— by BEV QUESTAD — There are three reasons to see “Sam and Kate.” First, it is an interesting celebrity ensemble piece. Dustin Hoffman and his real-life son, Jake Hoffman, play father and son, while their romantic interests are played by Sissy Spacek and her real-life daughter Schuyl[...]
Author Archive
Review: The American Dream & Other Fairy Tales
— by BEV QUESTAD — Oh, how I love Abigail Disney’s films! She has an expectation for a better world and has constructive ways about how to get there “with a little courage and imagination.” She opens “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” by comparing the dynamics of wealth[...]
Review: Art & Krimes by Krimes
— by BEV QUESTAD — After seeing this film I immediately contacted a life-long friend in the art biz. You’ve got to do a show on prison art! Include work not just by those incarcerated, but also by ex-cons who are desperately trying to survive on the outside. Because they usually don’[...]
Review: Bandit
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s around 1985. Robert Whiteman (played with extraordinary brilliance by Josh Duhamel) walks into a bank and asks the teller for all her cash. She shoves several bundles over, but then Whiteman wonders, where is he going to put it all? He asks her if she has a bag.[...]
Review: Tiger 24
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is the true story of a murder trial in India. There is indisputable identity, grief on all sides and visceral gore. The perpetrator is Ustad, a male referred to as T24. He has a beautiful partner and two gorgeous children. His fourth victim was Rampal, a forest gu[...]
Review: Carmen
— by BEV QUESTAD — I had the opportunity to sit at dinner with holy men, priests dressed in long black cossacks, just outside Beirut in 2019. An exquisite Lebanese chicken dinner had been prepared by our hostess, lovely Pauline, but the conversation began to lag. So I proffered advice th[...]
Review: Explorer
— by BEV QUESTAD — Ranulph Fiennes, who goes by Ran, is in the Guinness Book of Records Hall of Fame as the greatest living explorer. At the age of 65, he is the oldest to summit Mount Everest and the only person to circumnavigate the globe, crossing both poles within three years. Asked [...]
Review: The Legend of Molly Johnson
— by BEV QUESTAD — Leah Purcell provides a gut punch that is hard to forget. Though her story takes place in Australia’s outback in 1893, what happens to her protagonist – strong, self-sufficient Molly Johnson – has been repeated throughout geography and time. How much of this stor[...]
Review: Here Be Dragons
— by BEV QUESTAD — Hiding in tall grass, a young man and woman have found a place to be innocently together. Unfortunately, it is Serbia in the early 1990s and the two are on somewhat opposing sides. David Locke is a British soldier, technically neutral, on a UN team tasked with mitigati[...]
Review: The Territory
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film opens with loggers cutting down trees to provide pasture land for lovely white Brahma cattle. Then it switches to indigenous people playing in a small fresh water tributary off the mighty Amazon. The members of the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe are the owners and prote[...]
Review: Kaepernick & America
— by BEV QUESTAD — Amidst a litany of unarmed African-American killings by police, Colin Kaepernick took a stand by dropping to one knee in 2016. My number one thought at the time: Why doesn’t everyone – spectators, media and other players in the stadium – join him? • Michael Bro[...]
Review: A Man of Integrity
— by BEV QUESTAD — I took a year-long course in moral philosophy back in 1969-1970 at the American University of Beirut. Grading was based on each student’s individual growth in moral development as demonstrated by a series of interviews and essays regarding values. Our final essay top[...]
Review: Vedette
— by BEV QUESTAD — There is much to learn about milk cows and their herd hierarchy. There is also much to learn about the similar ways we treat animals and each other. But, most dramatically, there is much to learn about Vedette, a queen cow with an instinct for battle. High in the Swiss[...]
Review: Hallelujah
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Hallelujah” opens with Leonard Cohen, in signature black trilby, dark gray shirt and black trousers, singing “Hallelujah” for the last time. It is December 21, 2013. At one point he is on his knees, his deep voice reverberating in the charismatic verses and ch[...]