— by BEV QUESTAD — Opening with the brutalization and burning of a fully unfortunate man, “Running with the Devil” is a graphically violent and decadent account of drug smuggling, from a farmer in the lush green low mountains of Colombia to a wealthy CEO sitting comfortably at his de[...]
Author Archive
Review: Don’t Be Nice
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is Shakespeare on steroids, a poetic banquet of color, action, rhythm and sound that transcends expectations. Featuring The Bowery Poetry Club, new director Max Powers reveals the revolutionary bedrock of Slam Poetry through an energized pace, smashing colors and [...]
Review: Imprisoned
— by BEV QUESTAD — The great Laurence Fishburne is a master, wielding a haunting script with the finesse of a graceful predator in seemingly complete power over his prey. From the opening scenes of trailer house poverty and wretched nightmares to the flashbacks of his cruelty as prison w[...]
Review: Becoming Nobody
— by BEV QUESTAD — Through 1968-71, while the US was blasting up Vietnam, I was searching for the ideal country and the perfect place to live. I learned different languages and attended foreign schools. I joined the many young people who were searching for something better. Inevitably we[...]
Review: For Sama
— by BEV QUESTAD — On January 29, 2013, Aleppo woke up to a new massacre. Men with hands bound were found with gunshots in their heads floating downstream like trash bobbing on the current. A Syrian woman, Waad al-Kateab, now lauded as an award-winning photojournalist, filmed her experie[...]
Review: Creating Woodstock
— by BEV QUESTAD — The secrets behind the production of the 1969 three-day Woodstock music festival are spilled. How close and in how many ways the event skimmed catastrophe is documented in “Creating Woodstock,” a definitive documentary on the behind-the-scenes machinations of an ev[...]
Review: Astronaut
— by BEV QUESTAD — Like many of us baby boomers, Angus’s trip to the doc reveals a series of symptoms predicting a series of impending malfunctions. The doc tells him frankly that he can no longer drive. His son-in-law figures he must move from living with his family to a retirement ho[...]
Review: The Sweet Requiem
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a deeply moving story, inspired by a true account, shot alternately in the desolate high Ladakh region of the Himalayan Mountains and in the Tibetan exile warren of Delhi. Award-wining Tibetan exile filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, associated with Richa[...]
Review: PHΦL (aka PHIL)
— by BEV QUESTAD — In the dark of night, middle-aged Phil awkwardly climbs over a fence and up onto the base of a Portland Bridge lamppost. To jump or not to jump? Suddenly, we see his gorgeous vertical descent into the cold river below. Bubbles boil around his straight body as if he wer[...]
Review: The Quiet One
— by BEV QUESTAD — While “Paint it Black” whips on in the background, Bill Wyman says, “If you do the right thing, you don’t get noticed. And that’s the way I play. It’s quite simple.” Wyman, bass player for the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993, was a quiet man who followed[...]
Review: Wild Rose
— by BEV QUESTAD — The prison door closes and young, redheaded Rose, shackled to an ankle monitor, is free to pursue her dream. Despite living poor in Glasgow, Scotland and speaking with an often-indecipherable brogue, Rose wants to become a Nashville singing star. But her first spontane[...]
Review: We Believe in Dinosaurs
— by BEV QUESTAD — In 2016, a $120 million dollar replica of Noah’s ark was built in northern Kentucky. It’s a gorgeous creation reminiscent of an exhibit in a Disney theme park, with a series of realistic scenes lining the walkway inside the boat. There is the sinful sybaritic lifes[...]
Review: Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins
— by BEV QUESTAD — For Molly Ivins, there were two sides to the political spectrum, not the Left or the Right, but the Top to the Bottom. The American Film Institute (AFI) is closing their 2019 Doc Fest this year with “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins.” An acerbic politi[...]
Review: Buddy
— by BEV QUESTAD — At age 13, Edith was blinded from the impact of a German bomb in the Netherlands. Undaunted, she learned to gallop on a horse while her guide dog scampered beside, trying to keep up the pace. What a great life for several dogs, all who lived and died under Edith’s [&[...]