OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.
Best of Lists
The Bad Movies Volume 1: 1914-2008
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Now, we close out our Review Retrospective with the bottom of the bottom, those simply dreadful films from yesteryear that I found hideous, evil, I daresay…Satanic.
The Bad Movies Volume 2: 2008-2014
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: The listing of the Worst Movies I have seen since I began writing about films.
The Best Films of 2014 (So Far)
Get into the Habit: The Top 10 Movie Nuns on the Big Screen
Frank Ochieng @ Sound on Sight
- Excerpt: Spirituality in cinema has been expressed in various ways where the feel-good aspect of faith-based films are put to great use for emotional manipulation.
She Works Hard for the Money: The Top 10 “Loose” Women in Film
Frank Ochieng @ Sound on Sight
- Excerpt: One of the most explosive roles for women in motion pictures have been in the titillating realm of prostitution.
The Top 15 Hollywood Movies Shot in Prague
- Excerpt: After the fall of communism and the formation of the Czech Republic in 1992, Hollywood studios rushed into the country to take advantage of not only low production costs, but also the high level of talent available throughout the local industry.
Interviews
Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet on THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS
Hidden in Plain Sight: Joanna Coates on Hide and Seek
Kat Candler on “Hellion”
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
Festivals: Individual Reviews
The Anomaly
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: Its reach may ultimately exceeds its grasp but there’s something to be said for a film that has a killer concept and just runs with it, wherever it may take it.
The Green Inferno
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: The film perhaps takes a little longer to get going than is probably needed – suffering from that most common of problems of 15-20 minutes that would have been best left in the editing room – but once it does it’s insanely and gleefully graphic, delivering the sort of exploitation thrills fans of Roth and hardcore horror films want and expect.
Hyena
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: Very tough to watch indeed, unashamed and uncompromising in its portrayal of its criminal underworld and all that entails.
Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Let Us Prey
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: A silly and frustrating horror only kept somewhat watchable because of the interesting visual style and the ever-great Liam Cunningham.
Point and Shoot | 2014 AFI Docs Review
- Excerpt: After watching the Arab Spring rage on with camera in hand, VanDyke’s compulsion to be part of the action has resulted in a fascinating case of how personalities are being shaped by social media and our increasing need to document our own everyday experiences.
Scintilla
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: It signs off on an intriguing note that makes you wish the whole movie had been about that rather than the utterly derivative military mission shenanigans that takes up most of it. Avoid.
We Are Monster
Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: An admirably audacious and ambitious effort made by a passionate director and writer that, at the very least, is a real conversation starter.
Winter Sleep
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Tributes
Carla Laemmle
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Carla Laemmle may never have been a big star, but I’ll remember her best for being a Goodwill Ambassador for silent and early sound films.
Eli Wallach
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
Awards Coverage
Changes for 2015 Canadian Screen Awards
- Excerpt: The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announces appreciative changes included release requirements and doc prizes.
Oscar Preview: Weekend of Jun. 20-22, 2014
- Excerpt: Looking at the Oscar chances of “Jersey Boys” and “The Last Sentence”
Tuesdays With Oscar: 1938
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: The 11th Academy Awards are also notable in that it was the last time a comedy won Best Picture for a very long time.
Tuesdays With Oscar: 1939
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: 1939 is the Greatest Year in Film History. With the winners, the nominees, even the non-nominees, there is simply too much to choose from.
Television
Destroy All Monsters: Dance, Clones! It’s All Television Now
Essays
The Day of the Doctor: Continuity Questions
- Excerpt: The good thing for Steven Moffat is that his fans, most of whom know little to nothing of Doctor Who pre-Rose, will be impressed by anything he taps out, whether it contradicts Canon or even him previous work.
Elena and Her Men
Andrew Wyatt @ Gateway Cinephile
- Excerpt: With all due respect to the late great Times critic and professional curmudgeon Bosley Crowther, he was just plain wrong about Elena and Her Men.
Gary Oldman, Political Correctness, and the “Internet Outrage Machine”
- Excerpt: Unless he was slyly doing an “in character” interview as Shelly Runyon, his vile, sexist, bile-spewing Republican Congressman from The Contender, an actor going this far off the rails in an interview is kind of baffling. That character/actor disparity might be the key, though; the kind of straight-talking, no-fuck-giving tough guys that a (white, male, hetero) actor like Oldman plays so well tend to work better as fictional creations than as real people, defending anti-Semites and homophobes.
Hiring Rian Johnson Is the Best Thing That’s Happened to the ‘Star Wars’ Franchise in Decades
- Excerpt: Johnson is more a genre fan favorite than a proven entity at the box office. But the fact that Disney (which took over the franchise when it bought Lucasfilm back in 2012) places greater value on the former quality speaks well to where Star Wars is going on their watch.
Home Movies: Watching New York City Transform on Film
- Excerpt: It merely treats the subway cars as rolling showcases, as found art objects. And in many ways, it treats the city the same way — which is a genuine thrill for those of us who live in New York, love films, and have spent any time at all considering the difference between the city we live in now and that same city on the silver screen.
How ‘Batman’ Changed the Summer Blockbuster Forever
- Excerpt: It’s easy to see how Tim Burton’s Batman ended up being one of the most influential films of the modern era — not for what was on screen, which was hardly even relevant. What Batman changed was how the movie-going audience was prepared for summer blockbusters, and how Hollywood grew to depend on them.
Is Steven Moffat Afraid of Death?
- Excerpt: Steven Moffat’s inability to kill off characters is a recurring theme/escape hatch for the knots he writes himself in. Fortunately, his fans don’t care.
Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors: A Mild Reevaluation
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I still think Led Zeppelin shouldn’t have received a Kennedy Center Honor, but at least Heart’s rendition of Stairway to Heaven was brilliant.
A Million Ways to Say You’re Not a Fan of Seth MacFarlane
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Please Don’t Ask Hollywood to Reboot the Same Old Ideas; It’s Not What You Want Anyway
Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
Sherlock vs. Elementary Shippers
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I don’t understand why Sherlock fans despise the idea of Elementary’s Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes becoming romantically involved but are obsessed with having John Watson and Holmes (or Holmes and Moriarty) becoming lovers.
Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ Turns 25: Who’s Your Favorite Batman?
- Excerpt: Rating Batmen.
When Is José Padilha’s RoboCop?
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
X-Men First Class: A Second Look
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: A reevaluation of the original review for X-Men: First Class.
Reviews of Short Films
Caníbales
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Spanish Short Film Review
What’s on Your Mind?
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Norwegian Short Film Review
The Whisper and the Night
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Portuguese Short Film Review
Other Articles
7 Pecados Rurais
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Awards Circuit Book Nook for June 2014
Kristen Lopez @ Awards Circuit
- Excerpt: What’s new in world of books adapted to movies
Christian de Rezendes: Acclaimed Filmmaker
Betty Jo Tucker @ Movie Addict Headquarters
- Excerpt: This podcast features independent filmmaker Christian de Rezendes discussing his unique documentary and narrative movies.
The Morning After: Jun. 23, 2014
- Excerpt: Short reviews of “Dangerous Liaisons”, “sex, lies and videotape” and “Primal Fear”
The Nance
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Classy and timely, combining comedy and pathos, starring the incomparable Nathan Lane.
Santo the Obscene – first trailer
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: New film directed by Luizo Vega with a Bruce LaBruce screenplay.
