"I love the smell of napalm in the morning" - Apocalypse Now
"What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?" - Full Metal Jacket
"I was planning to hit the Pentagon next week" - TRON
"As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll." - Spinal Tap
"What kind of man are you? I bring up comics and you're talking chicks and romance?" - Mallrats
"You know... the Nazis had pieces of flair. They made the Jews wear them" - Office Space
"Know your dope fiend! Your life may depend on it! You will not be able to see his eyes because of Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner-tension and his pants will be crusted with semen from constantly jacking off when he can't find a rape victim. He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command - including yours. BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time (on him) will usually save nine on you." - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Belvedere Jehosophat - Tuesday, 25 May 2010
If you’ve read anything about The White Ribbon, perhaps in anticipation of the film, you would have come across the Q&A with director, Michael Haneke. In it, Haneke explains why he chose as a setting a village in Northern Germany prior to World War I. I will reprint it, because it is instructive in understanding this film.
Read the rest of The White Ribbon review
Ethan Switch - Monday, 24 May 2010
Living around people drip-feeding on welfare, you notice quick how much they waste away not just the money they inebriate themselves on, but the very fabric of the neighbourhood. Depression is a state of mind and they own premium bonds. Leaving is the only way to find a light, and you know they're not going to do it any time soon.
Read the rest of Fish Tank review
Ethan Switch - Monday, 5 April 2010
Now an old bickering couple squabbling over copyright and legacy, now the strength of connective tissue that is love between a man and a woman living out one's final days in a station master's home. Of course, that titular location (Astapovo station - Аста́пово) casts the last breath of Leo Tolstoy and this, an end stem biographic of the slice.
Read the rest of The Last Station review
Ethan Switch - Sunday, 13 September 2009
Spluttering up a mean dose of determination, the lungs give out as the back of the throat cakes over with a dusty and dry void. And the asthma strikes again. And there, in the wilds of Bolivia, Ernesto "Che" Guevara hacks up the resolve, fortitude and the sheer essence of convictions to lead himself down the path of a sequel that proves that there are few exceptions to the rule. The Bolivian uprising, not so wheezy hot.
Read the rest of Che: Part Two: Guerrilla review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Sunday, 6 September 2009
Che: Part One is sandwiched between Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s first meeting with Fidel Castro in Mexico, in which Guevara joins the 26th of July Movement that eventually overthrows Batista’s government, and Guevara extracting a promise that he would be allowed to export the revolution to the rest of Latin America. This not only sets up the second part of this four-hour tour-de-force, it also gives an insight into the sort of person that Guevara was. After all, the notion of exporting a revolution to an entire continent, before having actually successfully achieved one of any kind is audacious to say the least.
Read the rest of Che, Part One: The Argentine review
Ethan Switch - Friday, 5 June 2009
Wake up in a mop sweat in bed at number 4 Susannah Place and, if you're lucky (time travel wise), you're in the early rat-infested era of Sydney (there are no time travel insurance policies). Take an afternoon stroll through the hospital where the nurses are all Catkind, and you're in the indeterminate future far from here. Voices, smells, location and decay. All signs pointing to where you are in time and conflict. Mix them all up and something just feels rather anachronistic about it all.
Read the rest of Sita Sings the Blues review
Ethan Switch - Sunday, 29 March 2009
Making off with half a chocolate bar, wherein the other half turns out to be no picnic at all, the path across busy roads lead the walk to a lost huddle and hassle of a cleaner in the lobby of the State Theatre's adjunct. Wrong way, down and around a retro spin. Take an out and head down underground below the city streets. And here is the tale writ in film of Samson and Delilah directed by Warwick Thornton.
Read the rest of Samson & Delilah review
Ethan Switch - Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Hardly any spots for parking. And with good reason as the tale will show. Movie Rider keeps a tidy and unclean premise. No customers to speak of with only the lost trying to find their way out from the cold of the mountains. Small arcade of machines and the depravity of waking up for another day thick in the linoleum. Mixing both disbelief and cunning, the operators of the snake oil whiplash operation find it hard to keep to themselves their disdain with life, the "theatre" and dealing with people in general.
Read the rest of Movie Rider - 3370 Parkway Pigeon Forge, Tennessee review
Ethan Switch - Friday, 15 June 2007
Dip the 3D glasses in the sink and hand them fresh to the patrons. Watch as they find a speckle of water on their lenses and force themselves to smooth out the warp of plastic in the novelty size visors. To no avail of course, merely on there to spur them to wipe clean and wipe away the smear between them and the massive drop of a theatre screen otherwise known as the LG IMAX screen. Massive, and clearly the kind of screen all gamers should throw up on as they look for the super hidden secret whistle for that plumber from Brooklyn loves his fluting so.
Read the rest of Dinosaurs 3D: Giants of Patagonia - IMAX Sydney, Darling Harbour review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Wednesday, 4 April 2007
Directed by Tim Irwin, We Jam Econo is close to being one of the best band documentaries I've ever seen.
Read the rest of We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen review
Ethan Switch - Friday, 1 December 2006
Outside a church stands a man with a microphone. Over on his left are three school boys, waiting for the bus and to hear anything that makes up the traffic that flows down the main road. Passersby pick up a pace when the squawk and squeak of the portable speaker system kicks in. Rambling and reeling off scripture, the gent diverts his attention toward the supposed mystic to his religion, "And what do they call that fiction writer who dreamt up Evolution? David? Robert? Chris?"
Read the rest of The Prestige review
Ethan Switch - Friday, 11 August 2006
Writer/director Rian Johnson rocks a very certain and exact world with this Brick he does.
Read the rest of Brick review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Monday, 24 July 2006
Directed by guitarist Kristofer Steen, Refused Are Fucking Dead documents the last tour of Swedish hardcore punk band, Refused. Ground down by years of relentless touring and growing disillusionment within the band Refused Are Fucking Dead gives us an inside look into the ultimate implosion of Refused, presenting footage of the very last songs they played together.
Read the rest of Refused Are Fucking Dead review
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