OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.
Best of Lists
The Best of 2015 So Far
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Sometimes, documentaries are simply better films than features.
The Worst of 2015 So Far
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: One made sex boring, one showed how awful Eddie Redmayne really is. However, the fact that I found other films I thought worse than Fantastic Four says more about them than about it.
Awards Coverage
A Few Thoughts on the 2015 Academy Awards Slate
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Best Actor means only one thing to me: Eddie Redmayne is going down in flames.
Is Oscar Afraid of the Dark? Some Thoughts on #OscarsSoWhite
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: The Academy Awards merely reflect the state of race in Hollywood, not create it. Until such a time that Hollywood looks at itself and admits the problem isn’t the Oscars, but themselves, you will see no difference between casting an Anglo as a Mexican in 1929, or in 1954, or in 2012.
Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 9
- Excerpt: A look at the winners and losers from Precursor Week 9
Tuesdays With Oscar: 1958
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Yeah, like I’m going to believe the lightweight Gigi is better than either Touch of Evil or my choice for the Best Film of 1958, Vertigo.
Tuesdays With Oscar: 1959
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I’m not sure, but (Best Actress) seems to be the third category out of four where you have two actors/actresses from the same film cancelling each other out. Is that an Academy record?
Interviews
David Costabile – 13 Hours
Dominic Fumusa and Max Martini – 13 Hours
James Badge Dale – 13 Hours
John Krasinski – 13 Hours
Kiernan Shipka – One and Two
Kung Fu Panda 3 directors Jennifer Nelson and Alessandro Carloni
- Excerpt: DC Filmdom interviews Kung Fu Panda 3 directors Jennifer Nelson and Alessandro Carloni.
Matt Charman, screenwriter of “Bridge of Spies”
Michael Bay – 13 Hours
Oz, Tanto, Tig – 13 Hours
Pablo Schreiber and David Denman – 13 Hours
Revelations: Doron Paz and Yael Grobglas on Life, Death and What Happens Next in JeruZalem
Festivals: Individual Reviews
Audrie & Daisy
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Belgica
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Certain Women
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Complete Unknown
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
A Flag Without a Country
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
The Free World
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Goat
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Green Room
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Hooligan Sparrow
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
The Intervention
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Love & Friendship
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Maggie’s Plan
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Manchester by the Sea
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Morris from America
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Plaza de la Soledad
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Pleasure. Love.
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Richard Linklater – Dream is Destiny
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Sand Storm
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Sonita
Daniel Schindel @ The Film Stage
Unlocking the Cage
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Television
Gotham: A Bitter Pill to Swallow
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: If A Bitter Pill to Swallow has a theme, it is that of whether one will take the road to the Dark Side of one’s nature or pull oneself out.
Gotham: Mommy’s Little Monster
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Mommy’s Little Monster proved to be yet another strong episode to Gotham’s sharper and more focused Second Season.
Gotham: The Son of Gotham
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I think The Son of Gotham is (David) Mazouz’s best hour as a young actor, and it is so good to see that Bruce Wayne, who for a time last season was almost forgotten, is if not taking center stage at least a more prominent presence on Gotham.
Gotham: Tonight’s The Night
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Tonight’s the Night gives us the simply cuckoo-bananas Barbara at her most nutty, doing her own version of Get Me to the Church on Time.
Gotham: Worse Than A Crime
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Worse Than A Crime packs a lot within its hour, and I’d say that it ended the first half in a thrilling fashion with perhaps one or two minor missteps.
The Librarians: And the Complete Second Season
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: One of the great highlights of Season Two was David S. Lee as Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime brought to life by Shakespeare’s magician Prospero. Lee made Moriarty into a simply perfect mixture of menace and mirth, equal parts threat and comic relief.
The Librarians: And the Final Curtain
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: And the Final Curtain does an excellent job in ending this season’s story arc (Prospero has been vanquished) without painting itself into a total corner (Moriarty may return, and it be great if he did).
The Librarians: And the Happily Ever Afters
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: And the Happily Ever Afters gives us a glimpse into what our various Librarians characters would be if they could be anything they could. Oddly enough, it isn’t all that different from the lives they lead now.
A Man For All Seasons (1988)
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: This version of the Robert Bolt play sticks closer to its theatrical roots than the film adaptation, and is effectively directed by someone people rarely think of as a director: its lead, Charlton Heston.
Quick Question: Why Aren’t You Watching SUPERSTORE?
Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk Online
Revisiting “The X-Files” and Writer Darin Morgan’s Compassionate Misanthropy in “Milline”
Kenji Fujishima @ Paste Magazine
Essays
Are the Academy Awards racist?
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: The steps taken to welcome more diversity seem to be honorable at best, and at worse feel like The Academy rubbing salve on a situation that is completely taking the gloss off of this year’s awards. While it’s true that the lack of diversity this year is notable, due mostly to the fact that it’s the second year in a row that the work of African-Americans in film wasn’t recognized, it leaves me to wonder what those changes would mean for the Academy Awards themselves.
Destroy All Monsters: THE X FILES Was Never About Aliens
Eddie Redmayne Pays The Bills
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I’m sure the fact the Oscar race is going on at the same time (Eddie Redmayne) reveals his acts of private charity (by sometimes paying for other actor’s rent) is merely coincidental.
Movie of the Day: Sita Sings the Blues (2009)
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Sita Sings the Blues is such a visual experience that it is almost impossible to describe in words (I struggle now to write about it). It represents all the reasons that I love the movies. It is lively and fun, it tells a great story that is equal parts comedy, drama, romance, heartbreak, adventure, comeuppance, revenge, all mixed into a musical that is bouncy and fun. It tells a story that is universal in a way that we’ve never seen before, using various techniques and camera tricks to tickle us and treat us and allow us regard it with wonder. I love this movie a lot.
Movie of the Day: Sophie’s Choice (1983)
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Sophie has experienced a lifetime of hurt and pain, of loss and of sorrow, but she tries to soldier on in her life by trying to put it all behind her. Yet, erasing all of her memories won’t make them go away, they still reside within her. Look at the way her makeup whitens her face, as if the experience has left her a ghost of her former self.
Movie of the Day: Thale (2011)
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Having recently sat through the halfwit (not to mention boring) nonsense of Fede Alvarez’s remake of Evil Dead, this movie comes as a breath of fresh air. While it isn’t a perfect film, Thale exudes a measure of tension and grounds its story in reality before revealing the supernatural forces that are present. This is the kind of movie that builds slowly, giving us time to discover things.
Movie of the Day: The Birds (1963)
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Perhaps Hitchcock was so busy with the technical work that the story fell by the wayside. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with his television work. You are welcome to dig under the psychology of the film all you want in an effort to read between the lines but, for me, The Birds just doesn’t fly.
Movie of the Day: The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Is the movie a warning to young ladies to get back in the kitchen? Probably, but its also interesting to watch an otherwise intelligent person get themselves in deeper and deeper. And it’s interesting to watch early Hollywood deal with such trashy subject matter in the same manner as a trashy novel.
Reviews of Short Films
Alles Wird Gut
Ave Maria
Bear Story
Canadian Screen Awards Shorts
- Excerpt: Review of the Canadian Screen Award nominated short films ‘BAM’, ‘Carface’, ‘Roberta’, and ‘Blue Thunder’
Last Day of Freedom
Shok
Stutterer
Other Articles
Has Trump Finally Had “Lonesome” Rhodes Moment?
- Excerpt: Has the candidate, like Andy Griffth’s grass-roots demogogue in “A Face in the Crowd,” finally opened “his big yap once too often”?
The Morning After: Jan. 25, 2016
- Excerpt: A short review of “Spectre”
