OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.
Best of Lists
007: Ranking the 24 James Bond Villains
- Excerpt: Emilio Largo feels like another middle management lightweight for the SPECTRE-set—a cycloptic pencil pusher who wants to get out of the volcano lair office so he can continue ogling Claudine Auger and sweating bullets while losing badly in his own casino.
HDD Goodie Bag VI: Your Horror Blu-rays For Halloween 2015
M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
Interviews
Aaron Sorkin – Steve Jobs
Actress-Turned-Director Tara Subkoff Talks Influences, Cyber-Bullying & Working with kids in #HORROR [Interview]
Johann Johannsson, Composer of “Sicario”
Sean Baker and Mya Taylor – Tangerine
Festivals: General Coverage
Jogo de Damas
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Festivals: Individual Reviews
Another Hole in the Head 2015: Magnetic
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
Another Hole in the Head 2015: Reveries of a Solitary Walker
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: No doubt an impressive visual feat, but the film lacks steady pacing and tone.
Cemetery of Splendor
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: Apichatpong has indicated that this may be his last film shot in Thailand due to political considerations. As one who has followed Thai cinema, and read about the seemingly arbitrary rulings that have affected Apichatpong and other filmmakers, this comes as no surprise.
Dearest
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
Montanha
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Nude Area
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: There is very little nudity in Nude Area, and what exists can not be considered exploitive. The film might be understood as a contemplation of mostly unexpressed longings between the two women.
Rise of the Legend
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: It’s kickassery of the highest order, and what a thrill it is to see large scale action done right.
SLIFF 2015: Cemetery of Splendour
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: Enigmatic and yet profound, Cemetery of Splendour embodies cinema-as-experience, inviting the viewer to enter the filmmaker’s peculiar world and inhale deeply.
SLIFF 2015: Jasmine
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: While a couple of nagging threads remain at its conclusion, Jasmine succeeds admirably as a pitch-black depiction of sorrow’s crushing power over the mind.
SLIFF 2015: Marshland
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: The film hits all the appropriate notes, although the template for such stories is now so well-worn, it’s challenging for a feature like Marshland to do anything truly novel.
SLIFF 2015: Montedoro
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: The film’s stubborn opacity becomes wearying at times, but audience members who can attune themselves to its eccentric wavelength will find it a rich, haunting sensory experience.
SLIFF 2015: My Friend Victoria
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: Director Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s delicate feature My Friend Victoria is that rare film whose loveliness and complexity emerge quietly.
SLIFF 2015: Sea Fog
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: Sung’s screenplay—co-written with acclaimed director Joon-ho Bong—is replete with unexpected and often devastating narrative swerves.
SLIFF 2015: The Invitation
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: What truly unsettles about The Invitation, however, is how acidly skeptical it ultimately proves to be regarding belief systems that focus on the next world to the detriment of this one.
SLIFF: Kidnap Capital
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: Rodriguez’ feature doesn’t shy from the monstrously unjust realities of the situation, nor does it promise that the strong or the deserving will be the ones who survive.
Awards Coverage
Oscar Preview: Weekend of Nov. 6-8, 2015
- Excerpt: Looking at the Oscar chances of “The Peanuts Movie,” “Spectre,” “Brooklyn,” “Spotlight” and “Trumbo”
Essays
The Horrifying Implications of the Fraternal Order of Police’s Threat Against Quentin Tarantino
- Excerpt: This is an organization of state and federal employees attempting to prohibit or abridge the rights of an individual citizen to speak freely, specifically at a peaceful assembly petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. I mean, I can use the actual text of the fucking thing, because that’s how textbook this is: the man got up at a protest, spoke about a matter of state that should be corrected, and has since seen his well-being mysteriously threatened by an organization representing hundreds and thousands of police officers.
How Fox News’ Response to Quentin Tarantino’s MSNBC Appearance Proves His Point About Criticizing Police
- Excerpt: So, yes, to repudiate the notion that some officers of the law seem to have trouble complying with it, Fox News brought on a convicted felon who lied, cheated, and took a bribe. A+ booking, kids!
Why Did ‘Steve Jobs’ Bomb? Blame Its Slow Roll-Out
- Excerpt: Look, I get why small and small-ish indie flicks platform; when you’ve only got limited resources at your disposal, the buzz and revenue of a slow rollout are legitimately valuable (or, in the worst-case scenario, can prevent distributors from throwing good money after bad). But in the prestige picture-heavy fall season, even big-budgeted, studio-distributed, star-led movies adopt the strategy, and it’s infuriating for the pockets of film fans that exist all over the country.
The Worrisome Takeaway From October’s “Box Office Bloodbath”
- Excerpt: Our Brand’s commercial failure is easy to pinpoint: this was a movie that needed great reviews to get its audience out to the theaters (particularly on a weekend when the parents among them were otherwise occupied), and those reviews were not forthcoming. But the films it joins on the October trash heap are telling: Steve Jobs, The Walk, Rock the Kasbah, and the aforementioned Crimson Peak were all intended for an adult audience that didn’t show up, choosing instead to keep boosting The Martian and Bridge of Spies.
