Megalopolis (2024)

Megalopolis is kinda Miniopolis...

I went with my fingers crossed but no, hey, got the intentions but great filmmaking this not iz (Yoda said)

Coppola's dream project for over 30 years, inspired by Ann Raynd's The Fountainhead, Rome's & ancient Greece republics, architecture and philosophers, Goethe's Hold the Time, and a lot of Shakespeare, as well as New York's dirty townhall politics an construction shenanigans.

The Baddies:

-too pretentious

-too literary

-too naive too

-too megalo

-too Shakesperian, but like bad Shakespeare, done by juvenile people

-a teenager film done by a very old man, lecturing about the world

-lost plots (the Russian satellite, the megalon subplot)

-philosophy on the screen-does not work (talking in quotes certainly sucks)

-Adam Driver doing Hamlet

-some of the effects -really bad- statues doing stuff, backgrounds and such (there is a budgetary reason)

-Dustin Hoffman character wasted (James Caan was supposed to play this...)

-not impressed by the cinematography which I expected to be brilliant, sorry Mihai Malaimare jr...(his fourth film with il suo Maestro. Francis "discovered" him in Romania in 2006, giving him the chance to do Youth Without Youth, then he took him to Argentina to do Tetro, then kept him for Twixt). Meanwhile MM jr made a career in Hollywood (A Walk Among the Tombstones, The Master, The Harder They Fall, Jojo Rabbit !!!).

-the score (again by Osvaldo Golijov, his 4th film with FF Coppola) 

ok, the goodies:

the ending

the message

Jon Voight (Crassus) -The "Robin Hood" scene

the editing & the montage

-the Tryptich (Homage a Abel Gance ?)

-the Metropolis & other German expressionism influences in the Caesar's trip on the Madison Sq G banquet

-the Theda Bara homage (Aubrey Plaza)

-the sex scene with Auntie Wow (Platinum) & Shia 

-Nathalie Emmanuel looking hot & fresh (half the film was wondering what's her name and where I saw here before, oh yes, John Woo's The Killer remake)

-The end song -The The -Lonely Planet (from Dusk -1993)

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

-Flawed as it isit needs to be seen in a cinema, on the big screen !!!

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& a wonderful Coppola interview on the film, the meaning of life and cinema. If only his film would've been like this ...:(

Anora (2024)

Anora is in Romanian Cinemas starting Today. So, run to the theaters, 'til it's there...

Absolutely Fabulous ! One of the year's best if not The One (haven't seen yet all the Cannes fares). Fresh, raw, relentless (act one just sets up the film, so bare for the first thirty minutes). 

The stripper Ani aka Anora (Mikey Madison) meets Ivan, the half-baked young son of a Russsian Oligargh and thinks she struck gold. Cos' he wants to marry her. Und they did ! But then the family finds out about this....trouble ensures.

Palme d'Or -the first American film to win this since 2011's The Tree of Life ! 

And certainly one of the top favorites for the Awards Season. Mikey Madison deserves an Oscar !

Note on Jan 23d 2025: Anora is nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, best director, best (original screenplay), Actress and supporting actor: Yura Borisov !

I was thinking all the time where did I see her before, and yes, Mikey was Sadie in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

Yura Borisov as Igor is a blast ! Also Karren Karagulian (who's been in every Sean Baker film, and that's his eight !) is extraordinary as Toros. I am following Baker since The Florida Project which was OK, wasn't impressed by his previous, Tangerine (2015), but Red Rocket was one of my top films of 2021 (I think it streams on Netflix these days/& nights;). Anyway, this is Baker in Major League now, bigger, better, more ambitious in scope and story. Up to now Baker's characters are misfits, low-lifes, prostitutes, strippers, pimps, white-trash and junkies, destitute people who in his view get a warm personality and a glow. A peripheral Americana micro-cosm of its own.

For me it was like Cassavetes and some early Jarmusch (but in vivid colors and widescreen), directed and shot a la Safdie bros. (Good Time, Uncut Gems). And a bit of After Hours (Scorsese, 1984). 

And the Billy Wider Touch. I felt so much starting act two, from all the losers getting 2nd hand shots (The Apartment, Kiss Me Stupid, Irma la Douce-she 's a prostitute, see -oups, a sex worker, etc.)

Though Sean Baker dedicates his film to Jess Franco & Soledad Miranda (his actress that died in an accident at 27) !!? He also mentions Fellini's Notte di Cabiria as an inspiration for Ani/Anora. 

Only Incidental music in the soundtrack (songs that is...)

9 out of 10/ 4.5 out of Five 

('cos it's too long like 99 % of the films 2day, 2h18 min. !!!), but totally Tuș ;)

-but all in all, could be the most Fun Palme d'Or (also Triangle of Sadness is close as fun factor ;)

I predict it will be nominated for a lot of Oscars (editing & cinematography too), Mickey Madison & Karren Karagulian. I sure hope it wins also, maybe too Indie to its core and not very mainstream.

*Great interview with Sean Baker on his favourite films on Video Konbini. You'll be surprised what kinds of films the guy likes ;) like, it's the first time I heard about Miami Connection (1987) !!! A alot in common with Tarantino too. 

One Million views BC !!!!

1001015 views now. Over one million. Felt like sharing ;)

This blog, beaten, heavy, conflicted, controversial and ridiculed ("blogul cu morti"/ dead people's blog) never made any $ and I kept coming back to it just because it felt like a maligned child -was born when i was tricked to do it  at Mediapro (see Old blog) and then Ndgu suggested I did my own _July 2008-such eons lifes ago....and then (and then ? ) yes, IT Lives, and Lives Again, it lived, noh...til any moment when it can be erased, disappear, etc. 

This year it seems, I spent more time on it, it's like coming back home, an empty home, a poor home, a dear home, so many lost friends, so many heroes, so many great films and fun moments. None pushed me to write stuff I ddi not want to write, I promoted my activity, being that film festivals from TIFF to Cannes, got even accredited on Sitges with it (!!!), my years at the Cinemateca Patria, my short run of Bohemian Mondays (aldmovieLight), my Transilvania Blues Nights. 

It's random and it has tags for things most important and loved, from Keef to Iggy to Alice (Coop), to His Bobness, Leonard Cohen Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Steve Vai and VH in Rockland. 

On movieland it's BDP and Scottfree, QT and Jack (De Palma, Ridley and Tony Scott, Tarantino and Jack (Nicholson, not Daniels), giallo and Mickey Rourke. Und more.

It's trips and alinland, and SOTD (song of the day), and it's all been random into a design that fits or unfits. Why switched in English from original Romanian It's done good with imdb and anyhu, more than half of my life is in Ingles, so, why not ?

"Cent'anni !!!"

-...well, we live for much longer, kiddo ;)

RIP Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones gone...91 years old. A Legend's Legend and a whole world gone. Described as a Titan, and yep, it's a good word to describe his whole work.

Just talked about him re Eddie van Halen's Involvement on Michael Jackson's Beat It from Thriller (#1 selling album of all time still, that he concieved and produced), that is a controversial story.

Seminal Jazz album and song: Soul Bossa Nova -1964. Re-made popular by Austin Powers. Same year Quincy Jones became the first Black vice-president of a record label (mercury). He did humongous things for his community and his people. 

There is a fabulous documentary on him, QUINCY, made by Netflix in 2018. Still streaming. Do yourself a favor and see it. Then listen to the Man's music.

Also on Netflix there is a doc about how Quincy put together USA for Africa's 1984 "We Are the World"  (brilliant stuff, esp. some of the backstories). 

His music scores are brilliant, from his debut in Sidney Lumet' s The Pawnbroker (1965), to Joahn and Mary, Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night, to the original The Italian Job, Peckinpah's The Getaway (all great Jazz there), The Hot Rock, The Wiz  (1978) !!! Lumet directed, Quincy arranged the score, even plays an Emerald City musician, Michael acted as The Scarecrow and the film flopped (big time), to Roots on TV, to Spielberg's The Color Purple (that he also produced), 7 times Oscar nominated and no award :( 

well, he had 28 Grammys out of 80 nominations, more than any other musician in history :)

        "With the power of music, I reach the hearts and minds of millions of people."

                                       (Quincy Jones -1933-2024)