Digger (2026)

 Is Digger the most divisive film of the year ?

A stunt ?

A vanity project ?

A cinematic hoax ?

A future cult masterpiece and a visionary film ?

Give it a try in the cinemas and don't let the trailer fool you, there's a gimmick yes but the filmmakers asked us not to spolier the film -those who reead my blog know that I hardly mention plots and the story of the film I am 'reviewing' here. 

I am happy that I liked it, went with a lot of sketicism and came out Happy ! or maybe, Happy is not the right word, it's an intense, deep, layered piece of masterful cinema !

...and I must say I am neither a Tom Cruise or Alejandro Iñárritu fan (except Birdman) !

Described as a 'comedy of catastrophic promoportions' the film is more than that, from farce to satire to Meta and Meta Meta cinema. It's been  Iñárritu's project for 10 years and Cruise came onboard in 2019. 

To enhance and perfect the story Iñárritu worked with at least 5 screenwriters (that's what's credited onscreen). 

It's also gonna be the last film released by the Warner Bros. studios in thier 103 years long run, before the infamous merger upcoming. It was not planned this way but it works as a super-expensive subversive goodbye F88k You !

I mostly agree with Mark Kermode video review. I disagree on the point that you'd definetly read more and different into the film into a second viewing but who would ever wanna do that ? And with his conclusion. (also I disagree on his opinion of Eyes Wide Shut. My main problem with that film was Tom Cruise but he is making that film go). 

I will see it a second time. I'm sure it will be even better.

*went and did that. And it was even better, another layer of filmmaking, other small discoveries. It's a see more, more to discover reward, I guess I'll go again in a while ;)

You can read the whole thing through the perception of the cat story (Empathise 'Perception'). I think it's the most important clue in the world of Digger Rockwell, as a crazy Rosebud of this film subtext. 

The acting ensemble is sensational, Riz Ahmed should won supporting actor Oscar (he looked to me like Groucho Marx,, (Tom Cruise surely will be shunned!), John Goodman as hammy as Slim Pickens was in Strangelove (he definetly deserves an Oscar too, imo he fid a Trump), Michael Stuhlbarg, Robert John Burke, Sandra Hüller, Burn Gorman, Emma D'Arcy, Pip Torrens and a very interesting part for Jesse Plimons. 

I'd give a clue on some influences: obviously Iñárritu's own Birdman, Kubrick's Dr. Strangleove, Charlie Kaufman's “Synecdoche, New York.” and as observed as planted clues onscreen (as posters), Lubitsch with To Be or Not To Be and John Cassavetes' Opening Night. Parts look like a Wes Anderson film, parts like Coen bros, that's because of emulating Classic screwball comedies from the 30's  Roy Andersson (the UN council scene), even a wink to Cuaron's Children of Men. And shades of Citizen Kane. And Monty Python !

Guillermo De Toro says it best: " Love it or not. And, yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and cinematically complex. Decidedly a theatrical experience." 

Shot exceptionally on 35 mm in VistaVision by DoP Emmanuel Lubezki, in two different formats (!), all filmed at Pinewood studios, with a genius set design (Dennis Gassner who did the last Bonds and Blade Runner 2049 &  Richard L. Johnson, promoted from art director to full PD), details, colors and shapes. Uberstylised. Very expensive film but state-of-perfection of production values, all the money is there, brilliant VFX from top companies, the sets, the lightning, the backgrounds. Editing too, perfection. Sound design, as another character of this film.

Great experimental score by a newcomer in films, English pop indie artist (alternative folk)  Cosmo Sheldrake (which I am happy to discover now-his regular stuff I'm listening right now).

More about his score here: 

Two songs by The Ink Spots, some Debussy, Melanie Safka's  Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma that closes the film, followed by a crazy ambiental soundscape (not on the released soundtrack), part of Avian Elegy by Sheldrake, which reminded me of the experimental Pink Floyd  (actually Roger Waters crazy song) from 1969's Ummagumma, Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict. , which mesmerised us when we were like 13 olds ;) Actually there's a song (and a line in the film) entitled 'Amused to Death'.

You can listen the whole score here.

4 1/2 stars out of 5 / 9 out of 10 !!!

*The most cinematic experience you can have now in cinemas, also watch for HOPE and RESIDENT EVIL and if you are a dog lover go and weep at Heart of the Beast !

**

Loved the Yosihiro Nakayama pun ! The guy with the tuna story who is actually a climate scientist.

***

The UN scene -esp. the one-shot-bravura on steadycam is one of the best shots in recent cinema history, film school 101. 

****I rarely say (write) this, but I wished the film was even longer. I saw some shots from the trailer/teaser that did not make it into the final theatrical cut. 

*****

Might be the most quatable flick since The Big Lebowski. The compasisons with Dont Look Up are out of order. That was a pedestrian film, no filmic qualities whatsoever, this is out in the fields of mad, and Movieland. And more ;)

                                                                                'Level Four'

Hope (2026)

Hope/Hopeu is a crazy madcap rollercoaster made in Korea by master filmmaker Na Hong-jin (author of The Chaser,-2008 The Yellow Sea-2010 and The Wailing-2016). Saw all of them in Cannes at the fest. Hope premiered this year in the Cannes Film Festival, in the official competition. The vfx were not completed so the film scored a mixed reception. It's also the most expensive Korean film to-date.

But Hopeu (the name of the finctional South Korean fishing village) is: 

not a monster film 

not a sci-fi film

not a thriller

not a comedy

not a horror

but all in ONE.

Oh, what a ride !!!! Predator and Korean misfits, a mixed of genres and an cinematic energy only seen in the Mad Max films. Plus some Prometheus trops (don't listen to the Avatar people;)

Well, the duration is self-indulgent, 160 mins.

But the film is NON-STOP KINETIC, with spellbinding images and exceptional cinematography.

Incredibly the Mountain /wood scenes were shot in Retezat mountains in Romania !!! 

The VFX are not 100 % there, due to budget limitations, but the vision is hugely ambitious. 

The action happens around 1980 in the demilitarised zone of South Korea, close to the border with the North. Hwang Jung-min is the chief of police and he's one of the 3-4-5 ? leads. He is a major action hero star in Korea and he is seconded by Hoyeon, the girl from Squid Game seriers and by an even cooler hunter with a cap, Zo In-sung. They are all cool and hyperkinetic and fast and scared or scared and fast, and they all banter. Fast and scared. Or the reverse. Korean. sense of humour might not make a lot of sense sometimes for the rest of the world. 

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are in the film too but I won't say more. 

I'd say only the film is superhuman in emotions, and very absurd, bleak and cruel in parts. Also visceral to the extremes. 

Great score by American composer Michael Abels (Us, Nope). 

See it in a cinema, bigger the screen the better and the speakers UP full blast !!!

(it runs very limited in Romanian cinemas now, brought by Vertical Entertainment !!!)

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

cool interview with Na Hong-Jin in THR here. 

There's spoliers tho. I haven't specifically mentioned th ending but Good luck Na Hong-Jin !!!

Resident Evil (2026)

The new Resident is Evil ;)

Zach Cregger's new film after the success of last year's Weapons and before, his feature debut with Barbarian (2022) is a Resident Evil reboot. Obviously he is a huge fan of the game which I've never played and I've been bored to death with the series, started in 2002 with Paul W. Anderson/ Milla Jovovich's Resident Evil(s). I know that George A. Romero was the 1st one supposed to do the film and his script and project was rejected back then. It looks like Cragger had full imunity -Carte Blanche-and a huge budget. It's also considerd to be perfect Game play movie, I'd skip that atribute as I don't play video games, but here comes asa quality and I could see how it moves like that, but transcends on the screen beautifully...

Austin Abrams (Weapons) as the clueless Protagonist is closer to Griffin Dunne in After Hours (and An American Werewolf in London) than to Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead. He's is a climsy blue collar slacker way out of his league ! Cragger makes it funny and ridicoulous too in his approach of the game as filmic survival body horror mixed with lots of comedic approach (it says it's been tamed down heavily on the humor!). Main References are John Carpenter's The Thing (those mentioning The Substance should know that's a Carpenter nod too ;), from the soundscape to the monsters F/X (even the dog thing !), Sam Raimi (humor from Evil Dead 2 and 3), even a Fargo nod...

It's very dense and tense and relentless and it's exactly 90 mins. long, a rare case in which it could've been longer !

I love the ending and I heard mixed opinions about that, judge for yourself !

 Further assets: 

Great widescreen cinmatography by Dariusz Wolski, after his films with Ridley and Tony Scott. He shot it all in Czech Republic in the snow. 

For those who can see it in IMAX, the 2nd half is in  1.90 : 1(second half, IMAX version), 

for the rest 2.39 : 1

Great F/X work by Weta Digital. 

Effective and uber cool synth score by Hays and Ryan Holladay, who did also Cragger's Weapons and songs for Barbarian. It features a horn section that is both creepy and jazzy. You can listen to all of it here. the film concudes with The Kinks' Animal farm on the end credits. 

One of this year's best if not the best Horror flick in cinema, tie with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. 

To be seen on the Big Screen, with the best Sound !

4 out of 5, 8 out of 10 !!!

Sacrifice (2025)

 This curio is in Romanian theaters now -very limited.

For thouse who want a psychedelic experience, with great visuals, music and sound design, go for it !

The rest can wait for the Netflix relase on Oct. 16. 

It's a film by Romain Gavras, the son of legendary Costa-Gavras. 

It's about the end of the world (maybe?), a volcano, a benefit celebrity gala and a group of nutty Nordic eco-terrorists.

Chris Evans playing the Hollywood celebrity actor Mike Tyler ( that is now a mess) looks more like a young Nic Cage. Anya Taylor-Joy is the psychotic Terrorist boss, Vincent Cassel, bald and mean, as Ben Bracken, a bio-billionaire, John Malkovich more cameos as the mad scientist Gunnar. 

Score by GENER8ION 

featuring Leonard Cohen, a cool version of SUPERNATURE with Charliexxx

and This is How We Walk on The Moon by Arthur Russell 

here's a video for GENER8ION -Storm, directed by Romain Gavras, who is a renowned music videos director. 

 The film looks more like directed by a Panos Cosmatos ;)

Simillarities with Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia (tho that was a remake). The film has a weird New Greek Cinema style and feeling.

Read there is a genre. `Eat the Rich' films like those of Ruben Ostlund (The Triangle of Sadness), The Menu and Blink Twice.

It's visully stunning, with great soundtrack, sound design and fabulous locations.

Greece (the stone quarry), Bulgaria (Podhodna cave aka The Eyes of God) and Iceland for the volcano.

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

The Dog Stars (2026)

Ridley Scott's newest pic, The Dog Stars, is as close to a western as he ever did get to do. A post-apocalyptic story, it's a very slow and intimist film, 1 character, a dog, two characters, three characters, that's it. Oh, and a Cessna 1956 plane. Major character. 

Jacob Elrodi (frankenstein) replaced Paul Mescal as Hig, the pilot. Josh Brolin who worked previously with Scott on American Gangster is the cynical Bangley. They represent opposite views, opposite worlds, one missing his old world, the other one adapting, full survival mode. 

Supporting are Margaret Qualley (OUTiH, Poor Things, The Substance, Kinds of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls, How to Make a Killing), in her most normal and romantic role (up to now) as Cima and Guy Pearce as Pops (Pearce was the old Peter Weyland in Prometheus). Benedict Wong is also here (he was in Ridey's The Martian) and an Ewen Bremner cameo that works as a red hering. He also worked for Scott in Black Hawk Down.

Now if you already read the reviews which I can't understand...? Worst ever for a Scott film??

Worse than Gladiator II and Napoleon which were painful to sit through? Anyway, this is not that biggie of a film, compared to the scale of these two baaad juggernauts...

The film is very slow and it builds atmosphere gradually. The three acts are separated smoothly. The landscape, the nature is another silent character, the green, the mountains vs. The Wasteland.

Incredibly the whole film was shot in Italy, with the Grand Junction sets built at Cinecitta. DOP is Erik Mesermschmit, David Fincher's later collaborator, here in his 1st cinema fare with Scott (he worked before with RS on TV's Raised by Wolves and The Dope Thief).

Comparisons with The Last of Us or The Walking Dead are wrong, closer is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 

The Dog Stars is based on the 2012 book by Peter Heller and the script is by Mark L  Smith who wrote The Revenant.

Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score, which is part elegiac, part menacing, it's his 7th for a Scott film.

The soundtrack has also dramatic value, it's folkish and rockish, from the opening credits with Hozier ( Like Real People Do), that gets replayed at the end of the film, to Van Morrison (Tupelo Honey), to Caamp’s “By and By” (on headphones), Dean Martin (Memories are made of This), to the end in The Chieftains and Mick Jagger. (The Long Black Veil). Featuring also Charmaine written by Lew Pollack, Erno Rapee performed by Jack Nitzsche, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Fly Me to the Moon, sung by Allison Janney on screen. 

There is a most poetic scene at the end with the "mormons"/ mennonites countryfair that transcends Ridley Scott's cinema, an optimist message in a post-apocalyptic world. I sensed in the interraction betwwen Hig and Bangley could be a sort of tribute to Ridley's late brother, Tony....

To be seen on the Big Screen.

The IMAX thing is a gimmick tho.

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

RIP Nick Glennie-Smith

 RIP Nick Glennie-Smith 

The Rock with Hnas Zimmer & Harry Gregson-Williams

point of no return -American Nikita 

etc....

In Bruges (2008)

 Romanian version here. 

I was aked to to piece for the TIFF 25 retrospective in AperiTIFF and here it is. 

"They're Filming Midgets..."

Heaven, hell or purgatory? It's Bruges!

An extraordinary debut by Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopats, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri), In Bruges is one of the very best films of 2008—and much more than that. A cult film par excellence, it becomes more valuable every time I revisit it. I am still astonished that, after premiering at Sundance, it failed to win any major awards there. It did go on to win Colin Farrell a Golden Globe and earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, a category it won at the BAFTAs.

I like to think, however, that it did for tourism in Bruges what Roman Holiday did for Rome!

I, for one, spent a day there in 2014, and my impressions matched Ray's point of view exactly, as opposed to Ken's.

The Colin Farrell/Ray – Brendan Gleeson/Ken pairing is fabulous, and McDonagh reunited them fourteen years later in another extraordinary film, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).

And Ralph Fiennes as Harry is impeccable, ferocious—an irresistible character.

You can tell that McDonagh is also a playwright, and that his literary influences stem from the Theatre of the Absurd, yet the film remains intensely cinematic.

First and foremost, it owes a great deal to Harold Pinter's 1959 play The Dumb Waiter. In turn, Pinter's play was inspired by Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953). Add a touch of British gangster cinema—Irish, in this case—a hint of Bruegel landscapes in Bruges, nihilism, a fatal trauma, an improbable love story, and black, absurd humour turned up to eleven.

Other clues: Touch of Evil, Don't Look Now, Carlito's Way, the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.

Carter Burwell's score most likely came into McDonagh's world via the Coen Brothers (see Fargo in the same TIFF retrospective of black comedies), with whom McDonagh began a wonderful collaboration that continued throughout all of his subsequent films.

Like Fargo, In Bruges was never released theatrically in Romania at the time.

Alin Ludu Dumbravă

Cape Fear (2026)

Beware !!! (literally stay away from this Fake Fear)

Max Cady is Back ! And this time he is Javier Bardem with a goat-e and Udo Kier type of Blue Eyes -actually Green lenses!)

The new Cape Fear is here...on Apple Tv + (premiered June 5th) 

Episodes 1 and 2 were cool and atmospheric, but  will it have enough breath to do Ten ?

we'll see...

well, now it's over and what was originally published on June 8th overstayed its welcome -as expected !!! here are the August 1st conclusions of this bloated overbearing season !

Bardem, best thing about him, his Panama hat (which he took from Mitchum's Cady, but Mitchum had a cooler one-and in black and white)- does not get even close to his Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men or even the blonde eyed psycho Silva from Skyfall. No my faved, his best psycho and most fun is the one from Perdita Durango, Romeo !. Basically Bardem is ripping off De Niro's Max Cady at a nec plus ultra grand guignol style. Efficient but pastiche...

Very little from the original book John D. MacDonald's The Executioners (1957) stays on.

Also not much of the 1962 J. Lee Thompson original adaptation as Cape Fear in glorious Black and White.

cool tittle lettering, cool ideas from the Scorsese 1991 remake and homage (the shots on the negative, camera moves), and most of all the music stays the same. Bernard Herrmann's score, now redone by Jeff Russo. This is the only asset imo, I think I watched it for the score alone, this being one of the best I ever heard, and tops some of Herrmann's work with Hitchcock. 

Exec prod by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and showrunner Nick Antosca.

Wasted Ted Levine and Ron Perlman in the obvious baddie daddy roles. 

***

1st episode, 'Fingers and Toes' directed by Norwegian Morten Tyldum (Headhunters, Passengers). 

Ep. 2 'Why Would I Want to Hurt You?' directed by  S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Madame Web), features a cameo by screenwiter Wesley Strick (who wrote the 1991 remake of CF).

Ep. no. 3 on June 12th:  Phantom Sensations

already feeling the nausea

Ep. 4 Pierced. June 19th.

some lgbtq happens before the two daughters. 

ep.5 Faith -June 26.

loss of breath, mambojambo and a sinister Juliette Lewis. 

Ep. 6 Possum -July 3rd.

that's when I feel like quiting, don't really wanna see how they're gonna mangle this beyond belief. 

Ep. 7: Mongrel -July 10th

by episode seven it's becoming such a grand guignol caricature with storytelling of a bad telenovela,  I switched it of. They take a road trip and ouch, and the soundtracks goes from BOC's Don't Fear the Reaper to Alice Cooper's Eighteen. 

Ep. 8 ∙ Los tiempos de Dios son Perfectos -July 17. Telenovellas quickens. 

Ep. 9- The Scar -July 24. More mambojambo, rednecks and swamps. We don't need a bigger boat ;)

Ep. 10: The Executioners. July 31th. Hurricane arrives. Leaving open season two ? C'mon !!!

2 out of 5, 4 out of 10 !

Her Private Hell (2026)

NWR originals -Refn 's comeback ? more like Refn's goodbye...or His Private Hell instead of Her Private Hell !

10 years ago he divided the cinema world last time with The Neon Demon, then he antagonised execs with his streaming fares, Copenhagen Cowboy for Netflix, which of course never got renewed..

Now he was in Cannes (out of competition with the worst reviews of his career) and is in Romanian theaters (very Limited, brave Bad Unicorn release), even with his new UFO, Her Private Hell.

Now, I wished I liked this, but no... fell asleep almost. 

Well the film is a dream, a dream within a dream, with dream logic and nightmares. It's supposedly concieved after Refn had a clinical death of 25 minutes in 2023...

Mist, The Letherman, Metropolis and crystals, models who can't act, yakuza and choreographed empty fights, disco inferno, lesbianism, incest. A Refn original ;) 

mixing giallo, B Sf & japanese action/yakuza films (Seijun Suzuki?).

Again the Hans Christian Andersen trauma, the girl with the matches...

visuals of Barbarella, Diabolik and Flash Gordon ?  Terrore nello spazio / aka Planet of the Vampires ?Tron meets Suspiria and other Argento fares (defenestration) ? Technicolor by Bava ?

He's trying Lynch's tricks, from Lost Highway and Mullholand Drive, but he's getting zilch. 

acting level is subzero...Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, gorgeously photographed but used as cardboard models. 

the letragic pacing goes lethal, the film comes alive on the neon visuals only when there's music.

So, the only redeeeming quality of the film is the score by Pino Donnagio, an eerie, elegiac beautiful (Herrmannesque, there is some Vertigo in it) score that stands out and it's one of his best, together with the ones for De Palma. It would be ironic if Donaggio reworked some of his rejected score for De Palma's Snake Eyes (1999).

The disco synth pop is not by Donnagio but by Refn's collaborator Julian Winding (Dolce mio).

https://fictionhorizon.com/her-private-hell-budget-breakdown-how-nicolas-winding-refns-costly-gamble-struggled-at-the-box-office/

2 out of 5 / 4 out of 10 !

Casualties of War (1989)

Casualties of War (1989) is one of the best war (anti-war) films and still does not have the recognition it deserves.  I wrote the dvd review in 2006, twenty years ago, updated it now and in English...

the Romanian version is here !

1966. An incident in Vietnam... the story of a repeated rape and a murder that could have been prevented, but which no one even wishes to punish—only to ignore. Casualties of War, a war regarded in America as synonymous with the loss of innocence, in which the heroes of the two World Wars became the villains and the executioners.

1987. After his first incredible mainstream success with The Untouchables, Brian De Palma, propelled onto the list of directors most coveted by the studios, could make whatever film he wanted. And he chose a controversial, repugnant, revolting subject, one that was later vehemently denied by almost everyone, especially Vietnam veterans. A real, infamous case that he had dreamed of bringing to the screen since 1969, when he saw at the Berlin Film Festival a film on the same subject, inspired by Daniel Lang's New York Times article. At the same time, one of his favourite films is The Bridge on the River Kwai, and De Palma decides to become David Lean for a little while (hence the key sequence on the bridge).

Filmed in Thailand under extremely harsh conditions, with an A-list cast of young actors on the rise (Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, John Leguizamo, John C. Reilly), Casualties of War was released in 1989, only to be torn apart by critics, who found it exploitative and visceral, and almost completely ignored by audiences who had grown weary of Vietnam. Constructed as one vast flashback (and nightmare at the same time), it contains De Palma's overwhelming visual style and his recurring obsessions: guilt, the betrayal of comradeship, impossible love, impotence, passive voyeurism. But this time, instead of Brian De Palma's much-discussed Hitchcockian thriller fantasies, the events unfolding on screen are based on a true story. The viewer becomes complicit in the carnage, and the unsettling feeling of guilt gradually, methodically, almost paroxysmally takes hold. Ennio Morricone's score (following his previous collaboration on The Untouchables), punctuated by Gheorghe Zamfir's pan flute, is the film's principal source of emotion—elegiac, mournful, evocative of ghosts from the past and shattered dreams.

2006. The film America could not bear to watch, one of the most anti-war films ever made, is today being reassessed and regarded as equal to, or even greater than, its predecessors: The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket. And the victim of the war behind the screen continued to develop his recurring themes, concealed within his much-discussed Hitchcockian thriller fantasies, without ever again disturbing his fellow citizens' civic conscience with stories based on real events.

---

Extra: the extended edition (also the first one to reach Romania) includes six additional minutes of footage (material previously available only as deleted scenes—Eriksson's interrogation, an additional scene with Dale Dye, and an unexpected Greg Henry cameo), an emotional interview with Michael J. Fox, and a half-hour Making Of in which De Palma is far warmer and more talkative than usual—and if you're wondering why, it simply means you haven't seen the film.

4 Stars out of 5 - 8 out of 10 !

Alin Ludu Dumbravă

The Boys from Brazil (1978)

The Boys from Brazil was first a book by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby), published in 1976. Great page-turner thriller, very risque, mixing real characters with preposterous fiction !

1978, ITC-producer Sir Lew Grade makes the movie adaptation.

The great Franklin J. Schaffner directs. And he gets an 11 Mill. $ budget and a Grade (sic) A cast.

Gregory Peck is Joseph Mengele, playing totally against type, his only Villain in his filmography. His take on Mengele is fierce, mean spirited and dead serious. He man is evil, the Doctor is mad. But Peck plays it straight and dresses sharply, in white suits, with a stilleto moustache. It's definitely one of the top performances of his amazing career.

Peck said afterwards, "I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.”

A frail Laurence Olivier (who just had his kidney stones removed!) is Ezra Liberman, the nazi hunter modelled after Simon Wiesenthal.  Olivier's physicality helps him tremendously fot the part, you can feel his pain and suffering. Both Peck and Olivier deliver really copious accents. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for best actor, one of the film's three Oscar nods (editing and music too).

James Mason supports as colonel Seibert, as do a bunch of great actors known from war and spy films, 

Walter Gottel (general Gogol in the Moore Bond films), Wolfgang Preiss, Michael Gough, Bruno Ganz, Denholm Elliott, most interesting is young Steve Guttenberg playing a Jewish young journalist who discovers the Praguayan Nazi plot. Lily Palmer, Uta Hagen and Anne Meara have small but important parts and the young boy, Jeremy Black as the uncanny blue-eyed adolescent with multiple incarnations. 

The plot itself it's so far out, it's great. And it's played so serious and grave, also it's very avant garde re Cloning, the Macguffin of the film.

Jerry Goldsmith  delivers another great score for Schaffner, they colllaborated on seven films. This one is based half on an Austrian waltz, half on Martial menacing music.

Cinematography in 1.85.1 by Henri Decae, legendary & over versatile French DOP (Bob le flammbeur, Les 400 coups, Le Clan des siciliens, Le Cercle Rouge, Day for Night, Le Professionel), in one of the few English language films he ever did (together with The Light at the Edge of the World, Bobby Deerfield, Two People, Operation Daybreak,  The Island and Exposed).  

Locations are Brazil, Paraguay, London, Austria (Vienna), Germany, Sweden and the US. The production went to Portugal instead and the principal unit never set foot in the USA. 

The opening is great, mysterious, after the majestic music turns into menacing sounds, and the opening credits are on black, there is no dialogue for the first 16 minutes.

I must've seen this film every decade of my life, 1st time in 1981-82 on Communist Romanian television when I was in the 6th or &th grade, impromptu and incognito, on a Sunday night, presented as "film artistic", on the the QT. We were so impressed the next day in school, the ones who saw it, by a sheer mistake, as the film was totally smuggled that night, one of those -push it in films-mainly when comrade Ceausescu was visiting abroad. Thanks again whoever put that on that night. A few years later, in high school I got upon the book, in French ! Started to clumsily translate it, I think I got done the 1st chapter, then of course gave up. The book might've been transalted in Romanian after 1990, I don't know.

One big find was the ITC DVD I got in the early 2000's, wasn't a great copy but still...And last time I watched it in 2020, in the pandemic, catching up with Schaffner's Lionheart and Sphynx. 

There were many different versions, the film was cut over 20 minutes for TV from the original 2h05 running time and many cuts didn't have the original ending with Jeremy Black in the photo dark room, which adds value to the concept. It also empathies the role of the braclet of animal claws that Mengele brought with him from Brazil, a small detail and metaphor addes to the subtext.

Now they are reamaking the book (and film) into a 5 episodes miniseries for Netflix that will probably stream next year. Peter Morgan is the showrunenr and Jeremy Strong is the nazi hunter. August Diehl plays Mengele but it shall be no longer Mengele, they renamed him, after his exceptional turn of the charcter in thw recent The Dissapaerence of Joseph Mengele, in which the Ira Levin novel and the film are mentioned !

  

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !

Maligned on his opening time, criticised and satirised as the "nazi revival" genre was tiring (The Odessa Filre, Marathon Man, later on The Formula) the film stands tall the test of time, anchored in the two key performances, the clash between two old men, obsessed, a lot of psychology that was brought by Peck and Olivier, happy to work together for one time only, the markings of the a great director, the music and atmosphere. 

****

Best review I found about the making of and the motivations of Scahaffner, Peck taking part in it, the choice of the filming format and locations here.

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, Spider-Noir. Premieres May 27th on Amazon Prime as in in collaboration with Sony, who's only Marvel character they got rights too...

I published this in February 2026 but since I can't go back to the post to-date I republished it today !

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

Breendan Gleeson is the villain.

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

July 15th Updates:

Well, I saw it all 8 episodes and gotta say I switched from B & W to color, gorgeous colors that is. Advertised as "Authentic Black and White,” or “True Hue Full Color.”  ! It's a pity to see this as simplistic as Black and White when the costumes, sets and cinematography are doing their best in Color. Cues to Edward Hopper and Lily Furedi, as well to Roy Lichenstein.

The whole thing happens in 1933's New York city and it develops slowly. I mean I was about to give up as a pastische of private dicks and some fanatstic elements underveloped until episode Four !

Alos took me a while to settle with Nic Cage's style here. He is channelling all sorts of Noir heroes, from Humphrey Bogart to Edward J. Robinson and James Cagney, in his voice and manierisms. His Ben Reilly alchy PI is funny, dark, and bitter sweet all at once, swinging from cynical and satirical tones to looney tunes overtones.

Interview with Cage in Esquire.  

It is his 1st foray into TV, or TV series, which he said he'll never do. Glad he did. After voicing the character Noir (Spider, not the Noir from The Boys ;), in the Spider-verse animated film in 2018 he was asked to do this and the whole project changed completely with Cage on board (also budgetwise!). 

Great title sequence and opening song, Saving Grace sung by Kirby, Bond like tune. Plus swingin' songs of the period (Dream a Little Dream of Me), Lil Jun Li as Cat Hardy, the singer femme fatale from the Alcove Club. 

The series ends with Amy Winhouse's You're No Good, which, these days is covered by The Rolling Stones on their new Foreign Tongues album. 

Spider-Nor is nominated for 11 Emmy Awards but none for Cage's acting chops. Liked best his de-aging acting in the WW1 flashbacks and Spider transformations.

Jack Huston is as always good as Flint Marko (aka The Sandman) and Andy Robinson (Scorpiooo?!!!) shows up, I kept asking myself why does that guy look so familliar. Gleeson's Mr. Silvermane is used more as a McGuffin, and there is a smart black journalist named Robbie Robertson (a cool Lamorne Morrison) who works at that age's Daily Buggle. There's also references of the films and the shows of that day and age. 

Maiorul si moartea / The Major and Death (1967)

Maiorul si moartea (The Major and Death, 1967) is a forgotten gem, and a one of a kind / one-off UFO Romanian thiller written by the great Ion Baiesu (Balanta/The Oak), based on his eponymous 1965 short story. It was made later on into a radio play with Enil Hossu as the major.

                                       

Directed by the Documentarian Alexandru Boiangiu in his feature film debut, it's a Black and white black and bleak comedy, film noir -policier, shot by maestro DOP Nicu Stan (Rascoala, Diminetile unui baiat cuminte -see references below, Toate Pinzele sus !). The film made a BO of  1.352.078 in Romanian cinemas in 1967.

 It is also Gheorghe Dinica's 1st major leading part. (as the major, sic!) Great part too. 

The other jewel of the cast is veteran theatre actor Ion Stanescu as retired safe cracker Solomonica, his only part on the big screen except a bit in O noapte furtunoasa (1943). 

Supporting: Vasilica Tastaman, Marin Moraru, Mircea Crisan, Jean Constantin, Stefan Mihailescu-Braila (artist emerit;), Peter Paulhoffer, Constantin Rautchi, Ion Anghel, Florin Scarlatescu, Draga Olteanu (before she was Matei ;) and a very young Carmen Galin in her second film part after Diminetile unui baiat cuminte (see last paragraph).

Atmospheric music by Mircea Istrate (Strainul, Haiducii series), played by the Symphonic Cinema Orchestra (Orchestra simfonica a cinematografie- oh, what dayz, when musicians were employed just to score Romanian films...) and conducted by Silviu Panțiru and a cool and absolutely weird song, sung onscreen by Marina Voica, Criminal Tango, by P. Trombetta (actually Kriminal Tango by Piero Trombetta,  originally released in 1959 and the title song of a German film of 1960). Another song sang by Voica, is an uncanyAve Maria Lola in bossanova rhythm (min. 66 in the film, just before Crimanl Tango -a request ;). Maria Voica, a superstar of Romanian Pop music of the Communist age, might be the only one left alive from this film. She is 89 now.

Another gem are the opening credits, Saul Bass  60's  funky style. Very cool, have no idea who did them, it's not credited (sic).

They include a caption of the Militia consultant (MAI/Ministerul Afecerilor Interne) of the film, as all films of the time needed one. This one is a Lt. Col. (Lieutenat Colonel) called Alexandru Manuși, meaning Gloves !

The film starts surreally with a pre-credits scene in which an Insurance salesman trying to sell a Life policy to the Major. I won't spoil more about the plot, suffice to say it deals with a hidden treasure, a murder and surreal threats signed Death !

There's a scene where Major Tache plays Checkers with ¬Death¬, it can be interpreted as a Pun to Bergman's chess with death in The Seventh Seal. Or not, one can only fabulise ;)

I's say it's sort of Romanian Ladykillers maybe ? Style-wise and humour. It's a bit of a satire of the system too. Scenes in achurch, at a Religious procession, not likely to be seen in the  Regime directory. 

Great poster above ! Love also this Czech poster with a nod to Vertigo, saying Major & DEATH / Major A Smrt !

Napinave meaning suspensful !!

It seems M & M travelled a bit in the Socialist haven cinema distribution .)

Deutsche version:

The film can be seen in its entirety in multiple youtube versions, mostly taken from a TVR2HD broadcast.

 

As a fun note, a 'sopirla' / polticial subversive innunedo, one of the characters (Peter Paulhoffer, a German Romanian actor, nicknamed 'the Romanian Paul Newman', that left for BDR- West Germany-later in the '70's), is reading a newspaper in Gara de Nord/ Bucharest railway station. The paper says: The modern profile of a Director's calification !!! On the left is seen a review of another Romanian film from that year: Diminetile unui baiat cuminte/The mornings of  a nice boy, by Andrei Blaier, a sort of New Wave manifesto, not a very socialist film as intended to be. The film can be found on youtube from Cinepub.ro here. I am not sure the newspaper existed or if it waas made up for the film as an inside joke.

A very unusual film that is worth rediscovering.

all in all for quirkuiness and singularity:

3 1/2 / 7 out of 10 !

Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021)

Captain Volkonogov Escaped, and so did this film. 

Premiered at Venice film Festival, in Competition and was awared in many International Film fests, including Socchi, but neve released in its own country, Russia. 

see it and you'll get why !!!

The film is written and directed by Natalya Merkulova and Alexey Chupov. 

Volkonovov is played brilliantly by Yura Borisov who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar in Sean Baker's  Anora  and was the lead in Kirill Serebrennikov’s Cannes entry “Petrov’s Flu.” He is an NKVD captain in Stalin's USSR of 1938, when the Great Purge emerged. Timofey Tribuntsev is also great as his pursuer and former boss, major Golovnya. 

The title is soehow ironic, don't expect a traditional escape. The film has surreal qualities, non-linear narrative, great colors, widescreeen cinematography (2.35.1),  great production design (shot in St. Petersburg), and black humor galore. It's a sort of thriller, dark comedy, historical drama, fable, and it shows a side of Russia's history at its most darkest (that is, until Today :( Ok, not only that but all Totalitarian Poli cde Ste.

The musical theme, recurrent and also sometimes ironical, is the legendary Soviet song  Polyushko-pole (Song of the Pains), see the interpretation by the avant-garde St. Petersburg band  Shortparis below: 

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !!! 

-a bit too long and confusing, or switches hard to follow...

Tuner (2026)

 Watch this in a cinema with great sound ! 

Tuner is one of the year's most interesting Indie films who made it to Romanian cinemas !

TBC...

might write a piece on Top Ten films to listen to. 

Tuner is

better than Sound of Metal with a twist of Copland

and shades of Drive, Thief, Baby Driver.

Masters of the Universe (2026)

 'Here we are ...with the Princes, ups, with the Masters of the Universe...'

Unexpected or more so after abysymal BO performace and Reviews. Definetly not a film for 2026. A combo of Flash Gordon and Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 1), overlong (2h20 !!!; really?), some good humor and  sexual innueundos in a PG fare, a dumbo Skeletor (unrecognizable Jared Lato with weird accent and Dr. Evil laughter does his bet job in many years here). 

Camila Mendes as Teela is hot, Idris Elba supports bravely, Roboto is voiced by Kristen Wiig, James Purefoy is the King Randor, Morena Maccarin (the) sorceress in white and the lead Adam/He-Man- Nicholas Galitzine is funny and charismatic, also Alison Brie is fun as witchy Evil-Lyn.

Coming from a line of legendary toys (that I was never fammilar with), cartoons and comics which I never saw my only reference was the 1987 very B and B budget cult film of the same name and franchise (it was a Golan-Globus Cannon production).  More so than then, this film doesn't take itself seriosusly for an even odd moment, it knows it's silly and plays it straight on. 

Added value: the score is Fabulous, Power Rock pounding heroic symphonica metallic, another great one from Daniel Pemberton, one chord to rule'm all, Queen style, even features a Highlander song and puns, plus a clone Queen song by The Darkness and surely the sound was familliar because yes, the guitarist it's Brian May !!! That in itself raises the bar (and the volume) one notch (and a star of my review here). A Dolph Lundgren cameo (hero of the 1987 version) makes it even more tongue in cheeck. For the grown-up children ;)

3 stars out of 5, 6 out of 10 !!!

Disclosure Day (2026)

Disclosure Day on the film's premiere's day.

What can I say? I expected more. But it's ok. Just that it's old news, the disclosure has been made my Spielberg in 1977 and in 1982 (E.T. phoning home ;). 

This is really a Close Encounters of the Third Kind 'cos it's beeen done now the third time.

I woun't count the War of the Worlds which I hateted masivelly when it came out, called it War of the Tripods.

My most problematic aspect is the casting. Absolute no charisma between the leads, boyfriend-girlfriend, could be way better with another actors, Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt didn't convince me one bit. What about the old Richard Dryfuss type, even the claasical Tom Hanks Spielbergian James Stewart type? The supporting bit was clockwork, Colin Firth and Colman Domingo all serious handling the disbelief. 

Then, the duration. 2h25 could've been way shorter. Scenes repeat, chases repeat, peril repeat, mind scanning repeat, rinse, spit, repeat. like it's a TV series. 

Also the deja-vu from the telekinesis/paranormal age of late 70's, 80's, from Fury, to Scanners, via Firestarter. Just add aliens, but it's the same chase, same plot gimmicks.

But John Williams did a serios job scoring it, coming out of retirement again for his buddy Spielberg, At 94 he still rocks !!! 

 The camera work, I have a problem with the design, moving in every shot, some cool tracking shots, 180 degrees to 360. Colors too,bleak, winterish. 

3 out of 5, 6 out 10 !!!

A Little Romance (1979)

I saw this when it came out in Romania, in 1980, obviously opened here in cinemas with a certain delay. It was called Mica romanta, a fair translation of the original A Little Romance. Why they bought it beacuse it criticises the Capitalistic American family )sort of),same as Kramer Vs. Kramer or Champ, hits in the cinema of that era. Or  and the American tourists in Europe? who knows. It was a treat, and one of the best films to run in cinemas then.

I was Ten so a lot of the film meaninngs eluded me. I loved and identified with the kid, Daniel, doing l'École buissonnière like me, watching films al the time, instead of going to school. Didn't fell in love yet but I loved the character of the old man, played with French aplombe a la Charles Boyer or Maurice Cheavlier by the great Laurence Olivier, whose reputation I knew already, so I respected him tremendously. 

None would have a clue then who Diane Lane would become, though Sir Larry told people she will be the next Grace Kelly !!! It was her 1st film and George Roy Hill discovered her and the other kids, Thelonious Bertrand. Him unfortunately acted in only another film, today he is a hapilly married dentist living in a small French town. 

cut to: 

Saw it again in the 90's and absolutely loved it. Was in my late twenties, enjoyed the meta references of George Roy Hill showing his own films, mangled in dubbing in French (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Italian (La Stangata aka The Sting). It has plenty of film refernces for a film buff, which was not a la mode back then. 

Bonus films: The Three Days of the Condor (Redford pun again), The Big Sleep, True Grit, Hustle (why?) and the invented copiously titled Spasmes Frenetiques !!! 

Arthur Hill is excellent as the foster dad, and Sally Kellerman tries to be as annoying as it gets as the distracted mom. Plus, a cool cameo by Broderick Crawford and a schlock director named George de Marco (De Palma, De Toth ?), played with sleeze approach by David Dukes- that looks a bit like Bogdanovich meets Friedkin , and the author of the crap movie, Lips / Levres !

Now, as a banale recommendation for a child's friend, a girl of eleven, felt the terrible urge of rewatching this. And of course it was an absolute pleasure, a marvelous gateau, from a moment lost in time, elegant, romantic, funny, smart and cinephilic. 

Composer Georges Delerue received his only Oscar for this film. Great music, a tipically Delerue sound. 

A Little Romance was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by Allan Burns. His script was based on the novel E=MC2, mon amour by Patrick Cauvin.

A timelss gem. and a predecesor of  Richard Linklater's "Sunrise/Sunset" films.  Brilliance by a very underrated master-director, George Roy Hill. Another time, another space, lost innocence and beauty...

4 1/2 out of 5, 9 out of 10 !!!

Backrooms (2026)

 Backrooms. 

Impressive.

Most impressive if you count the director, Kane Parsons is 20 years old ! It's based on his youtube found footage series & Kane Pixels. 

To be seen and appreciated in a cinema !!! Really !

Plot description: After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.

I saw it tonite., and the theater was packed with teenagers. They knew the backstories, the innerworld of the film, the odds and inns. I guess it's one of the reasons Backdoors has a great thetrical run, the best of A24 til now (overpassing Civil War ). 

Totally psychedelic & psychotronic, some M.C. Escher angles and tricks, reminding recent Exit 8, and some other cool mindf*cks, Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow, Tarsem's The Cell, Cube, Us, Severance office sets  (actually inspired by the Backwoods originals) and Twin Peas Black Lodge landscape and soundscape, even shades of Eraserhead. 

Imdb suggests you see thse movies before seeing this. I guess you can also do that afterwards. 

The production /set design is all practical, was built as a maze. And the colors (yellowish) and the lightning. Widescreen cinematpgraphy mixed with video formats.

Could've been more claustrophobic, and it has some weaknesses, clumsiness, confusing ideas, also starts too slow and it's too long, but still, as I wrote above, Impressive.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is Clark, the Alone Man, the furniture shop `Architect` and Renate Reinsve (fresh from Oscar's Sentimental Value and Cannes fare, Fjord) is Mary, a shrink whose book Window of self is a also a clue. Mrk Duplass is the Third Man, as a scientist with a more complicated backstory...

A sort of Malice in Wonderland occurs. Some RMI too, or not ? 

And there is also a clue from a classic film and tale/book, The Neverending Story...

Anyhu, I hope a new serious genre Director was born...

Horror had a great (Theatrical too) run recently, with (i'm mentioning my chouces here): Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsummer, Beau is Afraid, Eddigton), Ti West (In the Valley of Violence, The Sacrament, X, Pearl, Maxxine), Osgood Perkins (exec. producer here- Longlegs, The Monkey), Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity, Hokum),  Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons), Tilman Singer (Luz, Cuckoo), Charlie Polinger (The Plague), and feminin fare too, Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titane, Alpha)...

I just hope this will not start another weak franchise as I just saw a whole video about the backstory of the Backrooms here...

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

Sound design and soundtrack wise, kudos, this song from Boards of Canada on the closing credits was the highlight. 

https://pitchfork.com/news/boards-of-canada-soundtrack-backrooms-end-credits/

also a Klaus Doldinger song in it too (Moonchild). 

The Plague (2025)

Remarkable debut by Charlie Polinger (w/d). It premiered in Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. Worthy of the DGA Award. Amazingly it was shot in Romania (by Abis studios, art director Vlad Vieru just won a Gopo for the Yellow Tie) !!! Great widescreen compositions. in 2.39 : 1. Also shot on film,35mm by Steven Breckon, another name to follow. 

Joel Edgerton  (also a producer) is the only adult name in the film, the rest is a bunch of kids, real talent.  Everett Blunck as Ben is a stand-out. They won best actors in Sitges, also together with Kayo Martin.

Lord of the Flies in a summer waterpolo camp with shades of masculin Carrie. It's set in 2003, no clue why. It's gross sometimes like teenagers are, it's unpleasant and it feels real. Tough to direct all these kids, and as a first picture, kudos !

 Also great, I mean GREAT sound design and a great score by Johan Lenox, reminiscent also of Pino Donnagio's cues.

Corsa Notturna (see, it's in Italian;) will give you goosebumps. It looks like it's Lenox' first real score too. Bravo !

Also Moby's song Feeling So Real will never feel the same again ! 4 real ;)

7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 ! Deserves even more but my empathy was with the filmmaking, not the characters.