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Review: The Righteous

— by WILLIAM STERR —

It’s winter, but there is no snow. A middle-aged couple sits alone in a pew as a priest officiates at a funeral for their young daughter. They stand with a few mourners at the graveside; together they clutch a white rose.

Things are not as they seem. While his wife Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk – “The Day After Tomorrow”) waits in the sanctuary, rose at her side, the husband, Frederic (Henry Czerny – “Ready or Not”), sits with the priest, Fr. Graham (Nigel Bennett – “The shape of Water”), in another room. Here, we discover that Frederic was once a priest, who gave up his vocation for the love of Ethel. This is only the beginning of the surprises in this somber, methodical story, filmed in black and white. (CONTINUED)


Review: Fire in the Mountains

— by BEV QUESTAD — A sari-clad woman, Chandra, walks across a one-lane northern Indian bridge leading into Sarmoli, a tiny village close to both the Tibetan and Nepali borders. She successfully competes with a hotel hawk for a family just off a bus. Then she sets their suitcase on top of her head and […][...]


Review: Castro’s Spies

— by WILLIAM STERR — In 1898, the United States fought a war against Spain. At the conclusion of that war, the US seized the Philippines, Puerto Rico and smaller Pacific islands that had been part of the Spanish Empire. Cuba was not seized but remained occupied until 1902. From then until 1959, Cuba operated […][...]


Review: Tigre Gente

— by BEV QUESTAD — When does a documentary become a thriller? It’s when the camera is allowed to follow a real-life, unscripted man-hunt with passion, risk, and danger. Elizabeth Unger, adventurist and National Geographic Explorer, convinced Chief Protection Officer Marcos Uzquiano to let her follow his Bolivian team as they hunted poachers who tracked […][...]


Review: A.K. Tolstoy’s A Taste of Blood

— by WILLIAM STERR — What if your father, with the aim of protecting you, went out one night, and came back the next night as a monster – the very thing he tried to protect you from? A. K. Tolstoy, older second cousin to the more famous Leo Tolstoy, was a literary giant of […][...]


Review: Broken Wings

— by BEV QUESTAD — Hot Springs is just a normal little town in Arkansas. Jayne’s house perches right on the town highway in a two-story faux antebellum home with porch and rafters from which she can hang her wooden vulture cut-outs. She is famous in town for rescuing an injured vulture with only one […][...]


Review: MAU

— by WILLIAM STERR — “Think about the number of times you can close your eyes and open them in a space where you only see the natural world; and you realize that it’s almost never; it’s almost zero. That what you’re experiencing, your life is a designed life. And the beauty of that is […][...]


Review: Happening

— by BEV QUESTAD — In college, back in the ’60s, a friend attending school on a complete scholarship got pregnant. She heard of a place she could go to in another state. Friends pooled available cash, someone had a car, and she was back two days later, white, gaunt and weak. It turned out […][...]


Review: Big vs. Small

— by BEV QUESTAD — The tallest waves in the world are found in Nazaré, Portugal. The biggest wave ever recorded there was 80 feet tall. One of the smallest surfers, at 5-foot-1, is determined to conquer both these mega waves and her own demons. Haunting music with a sitar-like sound lures you in as […][...]



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