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Ibetolis
Member since 6/10/2008, last signed in awhile ago.
"I can't afford to hate people. I don't have that kind of time"
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Movies
Burn After Reading
The Counterfeiters
The Dark Knight
El Topo
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The Year 2001: Black Hawk Down ...
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
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"Based on Mark Bowden's account, and subsequent book, of the UN forces attempt to capture a Somali warlord (the battle of Mogadishu), resulting in 'the most intensive close combat Americans had engaged in since the Vietnam war', Black Hawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott, still on a high from the success of Gladiator a year before, neatly divided audiences in two on release, with those that loved it for it's intense depiction of war against those that derided it for, what they believed, to be 'staged racism'. Kevin Olson, of the awesome Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies, (check out his 'revisiting 1999' posts; a brilliant account of cinema at the end of the last decade), takes on this 'expertly crafted action film' and wishes more people thought of it 'when they speak of Scott’s triumphs as a director.'Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down is one of the most meticulous and masterful renditions of the classic war film formula. After about 30 minutes of exposition Scott drops the viewer in the midd ... "
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Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading - Review
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
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"Joel/Ethan Coen (2007)As promised, as expected and as always, the Coen's once again follow up a critically acclaimed, serious film, in the case of 'No Country For Old Men' (2007) an Academy Award winning one, with one of their more slapstick and playful films; just as 'Big Lebowski' (1998) followed 'Fargo' (1996) and 'Intolerable Cruelty' (2003) followed 'The Man Who Wasn't There' (2001). Burn After Reading, completes their monikered 'idiot trilogy', (with O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Intolerable Cruelty parts one and two), again starring George Clooney in full gurning glory, supported by a plethora of regular actors from the Coen cannon; Frances MacDormand, J.K Simmons and Richard Jenkins amongst others. Joining them this time around, for their first Coen feature, are John Malkovitch, Tilda Swinton and, in a glorious comical role, one Mr. Brad Pitt.Filmed without the aid of their long time collaborator, cinematographer Roger Deakins, Burn After Reading finds the Coen's ... "
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The Counterfeiters
The Counterfeiters - Review
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
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"(Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007)Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the Academy Awards in 2008, The Counterfeiters fictionalises a top secret clandestine Nazi operation, codename Bernhard, during the second world war. In bringing together a band of skilled concentration camp inmates, including the films focus, master forger Sally Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), the Nazi's attempted the biggest counterfeit operation in history. Adapted from the memoirs of Adolph Burger; a former Jewish book printer who was put to work on the actual Operation Bernhard and whose fictionalised character appears in the film, The Counterfeiters attempts to ask questions of collusion and survival and the moral implications of propping up an enemy's war effort in a bid to save ones neck, without ever answering them.It's of no surprise to this reviewer that The Counterfeiters should be the winner of the Oscar; not to mention that a modern masterpiece, such as 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days, wasn't even nomi ... "
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The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight - Review
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
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"(Christopher Nolan, 2008)Following on for the international success that was Batman Begins, British director Christopher Nolan continues his revision of the caped vigilante Batman with The Dark Knight. Unlike the microcosm of Nolan's first foray, which worked basically as an origins story, filling in the background as to why and how Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, choose a life of fighting crime from the shadows', The Dark Knight casts its net wider to implicate the ramifications of a society in decay. Long gone are the campy musings of Joel Schumacher, or the cartoonesque romanticism of Tim Burton, no room for nipple accommodated bat-suits or Prince soundtracks here. Batman now reflects the dark, brooding presence often associated in the graphic novel adaptations of Jeph Loeb, Frank Miller and Alan Moore, amongst others. Ambitious and epic, The Dark Knight is something of an opus, the 'Godfather' of superhero adaptations, a musing of the darker side of human nature, of how ... "
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El Topo
El Topo - Watching the 1000 Gre ...
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Film for the Soul
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"As voted by the Film for the Soul community.No. 18 - El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)Ranked #688I'm not God, I'm a man - El TopoDressed head to toe in black leather, accompanied by a naked seven year old boy (Brontis Jodorowsky), El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky) rides into shot on a horse. Shielded by an umbrella, protecting himself from the searing heat of the desert sun, he instructs the child to bury a portrait of his mother and his favourite toy because 'now, you are a man'. It's an unnerving and surreal opening to what proves to be a visual assaulting, ultra-violent acid-western, dripping with religious allegories, pretentious, sardonic dialogue, adorned with freaks and body transgression. Labeled the first 'midnight movie', El Topo became a cult favourite with the hipster, bohemian crowd of its day, gaining a word of mouth reputation, it somehow captured the spirit, an ideal, a certain moment in time and played it out in a bizarre, but totally bewitching, style.The film do ... "
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There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood - Review
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Film for the Soul
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"Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007There Will Be Blood opens with an, almost wordless, scene in which Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), the all encompassing, all consuming, monster of a man, that we will come to intently dislike over the next 2 hours, scrabbles around in a dark cave, deep underground in a makeshift mine. There's this noise, a doom ladened tune, wonderfully scored by Johnny Greenwood, playing over the images, foretelling this epic of greed, of envy, of the dark undertone of the American success story. Plainview, initially mining for silver, finds oil in the cave and so begins Anderson's opus, loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel of 1927, 'Oil!', chronicling Plainview's rise to riches, the oil boom of the early 20th century and the price paid for a life seeking only money.For followers of Anderson's work, There Will Be Blood, seems something of a departure, as it follows a more classical narrative strand, as opposed to his vast ensemble epics Boogie Nights (1997) an ... "
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Withnail & I
Celebrating the Best of British ...
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Film for the Soul
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"Continuing my quest to bring you the best of British cinema.Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 1987) Withnail and I is Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical tale of living a hand to mouth existence, fueled by drugs and alcohol, as trained actors waiting for the big time, living a life of destitution and squalor in a dilapidated house in Camden, London. Robinson just found the source material too overwhelming to ignore, the whole idea of 'struggling actors in crisis' seemed to him both hilarious and absurd yet richly tragic which resonated with the changing times. Withnail and I takes place in 1969, with the 70's looming, and the air of change and missed opportunities radiate the film, the line 'the greatest decade in the history of mankind is over and we have failed to paint it black', spoken by the seller of narcotics Danny (Ralph Brown), speaks volumes about the failures of this generation and their inability to leave their mark. 'I'm a trained actor reduced to the status of a bu ... "
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Distant Voices, Still Lives
Distant Voices, Still Lives - W ...
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Film for the Soul
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"No.17 Distant Voices, Still Lives - Terrence Davies, 1988Ranked #420He was a bastard and I bleedin' hated him. - MaisieFilmed two years apart, using two different crews, 'Distant Voices' and 'Still Lives' are expertly melded together with deft craft and care by one of Britain's best living directors, Terrence Davies. In what eventually became his breakthrough film, winning several international awards on the festival circuit and universally applauded by critics alike, Distant Voices, Still Lives is the autobiographical tale of the directors upbringing, in a working class family, set in Liverpool during the late 40's and early 50's. Weaving a tapestry of music, smoke, slow pans and still frames, Davies builds a tableau of memory and community, of violence and recriminations, of love and regret, so rich and deep it evokes years of incident and history from one seamless reel to the other.Distant Voices, Still Lives plays out in the same fashion that memories are triggered by sights, ... "
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Apocalypse Now
Now, That's How You Open a Movi ...
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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"Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)Talk about setting a tone.With Apocalypse Now, Coppola came out blazing.A whooshing noise, heard but offscreen, is placed when a helicopter drifts into view, almost dreamlike in it's approach, heading towards a lush green jungle. The first chimes of 'The Doors' haunting and atmospheric 'The End' starts to chime, primary coloured smoke starts to fill the screen and that beautiful jungle explodes, a raging inferno engulfing the landscape.Welcome to hell on earth. The madness and the poetic, the perverse and the divine, such an arresting display of visual and audio effects has hardly been bettered than this opening gambit. The face of Martin Sheen, Captain Willard, starts to fade into view, the sound of the helicopters rotor blades transform in to the sound of a ceiling fan and we find ourselves in a hotel room in Saigon.The stories behind the film, the demise of Coppola and the craziness that engulfed the cast and crew can wait for anoth ... "
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The Orphanage
The Orphanage - Review
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Film for the Soul
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"Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007After a career directing award winning pop videos and shorts, Bayona's first foray into the world of feature length film couldn't really have a higher accolade than being associated with Guillermo Del Toro, who is credited here as producer. However such an association is not without it's pitfalls, expectations are invariably raised and what if you fall flat on your face and fail to deliver? Fortunately, for all involved, Bayona passes the test, with the odd wobble here and there, with resounding flourish and style. A success both at home; where it won 7 Goyas (the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars) and overseas, Bayona has created an old fashioned style chiller, teeming with gothic pretensions, finger nail chewing mise-en-scene and ghostly children, set in a old orphanage in modern day Spain.The Orphanage delights for several reasons, for example it has a tendency to hold back on the cheap thrills and scares that litter tedious Hollywood fare, instead it ... "
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The Secret of the Grain
Couscous (La Graine et le mulet ...
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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"Abdellatif Kechiche, 2007Couscous (aka The Secret of the Grain), Abdellatif Kechiche's third feature has once again earned the Tunis born French director critical acclaim and awards a plenty. After winning the 'Lion of the Future' award at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 with his debut, 'La Faute a Voltaire' and following on the success with more awards for his second feature in 2003, L'esquive (Games of Love and Chance), Couscous finds the talented director in fine form. Composing a ensemble piece about the daily struggles of an immigrant family living in the French port town of Sete, Kechiche's latest film covers similar ground to his previous work and establishes his growing reputation as one of the primary voices of immigrant life in Europe.Focusing on ship worker Slimane (Habib Boufares), a 60 year old immigrant from North Africa, the film follows his attempts to open a couscous restaurant after learning of his dismissal by a management downsizing and paying no regard to hi ... "
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The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai - ...
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Ibetolis
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Film for the Soul
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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"As voted by the Film for the Soul community. This post can also be found at The Carnival of Cinema over at Good News Film Reviews.No. 16 - The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) Ranked #204 "What have I done?" - Colonel NicholsonBased on the novel of the same name, published in 1954, by Pierre Boulle, The Bridge on the River Kwai was the first of David Lean's spectacular multi-million pound epic's, followed by Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), that brought international acclaim and Oscars galore to the already renowned director of smaller, more intimate films such as Brief Encounter (1945) and Oliver Twist (1948). Shot in extremely difficult conditions on location in Ceylon, Sri Lanka and produced by Sam Spiegel, The Bridge on the River Kwai cemented Lean's reputation as a director as well as foreshadowing the domination he was to have over the box-office for years to come.The film opens up with a lingering shot of a hawk, hovering high in the sky, ... "
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A list, as compiled by They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, of the greatest 1000 films ever made. I ...
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