnother #sinners #Hamnet #Adolescence #ThePitt/#TheStudio

RIP Bob Weir

One of the greats and Only Ones, Bobby / Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist of Grateful Dead and later on Dead & Company, Kingfish, etc, is gone at  78 (on Jan. 10th 2026). 

He survived Jerry Garcia (dead at 53 in 1995!!!) for another 31 years !!!

He was still playing last year.

Obit in Rolling Stone

Dead & Company - 08/03/25, Recorded live at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne @Transilvania Blues Nights 9.01.26

 Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, THE KING OF BOOGIE-WOOGIE – premieră în România!

 9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

event aici: 

Bilete aici:

Exclusive European Tour 2026: 

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne vine în premieră în România pentru un concert-eveniment la Brașov, fiind recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai importanți pianişti de blues și boogie-woogie ai lumii.

Cu o carieră ce depășește 50 de ani, Kenny a împărțit scena cu legende ale blues-ului

și rock-ului, precum Jimmy Reed, Pinetop Perkins, Johnnie Johnson, Big Joe Duskin,

Joe Louis Walker și Floyd Dixon, dar și cu artiști celebri de soul și rock, printre care Ike

Turner sau membri ai Santana și Doobie Brothers. Virtuozitatea sa la pian și vocea sa

expresivă au cucerit publicul pe patru continente, fiind apreciat de critici și fani deopotrivă.

Născut în Spokane și crescut în New Orleans, Los Angeles și San Francisco, Kenny a

început să cânte la pian la doar 13 ani, inspirat de gospel-ul tatălui său și de boogie-

woogie-ul descoperit mai târziu. Stilul său combină energia boogie-woogie, eleganța

jazz-ului, ritmul swing-ului și profunzimea blues-ului clasic, transformând fiecare concert

într-o experiență completă și memorabilă.

Duke Robillard îl descrie astfel:

“Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne is a monster piano player, imaginative

songwriter and soulful singer who captures the essence of old school blues

and boogie, while simultaneously sounding totally fresh and contemporary.”

De-a lungul carierei, Kenny a primit numeroase distincții internaționale, printre care:

� Blues Music Award 2024 – Piano Player of the Year

� Blues Blast Magazine – Piano Player of the Year 2023, 2024, 2025

� Living Blues Magazine – Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard) 2024

� Bobby Blue Bland Lifetime Achievement Award 2023

� Boogie-Woogie Piano Hall of Fame 2017

� Juno Award 2006 – Best Blues Album

� 7 Maple Blues Awards – Piano Player of the Year

Kenny este considerat un maestru care readuce pianul în prim-planul blues-ului contemporan, combinând respectul pentru tradiție cu o energie proaspătă, care face ca fiecare piesă să sune atât clasic, cât și actual.

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Un concert-eveniment în premieră națională și la Brașov, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.

B. There & Let There B. Blues!

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Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți

Sponsori: BCR, ButanGas, Dräxlmaier, Tehnic Mihor, BitDatamining, Aplind

Parteneri de ospitalitate: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Brașov Old Town Apartments

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 9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

Bilete: pre-sale 150 lei  aici/ 180 lei at the door

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https://www.facebook.com/events/1413774146817012

https://get-in.ro/eveniment/concert-kenny-blues-boss-wayne-the-king-of-boogie-woogie-clubul-rockstadt-09-ianuarie-2026/

Top 2025 albums, concerts and soundtracks

Albums:

 1. The Waterboys -The Life and Death of Dennis Hopper

nothing gets closer to this.  5 stars out of Five !

If there ever was a musical biopic this is it...

Gigs

Abroad

1. Iron Maiden -Budapest

2.The Tiger Lilies' Macbeth- Barcelona

3. PIL- Olympia, Dublin

4 Iron Maiden  -Belfort, France

5. NIN -Dublin

should've been The Waterboys in Porto but it was cancelled,. Went to IMAX and saw The Shining insteed..

Inland ;)

Laibach-Quantic

Curtis Salgado -Brasov Jazz and Blues

Zac Harmon -Brasov Jazz and Blues

David Ronaldo and the Dice-Brasov Jazz and Blues

Fantastic Negrito -Brezoi

Bluesferatu redux -Bran Castle 

Vulture industries-Rockstadt

All TBF ;) esp. John Primer & Giles Robson, Todd Sharpville, Sean Chambers, Eamonn Mc Cormack, TRES, '

and how about that S.H.I.T. ? ;) 

Top Ten 2025 Soundtracks 

Sinners -Ludwig Goranson & VA

One Battle After Another -Jonny Greenwood

Sirat - Kangding Ray

No Other Choice- Cho Young-Wuk

Ballad of a Simple Man-Wolker Bertelmann

Highest 2 Lowest-Terence Blanchard

28 years Later -Young Fathers

Eddington -Daniel Pemberton

Play Dirty-Alan Silvestri -* way better than the film

special mention (Hans Zimmer Award of the Year ;)

F1

Top films of 2025

Tough cookie, lost count of how many films I've seen. Less than probably any year. Over 200, less than 300 ? More ? I started to put them on Letterboxed starting late October but still didn't catch up with the rest.

***

Top of the series is here and films from 2024 are again a problem, The Brutalist and The Substance should've make the 2025 list, as there still are some of 2025 which I haven't seen yet (Hamnet,-saw it,. did not like at all- Resurrection, Sound of Falling ?). Marty Supreme would make Top 5 but I've seen it in Januaray 2026. 

Top Ten  soundtracks here. 

Just caught up with Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice that makes the list. It's limited in Romanian Cinemas now, so try to see it on the big screen, it's worthy.

Kinda disappointed with Romanian Cinema this year too. I liked Kontinental '25 and that's it. Could 've been also Jude's Dracula but he made it such an intentional mess and duration wise a whole calvary...

But disappointments of the year: the new Running Man by Edgar Wright. And the last Mission: Impossible. Hopefully...Oy...

Top 5 -alphabetically:

all that's clickable as links are my "reviews"

Eddington -Ari Aster

O agente secreto-Kleber Mendonça Filho

One Battle After Another -Paul Thomas Anderson

Sinners -Ryan Cooglar

Sirat -Oliver Laxe

new entry on Jan. 2th 2026:   No Other Choice

Marty Supreme -also in Jan. 2026

Almost Famous ;) -also alphabetically:

Ballad of a Small Player -Edward Berger

Bugonia -Yorgos Lanthimos

Caught Stealing -Darren Aronofsky

Father Mother Sister Brother -Jim Jarmusch

Frankenstein -Guillermo del Toro

In the Hand of Dante -Julian Schnabel 

Nouvelle Vague -Richard Linklater

Nuremberg -James Vanderbilt

The Materialist -Kelly Reichardt

The Phoenician Scheme-Wes Anderson

Tornado - John McLean

Train Dreams- Clint Bentley

Warfare -Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza

Nicolas Cage Award of the Year:  The Surfer  (d. by Lorcan Finnegan) 2024 !

Horror:

28 years Later-Danny Boyle 

Together -Michael Shanks

Weapons -Zach Cregger

Good Boy- Ben Leonberg

The Monkey-Osgood Perkins

Dangerous Animals -Sean Byrne

The Gorge -Scott Derrickson

The Long Walk -Francis Lawrence

The Substance -2024, Coralie Fargeat

Keeper -Osgood Perkins

Comedy:

even weaker as it is, still good fun !!!

This is Spinal Tap 2:  The End Continues by the late Rob Reiner....

Bunny -Ben Jacobsen 

an indie, punkish NY film in the best way, kinetic, quirky, funny, dark comedy, punkimprovised, irreverent. Cool punk songs too.

Documentary:

Soundtrack for a coup d'etat -2024-Johan Grimonprez

the doors -When You're Strange- - Tom DiCillo, from 2009 but remastered in Cinema limited

pink floyd at pompei -1972. Adrian Mabel, remastered in Cinema limited

Devo -2024, Chris Smith   -netflix

Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) 2025/ Questlove   -netflix

Catch-Up -Four Aces:

Pale Flower- Masashiro Shinoda-1964 

La Traque -1975 Serge Leroy

The Childhood of a Leader -2015 Brady Corbet

Finalmente l'alba - Saverio Costanzo -2023, on which I wrote: 

Rome and Cinecitta 1953. More like a drreamlike story, a false thriller, homage to Fellini and La Dolce Vita, Notti di Cabiria, and linked to a real muder cold case known as the Italian Black Dahlia. Interesting slow film, in the Venice Competition in 2023. Modern beat score, strange and eerie. Song Last Nite by The Stokes (2011) on the end credits. 

3 1/2 out of 5

Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote it at the time of their legendary partnership. Ketti Frings wrote the novel on which story, the dynamic duo have much improved it. Boyer tries to make it his own, especially as a Foreigner with a lovely accent (his own, which he kept all his life !). For Romanians it's a blast, cos' he is a crook / gigolo from Bucharest named George(s) Iscovescu !!! 

Studio man Mitchell Leisen directed it professionally. The year was 1941 and immigration was at its WW2 boom. Iscovescu wants to get in the USA and he needs a passport and a citizenship and in order to get those he needs to marry an American. The film premiered on September 11th 1941, just three months before Pearl Harbor !

The two women in the film are opposites, each with its role, Paulette Goddard as the femme fatalish Anita and Olivia de Havilland the innocent Ingenue Mrs. Brown. 

Supporting characters, from Curt Bois as Bonbois, to Walter Abel's  Inspector Hammock, Victor Francen as Vander Lucken and Nestor Faiva as hotellier Flores, the story is told in a flashback from the stage / set of a film at Paramount, on which Iscovescu/ Boyer went to see to director Dwight Saxon, played by none other than director Mitchell Leisen in order to see this story (maybe the most modern aspect of the film, predicting Sunset Boulevard ?) !!!

Very long for those day's standards (116 mins.) and heavilly plotted, it has a bleaker tone for a romantic  melodrama and a downbeat immigration angle. And a small dose of film noir (esp. for the self-person narration). The dialogue is sharp and some witty and cynical one-liners are already trademark Wilder.  Brackett and Wilder were very dissapointed with the result and Boyer's refusal do do a dialogue with a cockroach, they cut off most of his lines, giving them to Paulette Goddard. Also  I read this was the last film Wilder wrote without directing it (even though Ball of Fire for Hawks opened in December 1941...).

Hold Back the Dawn was nominated for 6 Oscars back in 1941, including best film, best screenplay and best cinematography (in Black&White, Leo Tovar). 

3 1/2 out of 5 ! 7 out of 10 !!! (loses steam due to the duration, otherwise would've been an Eight!)

No Other Choice (2025)

1st film I saw on 2026 it's one of the best of 2025 and one of Park Chan-wook's best. No Other Choice aka Eojjeolsuga eobsda.  It's also the offical Korean Submission for Best International film at the Oscars and it's nominated for 3 Golden Globes Awards. No Other Choice premiered in the 2025 Venice Film Fest Competition. It won Best Director in Sitges FF. 

It's limited in Romanian Cinemas now, so try to see it on the big screen, it's worthy. Just peropeare for slower development, the film has 2h19 mins.

I follow the Korean director for 25 years, ever since he came to Bucharest with his 1st feature, JSA (Joint Security Area) at the 1st Festasia fest edition.  That was before Oldboy, Mr. and Mrs. Vengeance, Thirst, Handmaiden and Stoker. Saw most of his oeuvre, also the HBO series The Sympathiser, so I can say that this one it's one of his best. 

Lee Byung-hun who is South Korean leading man is here a Paper Man, formerly "Pulp Man of the Year 2019." He was also in PCWook's JSA, in A Bittersweet Life, Squid Game series, even in G.I. Joe. He gets back at working with PCW after 25 years. Here he is a plain family man, with a desperate will to get back to his job that was downsized.  Son Ye-jin is great too as his wife Miri, and so is the son Si-one and the daughter Ri-One- playing cello. And the two dogs (Si-Two and Ri-Two). And all the supporting characters. Great supporting characters !

It's a Korean Le Coupert / The Axe, based on Donald  E.Westlake 1997 novel. It was made before by Costa-Gavras in 2005 as The Ax, a great black comedy, merciless, starring José Garcia. But Wook-Chan goes even further in absurdity and satire. He co-wrote this with Don McKellar, they worked together before on The Sympathiser. The film is produced by Costa-Gavras family and it's dedicated to the Greek director, who kept the rights of the novel and gave them to Park Chan. The film was supposed to be in English first (starting 2009) but kept developing.

Via IMDB: During a live discussion with Costa-Gavras at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival, Park told audiences that he was still working on his adaptation of Westlake's novel. The film was described by Park as a "lifetime project" and that while he hadn't begun filming it yet, he wished "to make this film as my masterpiece." Gavras, who still held the rights to the book, had helped Park to develop the project. The film was set to be an English-language picture, with Don McKellar co-writing the script alongside Park.

The design is fabulous too, from the bonsai and the greenhouse to the seasons change, going from summer to winter (it was shot in a period of five months, from August 2024 to January 2025). The colors are very important for the transitions and the story. Impeccable widescreen (2.35 : 1) cinematography  (by Kim Woo-hyung who worked before with the director on The Little Drummer Girl series) and editing (Kim Sang-bum, Park's editor since JSA), adding to the plot points and directing. 

Great score too, and great idea of a cello subplot, by Chan-wook Park's collaborator, Cho Young-Wuk.  The score includes incidental classical music, Mozart piano concerto (no. 23!), Marin Marais and pop hits, Korean and American (Hold On I'm Coming by Sam and Dave -1966), edited and directed on camera (one set-piece might as well be the best Cinema scene of 2025!-and the funniest -with subtitles too ;).

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !!!

“I've always been trying to follow the footsteps of the great masters of cinema, most of whom have passed away today. I've tried very hard to reach their level. And I think in certain scenes or certain films, I might have reached a similar level, but there's still a very long way to go. So, when I think about how many more films I can make for the rest of my life, I feel very rushed.”

Park Chan-wook 

*the screenplay of the film in English can be found here !!!