OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.
Best of Lists
The top 10 film scores
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
Interviews
Detropia director Heidi Ewing talks about her new documentary
- Excerpt: It is a podcast that you will not want to miss.
Directors of the Toastmasters Documentary “Speak”
- Excerpt: I think those speeches are like one-man-shows. It’s one of the things, it’s like a solo-performance piece as opposed to just sitting there and reading something into a microphone. That was one of the cool things about the film, I thought, was that we had these performers and it was really exciting to watch them practice speeches, rehearse it, block it out, and then go for it.
Nicholas Jarecki of “Arbitrage”
- Excerpt: I’m a big fan of Aristotle, he wrote a book called The Poetics a couple of thousand years ago, which is pretty much a manual for dramatists, and I try to follow his paradigm of a tragic hero. It’s not a Madoff where, excuse my language, but he said from jail “f*** my victims.” That to me was a sociopath, and I wasn’t interested in exploring that character but I thought, “Can we do in the Aristotelian way, a good man who was great and got a little carried away?” And then bought into a kind of irresponsibility, but because you can sense that he was good at one point, I think you want it to work out for him.
TIFF ’12 Interview: Derek Cianfrance on Exploring “The Place Beyond the Pines,” Comparisons to “Drive” and American Tribalism
Stephen Saito @ www.moveablefest.com
- Excerpt: From the Toronto Film Festival, the “Blue Valentine” writer/director talks about the influence of film school and fatherhood on his sprawling new drama.
TIFF ’12 Interview: Ramaa Mosley Spreads the Wealth with the Black Comedy “The Brass Teapot”
Stephen Saito @ www.moveablefest.com
- Excerpt: From the Toronto Film Festival, the first-time writer/director discusses her fantastical satire about a young, financially strapped married couple (Michael Angarano and Juno Temple) whose discovery of a magical kettle leads them to crippling each other to climb out of crippling debt.
Festivals
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Kenneth R. Morefield @ 1More Film Blog
- Excerpt: In a section about the Order of the Paraclete, a department designed to “rehabilitate” sex offenders, it is stated that between the 50s and 90s, approximately 2,000 priests were treated by the Order of the Paraclete.
To the Wonder
Kenneth R. Morefield @ 1More Film Blog
- Excerpt: Bottom line: I can’t imagine any reason why those who like Malick at all won’t like this particular effort.
Unususual Suspects: Dangerous Desire – Film Noir Classics
Jamie S. Rich @ Portland Mercury
- Excerpt: For anyone looking for a genre crash course in noir, you couldn’t do better than “Dangerous Desire: Film Noir Classics,” a four-weekend festival at the Northwest Film Center. They’ll be showing a dozen films, spanning 1942 to 1954, and featuring many rare gems not available on DVD.
Oscar Coverage
Oscar Preview: Weekend of Sep. 7-9, 2012
- Excerpt: Discussing: Toys in the Attic
Other Articles
5 Things Killing Doctor Who: #5: An Ignorance of History
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: No show ignores its own history and insists on referring to only things that came after the revival, not before, than Doctor Who. Despite the wealth of history it has, there is a concerted effort to downplay or ignore all that has happened before.
The Bad News Bears
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Rife with every non-politically-correct social tic that ’70s America had to offer, “The Bad News Bears” (1976) is a sports comedy that serves as a cultural benchmark.
The Birds Again!
Betty Jo Tucker @ Movie Addict Headquarters
- Excerpt: Ben Mankiewicz discusses TCM plans for celebrating Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary, beginning with “The Birds” being shown on the big screen for one day. Tippi Hedren interview clip is also played.
Cinema In Noir: What’s the Best Political Movie?
- Excerpt: In this election year, which political movie gets your vote as the best of the best? What qualifies a political movie?
The Great Directors: Werner Herzog
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul Try Not to Get “Smashed” [TRAILER]
- Excerpt: After fighting off mutant aliens in last year’s remake to The Thing and vintage bloodsuckers in this year’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, it’s about time we see Mary Elizabeth Winstead battle real life demons in a Sundance drama some critics are already calling her best performance to date.
Movie You Need to Know About: “Luv” Starring Common and Michael Rainey, Jr. (TRAILER)
- Excerpt: And perhaps Common just needed a director like him, and a cast like this, to really prove himself as an actor. Definitely keep this film on your radar.
Thelma & Louise
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Written by debut screenwriter Callie Khouri and directed by Ridley Scott “Thelma & Louise” (1991) is a proto-feminist road movie that struck a sensitive nerve in American culture at the time of its release.
To Get to ‘The Master,’ Paul Thomas Anderson Needed Adam Sandler
- Excerpt: There may be no A-list filmmaker today who has negotiated a more complete stylistic evolution than Paul Thomas Anderson Anderson. As that evolution continues with the new film, it seems clearer and clearer that his moment of truth came at the most unlikely juncture: when he was making an Adam Sandler comedy.
Why Do We Return to Live Footage of 9/11?
- Excerpt: Reliving it all—our last moments of cheery obliviousness, the confusion of those first reports, the utter despair of watching those buildings crumble—is borderline masochistic. Isn’t it?