— by BEV QUESTAD — “Good Night Oppy” is a surprisingly-entertaining film about exploration on Mars and the hunt for water. It won the 2022 Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards for best director, best science/nature documentary, best narration, best score, and best overall doc[...]
Author Archive
Review: Maybe I Do
— by BEV QUESTAD — Oh boy! Right after fed-up Howard (Richard Gere) breaks up with his man-eating, sex-starved lover, Monica (Susan Sarandon), she threatens revenge. And right after shy Grace (Diane Keaton) attempts a hotel encounter with demoralized Sam (William Macy), she has regrets. [...]
Oscar picked the wrong crop!
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Academy Award nominations for Best Picture are suspect. Each film has its fatal flaw(s), whether because of Covid restrictions, technical challenges, tough subject matter, or production hubris. There are some surprises but, most disappointingly, there is an accumul[...]
Review: Wildcat
— by BEV QUESTAD — Harry Turner looks at his ocelot protege and kindly says, “We’re wild animals, me and you. We’re wild.” Though earning many awards and millions of dollars from Amazon, there has been controversy from critics over “Wildcat.” Perhaps some of the rougher comme[...]
Top 5: 2022 Documentary List for Congress
— by BEV QUESTAD — I am sending this list of five powerful 2022 documentaries to my legislators. I am also sending the list to selected columnists, politicians and people in the White House. Each documentary has well-documented, credible sources, first-person primary accounts, and a stud[...]
Review: Bad Axe
— by BEV QUESTAD — During the genocidal days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Chun Siev, ran for days through crossfire with his mother and five siblings to freedom in Thailand. At a Red Cross camp, they are asked where they want to go. His mother, Sing Mo Siev, firmly says, “The United[...]
Review: Retrograde
— by BEV QUESTAD — Here we are, riding along with the Afghan general, Sami Sadat, being notified we are the target of a suicide bomber – right now! The car is driving wildly in and out of a protective caravan – the only defense maneuver possible. At other times, we are right in the [[...]
Review: A Man Called Otto
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The whole neighborhood is falling apart these days,” intones a fed-up Otto (Tom Hanks) to his wife’s gravestone. As a matter of fact, he plans to join her soon. Suicide is the antidote for his grief. So, as soon as he retires from his job and no longer has respo[...]
Review: Taming the Garden
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s no narration to this doc verite. Overheard voices can be heard, but this is basically the silent story about transplanting a beautiful tree from a spot in rural Georgia, a nation of diverse geology and topography on Turkey’s border to the north. “Taming t[...]
Review: Hidden Letters
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film opens with soft, Monet-like pastoral landscapes around a Chinese village and progresses to clips of modern city life is Shanghai. These scenes represent the history of the secret script of Nushu, a language used during the old days of China when women’s feet[...]
Review: Nothing Compares
— by BEV QUESTAD — After Sinead O’Connor ripped a picture of Pope John Paul II’s picture on SNL in 1992 and announced, “Fight the real enemy,” I just chalked it up to a celebrity desperately craving notoriety. I had no idea she was protesting child abuse within the Catholic Churc[...]
Review: A Piece of Sky (aka Drii Winter)
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s not a happy film and at times it moves too slowly. How long can we look at a chairlift? But “A Piece of Sky” does deal with a mammoth issue that I’ll politely refer to in general as mental illness. What do you do when your partner, your spouse, […][...]
Review: Ticket to Paradise
— by BEV QUESTAD — Thank you – Thank you – Thank you George Clooney and Julia Roberts for giving us such a fun film! It is a feast of enjoyment! David and Georgia Cotton are divorced but find themselves seated next to each other at their only daughter’s graduation. They hat[...]
Review: Fire of Love
— by BEV QUESTAD — One and a half minutes into the film you are told that tomorrow will be Katia and Maurice Krafft’s, the real-life volcanologists of this film, last day. Throughout the movie you are wondering who pushed who. They do admit their relationship is volcanic and they do wa[...]