— by BEV QUESTAD — Excruciatingly frustrating and heartbreaking, famed Polish director Agnieszka Holland has created a courageously accurate drama based on true events that I am calling The Film of the Decade. In 2021 Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko, president of Belarus since 1994, le[...]
Author Archive
Review: Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
— by BEV QUESTAD — Perhaps Rita is the cleaning lady for the church, or perhaps she is a lady who voluntarily brings cleaning supplies to the church to clean. She badly tries to be helpful and wants a miracle. The film appears to end after 30 minutes. Credits roll and we seem to have [&h[...]
Review: About Dry Grasses
— by BEV QUESTAD — Nuri Bilge Ceylan uses light, a distinctive feature of his Rembrandt-like cinematography, to expose the interior mood of his characters. The shadows of darkness in secret meetings and the stark, cold snow landscape in “About Dry Grasses” reflect a brooding, cold, d[...]
Review: The Grab
— by BEV QUESTAD — If I had enough money, could I buy parts of countries? For example, could I buy agricultural property in Canada? Norway? Russia? China? This question took me down a rabbit hole of exceeding complexity, but I can report one thing with clarity. Any nationality may buy an[...]
Review: Rowdy Girl
— by BEV QUESTAD — Rowdy Girl is an amber-brown, willful cow who does what she pleases. She is not confined to a milking stall but roams the land with freedom. She may come when she’s called – or not. She’s free, obstinate, and has a mind of her own. But there is also another [&hel[...]
Review: Food Inc. 2
— by BEV QUESTAD — Change is going to come! Rich with exposure and documentation, “Food Inc. 2” continues its attacks and solutions to our food problems after the 2009 film “Food Inc.” This time, directors Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo have Cory Booker and Jon Tester aboard t[...]
Review: The Ballad of Davy Crockett
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Be sure you’re right and then go ahead! It’s up to you, to do, as Davy Crockett said.” This was the theme song from Disney’s 1955-56 Davy Crockett TV series at a time when Dwight Eisenhower was president, the Supreme Court ruled segregated buses were illegal[...]
Review: Mourning in Lod
— by BEV QUESTAD — As crimson blood courses through circuitous tubes we wonder, “Whose blood is this and where is it going?” As the film continues, we witness in a flashback the murders of two innocent, kind men who were both in transit home to loved ones. But the blood in the compli[...]
Review: Dancing with the Dead
— by BEV QUESTAD — Red Pine is the nom de plume of Bill Porter who grew up in LA, the son of a wildly disturbed, abusive multimillionaire patron of the Kennedys, who owned at least 52 hotels. Bill was sent to boarding school beginning in the fourth grade, so his parents could have more [[...]
Review: All We Carry
— by BEV QUESTAD — “My father was murdered. I can never get that out of my mind.” It is spring, 2018. Magdiel, Mirna and their son, Joshua, are on the migrant caravan coming up from Honduras and headed for the US when they meet Cady Voge, filmmaker and journalist, who commits to film[...]
Bev’s 2023 Best Documentary List
— by BEV QUESTAD — There were 167 Oscar-qualified documentaries for 2023. I viewed about 70, using award nominations from various organizations and my own interests as a guide. Documentaries serve as my post-graduate education. They extend my knowledge in history, geography, politics, ph[...]
Review: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
— by BEV QUESTAD — Michael J. Fox is asked what it means to be still. Mentally or physically? Is it being non-productive and not creative? Is it being passive? Depressed? Does it mean being locked inside a body in a wheelchair? Parkinson’s Disease (PD) affects nerve cells in the brain.[...]
Review: American Dreamer
— 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[...]
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[...]