One Battle After Another (2025)

One Battle After Another is paul Thomas Anderson's biggest film to date. Most expected and already lauded as film of the year. Sean Penn is in for an Oscar nod surely-best supposting. Di Caprio does a OUIH bit imo. He's like Rick Dalton playing the fried brains revolutionary recluse Bob Ferguson aka... Benicio is also superfunny as the Sensei, shades of him in Fear and Loathing in LAs Vegas...but Sean Penn's performance is surreal. One for the books !

Plus the Christmas Adventurers Club, man, kudos for this one off ;)

I'd call this No Country For Any One...

The film should be read through his soundtrack -i mean the overall score, again by Jonny Greenwood, this time a psychotronic overpulsating paroxistic one. I expect his Oscar for this one.

Thomas Pynchon's book Vineland (1990) was the inspiration of PTA, who did a crazy looney tones political bonanza. Reminde me a lot of Eddington. It's somehow PTA's funniest film to date. 

Epic duration, 2h41, but it goes fast, on this one I would've liked to be even longer, mor Christams Adventureres and Talleyrands.

TBC..

RIP Claudia Cardinale

 Claudia Cardinale...born in Tunis, died in France...Icon of Italian and International Cinema, beauty and elegance. 

The princess from The Pink Panther. a princess in Il Gatopardo, 

8 1/2, Rocco e sui fratelli, Fitzcarraldo. Fellini, Visconti, Herzog.

Great part in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the only woman persona in his westerns.

She was honored at TIFF Cluj in 2009...

                                                              (15.04.2025-23.10.2023)

The Bride (2026)

Movie or at least Curio of next year ?

The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.

The Bride is a mix of Poor Things and Joker (Folie a deux), with elements of Public Enemies (Bale again..), Bonnie and Clyde and other goodies of the 30's era. 

Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.

Transilvania Blues Festival VII

 Communique:

Transilvania Blues Festival – Ediția a VII-a aduce nume mari din lumea bluesului internațional pe 26 și 27 septembrie 2025, la Club Rockstadt, Braşov

Festivalul care aduce anual în centrul României nume importante ale blues-ului internațional aniversează 7 ani de existență. Ediția din acest an propune un program care pune în valoare

diversitatea stilistică a blues-ului contemporan, de la tradiția americană la influențele europene moderne.

LINE-UP 2025:

Vineri, 26 septembrie

* Riccardo Grosso Blues Band (Italia) – Trupă apreciată pe scena europeană pentru

interpretările autentice și abordarea modernă a blues-ului clasic. Frontman-ul Riccardo

Grosso este recunoscut în Europa pentru tehnica sa rafinată la muzicuță și interpretările

expresive, care îl plasează printre cei mai apreciați artiști de blues din Italia. Prezență în

premieră în România, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.

* Sean Chambers & The Savoy Brown Rhythm Section (SUA) – Chitarist și vocalist din Florida,

cu o carieră de peste două decenii, fost membru al trupei lui Hubert Sumlin (chitaristul lui

Howlin’ Wolf). A fost inclus de revista Guitarist Magazine în topul celor mai buni 50 de

chitariști de blues din lume, iar albumele sale au intrat constant în clasamentele Billboard

Blues și Roots Music Report. Revine în România după concertul de succes susținut la

Transilvania Blues Nights pe 23 noiembrie 2023.

Sâmbătă, 27 septembrie

* Jörg Danielsen & Vienna Blues Association (Austria) – Un proiect internațional care

reunește muzicieni de top din scena vieneză și scandinavă. Jörg Danielsen este fondatorul

Vienna Blues Association și organizatorul Blues Festival Falkenstein & Austrian Blues

Challenge. Jörg Danielsen va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues

Festival.

* John Primer & Giles Robson (SUA/Marea Britanie) – Două nume de referință în blues-ul mondial. John Primer, fost chitarist pentru Muddy Waters și Magic Slim, este un pilon al blues-ului tradițional din Chicago. Giles Robson, unul dintre puținii muzicieni europeni care au câștigat un Blues Music Award, completează acest duo unic. John Primer va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transilvania Blues Festival este un proiect cultural organizat de Asociația Transilvania Arts &

Events și finanțat de Consiliul Județean Brașov.

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

Parteneri: Brașov Old Town Apartments, A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Rock FM, Zile și Nopți

🎟 Bilete disponibile pe: rockstadt.ro

Ziua 1 / Ziua 2 - 125 lei (pre-sale) | 150 lei (in ziua concertului). Abonament 2 zile - 200 lei

26–27 septembrie 2025, 19:00-23:00, open doors 17:30

Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

📅 Facebook event: TRANSILVANIA BLUES FESTIVAL – Ediția a VII-a

B. There & Let There B. Blues!!!

                                                https://www.transilvaniablues.ro

Black Rabbit (2025)

Binged this over two nights Black Rabbit, 8 episodes, New York set and well presented into it. The name of the show -miniseries of a Season, no twofers, comes from a bar / restaurant / lounge next top Brooklyn Bridge, names Black Rabbit. Intrigued me that Jude Law sings, together with Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, they are The Black Rabbits, the fictional band in the new netflix series.

There are two Black Rabbits songs, “Turned To Black” and “Outside People,” written and produced by Albert Hammond, Jr. 

Best part of Jason Bateman's career IMO, great teaming with Jude Law as the Friedken brothers, Jake and Vince. Jake own the Black Rabbit and wants to move to The Room, Vince is an addict and a f**k up on the run, turning like a bad penny into Jack's life, worst moment, worst time...

Great supporting cast, including Troy Kutsur (Oscar winner from CODA), Abbey Lee (Oz ex model, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Neon Demon, Old), Joe Ales as Jules Zablonski, Don Harvey, Dagmara Dominczyk, many more. 

Great tense score by Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans (series Tokyo Vice, Ozark and Speak No Evil). 

Links with Ozark and The Order, Justin Kurzel (directs last 2 eps), the writers, who wrote both, Zach Baylin and Kate Susman (also producer and showrunner). 

First 2 eps directed by Bateman and 2 more by Laura Linney, his partner in the Ozark series. Two more by Ben Semanoff (also from Ozark).  Lots of Ozarks and Jude Law's The Order that led to this greenlit by netflix. Location shooting and plenty of atmosphere, noirish nightmare descent, bravura performances, I guess it won't be much loved but I appreciated it. Will be on my list of 2025 Top series. 

Iron Maiden 2026 Tour

Run for Your Lives Tour continues...

including Romania, Bucharest, Arena Nationala, 28 mai 2026.

see here my last piece on Maiden's concert in May 2025 

It will be my 12th gig, as in Shakes' The Twelve Night ;)

1. kissstadion -2003 hungary, june 2
2. stuttgart, dance of death 2003, 25 oct
3. milano a matter of life and death, 2 dec 2006
4. cotroceni, aug. 2 somewhere back in time -2008
5. cluj final frontier 2010
6. pta constitutiei 2013
7. pta constitutiei 2016
8. hills of rock plovdiv,  2018
9. romexpo senjutzu 2023
10. run for your lives papp laszlo arena 28 mai 2025
11. beaufort 3 iulie 2025

+

plus bruce dickinson spoken word feb 2000 sala radio
plus dickinson cannes chemical wedding
plus dickenson sala pal 2022 deep p symphonic

communique:

𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐥 „𝐑𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒” 𝐥𝐚 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐭̦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐚̆ 𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬̦𝐭𝐢, 𝐩𝐞 𝟐𝟖 𝐦𝐚𝐢 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔.

Iron Maiden își continuă turneul aniversar „Run For Your Lives”, dedicat celor 50 de ani de carieră, cu un setlist care reunește momente definitorii din istoria trupei și cu cel mai spectaculos show pus în scenă până acum.

Biletele pentru publicul general se pun în vânzare începând cu 27 septembrie, ora 11:00, la https://ironmaiden.emagic.ro/ și pe iaBilet.ro, iar pre-sale-ul pentru membrii fan clubului Iron Maiden începe pe 23 septembrie, la ora 11:00.

Clienții Emagic și iaBilet vor avea la dispoziție un presale cu acces exclusiv începând cu 24 septembrie, la ora 11:00, în baza unui cod pe care il vor primi pe email.

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES WORLD TOUR 2026

MAI
23 Atena, GRECIA – OAKA
26 Sofia, BULGARIA – Stadionul Vasil Levski
28 București, ROMÂNIA – Arena Națională
30 Bratislava, SLOVACIA – Národný Futbalový Štadión

IUNIE
02 Hanovra, GERMANIA – Heinz von Heiden Arena
10 Amsterdam, OLANDA – Ziggo Dome
17 Milano, ITALIA – San Siro Stadium
22 Paris, FRANȚA – Paris La Défense Arena
28 Lyon (Décines), FRANȚA – Groupama Stadium

IULIE
07 Lisabona, PORTUGALIA – Estádio da Luz
11 Knebworth, UK

RIP Robert Redford

Robert Redford gone where a River / rivers run through...

The Man was 89. Once ”The Golden Boy” of Hollywood...No liftings, just traces of life...

One of my top childhood heroes, he was an absolute star in that times "commie" Romania, together with Paul Newman, John Wayne and Burt Reynolds, the stars of those early 70's. RR, as a Rolls Royce of acting and old Hollywood grace and elegance. 

From early prats in Barefoot in the Park and The Chase, to stardom: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor, to his activist years and Sundance, to the last parts in All is Lost (one of my favourite RR performances), The Old Man and the Gun and last in that Marvel film (2019)...

Never won an Oscar as an actor, but as a director, in 1980 for Ordinary People. That film is now quite forgotten, but at the time it helped build an Indie genre later on. A raw model for Brad Pitt and tons of others he helped more in the capacity of director, producer and festival founder (Sundance). Even though he directed 9 feature films he will be remembered more as a Classic Movie Star. 

Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Hot Rock, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Great Gatsby, The Electric Horseman, Jeremiah Johnson, Brubaker, The Natural.

Liked him in lesser films like Sneakers, Legal Eagles, Havana, The Last Castle, The Clearing. 

One of my favorite later parts parts of RR is Nathan Muir in Tony Scott's Spy Game (2001). His pairing with Brad Pitt as his mentor in CIA was a very touching one. 

He made serious topics like grief and political corruption resonate with the masses, in no small part because of his own star power. (The NY Times)

The Long Walk (2025)

"Walk or Die"

Francis Lawrence never struck me as an auteur director. The Long Walk is his closest to a a personal filmmaking effort.

Constantine was probably his best flick, the man directed tons and tons of music videos, a sh***y version of I Am Legend, Red Sparrow, four Hunger Games, those probably qualifying him for this film. 

Stephen King's novel The Long Walk was published in 1979 under the name Richard Bachman, same as The Running Man, Rage, etc. 

It is set in a dystopic America, as in Hunger Games or recently in Civil War, in which young men participate in a race, without stops, until one remains. Same principle as Turkey Shoot or The Running Man (which was remade this year).  You have to keep walking at 3mph, steadily. You get only three warnings, one erased per hour if you march on.

The camera moves and moves and moves all along with the protagonist. The whole film is in movement. Belgian cinematographer Jo Willems, who worked with Lawrence on his Hunger Games films and Red Sparrow shot the film anamorpically on 2.39.1. The whole thing was shot in Manitoa, Canada, for 20 mill. $. 

The ensemble young actors are convincing, it helps they are not known. They are all called by their numbers. Cooper Hoffman (#47 / Licorice Pizza), David Jonsson (#23, Alien: Romulus), Garrett Wareing (# 38/ God is a Bullet), Charlie Plummer (#5 / All the Money in the World). Mark Hammil does a career best villain as The Major. Judy Greer is the only woman in the cast, as Cooper Hoffman's mother. The racial aspect, white, black, white, white, Asian, Indian. Let's say that is not the "woke" or globalism problem, welll, no Mexicanos, hispanics. 

Problem is the language, they all swear non stop, I guess they said, oh, it's Rated R so we can swear all the time we want. But f**k every three words is gratuitous to say the least, and they all talk the same swearing game, the boys as well as the major.

Script by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling), the lastest on a series of aborted adpatations, from George A. Romero to Frank Darabont. 

Pulsing and dramatic score by Jeremiah Fraites, end titles have a country/Americana song composed for the film by   Shaboozey & Stephen Wilson Jr.- Took a Walk (not on the soundtrack). A rendition of Oh My Darling Clementine is sung by the boys at Mile 260 !!!

Reminded me of the WW2 war films, Sidney Lumet's The Hill (1965) in particular. And as they were running, of the final run of Black Hawk Down. 

7 out of 10 / 3.5 out of 5 !!!

*would've been more but I'd cut 15 min from the 108 min. running time, it loses its rhythm and has repetitions, most of the 50 "walkers" are just extras (in King's original there were 100 participants). 

The premise is as absurd as it gets and you got to believe it, also the lenght of the march is beyond belief... 

Highest 2 Lowest (2025) .

"All Money Ain’t Good Money"   (David King)

Highest 2 Lowest is Spike Lee's reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 masterpiece High and Low, based on Ed McBain's book, The King's Ransom. It's about a kidnapping gone wrong and a moral decision and dillema of a rich man on the edge of losing all his money. The 1st act is slow as in Kurosawa'a original (the script for this is credited to the Japanese master and his collaborators, the film itself is dedicated to him).  Then the pace changes and it becomes energetic until the end. 

The film premiered in Cannes this year, out of competition (with Denzel Washington receiving an impromptu Palme d'Or for his 1st !!! visit to the Croisette) and it's an Apple+ film-for streaming with limited release in the US by A24. 

Denzel in his 5th collaboration with Spike plays a music mogul, "the best ears in the business" David King (the King from King's Ransom, in Kurosawa's film is Kingo Gondô as played by a magnificent Toshiro Mifune).  His second, friend and driver is Paul, a great restrained and dry humored performance by Jeffrey Wright.

Shot by Matthew Libatique, who went back to back in NY locations with Aronofsky's Caught Stealing (in cinemas now, go and see) in glorios widescreen. Libatique worked before with Lee on four films, including another NY flick, Inside Man .

H2L is a colorful love letter to Spike's beloved New York., Manhattan, Brookyln Bridge, Puerto Rican parade, Yankee stadium. 

Complete with 2 lengthy train /subway chases that quotes and hatsoff s Friedkin's legendary The French Connection. 

Also lots of art, from Basquiat to sports memorabilia and a lot of Muhhamed Ali stuff, to a painting entitled "Billie, Lester, Fats and Duke" by Frederick J. Brown. This painting was featured in "The Spike Lee 'Creative Sources' Exhibition" at the Brooklyn Museum. The title refers to prominent jazz musicians: Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington.

The soundtrack is a symphonic Howard Drossin score, then rap songs by A$AP Rocky (in the film Yung Felon) and some James Brown mean rhythms. 

The opening credits are shots of new NY buildings getting to King's skyscraper penthouse / terrace on classic musical Oklahoma's  Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', sung by Norm Lewis. A live performanced of Eddie Palmieri's Orchestra and Aiyana-Lee Anderson (as newcomer singer Sula) playing the title song (cos you goota too ;). Read comments and reviews about the worst score - I don't get if they meant the score or the songs, but personally I find the score excellent and a breakthrough-Drossin worked as an orchestrator for Spike's regular Terence Blanchard and with Lee since The 25th Hour, also with RZA and making videogames music. 

Might be Lee's most commercial film 'til Inside Man and the disastrous Oldboy and it's uneven but flavoury.

Revisited Kurosawa's film this spring and it's a timeless masterpiece! Lee's version plays more like a cover song, in color and with vivid wipes and tumult. 

6 out of 10 / 3 out of five !

Kurosawa's 1963 High and Low is a 9/10 for me ! Could've been a Ten tho ;)

Inside Man (2006) English

 Inside Man – Inside Spike Lee’s Cap

Alin Ludu Dumbravă, Șapte Seri / April 2006

"Small country, a few tables." (Gheorghe Dinică)

And no hats. I think almost every passionate cinemagoer here (a small, somewhat dysfunctional minority, like the great bustard in Bărăgan) knows Spike Lee — “that Black guy with glasses and a cap” — from that Orange Wednesday commercial, where he pitches a baseball movie. “Their colors were white and blue — can’t it be orange?” they give him a corporate cap: “Hey Spike, you forgot your hat!” Classic Orange Wednesday commercials (no, not the ones with hobbits with weird voices; no, Orange doesn’t pay me).

What was I writing? Ah, yes… Spike Lee’s cap. Hobbits. Baseball. Because here, this breed of cinema wanderer — let’s call him the inside man, like in Spike’s film, which he made after they refused to fund that other baseball movie — expects not to have the credits cut, popcorn dropped on his head, or get called by fools during the screening. He wants the film projected correctly, with care (I can already hear the muted curses of projectionists who just want peace, since “the equipment dates back to Ceaușescu”), yet he’s actually an outside man, getting roughed up regularly, like in the joke about the bear and the rabbit: “Why don’t you have a hat, man?” — Bam!

But let’s get back to Spike’s film — the second to hit our screens after 25th Hour; the guy’s been making films since the ’80s! Inside Man is his first truly commercial movie, with the biggest budget, A-list stars, studio financing and marketing. A film about (fake) heists, hostages, New Yorkers, and even… Albanians (a Romanian actress — Florina Petcu, see her photo on IMDb — plays an Albanian), without baseball or caps (Denzel wears a fedora).

With stars like Clive Owen, Denzel Washington (his fourth Spike Lee film), Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, and Willem Dafoe. A strong opening credit sequence, flawless cinematography, sharp editing, and a Terence Blanchard score. Like Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, a commercial concession, Inside Man is intelligent, subversive, and acerbic. Add Spike Lee’s personal touch, racial undertones, and his unmistakable New Yorker flavor in the tense post-9/11 climate — humor and energy included.

More interesting for the cinemagoer than the movie about the guy in white-and-blue baseball gear. “Hey Spike, you forgot your hat!” Paraphrasing: “No hat? Take a Koprol!”

Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe

RIP Rick Davies

Rick Davies, the keyboardist of Supertramp (on Wurlitzer), and founding member in 1969, died on Sept. 6th 2025 at 81 :( 

He stayed with the band after Roger Hodgson's departure, in 1983. 

Supertramp was one of my favorite bands in the 80's, and in the 90's too, following my exposure to the vinyl of Breakfast in America (1979), which I kept and played to exhaustion. Then saw the vhs of Paris Live and later on I taped and then bought all their CD's, classic perios era. Saw only Roger Hodgson live in 2019 in Bucharest...

                                                              "Ain't Nobody But Me"

Rolling Stone obit here 

Caught Stealing (2025)

Darren Aronofsky is an arthouse favorite from Pi to The Whale, passing through The Fountain, Black Swan and The Wrestler), and this Caught Stealing might be his most commercial film yet. But that's not a bad thing. At all. 

Taking cues from the Coens and Guy Ritchie, he revisits New York of 1998 in a dark irreverent comedy thriller complete with an English Punk mohawk, a cat, Russian mobsters and two Rabbi killers. 

Written by Charlie Huston, based on his book from 2004.  It's actually the 1st book in a series of three, about the character Hank Thompson. If Caught... (great Romanian Title, Prins cu mata-n sac....NOT) is a hit. Hopefully it will and Butler will carry on. 

A major influence, as also checked is After Hours (Scorsese, 1985), see the video in the comments.

Very cool cast, including Griffin Dunne from After Hours, who could be actually the same character, Paul, Village bar owner, mentioning Lou and Andy ;), Austin Butler (his third important lead, after Elvis and The Bikeriders), Zoë Kravitz (Blink Twice), Regina King, rappers Bad Bunny & Action Bronson and brit Matt Smith. Plus the fantastic duo of Liev Schrieber and Vincent D'Onofrio. Another fantastic duo, the Russians -Nikita Kukushkin (Microbe)  and Yuri Kolokolnikov (Alexei). Also featuring Carol Kane. But the absolute highlight is Bud the Cat, played by Tonic. 

Shot by Aronofsky's regular, Matthew Libatique in 1.85: 1. Some impressive camera moves and angles, great location value, NY truly lives in every shot. Lots of graffiti dressing. Libatique shot this back to back in NY locations with Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest.

 

Songs by post-punk band Idles, score by Rob Simonsen. Including a cover of Police and Thieves, made famous by The Clash in 1976. Some Bowie references, a lot of pop culture around, all soundtrack songs here.

RIP Graham Greene

 Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves now on the other side...

Thunderheart, Wind River