OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #44: Favorite Romantic Comedies

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

Blood Quantum

Marina Antunes @ Quiet Earth

Interview: Rob Savage. Director of “Host”

Federico Furzan @ Cinelipsis

• Excerpt: My interview with the director of “Host”, which could easily be the most important horror movie of the year.

The Owners

Marina Antunes @ Quiet Earth

Festivals: Individual Reviews

Clapboard Jungle

Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal

• Excerpt: Along the way, everyone has a lot to say and some people only appear to say one thing, but it all comes together to tell a shared story of independent filmmaking.

Crazy Samurai Musashi

Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal

• Excerpt: It’s like watching a video game in which the player has memorized a few key, effective moves and just keeps hitting those buttons in random sequences.

Fantasia Festival 2020 Roundup Part 2

Scott Phillips @ www.wrbl.com

Hail to the Deadites

Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal

• Excerpt: Somewhat lowering his typical bravado, Campbell speaks fondly about his interactions with the fans and how privileged he feels for being part of something so beloved.

The Mortuary Collection

Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal

• Excerpt: Accompanied by a spooky soundtrack by Mondo Boys and presented in uncharacteristically vibrant, saturated colours, the picture is added to the list of horror anthologies worth watching.

Survival Skills

Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal

• Excerpt: This dark satire sheds a grim light on the consequences of poor preparation colliding with steadfast beliefs and bad people.

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Sep. 14, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #43: Favorite Michael Caine Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Festivals: Individual Reviews

The Block Island Sound

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: The Block Island Sound explores the horrors of the unknown with a very unique perspective.

The Dark and the Wicked

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Bertino’s film depicts a grim vision of evil that offers no hope, not a single glimmer of light at the end of its dark tunnel. Deliciously horrific.

Fantasia 2020 – Short Films: Dibbuk, Laura Hasn’t Slept & Smiley Death Face

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: In these three short films from Fantasia we get a group of Jewish Ghostbusters, a terrifying therapy session, and the funniest, most dangerous text message conversation you’re ever likely to see.

Fantasia 2020 – Short Films: F for Freaks, Diabla & Narrow

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Three short films playing at Fantasia which depict an authoritarian dystopian world, a witch taking revenge for her assault, and a woman doing her best to walk a dangerous narrow path.

Fantasia 2020 – Short Films: Nightingale, Mr. Thisforthat & Milk Teeth

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: These three terrifying shorts will each shatter some of your most preciously held illusions about life, from our faith in medical professionals to our visions of childhood.

Fantasia 2020 – Short Films: Progeny & Who Goes There?

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Men and parasites are a common theme in these two different yet equally terrifying short films.

For the Sake of Vicious

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Beneath the film’s ultra-violence are issues of class and justice that emerge with every bloody slice of a knife or crushing blow of a hammer.

Fried Barry

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Fried Barry is at once hilarious and serious, using humour to keep things slightly foolish while the chaotic plot simultaneously digs into important issues about addiction in Cape Town.

Kriya

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Kriya explores the disturbing horrors of patriarchy via Hinduism

Shakespeare’s Sh*tstorm

Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies

• Excerpt: Something about Shakespeare inspires Kaufman and his Troma team to heights of lunacy even beyond their usual excesses. Sh*tstorm may not be quite as surreal as ‘Tromeo & Juliet,’ but it represents a capstone of their transgressive punk aesthetic.

Unearth

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Unearth explores the terrifying consequences of fracking in this desperate ecological warning of a horror film.

You Cannot Kill David Arquette

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: The resulting film is a powerful tale of redemption, self-acceptance, and the supportive people we all need to occasionally lift us up when we’re too weak to carry ourselves.

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Sep. 7, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #42: Favorite Marvel Movies

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Festivals: Individual Reviews

Climate of the Hunter

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Mickey Reece’s Climate of the Hunter is a fresh, stylish take on the figure of the vampire for 2020.

Hunted

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted subverts a nasty subgenre by allowing its protagonist Eve to be a warrior woman without needing sexual violence to turn her into one.

Labyrinth of Cinema

Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies

• Excerpt: Nobuhiko Obayashi’s final movie, completed only months before his death, is an exuberant, monumental, poetic and surreal ode to the power of cinema.

The Reckoning

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Neil Marshall’s plague horror is more about the horrors of misogyny perpetrated by men in power during the era of witch hunts.

Time of Moulting

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Time of Moulting is an exploration of both personal and national traumas set in Germany circa the 1970s.

Tributes

Olivia de Havilland: A Personal Remembrance

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Aug. 31, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #41: Films from Actors with Weekend Releases

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

Carlos Reygadas Nuestro Tiempo/Our Time

Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]

Festivals: Individual Reviews

La Dosis

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: La Dosis is a taut, ethical thriller about euthanasia, playing God, and masculinity.

Monster Seafood Wars

Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies

• Excerpt: If silly monster battles are your thing, ‘Monster Seafood Wars’ will satisfy you well enough. But it seems like the kind of ground others have trod before, and I’m confident that Minoru Kawasaki is still capable of more imaginative moviemaking than this.

Sanzaru

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Xia Magnus crafts a compelling story that’s a dark family drama alongside a horrific Southern Gothic with highlights of Filipino culture.

Survival Skills

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Survival Skills shows how even the so-called ‘good apples’ policing our streets can’t be good because the system they work for is rotten from the core.

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Aug. 24, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #40: Favorite Bruce Dern Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

Gonçalo Waddington: Preparar uma longa metragem é como correr a maratona

Paulo Portugal @ insider.pt [Portuguese]

Festivals: General Coverage

FEST 2020: é também (e sobretudo) o festival de novas realizadoras

Paulo Portugal @ insider.pt [Portuguese]

MIFF 2020: 11½ films to watch at the 68½ Melbourne International Film Festival online

Richard Gray @ The Reel Bits

Festivals: Individual Reviews

Sleep

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Michael Venus’s Sleep is like a strange lovechild sprung from the loins of Michael Haneke and David Lynch.

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Aug. 17, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #39: Favorite Donald Sutherland Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

History is Manifested Through These Individuals: The Fight Directors on Following the ACLU Lawyers Challenging Trump

Nell Minow @ rogerebert.com

• Excerpt: With all these cases, there’s a human story that is really accessible. Children being taken away from their parents or trans people not being allowed to serve is not hard to understand.

Festivals: General Coverage

SDCC 2020: Bill and Ted Are Still Most Excellent

Nell Minow @ rogerebert.com

• Excerpt: As moderator of the panel about the upcoming “Bill and Ted Face the Music,” Kevin Smith introduced each member by having them appear, of course, via an animated time machine that looks like a telephone booth.

Awards Coverage

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Aug. 10, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #38: Favorite Clive Owen Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

Amulet

Marina Antunes @ Quiet Earth

Awards Coverage

The Friday Face-Off Round Two #14

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Poll: Remaking Best Costume Design, 2004

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Essays

Catacombs

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: Catacombs packs its runtime with a dose of Gothic religious history and explores the Roman Catholic Church’s repression of desire and sexuality.

Historical Movies Where The ‘Hero’ Is The Wrong Person

Mike McGranaghan @ Ranker

Midsommar

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: One woman’s journey to a remote Swedish village helps reveal to her an existence outside of American patriarchy and toxic men.

The Rental

C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore

• Excerpt: The sharing economy today is all horrific and terror-filled in Dave Franco’s The Rental.

Video Essays, Video Reviews, Vlogs & More

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Aug. 3, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #37: Favorite Community Alumni Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

KiKi Layne Talks Starring In Her First Action Film With ‘The Old Guard’

Candice Frederick @ Essence

The Rental — Dave Franco Talk Logistics, Light-headedness, and Channeling Paranoia

Andrea Chase @ PRX.org

• Excerpt: Dave Franco talks logistics, light-headedness, and channeling his paranoia

Awards Coverage

The Friday Face-Off Round Two #13

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Poll: Remaking Best Costume Design, 2003

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Essays

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Jul. 27, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #36: Favorite Udo Kier Films

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Interviews

Interview: David Marmor (Director of “1Br”)

Federico Furzan @ Cinelipsis [Spanish]

Awards Coverage

The Friday Face-Off Round Two #12

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Poll: Remaking Best Costume Design, 2002

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Video Essays, Video Reviews, Vlogs & More

Rediscovering Japanese Director Tomu Uchida

Michael Barrett @ PopMatters

Reviews of Short Films

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Jul. 20, 2020) →

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

5 Favorites Redux #34: Favorite Star Trek: Enterprise Episodes

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

5 Favorites Redux #35: Favorite Films Featuring James Cromwell

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Favorite Films of 2020 So Far

Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum

Interviews

Elia Suleiman Talks About It Must Be Heaven

Paulo Portugal @ insider [Portuguese]

Awards Coverage

The Friday Face-Off Round Two #11

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Poll: Remaking Best Costume Design, 2001

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Other Types of Articles

Continue reading From Our Members’ Desks (Jul. 13, 2020) →