The Grab Bag (May 27, 2014)

OFCS members don’t just write film reviews. Here are several articles you might find interesting.

Best of Lists

The Below Average Films Volume I: 1914-2008

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: …these films might be worth a rental, but nothing more.

The Below Average Films Volume II: 2009-2014

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: the following films were, to my mind, failures and thus, not good films, or at least good enough.

The Pretty Bad Films Volume I: 1914-2008

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: In short, while there might be something within them that could make them tolerable if someone else wants to show it to you, by and large these are films you should avoid.

The Pretty Bad Films Volume II: 2009-2014

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: Now, these films might have something worth admiring or respecting within them, but the flaws are simply too great to have whatever qualities they do possess lift them to average, let alone greatness.

Interviews

The Price of Change: Joanna Lipper on The Supreme Price and women’s rights in Nigeria.

Jennie Kermode @ Eye For Film

Wallace Shawn Interview

Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies

Festivals: Individual Reviews

Mad, Sad and Dangerous: Sci-Fi London 2014

Anton Bitel @ Sight & Sound (online)

Tributes

Gordon Willis

Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder

Awards Coverage

Oscar Preview: Weekend of May 16-18, 2014

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

  • Excerpt: Looking at the Ocar chances of “Godzilla” and “The Immigrant”

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1930

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: Most of the kinks of transitioning from silent to sound films had been worked out (though not completely, as some of the Best Picture nominees showed).

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1931

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: This is one of those years where ALL the Best Picture nominees are pretty much forgotten, and if they are remembered it is because of their association with Oscar. Even more bizarre, given how good 1931 as a whole was in films, with some truly unforgettable classics released that year, how the Academy came up with its five nominees is one of those “are they serious?” moments.

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1932

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: The Fifth Annual Academy Awards had their fair share of firsts: first ‘tie’, first time a Best Picture winner won without other nominations. On the whole, I don’t think the winners or nominees were terrible (which is not always the case).

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1933

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: It is a sign of how bad these Oscars were that history gave us one of the most embarrassing moments whose infamy has gone down into legend.

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1934

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: The Seventh Academy Awards broke will all precedents in regards to winners. It also introduced a new category, Best Original Song, which would come up with some good choices (thank you, Judy), and some ‘what were they on?’ choices (I’m looking at you, Adele).

Tuesdays With Oscar: 1935

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: The Eight Academy Awards were a strange lot. It…started an unfortunate tradition of ‘retroactive’ Oscars…

Television

Bates Motel: Presumed Innocent

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: Presumed Innocent, if I remember correctly, takes place basically in one night. In this long night, our hero goes from one shocking act to another, while his mother does her best to protect someone who is probably too far gone to help.

Elementary: No Lack of Void

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: No Lack of Void was a hit-and-miss affair with me.

Elementary: The Many Teeth of Andrew/Aaron Colville

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

  • Excerpt: The episode flowed well, gave us some good twists and turns, and brought great interplay between Miller and Liu where they work so well doing what the other normally does (Holmes empathizing, Watson deducing)…and the return of Clyde the Turtle.

Little House on the Prairie: Season 2

James Plath @ Family Home Theater

  • Excerpt: By Season 2 the plots were already shifting from pioneer-specific storylines to ones that viewers may have seen elsewhere and could actually identify with better.

Essays

‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and Why It’s Important For Us to Celebrate Asian-American Talent on the Small Screen

Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: 7 Dark & Shocking Facts You Should Know

Bob Cashiil @ Biography.com

  • Excerpt: Fun facts about the 30-year-old blockbuster prequel.

The Least-Anticipated Movies of Summer 2014

Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat

Reviews of Short Films

02:43

Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]

  • Excerpt: Spanish Short Film Review

As Rosas Brancas

Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]

  • Excerpt: Portuguese Short Film Review

Por Siempre Jamón

Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]

  • Excerpt: Spanish Short Film Review

Runner

Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]

  • Excerpt: Spanish Short Film Review

Voteman

Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]

  • Excerpt: Danish Animated Short Film Review

Other Articles

The Disney Family Blus (“Planes” and “Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United”)

A.J. Hakari @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews

The Drama Club Grab Bag (“Kill Your Darlings,” “Blue Jasmine,” and “Inside Llewyn Davis”)

A.J. Hakari @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews

The Morning After: May 19, 2014

Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

  • Excerpt: Short reviews of “The Purge”, “Saturday Night Fever”, “Neighbors”, “Godzilla” and “Stage Fright”

Deprecated: ltrim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/ofcs/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 3031

Deprecated: parse_str(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/ofcs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/class.jetpack.php on line 4078

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.