Examen (2003)

 Filmul de debut al lui Titus Muntean,  Examen (iesit in 2003, filmat si intrerupt in 1999) e in sfirsit, remasterizat, pe netflix. L-am revazut si ma simt legat de el,  de acei ani, de premierea si de povestea dramatica din spatele filmului. Am scris cronica pentru Golan, ca recomandare, si ama vut feedbackuri, am stat de vorba cu Titus dupa ce nu ne-am mai vazut de citiva ani si mi-a repovestit amintirile sale legate de proiect , dar nu am apucat sa postez aici linkul, asa cum e fair, cronica ramine deocamdata exclusiv online pe Golan. Va recomand sa (re)vedeti filmul, care astazi a devenit si mai valoros,  sunt uimit de cita lume nu are habar de existenta sa :( Merita !

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/aldrecomandă-examen-pe-netflix-un-film-de-re-descoperit?fbclid=IwAR0dmwqRHOwfkcOd0eNuPGqZZM5Or86KlZNyBv6_Did8ieeroJ0Q8-OrJQY

Dune (2021) -Dume despre Dune!!!

N-am mai postat aici dar scriu pentru revista Golan unde mi-am dat un spicy task, am scris despre noul Dune, dar nu numai eu, avec des amis. 

Voila les dumes des Dunes ici

et la presentation FB:

A ieșit un articol mare și complex cu motive pentru care mulțumește și dezamăgește filmul lui Villeneuve, la care au contribuit Dan Stăiculescu (scenarist & copywriter), Ioachim Ciobanu (actor & regizor), Cristian Lăzărescu (regizor & fizician), Bogdan Movileanu (arhivist Arhiva Națională de Film), Sega (scriitor) și Ionut Constantin aka Yokko (muzician).

link direct aici: https://bit.ly/3nh7MaM

No Time To Die -cronica mea

 Bond 25 e finalmente in cinema !!!  L-am vazut si am scris cronica pentru revista Golan aici. 

E o continurae directa la Spectre asa ca daca nu l-ati vazut, brush up (in Ro e pe HBO si HBOGO).

Directed by Cary Ioji Fukunaga (SIn Nombre, Beasts of No Nation, True Detective season 1)

si aici:

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/no-time-to-die-last-action-hero

Recomandat de vazut in sala de cinema si in 2D (nu e facut 3D, ppl si aud ca si la IMAX in Bucuresti ruleaza asa dar are si un spectacol 2D, recomand acolo!), mai multe despre formate (e primul Bond care are secvente intregi filmate cu camera IMAX , aici ).

cronicile mele la Bond-urile anterioare cu Daniel Craig:

Casino Royale -2006

Quantum of Solace -2008

Spectre -2015

Adieu Bebel

Pierrot le Fou il n'est plus...:(((

Un des plus grand grands, unul din marii eroi ai copilariei mele si pina azi, a mai ramas Delon...

L'incorigible, le doulos, le professionel, le Magnifique, Le Guignolo, L'animal, L'aine des ferchaux, Leon Morin, L'as des as, Le Marginal, Le Solitaire....

N-am apucat sa postez pe blog fiind plecat dar in aceiasi seara -luni 6 septembrie0 l-am omagiat pe Bebel cu L'homme de Rio (1964), unul din rolurile care l-au facut faimos in anii 60. Cu toate acestea daca dai un search pe imdb rolul numarul unu apare Pierrot le fou al lui Godard ! Tot la Godard a jucat in Au Bout de Souffle (Breathless/ Cu sufletul la gura), avant Pierrot. Pe netflix sunt acum citeva filme cu Belmondo, Hold Up, Amazone si Le Corps de mon eenemi (1976) de Henri Verneuil, pe care tocmai l-am recuperat. Acum vreau sa revad Borsalino, tocmai fuse Les Aventuriers pe tvr1 si mi se facu pofta sa ii revad impreuna pe Bebel si Delon.

RIP Charlie Watts

 The end of an era is now, if it was not signaled before 

its an end of an era imo cos i dont think this show will go on and must go on

in my opinion it will go in shatters (tatters), I am :(

but as cynical as the stones enterprise is, it will go on for a while....

anyhu, Gentleman Charlie, sleep well  you kept these guys together as long as you could

Neidentificat (Unidentified) -cronica mea

 Am scris pentru revista Golan despre Neidentificat -un film romamesc ALTFEL pe care puteti sa il vedeti in cinematografe  acum. 

Update: Neidentificat va fi prezentat la Brasov intr-o proiectie unica in Piata Sfatului !!! duminica seara, 22 august in cadrul Caravanei TIFF Unlimited ! 

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/neidentificat-un-thriller-cerebral-sumbru-și-incendiar?fbclid=IwAR0JRAa6ccTOY9CRwK9BXT15jUZNXW06oLyyyUPiLU2s9mA5KJVhhwG0gf0

https://www.facebook.com/NeidentificatFilmul

TIFF 20

 TIFFul a facut 20 de ani si am fost la Cluj sa il sarbatoresc. 

Am scris pentru revista Golan si intreaga poveste o gasiti aici 

sau 

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/tiff-după-douăzeci-de-ani

La multi ani TIFF ! 

RIP Richard Donner

One of my favorite filmmakers from childhood and my teenage years is no more... Richard Donner was 91 and he directed his last film, 16 Blocks in 2006. In 1978 he made us believe a man can fly. A veteran of  15 years of TV, he just directed his first major feature film The Omen in 1976 and Omen became a worldwide phenomenon and a huge box office smash. So he got the chance from producers brothers Salkind to direct the first major comic book movie to be, Superman (1978), a breakthrough in all departments, and the forefather of all comic books films to come. The Salkinds tried to make two movies instead of one, as they did before with The Three Musketeers. Donner and all involved complained so he brought in \Richard Lester for reshoots and completions for Superman 2. Today the original Donner cut of Superman 2 is available and far better than the film released in 1980. In the 80's Donner directed various genres, in 1985 the cult children adventure film The \Goonies and medieval fairytale Ladyhawke. In 1987 he reinvented the buddy action movie with Lethal Weapon, a worlwide hit and a standalone universally acclaimed and loved film. He directed also the three sequels of the Mel Gibson/ Danny Glover film, and into the nineties, Maverick and Conspiracy Theory, also with Mel Gibson . He did his own modern Christmas Carrol film with Scrooged (1988). Together with his wife he produced the first X-Men film, and X-Men Originis: Wolverine. He was one of the producers and directors TV (paytv) anthologies of Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales and Perversions of Science. A beloved man by all who worked with him, humorous and most professional, Dick Donner was one of the great ones, a director who changed the landscape of modern film and filmmaking. He never got an Oscar or a major film festival award but he will remain forever in the heart of movielovers. 

Obituary in Variety here 

¬People say, You paid your dues, but I never paid any dues. It's always been a great trip.¬ 

Richard Donner (1930-2001}

my obituary in Revista Golan here or 

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/goodbye-to-richard-donner

ALD@ZubrOFFka Film Festival XV

I was invited in the Press Jury at the ZubrOFFka International Short Film Festival, in Bialystok, Poland, 9-13 June. 

Here is the story, published in the Golan magazine online.

https://www.revistagolan.com/post/bialystok-bloom-zubroffka-film-festival?fbclid=IwAR0VrFzAVkneaDa9ccYzXmzQZlUDWRmzrMguJClZ1NtBCjmZojqlsw0XvEc

Enjoy and Na zdrowie ! 

Cannes 74 Official Selection !

Today in Paris Le Festival de Cannes has unveiled its Official Selection in all categories ! Opeing with Leos Carax musical Annette, with music and concept by Sparks, it has a lot of goodies, the new Verhoeven, Sean Penn, Jacques Audiard, the new Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, even a Romanian-Belgian film, La Civil, by Teodora Ana Mihai in Un Certain Regard. Cristian Mungiu is the president of La Semaine de la Critique and, postponed from last year, Spike Lee is the president of Grand Jury ! The Festival will take palce from 6th to the 17th July 2021 ! Unfortunately I won't be present this year, but only in esprit :) Bon festival !

full selection here !

https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/infos-communiques/communique/articles/the-films-of-the-official-selection-2021

LMA Charlie Watts@80 !!!

 Happy Birthday Charlie Watts ! The legendary Rolling Stones drummer is 80 today !  He was always the quite one, the cool one, the mysterious one, in between the excess and the beef of the Glimmer Twins !

Also yesterday was Ronnie Wood's Birthday ! He got 74 ! The Young One :)

Listened a few days back to a song from 1968 I didi not know, Child of the Moon, a B side on the single of Jumpin' Jack Flash and saw a great and weird -psychedelic- short film (video)  of the song by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Rock 'n roll Circus). 

LMA Clint @91 !!!

Once he was The Man with No Name, but he made a name for himself, and, what a nameee...Clint Eastwood is 91 today ! Still working and done with a new film, Cry Macho, and which he also acts! A modern western no less ! His fortieth feature (40th) ! Amazing ! LMA ! Happy Birthday !!!

And some sad news, Buddy Van Horn, Clint”s buddy, stuntman, double, second unit director and best friend died at 92 on May 11th 2021. The news came up just today, uncanny. Buddy also directed Clint in three of his features,Any Which Way You Can, Dead Pool and Pink Cadillac, a simillar case of Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood best buddies friendship of a time golden, silver & gold, now gone bronze...RIP...

LMA Bob Dylan @80 !!!!

Bob Dylan is 80 today ! Amazing !!! Unbelievable ! Forever Young ! Are you Younger than that now ? Nah ? Why bother ? The times were a changing into the hellish worse, so why ?  Only another songwriter/hero/poet in the same league made it over 80,  and that was Leonard Cohen.  Well, Eric Burdon just got 80 this year too (May 11) and Tom Jones (last year in June) but they ain”t Bob or Lenny :)..

Last year I posted about Murder Most Foul, his dark poem on the death of JFK and lots else ramblings, and that was that. That is amazing, yes dudes it is !

A lot of my friends don't dig Dylan, the voice, the whining, the this the that. Well, as i told em, buzz off. Now, more than ever, leave me alone (und they did ;(

Bob is Bob, Bob is unique ! A poet, a pirate, a bootleger, a great promoter of his own enigma. Nobel and Oscar, too yep ! Took me many years to love him at his best, understand and care for his riddles, not take him seriously when he's at his most cryptical joker.  

He's been there all my life (OK, not when I was ten), but big over 35 years. Saw him in Frankfurt, missed him in Prague (missed the plane MF :(), came twice to Bucharest, was there but never met him face 2 face, bought his albums everywhere, read about him in Uncut where he was their absolute hero, argued and promoted him everywhere (DocandRoll par ex, No Direction Home, the 4 hr doc on him by Scorsese). And then there is the Rolling Thunder Revue by Scorsese on Netflix, one of the latest works on film on him (and it's great) !

Happy Birthday, Bob !  All Along the Watchtower !!!

*as we know from Big Mike, 'Bob is a Cool Guy' ! Tru !! And he's also 80 Now !!! :)

RIP Charles Grodin

 Charles Grodin is gone... The Heartbreak Kid, King Kong (1977 version) and Jonathan Mardukas from the cultissim Midnight Run ! last part in James Toback”s An Imperfect Murder in 1986. He was 86...RIP.

RIP Monte Hellman

Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting, China 9 Liberty 37...these are some of Monte Hellman films, cult classics today. The director died at age 91 on April 20 2021. He helped Quentin Tarantino produce his first feature, Reservoir Dogs. He started out as an editor for Roger Corman, whre he met Jack Nicholson whom he directed in his quirky anti-westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlind and in the war movies shot in Phillipines Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury.

I met him briefly after the screening of Two-Lane Blacktop in Cannes Claasics, I think it was in 2005. We took a picture together, it-s on my print screens somewhere. Last film in 2010, Road to Nowhere.

The Guardian here 

RIP Jim Steinman

The wizard composer of Meat Loaf hits and many more is gone at 73 on April 19 2021 :(                       Jim Steinman composed and produced Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell (1977) and his follow up, (1993) Streets of Fire the now cult movie of Walter Hill, Bonnie Tyler and many others hits (Sisters of Mercy, Todd Rundgren) and an opera, Tanz der Vampire. A sense of unique melody and style, he was a legendary success in pop and rocknroll genre, namely Wagnerian Rock.

tribute in Loudermouth here 

Still closed...

 Still closed :(

from here

RIP Richard Rush

 “How tall is King Kong?”

(Eli Cross)

•
Richard Rush (1929-2021)
•
A regizat doar 12 filme - notamment efervescentul Psych-Out (1968), cultissimul Freebie and the Bean (1974) și inclasabilul The Stunt Man (1980). S-a retras în 1994, după eșecul The Color of Night. A murit pe 8 aprilie, la Los Angeles. Avea 91 de ani.

Textul lui Anfrei Cretulescu pe FB, cu care am iubit si apreciat impreuna a maxim  THE STUNT MAN si documentarul lui Rush de pe dvd-ul american, The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man (2000).

tribut in Variety aici 

 

 Rush, Peter O’Toole și Steve Railsback, în timpul filmărilor pentru The Stunt Man - California, 1979.

RIP Bertrand Tavernier

Bertrand Tavernier, one of the most ditinguished French filmmakers from the 70's is gone at 79 on March 25th 2021. He shot a film in Romania, Captaine Conan won best director at Cannes for Une dimanche a la campagne and his last work was an exhaustive a documentary about French cinema, Voyage au travers du cinema francais, expandes as a whole series. Filmography highlights: Coup de torchon, 'Round Midnight, La mort en direct, Le juge et l'assasin, L.627, In the Electric Mist. 

Criterion Collection: Tavernier was a man who “embodied the spirit of cinema as robustly as anyone ever has.”

RIP George Segal

Sadly another one of Hollywoodțs greats, George Segal has passed away on March 23d 2021. He was 87. He was Oscar nominated for supporting actor in Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1966).

War movies (King Rat, The Bridge at Remagen), spy yarns (The Quiller Memorandum), thrillers & heist movies (The Hot Rock, The Terminal Man). Segal was a big star at the end of sixties and in the 70's, then in the 80țs his filmography bgan to fade away.  When I was a kid i saw him in cinema in The Southern Star (Steaua sudului), A Touch of Class, next to Glanda Jackson and Carbon Copy (Copie la indigo), when his son was a very young Denzel Washington. 

Last time I saw him in The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), next to Barbra Streisand, a catch-up classic comedy I saw just last year. 

Uncanny, just last morning I saw an article about the anniversary of California Split (1974),which I'm not sure I have ever seen, the Robertt Altman gambling film with Segal and Elliot Gould.

Segal: "I got along with [Altman] really well... It was like a party. It was so civilized back then. There were no long hours. It was relaxed. That’s why those movies from the ’70s were so good...Those ’70s, what we’re talking about, were transcendent..."

RIP Yaphet Kotto

 Mr. Big is no more ! Or should I say Kananga ? Alonzo Mosely from FBI ? Or Parker from Alien ?

Yaphet Kotto was a versatile actor and one of the proeminent black actors in movies in the 70's, like James Earl Jones and Louis Gossett jr. He was also a star in the Tv series Homicide. He died at 81. 

His breathrough came after his part in Across 110th Street when he was offered the part of the villain of the 1st Roger Moore  James Bond movie, Live and Let Die (1973), Kananga alias Mr. Big. He was also a part of th ensemble of the space crew of Alien (1979) together with brits like Ian Holm and John Hurt.  

For some of us, Alonzo Mosely from FBI, his character from the film Midnight Run(1988) was the closest to the heart.

Article and obituary in The New York Times

“One day, when I was about 16, I walked into this theater showing ‘On the Waterfront’ and I saw Marlon Brando for the first time, I couldn’t speak. It was like somebody had punched me in the stomach. It was like someone had crashed cymbals in both ears. I was blasted out of the theater. I knew from that moment that I wanted to be an actor.”

Yaphet Kotto (1939-2021)

Colectiv-nominalizat la 2 Oscaruri / Collective nominated for 2 Oscars !

Moment istoric ! Finally ! Dupa ce Colectiv a fost nominalizat la BAFTA au venit si nominalizarile la Oscar ! 

Pentru prima data, in 93 de ani de la infiintarea lor, un film romanesc e nominalizat ! Si nu la una ci la doua categorii -Film Strain si Documentar ! 

Bravo si bafta mare !  Good LUCK !

*Toate nominalizarile la Oscar 93 aici !

* cronica mea la Colectiv aici !

*Colectiv se vede in Romania pe HBO si HBO GO. 

Alexander Nanau’s “Collective,” instead, has the rare distinction of scoring Oscar nominations in both the international feature film and documentary feature categories.

                  Variety 

Colectiv nominalizat la BAFTA / Collective nominated at BAFTAs !

Congratulations to all involved ! Colectiv / Collective nominated at the  BAFTA's.

My review here (in Romanian)

Colectiv can be seen in Romania on HBO. 

And a cool conversation between director Alexander Nanau, Joe Berlinger (director of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) and Lars Ulrich (drummer of Metallica)  here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piw-G-tb9L8

RIP Chick Corea

Return To Forever, mr. Chick Corea...He would've been 80-eighty- on June 12 this year.

1st time I saw him he played his Children's Songs album SOLO piano at Sala Palatului, at the 1st Camel Jazz Alive Summit Festival, back in 1993 (April 6th).

He came to Romania five more times, last time in Bucharest in 2012 with Gary Burton, also at Sala Palatului. In 1998 he played Sala Palatului again on his Origin tour. In 2008 (October 26th) he played with the FIVE PEACE BAND again at Sala Palatului, all-start band together with John McLaughlin, Kenny Garrett & the great Vinnie Colaiuta on drums (I saw him again with Sting -Back to Bass live in 2013). In 2009 he was here again. Then In 2017 he played here for the last time, in Timisoara at the Jazz Tm Fest. 

He was at his best with Return to Forever, his group from 1971 featuring many but always Stanley Clarke. Featuring Al Di Meola, Lenny White on drums, many others. 

A brilliant Live of Return to Forever !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucaPIJy4VNE

He played with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew. Author of many jazz standards he won 23 Grammy's and was nominated over 60 times. Chick Corea is considered one of the most importnat piano players of the XXth century.  Thank you for your music et all....

RIP Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer has gone somewhere into The Sound of Music :(. He was 91.

I guess last time I saw him on the big screen was in All The Money In The World (2017), in the part they reshot, as J.P.Getty (instead of Kevin Spacey) and for which he got his ONLY third Oscar nomination, and then on the small screen in Knives Out (2019), but actually the last film I saw him in was THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975), where he is Rudyard Kipling, saw that in memory of Sean Connery last fall, as it is one of his best (and favourite Films). 

I remember when Plummer got finally an Oscar, in 2010,  for his supporting part in Beginners, but I wished he got one for a more dignificant film. 

As a kid I loved him as Eddie Chapman, spy and con in WW2 in Triple Cross (1966, in Romanian Theaters as Eddie Chapman, agent secret). Surely he was Captain Von Trapp and he was a trainer in Vis de glorie (aka International Velvet, 1978) and the cheated husband in Hanover Street (1979).  And he seemed to be a lot on the big screen, from Aces High to Somewhere in Time, or in older films re-runs like Waterloo, The Night of the Generals and The Fall of the Roman Empire. Or on TV in the miniseries of Artthur Hailey's The Moneychangers (1976). He was not the lead but a supporting Grand and elegant name. ALways reliable.  I think he was a great Sherlock Holmes in an unknown gem, Murder by Decree (1978) and impeccable in every single part. He maanged to get great work in his Seventies and Eightes in Holyywood, a great acting legacy and a long list of credits in A pictures as well in indies: The Insider, 12 Monkeys,  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Inside Man, Ararat, Alexander....RIP....

Obit in Variety here

Alice Cooper-Social Debris -SOTD & LMA !

Alice, Vincent, The Coop is 73 Today ! LA multi ani/ Happy B-DAY !!!

I was celebrating him listening to his breakthrough  album KILLER, 50th anniversary (out Nov. 1971), produced by meister Bob Ezrin, great MF revolutionary album ! Long time, no hear- Halo of Flies,  Desperado, Dead babies... wawawiwa :) 

He put out a new single from the upcoming album, Detroit Stories, out on Feb. 26. Previously I have blogged on Song of the Day (SOTD) about Rocknroll, the album's first single, here.

SOCIAL DEBRIS is a song recorded with The Alice Coper Band, the title Social Debris, which fits well the ugly picture of 2day 2.

His message on twitter here, or

https://twitter.com/alicecooper/status/1357343163631816706?s=20

the song is available for download on his site for 24 Hours here

www.alicecooper-detroitstories.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U0QhxO2kjQ

78th Golden Globes Nominations

 Here all noms of the 78th Edition on Golden Globes Page

interesting how the positions have changed, Film Distributor-Neflix 22 ! followed by Amazon Studios with 7 noms. & Focus 5. Universal & Warner with 4. 

TV distributor- Netflix 20 noms, HB0 only 7,  Mank leading up with 7 noms. 

Fargo season 4 no noms :(

see ya on Feb. 28th !

RIP Phil Spector

Phil Spector, the (im)famous producer, creator of the Wall of Sound and assassin of the actress Lana Clarkston (Scarface) died on Jan. 16 2021 of complications of Covid 19, while in prison. He was 81. Spector was one of the most revolutionary music producers of the sixties creating a new, more sophisticated sound to basic rockn roll and rn B songs, starting with To Know Him is to Love Him, his first hit with The Teddy Bears band, the only group in which he also played. He worked with The Ronnettes, marrying (and terryfying) his then wife Ronnie Spector pulled a gun on John Lennon whose albums he produced, .He produced most famously LET T BE, Beatles' last album, and John and Yoko's work, George Harrison, Leronard Cohen (Death of a Ladies Man).MWas an influence on Brian Wilson and worked even with The Ramones (The End of a Century, 1980).  Played by Al Pacino in the HBO movie by David Mamet, Phil Spector (2013). 

https://www.tmz.com/2021/01/17/phil-spector-dead-dies-81/

Top albums 2020

al treilea top, dupa filme si seriale, cel de albume e mostly by the usual suspects si ce am ascultat mai mult in 2020 (Rolling Stone punea pe locul 1- Drive By-Truckers-The Unraveling, care da, e bun !)

no particular order:

Ozzy Osbourne-Ordinary Man, aparut in ianuarie, e cind anul parea sa fie normal, cu un single excelent,soulful, featuring Elton John

Bob Dylan -Rough and Rowdy Days, aparut in lockdown cu piesa magnum opus de peste 15 min, Murder Most Foul

Deep Purple -Woosh, mutat in iunie, sigle-urile Man Alive si Throw The Bones in before

Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band -Letter to You

Paul McCartney -III, decembrie

AC/DC -Power Up -no matter how weak, it's still AC/DC. Mostly a tribute to Malcolm Young, who composed or worked on most of the songs.

metalisch: U.D.O. & Das Musikkorps Der Bundeswehr (Corpul muzical la Fortelor Armate) - We Are One (2020)

Udo Dirkschneider goes symphonic, some nice armonies and Udo's voice is always great to hear !

*

David Byrne -American Utopia (aparut in 2019), dar filmul-concert al lui Spike Lee pe HBO in 2020 atunci cind l-am si ascultat

*

asa am ascultat si albumul lui Til Lindemann din 2019, F & M, de care habar nu aveam, via single-ul lui cu David Garrett, piesa schlager clasic Alle Tage ist kein Sontag (cintata si de Marlene Dietrich)

Blues:

Dion -Blues with Friends

Neal Black & The Healers-A Little Boom Boom

Malone Sibun Band -Come Together (Jan.)

Soundtracks

Bill & Tedd Face The Music -various sounding like actual bands /  Mark Isham

Tenet -Ludwig Goransson

re-issues:

Tom Petty-Wildflowers &All the Rest, with ag reat new video, Something Could Happen 

The Rolling Stones-Goat's Head Soup (1973) including the unreleased Criss Cross  & Scarlet 

Singles (& videos): 

Billie Ellish -No Time to Die (007)

Alice Cooper -Rock and Roll

Curtis Salgado-The Longer That I Live

Iggy Pop -Dirty Little Virus

Rolling Stones-Living in a Ghost Town  & Criss Cross & Scarlet 

Udo as Dirkschneider & The Old Gangs -Where The Angles Fly  an ol' familliar anthemic not on the 2020 album, out in September as a single 

Mike Campbell's band The Dirty Knobs-Fuck That Guy

Top Series of 2020

 After my Top of Films of 2020 here it is, the top of the series ! and FYI here's the top of the albums of the year 2020 !

1. Fargo season IV  (F/X)

better than the third season, this ganster story set in 1950 Kansas city has also an outlansish black and white surreal episode. Chris Rock is great as the black mob boss, Jack Huston brilliant as the compulsive detective, and the Italians are all a highlight. 

2. Raised by Wolves (HBOMax)

Ridley and Jake Scott direct and produce this classy (& classic) SF created by Aaron Guzikowski, shot in South Africa, with a lot of links to Promoetheus, Blade Runner and Alien series. 

3. The Mandalorian season 2 (Disney+)

Season 2 of The Mandalorian created by Jon Favreau is even better than the first one and brings it closer into the Star Wars  universe. Baby Yoda gets a name, the bounty hunter gets to show his face, and more surprises in this well serialised 8 episodes season.

and in no particular order, up to Ten:

Hollywood (Netflix)

Ian Brennan & Ryan Murphy reinvent Hollywood tales and destinies in the late forties. Revisionist limited miniseries, 7 eps. Trash and LBGB oriented but yeah, Hollywood...

The Boys season 2 (Amazon), not as much fun a season one tho. The Hitler / Goebbels refereences, kudos. 

Devs (F/X Hulu)

Alex Garland's intelligent SF AI Tech marred by budget constraints. 

The Third Day (HBO) 

-six eps miniseries with a great Jude Law, Wicker Man type of thriller, loses breath and grip after ep.3

Truth Seekers (Amazon)

Nick Frost & Simon Pegg supernatural /horror/apocalypse/conspiracy. spoof pomedy series was (too) minor fun, with a great Malcolm Mc Dowell in it. 8 1/2 hr. episodes.

Third season of Norsemen (Netflix), weaker then season one and two but still Monty Python deadpan anachronic nihilistic & sarcastic Northen humour fun. 

saw also:

Freud (Netflix), okeish cheesy Euro trash thriller. kinda guilty pleasure, and what The Alienist should've been. Gave up on that one on season 2, I guess they changed its title too, 

Very disaponted on the Penny Dreadful-City of Angles, witches del muerte, nazis and BS.

caught-up with Call my Agent ! (Dix Pour Cent) on netflix, the French comedy series, good fun, smart. Season 4 is out in France (Oct. 2020), I hope soon also on the Nflix.

***

!!!-in the process of watching 30 Monedas (Alex de la Iglesia, HBO Europe) and the new version of  Stephen King'sTHE STAND. 

Top Films of 2020

It's gonna be in English tho. In 2020 I saw films worth mantioning in theaters (Tenet, Colectiv, Pinoochio), watched a lot of Netflix lucky batch of art films product but mostly It was a re-watch and catch-up pf old movies. managed to count (adding series) 370 films. Not so much, I think. so here we go, a TOP 12 adding one mini-series I Know This Much Is True-tough one- but basically a six-hour long film: "

The Top of 2020 series is here ! And the Top of the albums of the Year !

1. "Mank" (Netflix) David Fincher movie of the year !!!

“Uncut Gems” (Netflix) the Safdie Brothers , technically out in December 2019

 “Another Round” Thomas Vinterberg 

 "Tenet" (Warner Bros.) Christopher Nolan -my review here

 “The Painted Bird” Vaclav Marhoul (technically out in 2029) based on the controversial Jerzy Kosinski novel 

 "Pinocchio" Mateo Garrone 

 “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” (Netflix) Charlie Kaufman 

 “Babyteeth” Shannon Murphy

“The Hater” (Netflix) Jan Komasa 

 "Palm Springs" (Hulu/Neon) Max Barbakow -also comedy of the year, sorry Bill and Tedd Face the Music 

 "Da 5 Bloods" (Netflix) Spike Lee 

 “I know This Much Is True” Derek Cianfrance 

HBO mini-series, but like e six-hour movie with special points for Mark Ruffalo-actor of the year, together with Gary Oldman, Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems and Mads Mikkelsen 

Mentions: 

Waiting for the Barbarians, Ciro Guerra's adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's Nobel awarded novel,  flawed but a different breed of film, The Trail of Chicago Seven, The Comey Rule with a great Jeff Daniels and Russian SF/horror Sputnik. 

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  Animation 

"Soul" (Pixar) Pete Docter & Kemp Powers 

  Documentary 

“Zappa” (Alex Winter) 

“Belushi” (R.J. Cutler, Showtime)

 “Colectiv” (Alexandru Nanau, also filmul romanesc al anului 2020) -my review here

 Concert Film of the Year

“American Utopia” (HBO, David Byrne's concert of the album named the same) Spike Lee