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Review: The Sheep Detectives

— by BEV QUESTAD —

I took my junior film critic, Eileen (age 8) and her grandpa (age 79), to see this folksy film starring the “kindest animals in the world.” While their appreciation might have been what I expected, their comments were surprisingly astute.

The sheep, led by the smartest sheep in the world, Lily (voiced by a shyly intelligent Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and a grand old winter ram (voiced by a powerful Bryan Cranston), are part of lovable George Hardy’s (Hugh Jackman) family (flock). He has created a special blue drink for them that keeps them healthy, and he reads to them each night from a whodunit.

George loves his sheep, but he is not aware of a very important thing. (CONTINUED)


Review: Nuremberg

— by WILLIAM STERR — Hitler is dead, Germany has fallen, and most remaining Nazi leaders have been captured. However one, Hermann Göring, second only to Adolph Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy, remains at large. Then, American troops stop a Nazi-flagged limousine in Austria – a limousine carrying Göring and his family. This is the […][...]


Review: Manas

— by BEV QUESTAD — Luscious jungle leaves, warm, moist air, stilted houses built over water on a routinely flooded island on a tributary of the Amazon, and the songs of jungle animals fill this gorgeous film. Amidst mangrove trees and soft earth, with idyllic, slow-moving life sustained by the antioxidant-rich acai berry and shrimp, […][...]


Review: Marama

— by WILLIAM STERR — The Maori are the indigenous inhabitants of what is now New Zealand. A proud, warrior people, brutal retaliation, including cannibalism, held a place in their rituals into the 19th century. It’s late in the 1850s. Mary Stevens (Ariana Osborne – “Millie Lies Low”), a young Maori woman, has taken the […][...]


Review: The Sheep Detectives

— by WILLIAM STERR — English shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) has a simple but idyllic life. He lives in an Airstream trailer on his 300 acres with a flock of loving creatures – his sheep. After a full day of tending to the flock, including treating any suffering from the disease “Orf,” George reads […][...]


Review: Daughters of the Forest

— by WILLIAM STERR — “Daughters of the Forest” takes a remarkable look at the life of fungi in the native forests of Oaxaca and Mexico states in southern Mexico. But it is so much more. The film begins with rain falling in the forest. On the forest floor peeking out of the duff of […][...]


Review: American Agitators

— by WILLIAM STERR — This is the story of the life and achievements of Fred Ross and his son Fred Ross Jr. – and all the people and organizations they affected. Writer/director Raymond Telles and writer Angella Reginato have created a moving exploration of the career of one of the most important community organizers […][...]


Review: Bernstein’s Wall

— by BEV QUESTAD — Why is this archival documentary called “Bernstein’s Wall”? I suspect those who saw Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” will be the first to see this new film about America’s greatest conductor, Leonard Bernstein, who brought great classics to passionate new life and composed the score to America’s most exciting musical, “West Side […][...]


Review: Spacewoman

— by WILLIAM STERR — This is the story of astronaut Eileen Collins. Born and raised in Elmira, NY, a declining industrial town, she rose from poverty to pilot and command four space shuttle missions, including the first one after the Columbia disaster. She was the first woman to do so. Based on the book, […][...]



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