— by BEV QUESTAD — “What do we need to be happy? How far are we willing to go to get it? This is a human being’s daily dilemma,” asserts Dr. Phil Loder, an economics professor whose students hang on his every word. Move over Steve Martin! Peter Dinklage’s slapstick in “Amer[...]
Archive for March, 2024
Review: All We Carry
— by WILLIAM STERR — What is it like to be threatened by ruthless gangs and then, when you go to the police, discover that they are being paid off by those same gangs? There are people in the US who know all too well what that is like, but most of us don’t. Even […][...]
Review: Limbo
— by WILLIAM STERR — Limbo – a fictional town in the hot, arid Australian Outback. Limbo – a place of indeterminate location, whose inhabitants are neither in heaven nor hell. Limbo – a film by aboriginal director/writer Ivan Sen, which explores a forgotten murder case that took pl[...]
Review: Knox Goes Away
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Put it on the … the … the thing over there … you know.” How many times has something like that happened to you? You need a common, everyday word and it just wont come. Then the person you’re talking to says “counter?” and of course you knew that! It [...]
Review: Just Getting By
— by BEV QUESTAD — Last Monday, I spent five hours preparing, serving, and cleaning up dinner for 15 homeless at my church in Vancouver, Washington. We alternate providing dinners, breakfasts, and overnight housing with another church. By 7:30 p.m., the guests nestled in on fold-out matt[...]
Review: 20 Days in Mariupol
— by BEV QUESTAD — The city is still and quiet. Not a tree leaf moves, as if trying not to call attention to itself. At the border, a two-pronged attack, though denied, is methodically being organized. One will come from the north into Kyiv and the other, here, 35 miles from Russia in th[...]
Review: Rustin
— by BEV QUESTAD — Diversity, inspiration, compassion, and transformation are the guiding principles of Higher Ground (HG), the Obamas’ production company. Michelle Obama says, “I always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the w[...]
Review: Yellow
— by BEV QUESTAD — In a sea of blue burqas, only a cat runs free, scampering freely from rooftop to rooftop high above the fettered women below. This 12-minute exceptional documentary short was nominated for a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for best short doc. It begins by showing th[...]
Review: American Dreamer
— by WILLIAM STERR — Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage – “Game of Thrones”) is a professor of Economics at Brockton University in Massachusetts. He’s an adjunct professor. That means he has no tenure, no protections against claims of improper behavior, a very low salary, and no [...]
Review: Beyond Utopia
— by BEV QUESTAD — Fording rivers, climbing mountains, circling in a jungle, and hiking in the dark to evade capture, this long circuitous odyssey from North Korea through China to South Korea is what lucky North Koreans can expect to endure. For the unlucky it is betrayal by the broker,[...]