Copenhagen Cowboy (2022-2023)

 “Four hundred years ago, they would have burned you at the stake” 

Let's start the year with a blast!!! 

A #NWR (Nicolas Winding Refn) UFO comissioned by Norsk Netflix ! Streaming from Jan. 5 2023!

For film lovers (and fans of the polarizing NWR) a must-see, for others proceed with caution!

Neo(n)-noir, surrealism, synth electronic score, sexual deviance, existentialism, nihilism, violence & pigs, all in Copenhagen Cowboy, a six-part mini-series (well, more like a pilot) from the Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn. It's also a comeback of sorts to motherland Danmark, where Refn hasn't made a film since Pusher III back in 2005.

Plot? Who cares? Or, what plot? This is a NWR trip, a visual, audio feast, existential, experimental mind f*uck.  Neon Punk again.

Miu (Angela Bundalovic) is a spirit, or a lucky charm, or what? She looks androgynous, short hair and a blue jumpsuit that she wears in every scene. She is bought by the Serbian/Albanian Danish mob dealing in sex traffic and other evil deeds. Very Evil, very dark, strong accents (I think the Dansk and Serbain and Mandarin are the forte of the show). Later on we get to the Chinese mob -or Danish Yakuza? and the bigger deal Serbian mob. A gang war ensures. Plus a degenerate ubermench (but not somench)serial killer (Nikolas) living in a castle. Some Hannibal (Thomas Harris)inspired plot? Should we mention his sister  (sister?) Rakel (played by Refn's daughter Lola Corfixen) ?  And what about those pigs? 

We get some answers in episode 4 from Miroslav- Zladko Burik (best European actor in Triangle of Sadness), a regular of Refn's Danish films,  The Pusher trilogy and Bleeder. 

And what's that cameo in the end (ep.6) from Hideo Kojima, world's most famous video game designer? Suffice to say NWR and HK are good buddies but he's a prelude for something more. ALSO Refn cameos in the series, as a shady businessman (or?pig?) in a suit. 

I am very curious if this will be renowed for season 2, I kinda guess not but who knows? There's nothing even remotely similar to this produced by Netflix or any other streamer!

But it happened before. Too Old To Die Young, NWR's first fare into streaming game in 2019, with the 10 episodes/13 hours of cinematic mayhem left comissioner Amazon Prime jawless, and that was a show slower than CC and more violent, decadent and sexually deviant. And well, it was better than CC out of which I liked best the first two episodes, for ambiguity, elipse and setting. 

The best assets of CopenhagenCowboy are the neon noir cinematography by Magnus Nordenhof Jonk, on his first fare with Refn, the editing (where I gotta congratulate an old schoolmate, Olivier Bugge Coutteon his 1st NWR  flick), and of course the score, pulsating synthpop 80's electronica by old collaborators Peter Peter, Peter Kyed, of course Cliff Martinez and Julian Winding, Refn's nephew whose Neon Dance he used in The Neon Demon. IMO Winding's piece "Pigs- A Slight Return" takes its cue from Krzysztof Pendercki/Wendy Carlos' piece, used in opening titles for The Shining. One of the best cues of CC is also Winding's trance dance Undead is the New Red. Indeed;)

CC premiered in Venice (bits) and here's a review:

https://theplaylist.net/copenhagen-cowboy-review-nicolas-winding-refns-take-on-the-superhero-genre-is-drenched-in-neon-lit-despair-venice-20220914/

”I looked at Copenhagen Cowboy more like a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, with Denmark as a multiethnic, multi-language place that, to certain people, is supposed to be heaven because it’s the country of Bernie Sanders.” (#NWR)

from his interview in Vulture here

one of my favorite shots,reminescent of The Keep!

Top films of 2022 (& doc and series)

I saw more films this year than in the last 2 pandemic years (2020 here and 2021 here),  unfortunately not so many in a cinema, and mostly not so good there, a lot more streaming, my count of 427 films (including those rewatched (always a pleasure:) & catch-up's, shorts, documentaries and series (=one count per season or series)

I have nor seen yet some films they talk/write about or could be contenders, Aftersun (saw it meanwhile, not for me), Babylon (which would've made the top but saw in Jan 23 on the big screen), The Whale, EO (that could be a color Au hasard Balthasar), so on and so far.

***-where there are links there are my reviews or opinions. 

Top 5 Feature Films:

1. The Banshees of Inisherin -Martin McDonagh

2. Triangle of Sadness-Ruben Ostlund

3. Nope -Jordan Peele

4. The Fabelmans-Steven Spielberg

5. Elvis -Baz Luhrmann

6. (mention) El Buen Patron (Fernando Leon de Aranoa, from 2021, saw it on this year's TIFF with a magnificent Javier Bardem) and Kiril Serrebrennikov's Petrov's Flu (from last year's Cannes, saw it in cinema this spring)

-also in our cinemas Nightmare Alley,  that tops my 2021 top ;) And also from last year, The Forgiven, from  Martin McDonagh's brother John Michael (McDonagh), reminiscent of Under the Vulcano, with a brilliant performance by Ralph Fiennes.

Debut of the year: 

John Patton Fotd -Emily the Criminal. Also a superb performance by Aubrey Plaza (could win Independent Spirit Awards).

Top 3 Made in Romania

1. Miracol-Bogdan George Apetri

2. R.M.N.-Cristian Mungiu

3. Metronom-Alexandru Belc

Comedy of the year:

CoupeZ! (Final Cut) -Michel Hazanavicius

-also could've been The Menu if they emphasised more on the comedy/satire. 

Top deleted scene of the Year: or The Nicolas Cage Award 2022

Nicolas Cage vs. Nic Cage in the deleted Caligari dream sequence from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent! (unfortunately a wasted film :()

Top 3 Horror

Pearl (Ti West) (tied as it should with) X (Ti West)

Barbarian (Zach Cregger)

Bones And All (Luca Guagadino-a sort of neo Near Dark meets Cat People in Nomadlands:)

Animation (& curio) of the year: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio  

*

As for performances, Tár can get Cate Blanchett's tour-de-force can get her a third Oscar. But deservingly would be Vicky Krieps for Corsage (which could win for best foreign film also). Ana De Armas' bravura performance in Blonde  is the stunt of the year ! And she got nominated too...

I root for Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin, And Kerry Condon as supporting actress.

and we can see Mark Rylance to get another Oscar (also supporting) for Bones and All. (UPDATE: oups, he didn't even get nominated...)

***

Now, also about the worst, Disney/Zemeckis' Pinocchio surely wins the cup, with Amsterdam close and Blonde being the most disappointing film of the year (for me).  Too bad George Miller's much expected Three Thousand Years of Longing didn't do all the distance....

Series (& mini-series)

1. The Offer (Michael Tolkien, Leslie Greif, Paramount+)

2. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, HBO)

   
   
   

3. Better Call Saul (Vince Gilligan, final season, Netflix)

4. White Lotus season 2 (Mike White, HBO)

5. The English (Hugo Blick, Prime, HBO)

6. Tokyo Vice (Michael Mann, J.T. Rogers-HBO max)

7. Peacemaker (James Gunn, DC,HBO max) also best super-hero film/series

8. 1883 (Taylor Sheridan, Paramount+)

9. Slow Horses (season 1, apple tv, based on Mick Herron's books, great theme song (Strange Game) by Mick Jagger!)

10. Barry -season 3 (Bill Hader, Alec Berg, HBO)                                                                                   +Australian hitman show Mr. Inbetween would've been in the top up, cos' I saw all three seasons and loved it, but it ran from 2018 to 2022, on FX. Scott Ryan, the protagonist Ray Shoesmith, the director and the creator of the show is a name that Hollywood should notice. 

Documentary

Ennio -Giuseppe Tornatore (premiered Venezia 2021,  saw it this year,was released super-limited in Romanian cinemas)

The Last Movie Stars (Ethan Hawke, TNT, HBO)

RIP Pele (the Real Conqueror)

Legendary Brazilian fottballer Pele made a single film in his career,but whaaat a film! It's called VICTORY or Escape to Victory (1981), a WW2 film directed by none other than John Huston, starring Stallone, Michael Caine and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083284/?ref_=nm_knf_t_1Max von Sydow. Pele makes a legendary fork in the film 

and all my schoolmates were obsessed with that scene so they went to the cinema to see it again and again...One of the few fun films in early 80's communist Romania, translated as DRUMUL spre Victorie. Also weirdly enough,the film which is the sports (football) Great Escape was shot in another communist caountry,Hungary. Pele died on Dec. 29th 2022,he was 82....

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

The Banshees of Inisherin looks like it could be the film of this year, 2022, for me. 

Martin McDonagh impressed me (In Bruges, no. 5 in my top of 2008), psyched me (Seven Psychopaths) and dissapointed me as well (Three Billboards Outside EM, why? cos I expected more...)

But this,the Banshees is his best film until now, his most literary (the man is a great playwright as well, see “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,”a play from 2001), about ordinary Irish people on a small island, during the Irish Civil war, in 1923.  It's about friendship, it's about denial, depression, love, booze and ultimately death. I love McDonaugh's fascination with pets (cats, dogs or donekys), and their role in men's inner secret affections.

Colin Farrell  (named best actor at Venice Film festival, and up to an Oscar imo) and Brendan Gleeson have been up together on the big screen for McDonagh in his most impressive and personal debut, In Bruges (2008). Farell was also the lead in his LA fare, Seven Psychopaths (2012). But now they do a tour-de-force that reminded me of Waiting for Godot or Guinness drinkers Rosenkrantz and Guilderstern are Dead. I think these two plays could be good companions to The Banshees.

Superbe supporting cast-Kerry Condon as Farrell's sister Siobhan and Barry Keoghan as the dom Dominic.

Absolute gorgeous music by Carter Burwell,  McDonagh collaborator on all his four gigs. Burwell,Coen's fidelius musician and musicist is worth an Oscar (twice nominated,  maybe third time's a charm;)