OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.
Best of Lists
2014 Film Reviews Rated Five Stars
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Five Star Films: The Whole Bloody List
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Interviews
Adl Ameen and Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Bill Smitrovich of “The November Man” and “Ted 2”
Chronicling Eve: Joan Molloy on exploring postpartum psychosis in Unravelling Eve
Dylan O’Brien
Jeremy Renner and Michael Cuesta
Nell Minow @ The Huffington Post
Jorge Gutierrez of “The Book of Life”
Nell Minow @ The Huffington Post
Kaya Scodelario
Matthias Malzieu of “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart”
Ned Benson of “The Disappearance of Eleonor Rigby”
VIFF 2014: “Bloody Knuckles” Director Matt O’Mahoney Talks Tom Savini, Black Dildos & Inspiration
VIFF 2014: Award Winning Director Andrew Huculiak Talks “Violent”
Wes Ball
Will Poulter
Festivals: General Coverage
Cellar Door Film Festival Announces Line-up
- Excerpt: Ottawa’s Cellar Door Film Festival Announces its inaugural programme of speculative cinema.
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Presented ‘Whiplash’ At The Mill Valley Film Festival
Festivals: Individual Reviews
Black Fly
Chicago Horror Film Festival 2014
Clouds of Sils Maria
Inherent Vice
- Excerpt: ‘Inherent Vice’ is a slang-y, breezy lark, a picture whose two-and-a-half-hour running time, Oscar-friendly release date, and premiere as the Centerpiece selection at the New York Film Festival make it sound like a more important movie than it is—or, more importantly, than director Anderson seems to think it is. After a decade spent making two films that are like pressure cookers, he was clearly ready to blow off some steam.
Inherent Vice
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: On a scale from lazy doper to befuddled private dick, Doc falls in that sweet spot somewhere between Jeff Bridges’ Dude in THE BIG LEBOWSKI and Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in THE LONG GOODBYE. INHERENT VICE falls somewhere in there too, alternately funny and evocative of the best California noirs, forging a new subgenre with its mashing up of surfer/stoner culture and detective mystery.
Iris (2014)
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Though ostensibly a picture of Apfel’s trajectory to the heights of fame, Maysles takes time to highlight Iris and Carl’s marriage and the husband’s commitment to stay out of the way of his wife’s flourishing independence even in their very infirm old age. Apfel is ready-made for the screen with her eccentric but apt clothing style and quotable sound bites.
The Liberator
Mr. Turner
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: MR. TURNER’s most bountiful rewards are to be found in watching Spall, usually relegated to playing odiously repulsive supporting characters, finally given a confident, and even sometimes romantic, leading part to play.
Preggoland
Queen and Country
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
- Excerpt: Like the best of Broomfield’s work, ‘Tales’ is both an explanation and investigation, the filmmaker puzzling out a complicated story as he goes, dogged in his determination. And the deeper he digs, the more the scope widens.
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Franklin hid in plain sight in an area that has become a haven for prostitutes and drug users mostly because its residents’ economic misfortunes have left them unrepresented in government. But Broomfield doesn’t let anyone off the hook, talking to many of Franklin’s former buddies to emphasize how much of the community itself failed to police itself.
Whiplash
- Excerpt: It’s a decidedly thoughtful take on a moldy old trope, questioning with great emotional force the kind of conclusions we usually draw from these stories. It’s nerve-wracking but ultimately rewarding viewing that leaves as much blood on the skins as its protagonist.
Awards Coverage
Oscar Preview: Weekend of Oct. 3-5, 2014
- Excerpt: Looking at the Oscar chances of “Gone Girl”, “The Good Lie” and “Men, Women & Children”
Essays
Ambiguity Is Dead: ‘Say Anything,’ ‘The Sopranos,’ and Pop Culture’s New Closure Obsession
- Excerpt: No beloved work of pop art can stand as its own, self-contained thing; we must have prequels and origin stories and sequels and tidy endings. Preserving and monetizing brands, via endless “world-building” and maintenance, is more important than maintaining any degree of mystery or originality; for Chrissakes, at this point I know more about Batman’s childhood, young adult years, and hometown than I do about my own.
Grab Some Popcorn and Watch Theater Chains Fight Netflix Over ‘Crouching Tiger II’
- Excerpt: It’s an entertaining showdown, and it’ll be interesting to see who blinks first.
A Requiem for Saturday Morning Cartoons
- Excerpt: A little part of me died inside when I learned that Saturday morning cartoons were really gone for good–I just always assumed they’d be there, whether I was watching or not. There was a certain magic conjured up just by that combination of words, “Saturday morning cartoons,” a lovely memory of a weekend’s first hours, a bowl of cereal, a pile of toys, and a Scooby-Doo episode that I’d probably seen before, even if I hadn’t (because they were all basically the same).
Stop Calling David Fincher a “Control Freak”
- Excerpt: But labeling these precise, meticulous filmmakers “control freaks” is not only downright silly; it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what a director does. Calling them “controlling” is like calling an actor “overly dramatic.”
Why ‘Halloween’ Is the Greatest Horror Franchise Ever (Even Though It Isn’t)
- Excerpt: The longer I live with my inexplicable love for ‘Halloween,’ the more I come to understand a mindset I’ve never quite been able to grasp otherwise: that of the sports fan.
Reviews of Short Films
Alien, no one saw this coming
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: New Short Film to celebrate Alien’s 35th birthday
Amor de Hombre
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Spanish Short Film Review
Daddies
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Portuguese Short Film Review
Hello Bingo
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Italian Short Film Review
Red Dust
Tio Carlos 1942 – 1969, Um Inquérito Docudramático
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Portuguese Short Documentary Film Review
Other Articles
La Cour de Babel
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: French Feature Documentary that opened Lisbon’s French Film Festival.
Film Threat Podcast 97: Grootesque
Don Lewis @ Film Threat
Film Threat Podcast 98: You’ve Lost Your Edge
Don Lewis @ Film Threat
Film Threat Podcast Episode 96: They Just Keep Showing Up
Don Lewis @ Film Threat
Gonna Make You Watch: “Noah”
Don Lewis @ Film Threat
The Mill Valley Film Festival Presented “The Empire Strikes Back” and Don is 9 Again
Don Lewis @ Film Threat
The Morning After: Oct. 6, 2014
- Excerpt: Short review of “James and the Giant Peach”
